The hockey season is over for me. Officially the Bruins say there are no plans to move Thomas but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Here are a couple of interesting posts from a Bruins forum I am on...
With Thomas' NMC, it would obviously be hard to move him anywhere, if management even wants to move him. I doubt they want to move the 2 time Vezina winner, but in light of Thomas' handling of his 'defending champion' title, he has irked Boston management and, from what I read, he made some players mad in the locker room.
Starting with the white house snub, lots of Bruins brass tried to distance themselves from Thomas. While in the playoffs, he made comments to the media that he was (and I'm paraphrasing) 'Stopping everything, Offence needs to do their job'... The locker room was mad and some player said (again, paraphrasing) 'Typical Thomas, It's all about him and not the team...'
That could be a big concern going forward with this team. Do you want to hold on to Thomas, who, in the playoffs was dissing his own teammates, or do you want to go with your back-up, Rask, who should be a starter on almost any other team in the league?
You see the latest with TT? Referring to the team of "they" not "we" and stepping on the spoked B in the locker room?
http://t.co/4PeIF84JBOSTON -- Tim Thomas noticeably used the pronoun "they" -- not "we" -- when discussing his Bruins teammates at multiple points after Boston’s Game 7 loss to the Washington Capitals.
The 38-year-old goaltender, who is clearly intent on being viewed as an individual first and foremost, was good but not spectacular in his team’s 2-1 loss to the Capitals. A tipped puck beat him for the first goal, then Mike Knuble barreled over him in overtime before Joel Ward scored the dagger.
Thomas now enters an offseason filled with the unknown.
He's entering the final year of his contract, and his no-trade clause expires this offseason. Plus, the Bruins will likely have 25-year-old Tuukka Rask (a restricted free agent) waiting in the wings.
Thomas showed some signs last night that he may be anticipating a trade.
Some observers said they spotted him stepping on the Bruins logo in the middle of the home dressing room -- a definite no-no -- after the game was over.
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.
"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.
