3 Reasons the Boston Bruins Are in Trouble If Tim Thomas Struggles

Tim Thomas stamped his first shutout in three months Monday night, albeit with only 13 saves as part of an 8-0 lashing of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Come what may, the Boston Bruins’ grizzled goaltender finished a brief, two-game homestand with two wins and a goals-against average just an ice chip below one―0.96 to be exact. He charged up a cumulative save percentage of .952 between Saturday’s shootout win over Philadelphia and Monday’s mauling.

Perhaps most tellingly, though, Thomas has been on duty for the Bruins’ longest stretch without trailing at any point in a game since the week of Hanukkah.

It is no coincidence, or at least not a complete one. For the balance of the regular-season homestretch and the postseason, Boston will be banking on Thomas to sustain its season only mildly less than it was last year.

As much as he has exposed a jutting combination of age, wear-and-tear and mortal humanity in recent weeks, Thomas will need to start kicking more ice chips over that, a la Saturday and Monday.

Otherwise, one or all three of these potentially detrimental nuisances are bound to take the forefront at the most inopportune time for the Bruins.

No Backup Plan

Even if he is healthy for the playoffs as scheduled, Tuukka Rask will be more than a month removed from his last round of game action. And leading up to his lower-body ailment sustained in a March 3 tilt with the New York Islanders, the younger half of Boston’s backstop brigade was not seeing nearly as much action as he should have, for his own sake and for Thomas’.

Rask will thus likely be too rusty to step into a high-stakes situation even after he is cleared to suit up again.

Meanwhile, top minor-league goaltender Anton Khudobin is recovering from his own ailment and will be in no condition to make his first Boston appearance a relief outing in the playoffs.

With no one certifiably ready to spell relief this spring, it is solely on Thomas to fulfill the game’s most critical position for the Bruins. If he goes as he did in February, so will the team struggle to win games, let alone back-to-back games, and therefore bound for an early offseason.

Telling Tones

If Thomas is so much as ill-prepared to even dam up a drizzle, the Bruins are prone to falling behind early in the first period. And lately, there has been ample evidence that if an initial deficit grows to 2-0 or worse, the game is as good as over.

Dating back two Sundays, a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers, a 4-3 falter versus Washington, a 5-2 drawback in Pittsburgh and a 6-2 lashing at Florida all began the same basic way. Thomas yielded the first two strikes of each of those games, thrice within the first nine minutes of action.

If those repeat occurrences have been costly this month, imagine how Boston’s cause will be affected if it re-emerges in the playoffs.

Power-Play Prey

Two prospective first-round opponents, the Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets, have converted at least 18 percent of their power plays to place among the NHL’s top 12 in that category.

If the Bruins cannot get their most vital penalty killer to step up when he needs to, one of those two Canada-based underdogs could amplify their fighting chance against the defending champions.

Or if Boston gets back to the Eastern Conference semifinals, the same specter will emerge in the event of an encounter with either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, who are presently capitalizing on at least 19 percent of their man-up opportunities.

On the flip side, in 21 out of his 31 winning efforts this season, Thomas has shut out the opposing power-play brigade.