Tim Thomas is now a legend in Boston
Tim Thomas has been so good, so dominant, so inspiring in these Stanley Cup play-offs that many people are saying that the Boston Bruins goaltender should be given the Conn Smythe trophy as the NHL’s play-off MVP – right now.
And while the Abbot, our hockey expert, might have a different opinion, I agree.
Thomas’ numbers support this notion. And his story supports this notion.
Too bad for Ryan Kesler. You might recall that we made the early call for Vancouver’s inspiring centre-iceman to be the MVP of the play-offs. For most of the play-offs this seemed to be the right call. Kesler was virtually dragging Vancouver through game after game, round after round, while the superstar Sedins disappeared like socks in the laundry as the competition gave way to the grinding, turbulent wash-cycle that is play-off hockey.
For a long time, Kesler drove that cycle and even relished it but eventually he succumbed to it. Kesler has now disappeared too. A secret injury, people say. And we believe that too. Only an injury could have slowed the one-man force that was Ryan “Conn Smythe” Kesler.
I think this was inevitable with the way Kesler was playing. He seemed for a time, invincible. A god. But thinking that way, especially in this NHL, is folly. Few individuals can rule this brand of hockey. The hockey we have been watching – at once exciting and gruesome – with it’s speed and physicality – has blanketed most expressions of individual talent. The hockey has become about two teams, two forces, two bulldozing entities and not about players – except for one: a goaltender. Tim Thomas.
With the limited movement, the absence of body-checking and the protection they receive both from officials and their own defensemen, only a goaltender can survive and dominate for the full, grinding cycle of the NHL play-offs.
And some goaltenders can do it better than others.
Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo has won an Olympic gold medal and he may yet win a Stanley Cup but he hasn’t come even close to matching the heroism of Tim Thomas. Nor has his once invincible teammate Ryan Kesler.
With his intensity, his all-action style, his aggressiveness, his attacking of the puck and the puck-carrier, and his almost flawless focus on the puck, Tim Thomas has been the individual story of the playoffs. If he played for the Canadian team in this Cup final, I’d even want him to win the whole thing, over Kesler.
But he doesn’t, so I don’t want him to win. I still, deep-down want the Canucks to win their first Cup.
And mere weeks ago I also wanted Kesler to take home the Conn Smythe. But I don’t anymore – unless, somehow, Kesler can overcome his “injury” and in one game match the heroism that Tim Thomas has slapped down on the table of these play-offs like an all-in hand of Texas Hold’em. Yep – unless if maybe Kesler can do something like Mark Messier did when his Rangers were down 3-2 in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals against the rival New Jersey Devils and he scored a hat-trick to back-up his pre-game 6 victory guarantee – unless he can do something big like that and heroically lead the Canucks to the Cup, then my vote goes to Tim Thomas.
Thomas is the best player we have seen in these play-offs and looks to me like the best goalie in hockey. The least he deserves is one trophy to mark one of the greatest performances in recent NHL play-off history.
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Check out this NHL video to see how great Thomas was even before the play-offs:
I agree with Joe Bowen on #1: “You are never going to see anything better than that!”
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