This season, Thomas has been even better, helping the Bruins get off to their hottest start in quite some time. The team currently sits in first place in the Northeast division with a record of 10-3-4 (24 points), and has a two point lead over highly touted Montreal. Thomas is 6-2-3 on the year, with a goals against average of 1.76 (first in the NHL) and a save percentage of .945 (also first in the NHL).
But alas, when the NHL's All-Star Ballot came out a few weeks ago, Thomas' name wasn't on it. The Eastern Conference goalies include Martin Brodeur, who is out 3-4 months with an elbow injury, Vesa Toskala, who's .878 save percentage puts him 40th in the NHL, and Rick DiPietro, who has played a grand total of three games this season, with a record of 0-2. Now I understand that Thomas has split time with Manny Fernandez this year, but Tomas Vokoun is on the ballot, despite splitting time with backup Craig Anderson (Vokoun and Thomas have each played 11 games) for the 6-9-1 last place Panthers.
This is a ridiculous snub by the NHL, a league that, let's face it, is pretty screwed up. It is by far the least popular of the four major sports, has too many teams, and is run unbelievably poorly. Ticket prices are too high and the talent pool is watered down (again, because there are too many teams). Fans were turned off by the lockout, and the NHL still hasn't truly recovered.
The League apparantly decided that Tim Thomas, who plays for a historically significant team (compared to the Atlanta Thrashers, for example) that is exceeding all expectations due in large part to his stellar play, is not one of the ten best goalies in the Eastern Conference. The NHL is missing a golden opportunity to spotlight a blue-collar, hard working player, someone the few fans the League actually does have might be able to relate to.
Of course, it doesn't really matter to Thomas. All that matters to him is keeping the puck out of the net, and keeping the Black and Gold on top of the standings.
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