Ride the Hot Hand

Bruins coach Claude Julien has a decision to make each game:
who should start in net, Tim Thomas or Tuukka Rask? 

The streak had to come to an end at some point, right? After playing on his head for the first month of the season to the blissful tune of a 7-0-0 record, Tim Thomas proved Friday night in Washington that he is indeed mortal. Just a few days after being named the NHL's Second Star for the month of October (he led all goaltenders with a gaudy .984 saves percentage, registered three shutouts and posted a microscopic 0.50 goals against average), Thomas came down to Earth against the Capitals by allowing three goals on 25 shots through two periods.

In an attempt to provide a jolt for the sputtering Bruins, who were playing their second game in two nights and now trailed 3-0, coach Claude Julien pulled Thomas in favor of Tuukka Rask to start the third period. The move paid off, as the Black and Gold showed the kind of guts we were all looking for during last year's horrific playoff collapse against Philadelphia, battling all the way back to knot the score 3-3 on power play goals from Michael Ryder and Nathan Horton and an even strength goal on a partial breakaway by tough guy Shawn Thornton. Nonetheless, the Caps regained the lead late in the third and went on to add an empty net goal in the final minute, winning 5-3. Rask, who expected to have the night off, played well, turning aside 12 of 13 shots in the last stanza.

What the Bruins have right now is a problem that every other franchise in the NHL would love to have on its hands: who to start in net? With Thomas flashing his 2008-09 Vezina trophy winning form and the incumbent starter Rask primed to enter his second year carrying to load, who does Julien throw between the pipes each night?

For the time being, I think you have to ride the hot hand. Julien has a great luxury in that both goaltenders are healthy and have the ability to pitch a shutout on any given night. Thomas seemed to run out of gas against the Caps Friday night and Julien did the right thing by pulling him (kudos to the Bruin coach for having Thomas's back, stating after the game that the yanking had nothing to do with Thomas' play but instead meant to jump-start Julien's listless forwards).

The Bruins return to the Hub tonight to host the St. Louis Blues and Rask is in net, just as it should be. Thomas gains some much needed time off to re-energize the batteries and Rask gets an opportunity to show us all why Thomas became expendable in the first place.

While having two goaltenders of Thomas and Rask's ilk is nice, it would be unrealistic to expect it to last all season long. Although it would kill me to see Thomas go (a fellow UVM alum), my vote is for the Bruins to showcase him, prove to possible suitors that he's fully recovered from offseason hip surgery and then deal him for a puck moving defenseman or high draft picks. Thomas has a hefty contract ($5 million/year for two more years) that management would love to shed, especially with injured stars such as Marc Savard and Marco Sturm set to return sooner than later.

Rask is a stud and he proved in last season's playoffs that, even as a 22-year-old, he's more than capable of backstopping this franchise for years to come. Thomas is an aging veteran with a huge contract that is playing great. No one knows for sure what the future will hold for the duo, but for now it would be idiotic of Julien not to ride the hot hand.