Thanks to a select few writers and radio station shock jocks, the topic of goaltending evaluation has had it’s respective well poisoned long ago here in Boston. Every year Tuukka Rask is the target of written hit pieces speculating whether the Bruins should move on from him, coupled with endless sports radio hits about his supposedly lackluster performances in both the regular season and playoffs. These are, in a word, awful and they should be ignored and/or roundly mocked, but what happens when the goalie actually does under-perform, and his play warrants criticism?
Over the years, there has been a natural defense mechanism among many in the Bruins world to uniformly deny any criticism of Rask, and to subsequently label anyone who dares to point out any flaws as “bashing” or a “hater” as a way to try and de-legitimatize their arguments.