The century-long Boston Bruins have seen no shortage of impressive players during their tenure. However, fans remain perplexed as to why a former star goalie appears to have been disregarded from the NHL’s selection of the Quarter Century Team. Did they completely forget about Tuukka, or was it intentional?
What does this mean?
The NHL composed a Quarter Century Team this year – a compilation of the most notable players over the past 25 years. The Quarter-Century Team was selected via the NHL Quarter-Century Team Fan Vote presented by SAP from Feb. 12 to April 1. While a few familiar faces made the cut, one clearly did not. Bruins fans are used to undue ridicule, but they expected to at least see former goalie Tuukka Rask in the lineup.
How was Tuukka skipped over?
This Finnish goaltender was a first-round draft pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2005; however was traded to Boston later that season in exchange for goaltender Andrew Raycroft. After joining the black and gold, Rask exclusively skated for the Bruins over his 15-year career. Collecting a career total of 564 game points, he started in 544 games and had 52 shutouts. Rask claims the #27 spot of the most shutouts for an NHL goaltender, following closely behind Boston legends Tiny Thompson and Tony Esposito.
In addition, Tuukka ranks in the top 3 of all NHL career goalies for highest save percentage. Impressively though not surprisingly, his save percentage averages at .921. He dominates the NHL leaderboard only tertiary to Dominik Hasek (Chicago, Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa) & Ken Dryden’s (Montreal) identical average of .922.
Tuukka has played in 3 all-star games. He then won the Stanley Cup serving as the backup goalie in 2011, later leading the Bruins to the Stanley Cup finals on two other occasions in 2013 & 2019. Tuukka received the Vezina Trophy in 2014, and was a finalist for the same in the 2019-2020 season. Tuukka also collected the Jennings Trophy in 2020.
Being the leading NHL goaltender numerous times throughout his career and with such a glowing resumé, B’s fans can make the argument that this standout was wrongly neglected and dismissed for this honorable mention. Spoked-B Nation will always deem this favorite as one of the all-time elite Bruins players. Thank you, Tuuuuuuk!
