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Goalie nods: Rask back in for B’s after Winter Classic disappointment

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during the 2016 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium on January 1, 2016 in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Jim Rogash

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:

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.