Tim Thomas, Soul Eater

Tim Thomas, soul eater

For a guy who’s been an Olympian, an NHL all-star, and a Vezina and Jennings trophy winner, it only seems just now, in the 2010-11 Stanley Cup finals that Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas is truly getting recognized for his talents.

There are lots of reasons to like Thomas:

*At 37 years old he’s a virtual grandpa to most of the high-strung kids in the game, giving hope to those of us the same age as him that it’s not over yet once the clock nears 40.

* He looks like a giant potato. Not since Mike Vernon has their been an elite goalie whose success has buoyed the self-worth of every body conscious goaltender in the post-obesity crisis era.

* It wasn’t easy for him to get to the bigs. Thomas journey-manned through the Finnish pro league, the Swedish Elite League, the IHL, the ECHL and the AHL before finally cracking the Bruins roster. Eight years of purgatory to reach his goal. Respect the never-give-up attitude.

* That Sportmask Mage mask-helmet combo. Classic old/new school.

* In a sport and a position increasingly populated by giant soulless robo-butterfly goalies, Thomas plays instead like an electrified walrus, a flopping, thrashing on-ice menace at complete odds with the icy cool of the Ryan Millers and Robert Luongos of the world.

Those are all reasons to love Thomas, but what they lack in their arguments is a certain goaltending attribute I’ll simply call “awesomeness,” and rather than try to essay it out I’ll just use embedded youtube videos to articulate my point:

It’s Andrei Kostitsyn. He clearly deserved it.

He took on a mystical Chimera.

It’s not quite honourable, but I guess taking out Jason Blake means he doesn’t discriminate against little people.

If the Bruins win the Cup, this will be the moment where Thomas ate their souls.

And this is where he vomits Canucks souls back up in a show of Roman excess.