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NHL Preseason: The Boston Bruins Ready To Repeat
NHL Preseason: The Boston Bruins Ready To RepeatIt seemed like it was just weeks ago that the Boston Bruins hosted the Stanley Cup as the NHL Champions. Now with preseason hockey starting this week, the slate is wiped clean and the Bruins will have the dubious chore of trying to repeat as champs.


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The Bruins will kick off their preseason schedule against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. Tim Thomas has said the only thing he can think of to shoot for as and encore to last season is duplicating it.

Tuukka Rask would take that, in one of two ways.

If he’s watching Thomas win the Vezina (best goalie) and Conn Smythe (playoffs MVP) trophies in 2012, then Rask and the Bruins will win their second straight Stanley Cup. Or ... if he comes off surgery and returns to the same form as his best previous season – which Thomas did last year – then it’ll be Rask picking up trophies on the way to another Cup.

Rask will get this chance. He and the Bruins hope he runs with it.

Entering his third full NHL season (and the final year of a contract) at 24, Rask only played half as many games last season (29) as he did in his rookie campaign of 2009-2010, when he bumped ’08-09 Vezina winner Thomas from the No. 1 perch in Boston by leading the NHL in goals-against average (1.97) and saves percentage (.931).

Thomas, who had hip surgery in the spring of 2010, won his job back last year, and while the B’s would love to see him put up such spectacular numbers (his .938 saves percentage set a league record, and he bettered it – .940 – in the playoffs), they don’t want him playing 72 games (postseason included) again at age 37.

Like Thomas a year ago, Rask had off-season surgery, but said the knee issue corrected by a minor procedure wasn’t the reason for an 11-14-2 season in which his goals-against average rose to 2.67 while his saves percentage dipped to .918.

The Bruins have become used to league-leading, award-winning goaltending. The B’s and Rask would love for 2011-12 to be the season they get untouchable numbers from both goalies. With the puck about to drop on a new season, both goalies have to be ready as the Bruins attempt to defend the Cup.



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