Tim Thomas: Temporary Tumble or Long-term Lull for Boston Bruins' Goalie?

It would take two Ilya Bryzgalovs, one in each crease, for a matchup between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers to live up to its billing of a clash between the NHL’s highest-octane offenses.

Especially on Sunday, when the host Flyers lacked Danny Briere, Jaromir Jagr and James van Riemsdyk.

Fortunately, from a Philadelphia perspective, Scott Hartnell and Max Talbot single-handedly supplemented the depleted strike force, combining for five goals and salvaging a point in an eventual shootout loss.

For the Bruins, who garnered contributions from five different goal-scorers and 10 individual point-getters, the outcome was the fulfillment of at least one “IOU” from the skaters to the usually dynamic Tim Thomas.

Thomas has bailed out the Bruins for much of their leaner offensive stretches, both before and during the Claude Julien era. But now may be his single-greatest time of need for his skating mates to ensure a high-scoring affair each night.

In Sunday’s two-way firestorm, Thomas let a pair of one-goal leads evaporate and authorized Hartnell’s natural hat trick in the second period, which turned a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 deficit for Boston.

Leading up to New Year’s Eve, Thomas had not allowed more than three goals in any of his first 22 full-length starts in his post-Stanley Cup, post-Conn Smythe campaign.

His evening’s save percentage failed to exceed .900 in only three out of 23 tries.

Since then, in his last eight outings, he has given up four goals or more on four occasions, finishing with a sub-.900 save percentage in five games.

His record in that time is 4-4-0 after a 14-5-0 run to start the season.

Granted, three of his recent burns have come at the hands of one of the top 10 offenses in the NHL, namely Vancouver, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. But Thomas also blanked a full-strength Flyers’ squad—minus Claude Giroux—on 31 unanswered saves five weeks prior to Sunday’s rematch at Wells Fargo Center.

Since then, the only two teams he has managed to tame have been the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils, who rank No. 18 and No. 21 on the NHL’s offensive leaderboard, respectively.

In two recent meetings apiece with those clubs, Thomas has allowed no more than two goals.

Otherwise, he has had trouble building upon a gratifying outing. He ultimately garnered his first winning streak of the calendar year on Sunday after the Bruins went two-for-two against Bryzgalov in the shootout.

At the other end, Thomas watched Matt Read shank his attempt wide and sprawled to let Giroux spoon a backhander home, while David Krejci and Tyler Seguin sculpted a 2-1 advantage. He only needed to deal with Wayne Simmonds to secure the extra point, which he did, effectively making him one-for-two in the one-on-ones.

The formal shootout really brought an appropriate conclusion to a game that lived up to the other definition of “shootout.” Thomas basically stopped one more bid than Bryzgalov and the Bruins’ slightly superior strike force prevailed.

Moving forward, though, one has to wonder what, if anything, needs to be done with the elder half of Boston’s celestial goaltending tandem.

Thomas is presently engaged in a Whack-a-Mole type of funk where, as soon as he appears to have shaken off a rough outing, another one swiftly emerges on his game log.

Granted, team discipline has been a factor in some of Thomas’ sub-par results. The Flyers’ upper-echelon power play went three-for-eight against him on Sunday, while the top-ranked Vancouver man-up brigade converted four of 11 tries against him Jan. 7.

But consider the broader scope of Thomas’ special teams’ efficiency versus that of colleague Tuukka Rask. Since the season began, each has trended with inverse proportion.

In Thomas’ first 23 appearances prior to Dec. 31, the Bruins went 71-for-78 on the penalty kill for a 91-percent success rate. That included the aforementioned 6-0 triumph in Philadelphia, wherein he turned away a cumulative 12 stabs over six penalty-killing sequences.

Starting with a two-for-four result in Dallas, Boston has gone 24-for-35 when playing shorthanded in front of the reigning Vezina Trophy recipient.

Over Rask’s first six starts, the Bruins killed only 24 out of 30 penalties, or 80 percent. Since Thanksgiving, with Rask appearing in 11 games and the third period of another, they have killed all but one out of another 30, good for a 96.7 success rate.

In fact, Rask only had a prolonged penalty-killing streak snapped this past Saturday when Marian Gaborik spooned home an overtime goal while the Rangers were working on a five-minute power play.

Other than that, the younger netminder has thoroughly stymied the likes of Toronto, Florida, Detroit and Winnipeg during special teams’ segments.

Overall, Rask has allowed three goals on only two occasions since mid-November. And one of those cases required a protracted four-on-three disadvantage.

Rask is all but guaranteed to scrape the blue paint in Washington Tuesday night, the last game before at least most of the Bruins receive a merciful week-long respite.

Thomas, however, will be in uniform both this Saturday and Sunday, partaking in the weekend’s All-Star activities in Ottawa.

Strict rest might be a little more ideal at this rate, but most of Thomas’ exertion will likely be closer to the equivalent of repeat nights in the backup position.

If, however, he is still not closer to familiar form in the initial weeks following his nominal break, Thomas will all but concede the No. 1 title to Rask indefinitely.