Rask Clears Air On Missing Last Game Of 2015-16 Season

Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask recently shot down the long-standing rumor that he missed the last game of the 2015-16 regular season because he was hungover.

With the Boston Bruins needing to beat the Ottawa Senators in their season finale at TD Garden to make the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Tuukka Rask was a last-minute scratch due to a stomach bug. That forced then-head coach Claude Julien to turn to backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson for the do-or-die game. Gustavsson wound up getting shelled, giving up four goals on 34 shots before the Senators sealed the deal with two empty-netters in a 6-1 loss for the Bruins that eliminated them from playoff contention.

Before and after the game, the Bruins and Rask maintained that Rask missed the game because he was too sick, but rumors started circulating that Rask was out late and tying one on the night before at Buff’s Pub in Newton, MA. Some Boston Bruins fans started to believe and say that Rask was too hungover and bailed on his team, adding another layer to the narrative that Rask can’t deliver in big games. This narrative had already formed three years earlier when in the last two minutes of the Bruins’ 3-2 Game 6 series-clinching loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final, Rask allowed two goals to the in 17 seconds. This just added more fuel to the Rask hate.

While that game can never be disputed, Rask clarified that he did not let his team down in 2016. In a recent episode of Spittin’ Chiclets, Rask was asked by the podcast’s producer and co-host, Mike Grinnell, if the rumors from that year were true?

“I went to Buff’s like five days before that,” Rask answered, adding that a former Buff’s bartender was the one to start the rumor. “I got sick at like 5 a.m. that morning, and we had a 12:30 game. But yeah, no Buff’s,” Rask said. “I was puking and [pooping].”

Even with Rask dispelling this rumor, him being the winningest goalie in franchise history, a Vezina Trophy winner, and leading his team to two Stanley Cup Finals (2013 and 2019), the Rask haters will remain, but at least we all know the truth now about what happened back in 2016.