Tag Archives: Tim Thomas

Apr 20

Weekly Plus/Minus: NHL Playoffs, Brock Lesnar/John Cena, Goalies, Violence, and More!

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Greetings one and all! After taking a couple of weeks off, welcome back to the Weekly Plus/Minus were we look at the best and worst in the ring and on the ice. With the NHL Playoffs well underway and the WWE being in a great post-Wrestlemania period, there is certainly a ton to discuss. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

American Born Goalies: For the longest time Canada, and especially Quebec was seen as the Goalie Factory. In recent years, some have made the argument that Finland has supplanted French Canada as the new place to look to find a good back-stopper.

This post-season could end up as a bit of a coming out for American Born goalies. While Tim Thomas has taken a slight step back he’s still been very good. Scott Clemmensen has played very good in relief, Corey Schneider has been even better, and Craig Anderson has flown under the radar this post season, and has been keeping pace with Henrik Lundqvist since the 3rd Period of Game 1.

Of course the one American goalie who has been down right spectacular has been LA Kings netminder Jonathan Quick. This entire season has been a coming out party for Quick, but he has really upped his game against one of the best offenses in the league. If they awarded a Conn Smythe every round, Quick would be the runaway favourite to take it for the first round. Make no mistake here we are watching something very special here with Jonathan Quick, and it wouldn’t be very surprising to see them make it pretty far this Spring.

If you’re still not sold on the strength of American goalies, remember their 2010 Olympic Hero is out golfing. These guys are going to be very tough to score on in Sochi.

Goalies That Play in Pennsylvania: This series has flown in the face of all logical, sane predictions. Everyone expected the big names on Pittsburgh to run roughshod over the Flyers and give us a very long, intense series.

Instead we’ve had Claude Giroux and Sean Coturier top the scoring, we’ve had the Penguins blow two 3-0 leads, and we’ve had three straight blow outs that have been better known for the cheap shots and violence than the majesty on ice which we were all expecting.

At the core of it though, there are the men behind the net. Before the playoffs everyone was trumpeting Marc-Andre Fleury as a money goalie and that currency has certainly been devalued. Ilya Bryzgalov has (perhaps less surprisingly) been impossible to predict. On one moment he absolutely robs Kris Letang with the save of the year, and the next moment it looks like the Tupac Hologram would be a more serviceable goaltender.

Both teams were hyped as Cup contenders before the playoffs, but whoever wins this Keystate Showdown is going to be in serious trouble if they come up against Tim Thomas or Henrik Lundqvist in the future.

New Stars Rising: WWE Legend Mick Foley has recently been engaged in an on-line feud with prospect Dean Ambrose, these two calling each other out on Twitter has been blurring the lines between fiction and reality quite nicely. Apparently the plan is to give Ambrose a huge program right away and make him a major name very quickly.

Add in the fact that recently (re) debuted Lord Tensai got a huge win over John Cena, and it looks like we may finally be seeing some new stars come in. Sure it won’t be as big as the Class of 2002 which included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and Shelton Benjamin, but it looks like we may finally be getting some new big names on the horizon.

Randy Orton vs. Kane: This feud is still going on, really?

It was boring and obvious filler before Wrestlemania, it’s boring and obvious filler for Extreme Rules, and damnit it’s boring and obvious filler in this column.

Orton deserves better, and so do you, Dear Readers.

 

Brock Lesnar: The return of The Next Big Thing, could be one of the best things to happen to the WWE in a very long tim. He’s brought with him a ton of buzz, cross-over appeal, and some legitimacy.

While many would obviously question matching him up with Cena right away and not holding off until Wrestlemania, sometimes you have to strike while the iron is hot. Having him give an F5 to John Cena the night after Wrestlemania was an amazing way to have him return, and to have those two face off so soon really helps carry the post-Wrestlemania buzz even longer.

The possibilities for Lesnar going forward are incredibly exciting, and it’s fun to imagine potential matchups with The Rock, The Undertaker, Randy Orton, or CM Punk, and it’ll be even more fun to not have to imagine them anymore.

Obvious Double Standards: Here at a site that’s 50% Dedicated to professional wrestling, you certainly won’t find a ton of complaining about violence in sports.

The complaint here is coming out of the Department of Player Safety. Brendan Shanahan has the hardest job in the league, and for the most part has been very good at it. However, some things here are a little strange.

Aaron Asham cross-checks a guy during play and gets four games while Niklas Backstrom gets only one game for a cross-check to the face when the clock ran out. The book will certainly be thrown at Raffi Torres for his late hit on Marian Hossa, but James Neal only got one game for obvious head-hunting. Shea Weber gets nothing for ramming Zetterberg’s head into the boards, but Andrew Shaw gets three for bumping a goalie, of a team owned by the league no less.

The message is clear, third and fourth liners are fair game for suspensions but people who have the ability to dictate the game like Neal, Backstrom, and Weber can get slaps on the wrist. This makes it seem like Johnny Laurinitus is in charge and all of these top liners are people like Mark Henry and Dolph Ziggler, and that’s in nobody’s best interest.

 

 

Prediction for the Week: Only one series goes to seven games.

Jan 25

Celebrating the Heel Turn of Tim Thomas

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Monday Tim Thomas skipped out on the Boston Bruins reception at the White House.  He said on his Facebook that it was because he was exercising his rights as a free citizen who disagreed with the work of the Federal Government, apparently due to his Tea Party sympathies.

This has received a hell of a lot of flack from the media, and is certain to be a distraction at the coming All-Star Weekend, especially in the Great White Northern Socialist Paradise.

While I couldn’t possibly disagree more with Thomas’s political views here, I personally admire him for his courage on this. Sure he was a Conn Smythe winner, but if someone like Brad Richards, Patrick Roy, or Nicklas Lidstrom refused to attend George Bush’s White House, I would have loved it. As such, I feel it would be completely hypocritical of me to shame Thomas here. He stood up for what he believed, and kudos to that. In the words of Voltaire “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

But enough about me, what’s more interesting is the reaction that this is getting.

In wrestling terms, there is no question that Tim Thomas was one of the few mega-faces in this game. He comes from humble beginnings, was a late round draft pick, had to ply his trade in Europe, and flat out worked his ass off to be the best in the league at what he does, which culminated in one of the best statistical seasons ever last year, which lead to him getting the Vezina and Conn Smythe trophies and his name on Hockey’s Holy Grail. What’s not to love about that story? He’s a regular Dusty Rhodes son-of-a-plumber blue collar good guy.

That is until today. Where he is sure to be booed like no tomorrow, especially in the more liberal markets like Ottawa, DC, LA, Chicago, and New York.

But why? He just did what he felt was right. The same people who are going to boo Thomas are the same people that defended the Dixie Chicks for speaking out against the war in Iraq and hated on the “dumb rednecks” who boycotted them.

This my friends, is a self justified heel turn of Bret Hart proportions. What made this turns so amazing in the 90s is the fact that Bret didn’t change, not one bit. No the fans changed. Bret Hart was such an amazing anti-American heel, because he was mad at the fans for cheering the beer swilling rule breaker who they should have booed by all logic.

Tim Thomas today is the exact same man whose tires were pumped by Roberto Luongo. He’s the exact same man who flat-out embarrassed the Vancouver Canucks last June. He’s the exact same man who we were all inspired by and couldn’t help but root for.

Except now we know something about him that we don’t like, and that somehow makes him a villain. Bret Hart refused to let go of the sharpshooter on Jerry Lawler in ’93 and we cheered. He did the same to Steve Austin in ’97 and suddenly he was the most hated man in the business.

What made Bret Hart such an amazing villain in the late 90s is the exact same thing that will make Tim Thomas a great villain now. They hold a mirror up to the world. They show everyone their true hypocritical nature. They are the sports (and sports entertainment) equivalent of Dorian Gray’s painting.

And for that we hate them.