Bruins turn to Subban in net with Khudobin and Rask injured

The Los Angeles Kings aren’t the only NHL team with a major goaltending situation. The Boston Bruins are in their own predicament.

“Overall soreness” has sidelined Tuukka Rask, and then to make matters worse Anton Khudobin was hurt in practice on Monday. The Bruins have since announced that he’ll be out three weeks with an upper-body injury.

Two days after he was sent back down to Providence of the AHL, Zane McIntyre has been recalled and will man the net along with Malcolm Subban until Rask, whom Bruins head coach Claude Julien dubbed “day-to-day,” is ready to return.

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Subban will make his second NHL start Tuesday night, two years after he was pulled in his debut after allowing three goals on six shots in 31 minutes of action against the St. Louis Blues. Coming off a fractured larynx suffered in February, Subban has struggled in the early going while in the AHL, posting a .846 save percentage with 12 goals allowed in four games this season.

As Tim Rosenthal of Bruins Daily points out, the next week for the Bruins will be a tough one.

Whether it’s Subban, Rask, Khudobin or McIntyre, the Bruins are going to need their goaltenders to be on top of their game. Following their back-to-back against the Wild and Rangers, the Bruins will go on the road three more times against the Red Wings, Lightning and Panthers as part of a four-game road trip over the next week and a half.

“As a coach, there’s one thing that worries me: stop the puck, I don’t care how you do it, just stop it,” Julien stated. “I’m not a goalie coach, so as a coach I’m demanding on [the goalie] making the saves, and the goalie coach [Bob Essenssa] can work on the techniques.”

For the Bruins’ sake, they should allow Rask to take his time to come back from his lower-body injury. Despite the crisis in net right now, there’s no need to rush him and potentially spoil things the rest of the way by re-aggravating whatever is bothering him. Subban and McIntyre are in the organization for a reason, and now is their time to shine.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy