Thomas

The Bruins went just 1-1-1 and were shutout over the past week, so that makes it difficult to pick a Bruin of the Week.

Despite his 0-1-1 record, however, I am going to go with goaltender Tim Thomas, who produced two solid efforts against Detroit and Montreal with little offensive support. (more…)

Thomas

The mini replicas of his Vezina and Jennings Trophy are now part of his awards collection. But, as you’d expect, Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas is not resting on his laurels.

Thomas, who along with his teammates reported to the first day of training camp today in Wilmington, Mass., knows that elite goaltenders are often judged on their team successes when the book is closed on their careers. (more…)

Thomas

The USA Hockey orientation camp for the 2010 Olympic team wrapped up yesterday in Woodbridge, Ill. Today, a number of the writers that covered the event looked back at the festivities and looked ahead toward the Games, which are scheduled for February in Vancouver.

Obviously a position of importance for both the U.S. squad and the Boston Bruins is the goaltending spot, which should come down to a battle between the Bruins’ Tim Thomas and Buffalo’s Ryan Miller. Michael Farber of SI.com today wrote about the duo, which, which Farber writes gets “Team USA back at the adult’s table.” (more…)

Kessel

We still don’t know if Phil Kessel will be among the best players the Boston Bruins have to offer when the 2009-10 season opens. The restricted free agent has yet to put his name on a contract extension and recent media reports quoted his agent as saying the team and the player’s camp are far apart.

So while August creeps along toward September and the start of camp, all we can say with certainty is that Kessel is one of the 10 best U.S.-born players in the NHL. Yesterday, Mike Morreale of NHL.com ranked the top 10 best players born on American soil, and Kessel ranked eighth while teammate Tim Thomas ranked No. 2. (more…)

Thomas

ESPN and the folks at Puck Prospectus have been using a new projection system called VUKOTA to analyze a few players on each team in the NHL.

Today they took a capsule look at the Boston Bruins, and picked Patrice Bergeron as a player that’s trending up (if he can stay healthy for the full season) and goaltender Tuukka Rask as a name to know. In the trending down category, some fans might be surprised to see Vezina Trophy-winning netminder Tim Thomas listed. (more…)

Thomas

Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas and right winger Phil Kessel were both officially invited to the U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Orientation Camp today by USA Hockey. The camp will be held Aug.17-19 in Woodbridge, Ill., as an aid in choosing the members of the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team that will compete in Vancouver in February.

“I was happy (when I got the call),” Thomas told TheBruinsBlog.net today via cell phone. “I found out through a message from (Olympic team GM) Brian Burke. My phone was out of range. I’m up here in Vermont and when I go out on the lake, my phone doesn’t work. So that’s how I found out.” (more…)

LAS VEGAS — Well, I’m still recovering from a long night after the 2009 NHL Awards ceremony. I’m now at the airport waiting for my flight back home.

I was so caught up in my live blog and post-ceremony story, I completely forgot to take pictures. But here are some photos from Getty Images for your perusal. (more…)

LAS VEGAS — If there’s one common link between the Boston Bruins’ three award winners who were honored tonight at the 2009 NHL Awards ceremony at The Palms Casino and Resort, it’s perseverance in the face of naysayers and doubters.

Tim Thomas had to prove himself over and over for a decade on two different continents before he was given an NHL shot. Zdeno Chara had to convince people on two continents that someone as tall as some of the world’s biggest basketball players could succeed on ice. And Claude Julien had to rebound after two confusing firings before taking over the Bruins and turning around the franchise’s fortunes.

Tonight Thomas was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender, Chara won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman and Julien captured the Jack Adams Trophy as the coach of the year in the NHL.
(more…)

Thomas

The Boston Bruins didn’t look like a team that would eventually finish the regular season with the best record in the Eastern Conference when they left for their road trip to Western Canada with a 3-3-3 record in late October.

But goaltender Tim Thomas made sure to get his Vezina Trophy-worthy campaign off and running in Edmonton Oct. 27, and that set off a chain reaction that started molding the Bruins into a Stanley Cup contender. Thomas’ shutout of the Oilers ranks at No. 9 on my list of the Bruins’ top 10 victories of the 2008-09 regular season. (more…)

They say hard work pays off. Well, in Tim Thomas’ case tons of hard work paid off big time this spring when the Boston Bruins rewarded him with a four-year contract extension that will pay him $5 million per season — a far cry from the $1.1 million he’d been paid since his 2006 extension.

Thomas’ large payday was recognition for his efforts leading up to and during his Vezina Trophy-worthy 2008-09, plus the prime-time play the Bruins’ brass thinks Thomas can continue to produce as we head toward a new decade. Thomas’ refined mechanics blended with his relentless competitiveness made him the league leader in goals-against average and save percentage. But more important, he continued to prove he’s a winner. (more…)

RALEIGH — Boston Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward walked into the RBC Center behind me this morning wearing his typical shiny suit. He also wore sunglasses to protect his bruised left eye.

Ward looked ready to hit the ice when the Bruins go through their morning skate at 11:30 a.m. I’ll have official word for you when it becomes available. Ward’s eye was injured when he was punched by Carolina forward Scott Walker near the end of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series Sunday night.

Game 6 is tonight at 7 p.m.

UPDATE: Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli confirmed Ward can play tonight and he does not have a fracture.

Lucic

I admit it. I completely forgot to do a “5 questions for Game 5″ because in my mind, I didn’t see the point. I thought trying to solve the issues the Boston Bruins had leading up to the game they entered trailing, 3-1, was futile. Boy, did they prove me wrong.

So now that the Bruins actually put in a 100-percent effort, I’ll do it too.

Here are the five questions that need to be answered leading up to and after Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series tomorrow night at RBC Center:

1. Can the Bruins duplicate their Game 5 effort?
We can know that they can. After all, during the grind of the 82-game regular season that’s how they made their way to the top of the Eastern Conference and nearly won the Presidents’ Trophy. They played with physicality and passion and worked as a team and utilized the system to the best of its productivity. For the first four games of this series, the Bruins looked like impostors (or was the regular-season team the fake?) Then came Game 5, the Milan Lucic hit on Dennis Seidenberg and the rout. In Raleigh, it’ll be more difficult to get their level of play that high in a hostile environment, but the Bruins won big games on the road all season long, including the two playoff games in Montreal. It really all starts with Lucic. Once he gets involved, his teammates take it as a cue to follow him to the Promised Land. No doubt, the fan favorite wants to get back to Boston for a Game 7 so the “Lucic Crew” can be back in full effect. I’d expect the Bruins to at least give another full-tilt effort, even if they don’t wind up on top. (more…)

RALEIGH — The Boston Bruins have completed their optional morning skate here at the RBC Center in preparation for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Every Bruins player skated except for forwards Michael Ryder, Shawn Thornton and P.J. Axelsson. All are expected to play in tonight’s pivotal contest with the series tied 1-1.

“I guess it’s the biggest adversity we’ve had so far. But every team’s going to face adversity,” said goaltender Tim Thomas after the skate. “The Red Wings are facing it with Anaheim, in a different way. But it is important how we bounce back and we have to come out and have a better game than we’ve had either of the first two games.”

Thomas

BOSTON — The ‘L’ that goes with the Boston Bruins’ 3-0 defeat tonight in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at TD Banknorth Garden lands on the team’s ledger first and foremost — but it also gets hung on goaltender Tim Thomas.

And that’s something we haven’t witnessed for more than a month, as Thomas had won 11 straight decisions. (Technically not a career high because it carried over from the regular season to the playoffs.) But the Carolina Hurricanes managed to put two pucks past him over a 5:02 span of the second period en route to a series-tying victory.

“I didn’t see either one of them. The second goal, I probably could’ve beat the guy to the puck. I made a judgment and I wasn’t sure,” Thomas recalled after the game. “So I played it safe and sat back. I guess I could’ve defused the play if I had went and played it. But I played it cautious. It was just kind of a messed-up play.” (more…)

Vancouver set an example for the Bruins.

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Watching the Vancouver Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series last night proved to be a learning experience for the Boston Bruins.

Those Bruins players who chose to flip on the game got to see that getting back into action after a nine-day layoff isn’t as difficult as some might think.

“They came out hard to start the game. I thought they had a real good first two periods,” said Bruins winger Milan Lucic after the club held its morning skate at Ristuccia Arena. “And obviously Chicago showed a lot of character coming back to make that 3-3. But I mean, they had the same number of days off as we did and came out hard. So it just shows we can’t have any excuses and we have to go out there and play hard.”

The Bruins will host the Carolina Hurricanes at TD Banknorth Garden tonight in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series after not playing since last Wednesday. (more…)