Thomas feeling left out
Goalie is omitted from All-Star ballot
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WILMINGTON - He's got the consistent message, and the record to back it up. Tim Thomas clearly needs some help to gain the public trust.
Why not start a campaign?
"He should campaign," said Shawn Thornton. "I think a lot of it's name recognition anyway."
Admittedly, the Bruins are much more focused on the games at hand than landing their goalie a spot in this season's All-Star Game. But what does Thomas have to do to earn some respect?
Thomas was not included among the 10 goalies listed on the Eastern Conference All-Star ballot, which was released yesterday. Despite a league-best .944 save percentage and a 1.83 goals-against average and two shutouts (both which rank second in the NHL), Thomas was left off in favor of New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, who will miss 3-4 months after elbow surgery, the Islanders' Rick DiPietro (knee surgery), Philadelphia's Martin Biron (3-4-1, 3.79 GAA, .874 save percentage), and Atlanta's Kari Lehtonen, who allowed seven goals in a game last week.
"I don't know whose stats are where, but as far as I'm concerned he should be on there," Thornton said of Thomas. "He's been playing unbelievable."
"It's unfortunate for him because every time he keeps battling," said coach Claude Julien. "But that's Timmy's story. He's a battler, he's in there every year, and does his job."
Of course, Thomas was a late addition to last year's All-Star roster, and eventually got the win in Atlanta. He'll use this oversight as motivation - a tactic he's utilized his whole career.
"I think I've been underestimated quite a few times, and it just feeds the fire to keep getting better," he said. "You don't want to totally look at it always as proving people wrong, but that's what it kind of boils down to."
Road warriors
In the season's first 24 days, the Bruins played 12 games, traveled 9,731 miles (as the crow flies), and crossed into a new time zone on 10 occasions. With the annual early-season grind complete, including last Saturday's penalty-filled win over Dallas, Julien said they earned a bit of a respite earlier this week."First and foremost, we needed to give the guys a little bit of breathing room," he said. "We've been on the road since basically the third day of training camp . . . we needed to let the guys breathe a little bit and catch up." The Bruins will travel outside the Eastern time zone just four times (games against Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, and Columbus) the rest of the way.
This month, the Bruins will play three sets of back-to-back games. Last season, the Bruins were 4-8-5 in the second of back-to-back games.
"I think we've gotten through the toughest part of [the season], and now it's just a matter of working with the schedule, and being able to stretch our bench out and deal with those consecutive games."
Tonight, the Bruins face the Maple Leafs, last seen Oct. 23 at the Garden in a game Julien said was his club's worst of the season. Toronto's offense is clicking (19 goals in the last four games) but the defense isn't (18 goals against). Still, the Leafs are a point behind the Bruins in the Northeast Division, and right there with Boston in terms of effort.
David Krejci watched Toronto's 5-4 overtime loss to Carolina Tuesday. "What I like about them is they might not be that skilled, but they work much harder than the other team on the ice," he said. "Every play, every shift they work their hardest."
"They don't quit," said Julien. "It hasn't taken long for teams to take notice and see that these guys are for real."
Kobasew looks good
Julien said he would reassess Chuck Kobasew's status today. Kobasew, who has missed the last 10 games after taking a Shane Hnidy slapper off the leg Oct. 9, appeared fine in practice yesterday, moving fluidly and displaying some slick moves in shootout drills."Our team's going well," said Julien. "If he comes in, he's got to be 100 percent and really feel good about everything about his game. He's got to be a difference-maker." Julien said Mark Stuart (flu) is day to day.
More Murray money?
Glen Murray, whose contract was bought out in September, could end up costing the Bruins more than the $2.76 million he's due over the next two years. According to a TSN report, Murray will soon have a second procedure to repair the same ankle for which he had surgery in April. He and agent Anton Thun claim the ankle problem is a preexisting condition, which means that Murray could challenge the buyout - and if successful, receive full salary. "If Glen is allowed to grieve, and he were to win, I am not sure how they would deal with the cap consequences," wrote general manager Peter Chiarelli in an e-mail. "I don't think we would get any cap relief." A call to Thun was not immediately returned . . . More legal news: Petteri Nokelainen brought an official document for Thornton to look at. After a glance, Thornton determined that it was a follow-up notice for a speeding ticket. "You better pay that, bud, or you're going to jail," deadpanned Thornton. Nokelainen said he was pulled over near The
