Comments on: Tim Thomas not coming back this year, only wants to play for Boston next season

By: gi0lui

gi0lui — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:13:37 +0000

Jeremy Jacobs will not let Bruins management bring Thomas back, period. They’ll do whatever to wait out the situation, but when a reasonable opportunity to unload him presents itself, Tim goes poof.

By: hockeyflow33

hockeyflow33 — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:23:56 +0000

The only problem with that is there aren’t many 22 or 23 year old goalies who come in and maintain their effectiveness after their first year.

By: pastabelly

pastabelly — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:49:59 +0000

Bruins cap situation is not great and that’s why there have been rumors of Krejci trades and no room for Horton after this year. Thomas may need a year off. People are all bent out of shape because he gave up some soft goals to the Caps. But maybe he was worn down, especially after Tuukka got hurt last year. He may have also gotten tired of everyone saying it was time for Tuukka to be the #1 goalie. He’s been an amazing Bruin.

By: jason9696

jason9696 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:16:53 +0000

I don’t get this guy at all. He was in his late 20′s when he made his NHL debut. You’d think he’d want to play as much as possible. Oh well. At least he won a Stanley Cup against the Vancouver Canucks. LOL

By: eastcoastwingette

eastcoastwingette — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:13:25 +0000

Go Pats! We haven’t been able to get my brother out of his “Superman wears Tom Brady pajamas” t-shirt all week.

An interesting proposition. And yes, you’re right, it does make sense.
What do you think Rask will ask for? (And who in the league would be willing to pay?) Also, how bad is the B’s cap space at the moment? As a Wings diehard, I follow the Bruins more out of sheer loyalty to the city of Boston and am not as up to date as I probably should be.

By: pastabelly

pastabelly — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:04:05 +0000

Tuukka only signed a one year deal. If he doesn’t pan out or holds out, Thomas would be a great placeholder until Subban is ready. 2-3 years.

By: kitshky

kitshky — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:15:29 +0000

@hockeyflow33

I’m not talking about within Boston, everyone knows Boston is a majorly Liberal leaning place. I’m talking about throughout hockey, in and out of Boston, and on both sides of the border.

By: lewdood

lewdood — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:35:38 +0000

re: hockeyflow
Ah yes, how could we forget those grand bastions of liberalism, he Boston Herald and WRKO-AM. Or the WEEI morning show with the Herald columnist.

I live in MA, and lived in Boston seven years. Western MA is liberal, eastern MA (especially working-class white eastern MA) are pretty conservative. Thus the popularity of the Herald & WRKO.

By: govtminion

govtminion — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:12:29 +0000

He also didn’t sit out seasons in protest of political policies in the past. We’re kind of through the looking glass when it comes to Tim Thomas’ behavior at this point, I think you’d have to agree.

By: sabatimus

sabatimus — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:01:33 +0000

I seem to have misread both of your posts I think–both of you seem to be talking about ALL players, which is patently absurd since all players do NOT play for a championship-winning team and get invited to the White House.

By: sabatimus

sabatimus — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:59:46 +0000

It’s called sticking with your team. And Timmy made the whole thing into a farce ripe for a media blowout.

By: hockeyflow33

hockeyflow33 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:21:04 +0000

I think we’ve all become accustomed to having the best goalie in the league the past few years that we don’t realize how difficult it is to find solid goaltending.

I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think Rask is the next great goalie; I think Khudobin is a more technically sound goalie than Rask.

By: hockeyflow33

hockeyflow33 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:14:53 +0000

You couldn’t be more wrong. In Boston, almost the entirety of the media is made of left-wing crazies who bash anyone who doesn’t buy into the Obama agenda. That’s not even opinion, it’s a fact.

It was one reporter in Boston who kept bringing up the issue at every post-game interview for the entire season.

By: nhstateline

nhstateline — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:29:35 +0000

I said it could make sense and it can. I also like Rask but am not sold on him as a number 1 yet but I think he’s a good player so I’m not a hater. I’m looking for value and cap management. 1. The Bruins have cap issues that are going to accelerate for a couple of years at least and 2. Rask, as is his right, wants the best contract he can get. So they’re going to have to dump other players to keep him most likely. How much is it worth to weaken the team in other areas if you have an adaquate, cheaper replacement in the minors for Rask (it’s value over replacement player applied to hockey) Plus 3. Svedberg looks like an NHL goalie. Just because he hasn’t played in the NHL yet doesn’t mean he won’t excel in it. He looks like he’s going to. So, you have two goalies who are NHL ready in Thomas and Khoudobin meaning you can do a transition year (or two) because you have a third goalie who looks like he’s where Rask was a few years ago, 4. solve your cap problems and 5. get back future assets. I mentioned Toronto because they have the potential to be in the draft lottery again and need a goalie. I want the best value in return for the asset being traded so I don’t care who the trade partner is, I just care about the value in the trade. This is how these things get done in organizations in sports that have salary caps that win continually. It sounds like something a certain football team in Foxboro might do for example because it is based on a similar approach to value and total roster.

By: eastcoastwingette

eastcoastwingette — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:07:55 +0000

@bearcountry17 Not disagreeing with you at all, my friend. Why on earth would we get rid of Rask? I still stand by my original statement that he’s a solid goaltender *and* that Bruins fans were ready to throw the guy into the Charles when he didn’t end up being the second coming of Brodeur or whoever. Everyone loved him as Thomas’ back-up and then wanted to kill him. Given his stats and how he actually performed, that was pretty unfair.
Top 5? Nah, Top 10.

By: bearcountry17

bearcountry17 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:27:55 +0000

So much wrong in this post. When Rask filled in for an injured Thomas in 09-10 he led ALL goaltenders with a 1.97 GAA and a .931 save percentage in 45 games played. In a 48 game season he will probably play around 35-40 games. I dont see why he cant put up close those numbers this year. Rask is the goalie of the future for the Bs and barring injury will be a top 5 goalie in the game.

By: eastcoastwingette

eastcoastwingette — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:09:12 +0000

Not going to lie, just wanted to idiotically yell “TIMMM-AAAYY!” but was too intrigued by your comments. Great points, though I think the huge issue here is whether or not Rask is actually a top-notch goaltender. He’s always wanted to be the #1, and has been projected to be for quite a while now… When Thomas got injured and Rask finally had his chance (I think this was 2 seasons ago?), he didn’t live up to expectations and was basically skewered by Boston fans. He’s a solid netminder but not much else.
A trade with the Leafs? For what? Good god man, have you seen the Leafs?
Tampa needs a goalie, Philly (though they should keep Bryz on for marketing and TV purposes alone… he’s insane and incredibly entertaining), Nashville, I guess Pittsburgh does too but the general consensus is we all can’t stand them so no one cares…
Who would you trade for? Bruins are pretty solid on both ends right now, so unless they could somehow upgrade on goaltending or get a great draft pick, let’s stick with Tuuka. (And there is no way he’s worth a first round pick.)

By: nhstateline

nhstateline — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:05:22 +0000

this could make sense and here’s why. Rask wants to make the most money he can (and who can blame him really) but he won’t get it from the Bruins given their cap situation and he’s already turned down a multi-year contract to try to score big after this season (again, who can blame him ?). After Rask turned down the multi-year, the Bruins brought a guy named Nikolas Svedberg to the AHL this year and he’s been great (can’t blame them for doing that either)Thus, a year of Thomas with Svedberg as the backup then the job goes to Svedberg. Rask’s value will be high after this season if he wins his bet that he has a good season as I expect him to do. They flip Rask in the same kind of deal as they moved Kessel (the Leafs like Tuuka and the need a goalie, right ?), get more young players for the future, deal with the lessened cap and don’t have a goalie problem. And if that doesn’t work out Anton Khoudobin isn’t a bad goalie either.

By: badintent

badintent — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:19:26 +0000

Exactly !! That would include half of the NBA, throw in a few NFL ers, and the other half of Congress that would tell Orama to stuff it.Maybe his wife will stop wearing $$$ millions of “donated ” jewelry and stop pretending to slum shopping at Target.Her shoulders are even bigger than in 2008. Roids !

By: hockeyflow33

hockeyflow33 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 04:07:09 +0000

Yes, I would expect that he would have no problem trying to earn his roster spot no matter what team he plays for. It’s what he has done his whole career.

By: hockeyflow33

hockeyflow33 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 04:06:18 +0000

So do you have an issue every year when any number of athlete/management don’t show up to the White House?

By: hawkeyplayer

hawkeyplayer — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:13:53 +0000

2013-2014 Season: Luongo to Bruins??

By: sabatimus

sabatimus — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:39:37 +0000

No, I acted like he was the worst person ever when he said his “non-political” political comments, didn’t show up for his team at the White House, and kept running his mouth well after he said he wouldn’t. And the content of those political comments made me question his sanity.

The rest of this is just (no-touch) icing.

By: arbruins

arbruins — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:26:14 +0000

What seems crazy is that everyone is on Thomas’ ass for skipping a year. The NHL can do that for over half the year and you welcome them back open arms…oh yeah, we missed you so much NHL.

Band wagon jumpers, dump on the NHL Like you are on Thomas and see what happens when they talk about strikes or lockouts. There won’t be any.

Atleast he told everyone up front that he was sitting out this year. Seems he made the right choice, it really won’t be a real season now will it.

Next post will be about how the team schedules will be a disaster and how screwed over Chicago is going to be with the amount of back to back games they will have. It is going to be a mess.

I hope he comes back next year and proves everyone wrong.

By: drewzducks

drewzducks — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:23:26 +0000

Theo Epstein the boy wonder GM who after an bit of a WS drought, if you didn’t hear, was a no show in ’04…again you’re right about the selfishness of Thomas’ actions, but his beliefs weren’t a complete surprise to management, whereas Theo, the most visible member of the front office also let his political leanings frame his decision to snub W…one could argue that a member of team management would be held to a higher standard then a player but again I find both decisions selfish.

By: csilojohnson

csilojohnson — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:22:26 +0000

This guy is a complete tool.

By: drewzducks

drewzducks — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:16:00 +0000

With his mindset I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he was amenable to coming back in 13-14 as a 37? year old backup. Now how that would go over or be acceptable in the locker room is a completely different story. Again despite all the garbage, without him the Bruins are going on 41 years without a Cup.

By: tbbolts91

tbbolts91 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:45:32 +0000

if rask does bad this season, the B’s will be begging to have thomas back. he’s actually a good goalie if you couldn’t remember…

By: govtminion

govtminion — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:06:18 +0000

Turco’s contract was only for last season, to my knowledge. The plan this year, as I recall, is Rask and Khudobin.

By: govtminion

govtminion — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:04:52 +0000

Would you honestly expect him to be coming back as a smiling and happy backup to Rask?