After starting 3-8-2, Rask has surged to a 12-8-3 record for the season with a 2.23 goals against average, which ranks fourth in the league and second behind Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy among those that have played in at least 24 games. Over a full campaign, they are numbers worthy of some hardware, not that the 2014 Vezina Trophy winner is thinking that way.
"It doesn't matter. Things happen if they happen, we never play for the individual trophies anyways. But I think winning it once and looking back to it, the way your team plays in front of you plays a big role," said Rask, who was named to his first All-Star team last season. "If your team doesn't play well and they're not playing good team defense then there's no goalie that's going to win it.
"It's one of those trophies that even though it's individual you look more at the team performance in front of the goalie as well. I'm fine with not being in that discussion.
"If it happens it happens. The biggest thing we're worried about is our team performance."
And it is that team performance that Rask does indeed credit for his recent string of victories. Since Nov. 16 - a span of 19 games - the Bruins have allowed 38 goals, good for second in the league. Prior to that point, the Bruins were 16th with 50 goals allowed in 16 games. For the season, Boston ranks fifth in the NHL (2.56).
"The way we play now, it's good for goalies - you know you're going to get some chances again. But it's a trade-off, you know you're going to get some chances for, too, in the offensive side," said Rask. "It used to be that you're focused so much on the defense that you're only going to win games 1-0 or 2-1. As a goalie you know if you let in three goals you're most likely going to lose.
"Nowadays, it's more if you let in a bad goal you might be scoring four goals. That's the biggest difference in that regard. When we're playing well and everyone is on top of their game, it's fun to watch and fun to play."
