Tuukka opts out of the rest of the season

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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My first take on this after reading the headline only was that his ambivalence about being there had shown up in his play - he knew it would take more to compete for the Bubble Cup and he knew Halak would put the team in a better position than he might. He looked so despondent with himself after the Dougie laser that when the news broke, I instantly thought he quit on behalf of the team not in betrayal of it.
I think once a professional athlete thinks “well, getting eliminated and going home wouldn’t be that bad,” it makes things really difficult for the team given how close the margins are when you get to this point. I suspect that there are more than a few players who are playing with some ambivalence right now but you can deal with it if it’s a forward on the second line or one of seven or eight defensemen. A goalie? That’s probably more of a problem.

I mean, I’m sure every player is thinking “well at least if we lose I can go home,” and my guess is that players in the playoffs have these sort of fleeting thoughts even in regular years. But this was obviously deeper. The fact that he made this decision means, probably q.e.d, that he was fighting a real kind of serious ambivalence that can’t be conducive to championship level goaltending. Once you know he was feeling this way, you kind of have to be relieved he didn’t just keep it quiet and start feeling it during an elimination game.

The NBA and NHL champs this year may be just as much about who deals best with the bubble as who is the best team.
 

cshea

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Yeah, he can come back. He just would have to follow protocols before entering the bubble again and then rejoining the team.

It’s a real long shot he returns and is actually able to contribute in some meaningful way. Maybe he could be the backup in the SCF if they made it that far but that’s about it.
 

joe dokes

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I watched the first postt-return "behind the B" last night. I think it aired before the first playoff game, and covered the period through the seeding round.
Anyway, there was a scene at Hanscom, as they were leaving for Toronto where Cassidy ( I think it was him) was unloading the back of his car and his daughter, maybe 12 or so, was with him just sobbing. Broke to commercial with him hugging both kids.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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A friend of mine knows Tuukka personally (she's dated a member of the team for a bit), and said he's been battling mental health issues for a couple of years. She wasn't shocked when this was announced.

So - yea. If so - I hope taking the time off helps, and I hope he's ok.
I'm sure someone has already said it, but he's got 3 kids under 6, one of them a newborn. There's a lot there that can happen that would make him feel that he needs to be with his family right now instead of bubble hockey. I'm also positive his teammates are supportive of him and have his back.

The tweets posted here and elsewhere hint that the situation was serious and that it made total sense for him to go. Milbury and Zolak are, as always, moronic assholes.
 

McDrew

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From Dale Arnold via WEEI:
“He texted me back and I asked specifically if I could share this part of what he said to me and he said you can. The fact of the matter is he said to me there was a family emergency," Arnold said. "He went on to say everything is fine now, but there was a family emergency and he felt he needed to be back with his family. "

“I will tell you that I got a text message from a former teammate of his and this former teammate said, ‘He just called me. I would have left too if it was me.’ This is what a former teammate told me yesterday almost in the immediate aftermath of Tuukka reaching out to me."
 

RedOctober3829

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Now everyone is getting mad at Rask going out and playing golf today. It came out on social media and now reporters were stalking the club where he supposedly was. People are messaging guys like Jim Murray and Zolak and trying to get pictures. I’m supposed to already know this, but the media in this town sucks(in my best Pitino voice).
 

OurF'ingCity

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Now everyone is getting mad at Rask going out and playing golf today. It came out on social media and now reporters were stalking the club where he supposedly was. People are messaging guys like Jim Murray and Zolak and trying to get pictures. I’m supposed to already know this, but the media in this town sucks(in my best Pitino voice).
Talk about searching for a controversy where there is none. If he was dealing with mental health issues/stress/feeling like he can't escape/not feeling motivated, a relaxing game of golf with no pressure would seem to be the perfect outlet. (By the way this is also why I've never understood why people get mad when presidents or other politicians or leaders play golf or go on vacation.)
 

Red Right Ankle

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Have we checked in on any other players who opted out to make sure they aren't relaxing or do anything other than feel shame and hide for their unmanliness?
 

LogansDad

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Great optics from Rask. Play golf and take care of yourself if you have to leave your job because of possible mental health issues and or a family emergency.
100% agree. Hockey is a game, and we will get to watch the Bruins next year. He can't take care of his family if he isn't taking care of himself.
 

tmracht

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When like everyone I know was hoping for golf to resume to get back some sense of normalcy, why should Rask be belittled for wanting a healthy outlet for whatever he's dealing with.
 

Marciano490

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Weird that a professional athlete would choose an athletic endeavor to unwind after going through personal stress. It sucks for the Bruins that Tuukka was pulled away, but it also probably sucks for Tuukka to watch his teammates in the playoffs after he helped lead them through an incredible season the year after they lost the SC in Game 7. Whatever’s going on with his family aside, that’s got to be excruciating.
 

LogansDad

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You're not here to have a discussion or contribute in any meaningful way. Enjoy HF Boards.
Darn, I took the Under at 8 1/2. You couldn't have done this yesterday?

People giving Tuukka shit for this need to take a serious look at how important sports are in their own lives, and maybe reassess their priorities. I suppose that's pretty true about the last 100 years, though.
 

Salem's Lot

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Now everyone is getting mad at Rask going out and playing golf today. It came out on social media and now reporters were stalking the club where he supposedly was. People are messaging guys like Jim Murray and Zolak and trying to get pictures. I’m supposed to already know this, but the media in this town sucks(in my best Pitino voice).
It honestly amazes me why any elite pro athlete would want to play here. The media here is insufferable, and judging by the social media reactions to this, the fan base in general is toxic. I think since I get most of my sports information from SOSH I forgot how bad it was on other outlets.
 

tmracht

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I think since I get most of my sports information from SOSH I forgot how bad it was on other outlets.
Yeah I'm pretty insulated as well since it's either self curated podcasts or SoSH or maybe a few trusted subreddits and well weird Celtics Twitter. It's crazy when I go into some of those rabbit holes.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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It honestly amazes me why any elite pro athlete would want to play here. The media here is insufferable, and judging by the social media reactions to this, the fan base in general is toxic. I think since I get most of my sports information from SOSH I forgot how bad it was on other outlets.
I don’t think the fans any worse though than an6 other big market team though
 

LogansDad

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I don’t think the fans any worse though than an6 other big market team though
I've lived outside of Boston for most of my adult life, and I can honestly say this isn't true. Other sports fans love to talk about their team, and there's definitely smack talk between fans, but no other sports fans relish the ability to hate on their own teams and players the way that Boston sports fans do, and it stems in a really, really large part from the Hot Takez Boston media, which is awful.

In general, I would rather have a discussion about sports with a MFY fan than with a random Boston fan, because Boston fans are the worst, and I'm honestly not sure it's particularly close.
 

catomatic

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I've lived outside of Boston for most of my adult life, and I can honestly say this isn't true. Other sports fans love to talk about their team, and there's definitely smack talk between fans, but no other sports fans relish the ability to hate on their own teams and players the way that Boston sports fans do, and it stems in a really, really large part from the Hot Takez Boston media, which is awful.

In general, I would rather have a discussion about sports with a MFY fan than with a random Boston fan, because Boston fans are the worst, and I'm honestly not sure it's particularly close.
Celtics excepted, 40 straight years of agonizing championship failures will do that to a fan base. Especially a self-regarding, provincial one. ;-) . I was among the worst until 20 years of unparalleled success sat my ass back down.
 

burstnbloom

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It honestly amazes me why any elite pro athlete would want to play here. The media here is insufferable, and judging by the social media reactions to this, the fan base in general is toxic. I think since I get most of my sports information from SOSH I forgot how bad it was on other outlets.
This has dawned on me the last couple years after allowing myself to be ignorant to it most of my life. The culture around sports in this market is horrific. Most of the fan base is uninformed and reactionary and the media has so few people doing actual reporting and 90% of them just looking to bury someone to raise their own profile. Then when people don't want to stay in Boston, they all say that person can't "handle it." No, you're just awful.
 

joe dokes

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This has dawned on me the last couple years after allowing myself to be ignorant to it most of my life. The culture around sports in this market is horrific. Most of the fan base is uninformed and reactionary and the media has so few people doing actual reporting and 90% of them just looking to bury someone to raise their own profile. Then when people don't want to stay in Boston, they all say that person can't "handle it." No, you're just awful.
The fans are "informed." As you suggest in the next sentence, a lot of it is who they're informed by. I dont think the average afternoon listener realizes that Felger, for example, is "just playing the contrarian role, and doesn't really believe Rask is soft" or whatever nonsense he spews in the name of ratings.
I'm not sure the print brigade is worse than its always been (go back to Ted Williams), but there are now hundreds of other commentators, whose stupidity gets amplified through social media. And, for better or worse, while a player can easily "not read the paper" or "listen to that station," & shut out the noise, it's much more difficult these days for a player to avoid all that. Hypothetically, in 2000, a player's friends and family, living not in new england, probably had no idea who [media asshole here] was. In 2020, everybody's friends and family member knows what every asshole (and there's more of them now) says 24/7, and I'm sure it gets through via whatever channels the player communicates with his friends and family.
 

OurF'ingCity

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I don't agree that the Boston sports fan base overall is much different than any other sports fan base. I know plenty of reasonable Sox fans and plenty of reactionary Yankees and Mets fans (living in the NYC area as I do). I don't think the average Yankee fan living in Staten Island or the Bronx is any more reasonable than the average WEEI caller.

I also think fans in other markets, particularly the South, are just as if not more crazy, just not in regard to professional sports. If you read Friday Night Lights or even listen to Paul Finebaum's college football show I don't see how you could possibly argue that somehow those fans are more reasonable or less toxic.

And to the extent others' comments here are based on a couple of bad Twitter takes, if you think that Twitter is at all representative of reality I don't know what to tell you other than maybe you need to step away from the computer for a bit. Just looking at other Bruins' fans comments on other Bruins boards, Reddit, etc., something like 80% are fully supportive, another 15% are mildly disappointed in the timing, and maybe 5% or so are the "he bailed!" troll types.

All that said, I can't argue that the Boston sports media is mostly terrible, and that conveys a misleading picture that the Boston sports fan base is like that as well.
 

soup17

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I don't understand why they didn't handle the media part of this, which they all knew was going to be a major story, better. Had the Bruins advised him to go and we'll handle the media part of this, they could have announced: "Tuukka has had to leave the bubble to attend to a family emergency. He hates to leave his teammates right now, but this is what he needs to do to support his family in this difficult time. The entire Bruins organization is behind Tuukka and his family and we are doing everything possible to support them. We will have no further statement and we ask that you respect Tuukka's privacy."

That or something similar would have taken this down a notch.
 

The Napkin

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I don't understand why they didn't handle the media part of this, which they all knew was going to be a major story, better. Had the Bruins advised him to go and we'll handle the media part of this, they could have announced: "Tuukka has had to leave the bubble to attend to a family emergency. He hates to leave his teammates right now, but this is what he needs to do to support his family in this difficult time. The entire Bruins organization is behind Tuukka and his family and we are doing everything possible to support them. We will have no further statement and we ask that you respect Tuukka's privacy."

That or something similar would have taken this down a notch.
Literally every Bruin related person that has talked from player to coach to management has said something to the effect of we support him 100% and he is doing the right thing for him and his family.
 

tmracht

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God, that’s gotta suck. I know how tough it is when my wife calls about an issue with one of my kids and I’m at work and have to get my shit together and rush out the door to drive 10 miles. I can’t imagine getting that call and rushing out only to have to wait for a 3 + hour flight
Yes, yes it does, I've been in both spots, when I had an hour drive from here in the office, and when I had to wait for 28 hours on a flight back from Asia. The anxiety and angst on that flight is pretty intense.
 

LogansDad

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Literally every Bruin related person that has talked from player to coach to management has said something to the effect of we support him 100% and he is doing the right thing for him and his family.
Seriously. Not a single person from the organization has said "Tuukka quit," and left it at that. Every person from Sweeney to Cassidy to his teammates that I have seen interviewed has been very clear that they support him and this is what he had to do, from the very start. The Bruins organization is literally the only part of this that hasn't been a shitshow. The media and fan reaction to it has been nothing short of embarrassing.
 

soup17

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I'm referring to the way it was announced: "Rask opts out." His statement also made it seem like there was nothing wrong, which is his prerogative, but contributed to the way it was perceived.