Tim Thomas Is An Elite Goaltender And A Thief

Give Tuukka Time a rest (especially you Michael Felger)!

Tim Thomas is still an ELITE goaltender folks. The game last night versus San Jose illustrates just that.

He single handedly won that game for the Bruins last night. They had no right winning that game with their depleted roster.

Thomas should have been charged with THEFT against San Jose.

Boston is missing their top THREE centers. Savard, Bergeron, and Krejci were all out of the lineup.

The team resembled the Providence Bruins more than the Boston Bruins.

San Jose is stacked with former Bruins franchise player, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, and Danny Heatley. Even with a healthy team, the Bruins would be hard pressed to beat the West Coast juggernaut.

The Bruins need to play flawless defense and have all world goaltending to weather this injury storm.

Tim Thomas was ALL WORLD last night and showed everyone why he is a Vezina trophy winning goalie and US Olympian.

He made 41 saves in regulation and overtime. Some of his stops were of the highlight reel variety especially his double stick save.  He pushed away all of the Sharks attempts in the shootout to allow Zdeno Chara to blast the puck by Nabokov for a much needed win.

Tim Thomas is the man between the pipes for Boston. Let’s just look at the numbers.

Thomas has a 2.38 GAA (top 10 in the league with at least 20 games played) in 29 games. His save percentage is .921which is also top 10 with a minimum of 20 games.  Rask has great numbers too, but experience is the intangible that separates Thomas from Tuuka. 

The Bruins are doing the right think starting Rask in one-third of the games. It gives him much needed experience and allows Tim Thomas to stay somewhat fresh. Tuuka’s workload is being expanded gradually.

The Bruins do not want to burn Rask out.

Remember Hannu Toivonen?

Claude Julien has a luxury with one good goaltender and one elite goaltender.  Most teams in the NHL wish they could have one pretty good goaltender (Hello Philadelphia!)

This reminds me of the days of Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin. The Bruins used them both the right way and they made it to the Stanley Cup finals. Moog was the man but Lemelin gave him respites when needed.

So Tuukka Timers, his time will come.

But right now you have to go with your horse before you push your pony!

It’s STILL Timmy Thomas Time!

Joe Gill is a featured blogger for Boston Sports Then and Now