FLA just working thru final insurance issues and if all goes as expected today, Tim Thomas will be back on the ice with the Panthers.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) September 16, 2013
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| Fox Sport photo |
TSN.CA --- The Boston Bruins have locked up next season's No. 1 netminder, agreeing to terms with Tuukka Rask on a one-year, $3.5 million contract.
Rask, 25, played 23 games with the Bruins last season, going 11-8-3 with a 2.05 goals-against average, a .929 save percentage and three shutouts.
He was set to become a restricted free agent on Sunday.
"We wouldn’t have won it without him," Thornton said…
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| Goalie Tim Thomas, NHL Hockey player for the Boston Bruins (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Zito declined to discuss any other specifics of Thomas’s decision not to play next season. On Sunday, Thomas confirmed that he will not play in 2012-13 via a posting on his Facebook page. Thomas has one season remaining on his four-year, $20 million contract. Thomas’s no-movement clause expires on July 1.
The chatter around the league is that Thomas does not want to play for the Bruins next season, thus prompting his decision. The Bruins, who would be responsible for his cap hit next year, would be eager to rid themselves of Thomas’s $5 million number.[Fluto Shinzawa, Boston Globe]
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| Goalie Tim Thomas, NHL Hockey player for the Boston Bruins (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Tim Thomas' OptionsThe Justin Schultz sweep stakes are a month away, it will be interesting to see where the highly sought after offensive defenseman goes.
LeBrun: We know the Boston Bruins may potentially try and trade goaltender Tim Thomas when his no-trade clause evaporates on July 1 but among the other options I'm told Tim Thomas is considering is maybe not playing next season. I'm not saying that's going to happen for sure but I was told today that he's thinking about maybe taking the year off. It's been a stressful year for the 38-year-old, we all know about the White House controversy, and the Bruins have a #1 goalie-in-waiting in Tuukka Rask. [TSN.CA]
Dealing With Schultz
McKenzie: It's going to be very difficult for Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray to make a deal involving defensive prospect Justin Schultz. He's certainly out there trying to make it happen and there's lots of teams interested. Every NHL team will want this guy when he becomes an unrestricted free agent, which is likely to happen before July 1 but I can see the Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers among others being extremely interested. But it's going to be tough for Murray to get anything for Schultz. It looks like he's going to unrestricted free agency.
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| Goalie Tim Thomas, NHL Hockey player for the Boston Bruins (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Thomas for his part clarified his “we/they” statements after Game 7 by saying he was using the word “they” to make sure his teammates were getting credit without him involving himself in the complimentary statements.
“It’s because I’m trying to give them credit without giving credit to myself. They deserve a huge amount of credit. Don’t read too much in the ‘they/us’ thing, please. What I’m trying to say is that this is a special group of guys in here. Whether we won the Cup last year or whether we failed this time. It’s a special group of guys that bodes well for the future of the Boston Bruins.” [Joe Haggerty, CSNNE]
Then there were the references to the rest of the Bruins team as “they” at least five times during his postgame interview. If one were a conspiracy theorist it sounds like there is a clear separation of State and Tim Thomas going on.Thomas would not be the first professional athlete to feel the wrath in Boston, it's a tough city to play in for professional athletes if you catch the ire of the fans, just ask Bill Buckner and Bob Stanley of the 1986 Red Sox, it's not quite as bad as Montreal but it up there.
"What it says about our guys is that they’re battlers and they’re still champions," he said. "They gave everything they had to the bitter end. Unfortunately this is sports and they fell short this time."
The remarks were consistent with Thomas' tendency to paint himself as an individual. [Joe Haggerty, CSNNE.COM]
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| Goalie Tim Thomas, NHL Hockey player for the Boston Bruins (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
“I think he’s a great goalie,’’ Johnny Boychuk said. “He’s saved our butts a lot throughout the year. Throughout the series, he made plenty of saves and you know he’s going to be battling for you every night. And when you have a guy like that behind you, you don’t have any worries.’’Some of the reports don’t sound so good coming out of the Boston Bruins Locker-room. There seems to be a bit of a of a disconnect between Thomas and his fellow teammates; or this story is being manufacturing in the media? It's hard to tell because a few of the Boston media guys have failed to let Thomas live down the "famous" White House snub last January.
The issue now, though, is the long summer ahead. [Boston.com]
"Our best players, we probably needed more out of their game," said Boston coach Claude Julien, referring to a number of Bruins. "I didn't think our team was in tune as much as it was this time last year."This little tidbit from the Obnoxious Boston Sports fan, apparently Tim Thomas referred to his fellow teammates as they. Boy what a difference a year makes and how soon they all forget, last year the fans and media in Boston were singing Tim Thomas’ praise as he was leading the Boston Bruins through the Stanley Cup playoffs. What have you done for me lately?
And with that, a year in which Boston's season was at least partly defined by Thomas' refusal to visit the President in the White House with his teammates in January ended with some degree of irony. Some Boston reporters said Thomas walked on the sacred Bruins logo after the game; there is speculation that the divisive former Vezina winner will be on the market this summer. And it was Ward and the Capitals who sent him there. [Montreal Gazette]
With the Bruins' exit, Thomas will be freed up to focus on Mitt Romney's choice of a running mate. Thomas, who played good but not great, will draw the ire of plenty of fans and others, who will continually make the mistake of linking his Facebook posts and political edicts to the fact that his GAA ballooned to 2.14 in the playoffs this season and his save percentage tumbled to .923. Tuukka time was likely going to arrive whether or not Thomas went to the White House and appears even more likely with Thomas' use of the dreaded "they" word while discussing his teammates last night. [Boston.com]
Last night in Boston reality struck when the series ended with a Game 7 overtime goal that was manufactured by Mike Knuble in another example of goalkeeper interference. After taking a backhand shot from close in that Tim Thomas saved Knuble continued on his path entering deep into the goal crease and made sufficient physical contact with the Bruins goalie to knock him off his set position and back toward the goal line. The undetected rebound was shot past Thomas as he attempted to pull his head out of Knuble's midsection and right arm.
It would defy logic to maintain that rule 69, as it is written, was not sufficiently violated for the referee to disallow this goal.
Rule 69.1 — "Interference on the Goalkeeper...Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper's ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease.
"The overriding rationale of this rule is that a goalkeeper should have the ability to move freely within his goal crease without being hindered by the actions of an attacking player. If an attacking player enters the goal crease and, by his actions, impairs the goalkeeper's ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed."
[Kerry Fraiser TSN]
Joe Haggerty, Bruins Insider ---- It would have been difficult for the Bruins to even entertain dealing Thomas heading into next season if he’d repeated his Conn Smythe, Vezina and Stanley Cup efforts again this spring, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. But his average playoff performance after turning Boston’s regular season into his own personal political agenda loosens up their attachment to the veteran goaltender quite a bit.Related articles
Thomas’ no-trade clause is gone as of July 1 and his actual 2012-13 salary drops to $3 million while retaining a $5 million cap hit – a wrinkle that will make the veteran netminder attractive to a goalie-starved team looking to hit the cap floor while saving ownership a few bucks.
While it’s clear to those that closely watched the Bruins Thomas wasn’t the same goalie this year once the calendar hit January, there is still enough value associated with the goalie to net the Bruins a few picks and a prospect this summer.
Jack Todd, Montreal Gazette --- Thomas’s decision to skip a team visit to the White House because he buys the garbage pumped out by Glenn Beck and his ilk was bad enough. But then, having pulled a highly public stunt to call attention to his whacko politics, Thomas blamed the media for paying attention.
Look, if this cretin wants to stand outside the White House and spew his drivel, that’s free speech. But standing up the president? All that does is show that Thomas has the class of a swamp-rat.
What’s worse, you know Thomas would not have done this with the liberal Democrat Bill Clinton in the White House. Truth is, he felt free to dis Barack Obama, because Obama is black.
At least he accomplished one thing: Thomas earned himself a lifetime membership in the MMQB’s zeros section, right next to Jeffrey Loria and David Samson. May he suffer many a groin pull for the rest of his sorry career.
Image via WikipediaI mean really?!? Cory Schneider is a good goalie and a very serviceable back up to the Canucks head case Robert Luongo, but he isn't even close to the stature of Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas. I guess as a Bruins fan, I can just chalk it up as another reason to hate the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. The Providence --- Cory Schneider, an American from Marblehead, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, was one Canuck willing to weigh in, and his message was simple. Thomas should have sucked it up and gone to the White House.
“I’m not that religious but if I had the chance to meet the Pope, it’d be pretty cool,” Schneider said.
”I don’t believe in everything the Catholic church does, but I’d still show up to the Vatican and say Hi to the Pope.
“I have no problem with his personal beliefs, but (Thomas) can suck it up for an hour, say Hi and be with the team, and avoid all of this.
“Respect the (Presidency). He plays for Team USA and he has no problem making millions of dollars in the USA but he can’t go say Hi to the President.
