Thomas/By S. Bradley
BOSTON — If ever there was a night to just chill out, the Bruins had one with a desperate Chicago team in town tonight one game after Boston wrapped up its playoff berth.
But the Bruins decided to take things to the other extreme.
After outshooting the Blackhawks, 12-5 in the first period, the Bruins barely relinquished the momentum the rest of the game at TD Garden en route to a 3-0 shutout highlighted by Tim Thomas’ 32 saves.
“I think it was important for us to follow what we said,” said head coach Claude Julien, who preached to his team since Sunday that it can’t let its foot off the gas yet. “We had to come out strong, especially against a team that’s desperate, is a pretty good team, the Stanley Cup champions. We needed to be ready. This is one game, we’ve got more to come and we’ve just got to keep taking that approach.”
Thomas now has nine shutouts on the season and his league-leading totals in goals-against average and save percentage now sit at 1.96 and .940, respectively.
Here’s a glance at the rest of the box score:
•Zdeno Chara, Johnny Boychuk and Nathan Horton scored the goals. Chara now has 3-8-11 totals in his last 10 games. Horton now has four goals in his last four games.
•Chara was the only plus-3 player on the night. Selke Trophy candidate Jonathan Toews was minus-3 for Chicago.
•The Bruins did not get a power-play attempt all night.
Our team is centered around our goalies playing well. Thomas easily has been the center of that. Tuuka would have kept us together, but the sheer number of games stolen by Mr. Thomas is ridiculous. It would be a crying shame if Price was even nominated for the Hart and Thomas wasn’t. I don’t even think Price is worth talking about in the vezina, sure he has been solid, but his save percentage is .922 vs Corey crawford’s .918 and he becomes far less impressive, also, when one accounts for the defense first system in front of him, it becomes even more comparable to Crawford who backstops the run and gun Hawks. To be clear Crawford is widely recognized to be a good, but not great goalie who has a similar workload to price as well as a similar number of wins. Another comparable is Rinne, who again, is on a defense first team playing again, a similar workload, and he has a .929 save percentage, double the difference between price and crawford. By this way of thinking, Price could be statistically placed in the category of good but not great which is not the kind of player who really ever garners attention for trophies. Also, Rinne is a great comparable because he is his team more so than price and is also in the vezina discussion (for second place that is).
could have resulted in another rangers game, but the cannons at the points got the shots through.
I hate to think this, but the way the team is playing now, they might have been suffering “Ryder” disease or a form of it. At the exit interviews last Spring, Ryder admitted that he just couldn’t get “up” for regular season games whereas playoffs – those he could get motivated for. And if you look at the Bruins this season with the exception of Detroit, they have been “up” for nearly all of their games against the league’s elite teams and laid eggs against the weaker teams.
GR90 Great case for TT getting the Hart! I support that big time! How about Boychuk! His game has really come back to the form he had last year. Team looks tight right now!
Very good night for Timmy, but lets not forget the efforts and good positioning of the D and collapsing forwards to clear/handle the, what seemed many, “juicy” rebounds and getting in front of shots. The system was firing on all cylinders last night against a gassed team.
Thomas for Vezina AND Hart, if you ask me. He’s having a Hasek-like season, and he’s been so consistent. I can’t be persuaded to see the argument for Kesler or the Sedin’s since they have each other… Kesler is getting the Selke and Daniel is getting the Art Ross anywho. Don’t even mention Carey Price in that argument, nor Corey Perry, nor “Captain Serious”.
Thomas comes up big, in big games. Great show tonight.
P.S. Thomas for Vezina
Great effort by everyone tonight, especially after they were down a man. Great to see Seguin getting the ice time because it’s only going to help him with his decision making. I was really impressed by Crawford’s play he kept the Hawks in the game. Thornton looks even more like a tough guy with those stitches, I wonder what was said that made him so mad.