Tuukka Rask hopes his next game goes better than his last.
That’s because his last outing was a rough one, on the biggest of stages -- a 5-1 thumping by Montreal in the 2016 Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium.
Rask, who did play well in that game -- especially in the first period, when Boston was badly out-shot -- didn’t mince words afterwards about what he thought of his team’s performance:
"I'd say embarrassing, more than disappointing."
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 1, 2016
Rask postgame:https://t.co/4tb5CS9BUY
Rask faces a tall order tonight against Washington, the top club in the Eastern Conference. He was on the wrong end of a 4-1 loss to Washington earlier this year (in November), and could really use a result tonight, given he’s lost three of his last four starts.
For the Caps, no surprise -- Braden Holtby starts.
Elsewhere...
-- Roberto Luongo and the red-hot Panthers are in Buffalo. Luongo will get the start, while Linus Ullmark will go for the Sabres.
-- Looks like it’s Finland versus Sweden in New York: Henrik Lundqvist will start for the Rangers, while Dallas appears ready to give Antti Niemi the start after he lost to New Jersey on Saturday.
-- Good matchup in Pittsburgh, as the red-hot Corey Crawford goes for Chicago. The resurgent Penguins will start their No. 1, Marc-Andre Fleury.
-- Columbus, currently without Sergei Bobrovsky and Curtis McElhinney, will give one of their two AHL netminders a shot -- Anton Forsberg. Devan Dubnyk starts for the visiting Wild.
-- In Philly, it’s a battle of the backups: Ben Scrivens goes for Montreal, giving Mike Condon the night off after a solid Winter Classic outing. Michal Neuvirth is in for the Flyers.
-- The Jets will switch from Michael Hutchinson to Connor Hellebuyck in Nashville, while the Preds are likely to counter with Pekka Rinne.
-- Karri Ramo (who we wrote about earlier) starts for the Flames, to nobody’s surprise. The Lightning are going with Ben Bishop.