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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 12, 2009

Tim Thomas

DAVID KEON: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm David Keon of the National Hockey League's public relations department and I'd like to welcome you to today's call.
Our guest is Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas. Thanks to Tim for joining us today to answer your questions, and thanks to Matt Chmura of the Bruins' public relations department for setting up the call.
Last week Tim was named to the Eastern Conference roster for the 57th National Hockey League All-Star Game, which will be played January 25th at the Bell Centre in MontrÃ©al at 6 p.m. eastern time on CBS, RDS, Versus and NHL Radio. It will be Tim's second All-Star appearance as he was the winning goaltender at last year's game in Atlanta.
This season he has posted a 17-4-3 record with a 2.08 goals-against average .933 save percentage and three shutouts in 24 appearances as the Bruins lead the Eastern Conference with a record of 31-7-4 for 66 points, one point behind San Jose for first in the overall NHL standings.
In a rematch of last year's first round of the playoffs, the Bruins host MontrÃ©al tomorrow night at the TD Bank North Garden. Thanks again to Tim for taking the time to join us. We'll open it up for questions.

Q. I'm sure nothing can compare to your first selection, but the success of the team this year, does that give you any more satisfaction to go this time?
TIM THOMAS: Yeah, it does. First of all, the selection is nice, too. Like last year I was kind of a replacement, so this one is nice because I was picked outright.
But second of all, you know, when you can go there and you're the team that everyone's looking up to this year, that everybody's chasing, it definitely gives you a little bit of inner confidence.

Q. You were a late replacement last year. I know that affected some family vacation plans. Did it knock out anything this time?
TIM THOMAS: No, no. Nope, I didn't plan anything this year just in case. Was just going to kind of take it as it went.

Q. Regarding the Canadiens, you had a couple of big wins close together earlier this season. They've been coming on lately, getting their game together. This seems like old times now with you and them. I'm wondering about your perspective toward playing MontrÃ©al when both teams are hot right now.
TIM THOMAS: Well, I don't know. At this point of the year I think you kind of have to treat every game the same as you would any other game. Now, having said that, you know it's MontrÃ©al, and we do have a history. They're exciting games and stuff. But I think as much as possible, I think the mood in the locker room, you have to be ready to show up and do the same things you've been having success with all year long, and the things you've been having success with against the MontrÃ©al Canadiens this year also.

Q. Is that amplified by the fact when you guys had such a bad time with MontrÃ©al last season, a lot of it was because you just saved up your worst for them?
TIM THOMAS: Maybe we were a little bit too nervous, and then we got sick of it and we actually tried too hard. Then we got mad, and we got so mad that we took too many penalties. I think that's more what I'm referring to, is that we made the game into too big of a deal possibly last year.
Yes, it's an important game, but it shouldn't be so important that it takes you out of your style of game. We should play them the same way we played against the Red Wings, the same way we've played the MontrÃ©al Canadiens twice this year. I think the playoff series helped a lot.

Q. Last year was your first full year with the Bruins. Before that you had sort of shuttled back and forth between Boston and Providence.
TIM THOMAS: It was my second full year. This year is my third full year.

Q. I'm saying last year was your first year that you spent the full year with the Bruins.
TIM THOMAS: No, it was the year before. I played 66 games the year before.

Q. Where have you come from? What are some of the things that are going well for you now?
TIM THOMAS: Well, I think I've said this before, but it isn't like I've appeared out of nowhere. The whole time I was hiding in plain sight. I mean, I was a two-time All-American in college. I won a championship in Finland at age 23. I've had a really good record in the AHL. During the lockout year in Finland with at least five other NHL goalies in the league, I was the No. 1 goalie in the league that year in Finland with 15 shutouts out of 54 games played.
In my mind it isn't like I'm playing better than I played in my whole career. It's kind of me continuing. Now, do I think I've gotten a little bit better in the past few years? Of course. But I've tried to get better every year in my career. It wasn't like I went from a guy who couldn't play street hockey to playing in the NHL. That's my point. I've just kind of been there all along, plugging along. Just with goalies, for you to get your chance it's much harder because there's much fewer positions. It just took me a long time to get my chance.

Q. How has Claude Julien's system sort of helped you out? How have you benefited from the system he put in?
TIM THOMAS: Well, I think playing with the same team for a couple years in a row, now this is the second year with the coach, but even last year, he just comes in and he lets everybody know what they're supposed to be doing. It sounds like such a simple thing, but it's overlooked. You'd be surprised at how many systems there are, hockey systems, where the players really don't know what they're supposed to be doing.
He's made that very clear, what it is that each individual on the ice is supposed to be doing. That makes it much easier for a goaltender because I know where my D are supposed to be, I know which guy is supposed to be going to get that guy. It's not perfect; it's hockey. Something may happen to where it doesn't always work out at planned and then we have to improvise. Knowing in my zone on the ice where all of my guys are supposed to be, it helps out a goalie. I know kind of where most of the chances are going to be coming from.

Q. You just talked about the system. Let's talk about the people plugged into the system. Aaron Ward, excellent defenseman. Andrew Ference, same thing. Matt Hunwick, Shane Hnidy did a great job. Can you talk about the kind of depth on the team, what kind of confidence booster that is?
TIM THOMAS: Well, not just the defense, but at forward we've had incredible depth. When people have gotten down, other people have gotten the chance and they've stepped up and did a great job.
I mean, as a team I think we're fortunate those guys have stepped up and been able to play such key roles. I think that's a credit to Matt Hunwick and Shane Hnidy, and Matt Lashoff has gotten his chance.

Q. Next year is an Olympic year. I saw where you played in World Championships in '93, '99, '05 and '08.
TIM THOMAS: There's one other, too. '01 or something. Five times.

Q. You can look at yourself right now in the statistics page of NHL.com and see you're right there at the top of All-American goalies and nearly all goalies in the world. What would it mean for you to have a chance to play for the United States in Vancouver next year?
TIM THOMAS: It would be awesome. I mean, my dream since I was five years old wasn't to play in the NHL, it was to play in the Olympics. The 1980 Olympics was the end of my five years old, I would have been turning six right afterwards. It made a huge impression on my life. Jim Craig was basically the reason I started to play goalie or certainly cemented the fact that I wanted to play goalie, from watching him at those Olympics.
I mean, it's something I've been thinking about since age five when I was playing street hockey or pond hockey. I was thinking about the Olympics really, not the NHL, because in Michigan we didn't get all that much coverage of the NHL.
It would be huge. It would be a huge honor. I hope I get the chance.

Q. Part of playing in the All-Star Game isn't all that serious. It's fun to be there, fun to be honored. Sometimes these scores get into the double-digits. What is it like to be a goalie in the All-Star Game when you have matador defense, all kinds of great passing.
TIM THOMAS: Well, you got to keep in mind that they're gonna score. These are the best scorers in the world. Actually, you know, they're some of the best D in the world there, too. They're probably not going to be blocking as many shots and stuff like that.
Having been there, playing in the third period, I happened to get in during a tight part of game. I think actually I was fortunate enough to have a little bit better defense than a couple of the other goalies had, the way it worked out.
But it's still fun. It's even more of a challenge. Last year I think I was a little bit nervous. I had a great time, enjoyed myself. But I was a little bit nervous being on that stage. I think this year I'll enjoy it probably even more because I think I'll be able to relax a little bit more, soak it in a little bit better.

Q. How has Manny being around for the full season helped or changed your approach or mindset, both in terms of maybe knowing you don't have to carry the load for 70 games and also him not just being the type of guy who goes in every four or five games to provide a rest, that he's sort of a better caliber goalie than that?
TIM THOMAS: Well, I've been fortunate enough over the years to have had good relationships with lots of goaltenders that I played with. I've actually played kind of in tandem like this with Raycroft like this in Providence, where we both pretty much played half and half. I did get used to it then.
For a few years I haven't played in a goaltending tandem like that. Last year we had Alex Auld. He was great, took a lot of the pressure off of me. But I still played more games percentage-wise than I'm playing this year.
What I'm saying is I have had experience playing in a tandem like this before. But the good thing about playing with Manny this year is we're pretty much the same age with pretty much the same experience level. We've been able to help each other out, 'cause through a season, players don't always have their A games. When that happens I think as goaltenders we can see it in each other. We either settle each other down if that needs to be or kind of try to fire each other up if that's what needs to happen. I think we've done a pretty good job of that this year.

Q. I know you're sort of focused on the here and now, but have there been any talks with your representatives and the Bruins specifically wanting to stay in Boston versus there's probably going to be a few teams out there who would want to give you a big raise this summer when you become a free agent?
TIM THOMAS: Mick Bellagio, he was on the conference call earlier. He can attest to this. Basically this whole year I've been going on a blanket no statement on anything relating to that area. Sorry.

Q. You said earlier that you need to treat tomorrow's game as if it was any other game. Since the Canadiens are your northeast rival, do you see that game as a four-point game or is it too early to think about a northeast title or an Eastern Conference title?
TIM THOMAS: We always look at people we're playing in our division as four-point games. That hasn't specifically been brought up against MontrÃ©al this time, but it might be mentioned in the coaches meeting in the morning.
We definitely look at it this way because it's just the way it works out. It's different than playing, say, a Western Conference team because the points mean more. Maybe I should have said we got to treat it like any other division game. Maybe that would have been better.
DAVID KEON: Thanks, Tim, very much for your time.
TIM THOMAS: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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