Bruins Game 3 win not as impressive as you think

Plenty of things to like about the Bruins' Game 3 win over Carolina. They seemed to rally around surprise goalie Jaroslav Halak. There were stretches of this game that they outright dominated. Charlie Coyle looked stellar.

But there was still lots of room for improvement. I'm not trying to be negative, I simply want to point out that the Bruins made enough mistakes that a slightly better team (and maybe one that wasn't so focused on officiating) might have capitalized on to beat them.

Halak looked solid, apart from that brain fart behind the net. But don't forget that late in the 1st period he covered a puck right on the goal line. If that had gone over and the Bruins fell behind 1-0 late in the opening period, the game might look very different. This was much more of a game of inches (millimetres in Canada) than it appeared at first glance.

Anders Bjork's tripping penalty in the 3rd was so poorly timed and unnecessary. You dominate play for 5 minutes and then give up an opportunity by committing a penalty 180 feet from your net. Bjork had a hat-trick of penalties, on in each period.

All things considered, it was a big win. It was nice to see all the players on the ice giving a full playoff effort, which hasn't been the case for the Bruins since the season restarted.

Rask pulls himself out of bubble: cause for criticism or fine with it?

Before getting into Tuukka Rask opting out, I want to establish a few things:

1. I have no issue with any athlete opting out of a sport

2. We are not owed explanations for why they are opting out

3. A player opting out isn't an invitation for sports media to concoct "hot take" theories

Rask's timing is unique. And comes after some off-putting remarks about games feeling like an exhibition. The announcement came just hours before Game 3 of a tied playoff series.

I'm quick to judge Rask. I've never been a big fan. He isn't a great playoff goalie but gets praised as though he were, and seems to get a pass for every bad goal he gives up.

So I'll try to play devil's advocate here. As much as I want to ask "Why now, why not a week ago?" that would go against the rules I set for myself above.

He could have felt like this for days or weeks, but wanted to try to play through it, or thought playoff games would bring the intensity he wasn't feeling. He could have felt the pain of being separated from family for a few days and thought "This might go on for weeks and weeks," and came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it.

He also could have looked at his effort levels in the first two games, saw himself at a regular season level, his teammates playing at playoff intensity, and felt it was unfair to them to keep playing like that.

So as much as I think Tuukka Rask is overrated, as much as I think he's treated as immune from criticism by some in this town, and as weird as the timing on this opt out is, I'm fine with it.