Tuukka Rask had a reason to leave the Bruins, and he probably made his decision knowing his complicated relationship with the city of Boston might never be repaired.
Rask opted out of the rest of the playoffs, telling NESN's Dale Arnold there was a "family emergency." He is one of the more prominent players of any of the major sports to opt out, especially among players who began their league's restarts.
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This, of course, came after Rask's seeming stream-of-consciousness press conference Thursday in which he said games didn't feel like the playoffs and that he was just trying to have fun. Two days after those words, he's gone. The exact "why" has not been confirmed, but -- when considering he could have left the bubble and returned -- here are two possibilities:
- Something is wrong with his family
- Something is wrong with him
The sports fan in you might want to gloss over that, but between understanding these are strange circumstances and hopefully wanting to destigmatize mental health, it would be hypocritical to pick and choose who you drag for tending to either of those.
The fact that it's Rask -- one of Boston's most polarizing athletes ever -- makes this different than any other scenario. Bruins fans have their reason to not give him the benefit of the doubt, even if it's a bad one. Though the best goaltender in team history, Rask is viewed as a failure by a large segment of the fanbase because he hasn't won a title as a starter. That's confusing to me, as nobody poured that type of resentment on local legends Roger Clemens, Cam Neely, Logan Mankins or Jerod Mayo.
We can get into whether the specific things that have been woven into Rask's "choker" reputation are valid (they're mostly not) another time, but the point stands that if this were Patrice Bergeron or -- come to think of it, probably only Patrice Bergeron -- the reaction would be different. Think along the lines of "this is terrible and I hope everything's OK."
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But this is Rask. He had the leave of absence last season, sat out the 2014 bronze medal game of the Olympics and missed a 2016 game that could have saved the Bruins' playoff spot due to diarrhea. If Rask ends up in the Hall of Fame, it will be because of his play, certainly not his timing.
His decision to leave the bubble means the Presidents' Trophy winner will be without its best player from last postseason. Teammates could feel abandoned and fans might think the move is costing them a title (which is confusing, since some fans blame this team's lack of Cups on Rask). But as hard as this is to swallow, there had seemed to be a universal "I won't begrudge a guy for not playing" mindset with sports fans. The decisions of Dont'a Hightower, Patrick Chung -- hell, even David Price -- were met with understanding.
So again, with not knowing exactly what's up, you wonder if Rask would have received that support had he just not gone to the bubble in the first place. My guess is no, as those other players' seasons hadn't begun; the NHL's return was about completing the season.
Either way, what would be widely supported for another player is more likely to be a last straw with Bruins fans. He doesn't owe it to anyone to share exactly what it is, as family or personal issues should be off limits, but if great postseasons have been interpreted as "choke jobs," I'm not optimistic fans will choose to be particularly considerate.
That just is what it is. If you don't like Tuukka Rask, you might be done with him now. The Vezina finalist has one more year on his contract, and it would stand to reason that he and the Bruins will discuss whether they envision a future together.
Is it giving the media and fans too much credit to say that these next few days will factor into that? I don't think so. I do know that this will be added to the list of why Bruins fans don't like one of their best players, and that Rask and the city of Boston will never have the relationship it could have.