The Bruins emergency backup is none other than Andrew Raycroft

Praying for Halak injury so we get a Rask and Raycroft tandem in Boston.

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Published 5 years ago
The Bruins emergency backup is none other than Andrew Raycroft
The Athletic

In his latest article for The Athletic, Boston Bruins insider Joe McDonald pulls the curtain back on some behind the scenes details from the team’s Saturday night game in which Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask exited with a concussion. 

For those who missed it, New York Rangers rookie Filip Chytil was sent flying into Rask by Bruins defensemen Charlie McAvoy, leaving Rask in a heap on the ice:



It was an dangerous play by Chytil and an admittedly dumb play by McAvoy that ultimately resulted in Rask having to leave the game in favor of backup Jaroslav Halak. Now… what McDonald uncovered was just who would step in for Halak should he get injured, as well. In other words, who is the Bruins emergency backup? Remember Andrew Raycroft? Well… he’s back, baby!

That’s right… the 39 year old former Bruins goaltender, who was in fact traded for Rask back in 2006, is now the team’s emergency goalie. Bruins fans will gleefully remind you that Raycroft was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Tuukka Rask before Rask even played an NHL game. At the time, Raycroft was coming off a Calder Trophy winning season as the NHL’s top rookie for 2003-04, but had struggled in the 2005-06 season (the 2004-05 season was wiped out due to the lockout). Raycroft effectively lost his starting spot to Tim Thomas and then his backup spot to rookie Hannu Toivonen… still the Leafs felt it necessary to give up their top prospect for Raycroft, likely due to the emergence of Justin Pogge, but that’s another mistake for another day.

In any case, McDonald confirms that Raycroft is indeed the Bruins’ emergency net minder… giving us all a real shot at seeing a Raycroft/Rask tandem for the Bruins at some point. So… is Raycroft ready to go? Not even close, he’s only played a handful of time since retiring in 2013.

“Literally, four times I’ve had on my equipment since I’ve finished playing,” he said. “I was shaking for at least 15 minutes of the second period, and then by the third I was thinking no way this was possible.”

In fact, Raycroft didn’t even have his gear on hand for the Bruins staffer who was forced to go get it all from his basement.

“They got a big kick out of finding my gear down in the basement. They called me like four times like, ‘Do you need this? Do you need this? Do you need this?’ The gear made it, but fortunately for everybody here and everybody watching I didn’t have to put it on.”

For what it’s worth, at least Raycroft has a good sense of humor about how things played out for him and Rask. “I take all the credit for Tuukka’s success,” Raycroft joked.

Source: Joe McDonald