Sweeney: 'We're Extremely Proud of Everything' Rask Contributed to Bruins

BOSTON - Don Sweeney has known Tuukka Rask from the beginning.
When the Bruins traded for Rask during the summer of 2006, Sweeney - just days after re-joining the organization as the B's Director of Player Development - was among the contingent that traveled to Finland to meet the netminder.

At that point, the Black & Gold certainly had high hopes that Rask would be their goaltender of the future. But a vision of the backstop becoming one of the best of his generation was hardly on the horizon.
"There's an awful lot there for me to unpack," said Sweeney. "I was part of, when we brought him on board, the exercise to go and meet him in Finland for the first time. His development in Providence, was there when he threw the milk crates out onto the ice…and [he turned into] just an unflappable guy that I think all his teammates acknowledge, you had a chance to win with him every night.
"From a goaltending standpoint, that's all you can ever ask for…that's a guy you want to play in front of…he owns records, he's had a long history. He deserves all the accolades."
And there are certainly plenty of those.
Those, of course, are just a few of the highlights from a celebrated 15-year career, one that officially came to an end on Wednesday evening when Rask announced his retirement from the game of hockey after a brief four-game comeback.
Rask returned to the Bruins in early January following a lengthy rehab from summer hip surgery, but after just a few weeks with the club realized that his body was no longer allowing him to play at level high enough to contribute positively to Boston's quest for another Stanley Cup.
"When I made the decision to have surgery on my hip last summer, I did so knowing that the road to recovery would be challenging," Rask said in his retirement statement. "I also knew it was something I would have to do if I wanted to give myself a chance to play my best hockey again. The rehab, the workouts, the practices - all of it was with the intention of getting back to where I needed to be to help my teammates win games and make another run at a Stanley Cup.
"Over these last few weeks, I've realized that my body is not responding the way it needs to for me to play at the level I expect of myself and that my teammates and Bruins fans deserve."

Sweeney, who inked Rask to a one-year, $1 million contract to return to the club, acknowledged the difficult nature of the conversations that have occurred between him and the Bruins' longtime backbone over the last couple of weeks.
"There have been some tough conversations, especially given that I've known the road all along the commitment he's made to get back to giving himself an opportunity to play again at the level that he expected to return to," said Sweeney. "And when it didn't meet those things, he started to realize that the body wasn't going to hold up and he made a very difficult decision."
Sweeney said he does not believe that a stint in Providence would have made much of a difference for Rask in the end. Rask was originally slated to have a rehab stint with the P-Bruins before returning to the big club, but COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the AHL's schedule and ultimately led the Bruins to scrap the assignment.
"He did an awful lot of work from a conditioning standpoint," said Sweeney. "He goes in and is able to play four games, obviously not having the benefit of training camp, not having the benefit of the start of a season…but I think the end result's going to be the same.
"The hip and his back just started to give him some concerns on a daily basis, not just when it was going into game time. It was unfortunate that he probably didn't get to test drive that down in Providence, which was what the plan was. But ultimately, I think the result would have been the same."
Rask ends his Bruins career with a record 564 games played and 308 victories. His .921 career save percentage is tied with Tim Thomas for the highest in team history and the second-highest in NHL history. He ranks second to Tiny Thompson in both shutouts (52) and goals against average (2.28) in club history.
"Tuukka should be congratulated for obviously all of his accomplishments as a Boston Bruin," said Sweeney. "We're extremely proud of everything that he has contributed to the organization, right down to the very end and how he handled his exit. It was on his terms in terms of how he wanted to lay it out, took some time to really evaluate that and do things the way he wanted to and stayed true to what was important to Tuukka."

Rask also led the Bruins to eight playoff appearances and two Stanley Cup Final trips in 2013 and 2019, runs highlighted by all-time performances in the Eastern Conference Finals sweeps against Pittsburgh and Carolina, during which he combined to allow seven goals on 250 shots, including three shutouts in eight games. Rask was also part of the Bruins' 2011 Stanley Cup championship team as the backup to Thomas.
"To me, he's always been a great Boston Bruin," said Cassidy. "Played a position where there's a lot of scrutiny…I thought he handled it well with a lot of grace over the years and was a good teammate. I thank him for all his work for the Bruins. I'm glad he retired a Bruin. I think that meant a lot to him.
"The circle of life, whatever you want to call it, happens. Other people come in and that's what we're trying to build with the other two."
The other two are Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, both of whom have played well overall throughout the 2021-22 campaign as they've stepped in to fill the void left by Rask's absence. Whether one of them can become the next franchise No. 1 is yet to be determined.
"I do believe we set out a plan in the offseason that we had to address as it plays out right now," Sweeney explained. "People thought we had some crystal ball going on with regards to Tuukka…Tuukka made a promise to us that he would have surgery and try to rehab and get to a point [he could play] - and we made a promise to him that if he was willing to do that, he'd have an opportunity if he was healthy. That's how it played out.
"Didn't take away from our plans to have what we feel is really good goaltending. Jeremy was part of that. We pivoted a little bit in terms of where his development was. It didn't hurt him in that sense. He needs to play."

Sweeney added that the Bruins remain committed to having two goaltenders equipped to handle a significant workload, a formula that has worked extremely well for Boston in recent years with Rask teaming up with both Anton Khudobin and Jaroslav Halak.
"We've made a commitment organizationally over the last five, six years of really spreading out the goaltending to have the end result of being capable of being healthy - cross your fingers of being healthy - at the right times and trying to get to the playoffs and win," said Sweeney. That's not gonna change. We'll find the balance between the two players. Generally, you get a goaltender that's leading but if they're tied, you rotate and go back and forth.
"Generally, you do get a goaltender that emerges and is capable of taking the net for a period of time. Linus has won an awful lot of hockey games in the month of January, so you hope that continues."
And for Rask, it will be time for a new chapter, one that will included extended time with his family and friends, all of whom he thanked for being there every step of the way.
"Through all the ups and downs, I am so grateful for all the support this team and the people of Boston have given me," said Rask. "I will miss everything that comes with representing the Boston Bruins. But now, I'm excited to spend more time with my family and friends who never stopped supporting my dream.
"Boston is special for so many reasons and will always be our adopted home. We look forward to remaining a part of this amazing community...I've never wanted to play for any other team. I'm so proud to have worn the Spoked-B for my entire career and wouldn't have had it any other way."