Nobody loves a loser.
Bruins’ veteran Tuukka Rask made some early remarks after Boston’s 3-2 game loss Thursday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, when he dismissed the Stanley Cup Playoffs as nothing more than “exposure” games without the presence of fans.
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‘To be honest with you, it doesn’t really feel like play-off hockey. There are no fans, so it’s fun to play an exhibition game, “Rask said, according to NBC Sports ‘Boston branch.’ It’s definitely not a playoff atmosphere. You try and play as hard as you can. If you Playing on an ice rink and an ice rink and the fans cheering for and against you, it really makes the series a buzz. ”
He continued: ‘That’s not one of them. That it sometimes just feels boring. There are moments when there are scrums and what not, and then there will be five minutes when it’s from hockey to shore. There is no atmosphere. That it feels like an exhibition game. We try our best to ramp up and get started, and make it feel like it’s a playoff game. ”
But Rask is not the first member of his team to drop the Bruins’ playoff performance.
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The Bruins, who were the top team in the league with 100 points going into the playoffs, struggled shockingly in the round-robin games. They went 0-3 and landed the no. 4-sied. To make matters worse, they were 9-4 and were 0-9 in their power play.
“I mean, let’s call it what it is: They are exhibition matches for the playoffs,” Brad Marchand said prior to the start of the Canes series. “It’s bad to have the same mentality as a playoff series. That we will not base our achievements – what it will be against Carolina. “
Even Rask was unwilling to accept Boston’s round robin results as anything more than practice.
“These first round robin games or whatever they are, you just try to shake the rust and get your team game in a place you want it to be,” he said at the time.
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The Bruins came out strong, winning Game 1 in double overtime, but the Canes tied the series quickly Thursday night with Dougie Hamilton’s game-winning goal in the third period.
David Krejci and Marchand scored for Boston, and Rask made 23 saves. The Bruins, who swept Carolina into the Eastern Conference finals last season, pulled the goalkeeper for an extra striker but were unable to convert.
Game 3 is scheduled for Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
