Stanley Cup Champion winning goalie may be losing his #1 spot.

Major goaltending controversy.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Stanley Cup Champion winning goalie may be losing his #1 spot.
Keystone Press

There is a major goaltending controversy brewing on one National Hockey League roster, in fact some believe a former Stanley Cup Champion winning goaltender has already lost his starting job. 

Boston Bruins insider Joe Haggerty is reporting that head coach Bruce Cassidy refused to commit to a goaltender for the Bruins Wednesday night match up against the New Jersey Devils. The Bruins coach did however admit that it was obvious that backup goaltender Anton Khudobin currently has the hot hand. 

The 31-year-old NHL veteran has made a very strong case for taking over the Bruins net this season, playing in 8 games for the Bruins and recording a 2.17 goals against average and .935 save percentage. It has been arguably the strongest start to a season of his NHL career thus far. 

Meanwhile starting goaltender Tuukka Rask has had some significant struggles over the 12 games he started for the Bruins this season, and it's clear that his lackluster performance has impacted how much faith Cassidy has in his ability to win games for the Bruins. Rask's numbers are also much weaker than Khudobin's with a 2.89 goals against average and a .897 save percentage, it doesn't take a mathematical genius to notice the drastic gap in performance. 

While it would likely be a safe bet that Rask will eventually reclaim his number one spot, the Bruins have now gone to Khudobin for back to back games, and the hesitation from Cassidy would appear to indicate he's considering a third straight start for his backup goaltender. Rask may be spending a lot more time warming the bench this season if the trend continues, and he likely won't be happy about it.

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