By Kevin Flanagan

BSD Bruins Correspondent

The goaltending position in the NHL is much like the quarterback position in the NFL, in order to be considered successful the player must rely on his teammates doing their job well more than any player on the team. If a goalie has an inadequate defense in front of him, he will give up more goals than he should. Just like if a quarterback has a bad offensive line or poor receivers at his disposal, he will struggle to move his team down field to score points.

The good ones will find a way to make the most of the talent – or lack thereof – surrounding him and will make his team better as a result. The great ones will elevate their level of play, thereby making average players look good, and good players look great. It is what has been the most remarkable part of Tom Brady’s first ballot hall of fame career, he has always found a way to be a championship level quarterback even when he has had not had championship quality weapons at his disposal. His greatness has been his ability to make plays when the team needs them the most, and because of that, the Patriots are perennial contenders every year he takes the field in Foxboro.

Right now the Boston Bruins need Tuukka Rask to be great. Don’t get me wrong, Tuukka has been very good for most of his career in Boston, and he has a Vezina Trophy on his mantel to prove it. But ask yourself this, has Rask ever been great? I’m talking about standing on your head, making big saves at big times and carrying a team that didn’t deserve a sniff of winning a particular game, yet for the play of their goaltender they stole two points.

Not many, if any, right?

The Bruins are certainly paying him to be that guy; Rask is tied for second on the list of highest paid goaltenders in the league with Pekka Rinne at $7 million per season, just behind Henrik Lundqvist at $8.5 million annually, according to Spotrac.com. And while Rask thrived in the past in head coach Claude Julien’s defense first system, the drop off from his Vezina winning days of 2013/14 just a year ago are stunning, to say the least.

Rask’s stats this season are ugly, and that is being kind. Whereas he ranked in the top five in wins (5th with 36), goals against average (4th at 2.04), and save percentage (2nd at.930), this year has been a much different story. The Bruins’ netminder currently ranks tied for 10th in wins with 15, 25th in GAA at 2.56, and an abysmal 29th in save percentage .911 out of all the goalies in the league that have started at least 10 games this season, according to ESPN.com.

That’s not the production the Bruins brass thought they were paying for when the inked the once fabulous Finn to an 8 year, $56 million contract a year and a half ago. Despite all of the excuse making from the Tuukka toadies, Rask needs to raise his game another level due to the roster changes and injuries that have affected his team and carry them as they try to figure things out mid-season, not go down to the level of play of some of those surrounding him.

Perhaps he has been spoiled by the high level of play the Bruins have played at defensively the past several seasons, and he is having difficulty adjusting to what most goaltenders deal with on a nightly basis across the league. Perhaps the absence of bigger bodies on the Bruins blue line this season – with Johnny Boychuk being dealt, Zdeno Chara missing time with a knee injury, and Dennis Seidenberg still not back to form after an ACL injury last season – is more than he can handle.

Or perhaps he is simply a system goalie who is incapable of carrying his team when conditions are not ideal. If that is the case, things are much worse off on Causeway St. than even the biggest negative Nellies and Debbie downers have begun to think they just may be.

If the Bruins are going to make a legitimate drive to make the playoffs and play beyond the first round, two things have to happen. General Manager Peter Chiarelli has to sort out the cap mess he put his team in and make a deal not only to get scoring up front, but shore up his back end as well, and Tuukka Rask has to show he can carry his team until the Bruins boss makes things right.

If he is incapable of doing so, NESN’s Jack Edwards might have to change his catchphrase to, “Two U’s, two K’s, too bad for too long.”

Kevin Flanagan can be reached at Bsdkevinflanagan@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevinMFlanagan.