You love hockey. If you didn't, you wouldn't have found my column. I know hockey fans are loyal, and that loyalty usually begins with the team they grew up watching. That team, good or bad, remains part of them.
Thing is, if you're like me, you have a short list of favorite NHL players that don't necessarily wear the sweater of the team you idolized as a kid. It's OK. You can sway. You're only human.
Way up on my list of players I like rooting for is Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas.
I can hear you mumbling now
"What's the big deal about Tim Thomas?"
"We heard about his story last season."
"He just got shelled by the Maple Leafs on Thursday!"
I know, I know, but it's time to refresh your memory, put his story in perspective and show why he can be a force in this league (outside of a bad game or two).
Thomas, a former All-American for the University of Vermont, was selected 217th overall by the Quebec Nordiques back in 1994. More often than not, Thomas seemed to be always in the right place at the right time while playing in net, but not so much when it came to getting opportunities to play in the NHL. It took over a decade for Thomas to truly show what he could do when given the chance, a chance that came when the Boston Bruins again lured him out of Finland before the start of the 2005-06 season. With Andrew Raycroft and Hannu Toivonen both battling injuries, Thomas started 38 games that season and posted an impressive 2.77 goals-against average. At that time, it appeared the Bruins learned their lesson after 2002, when Thomas started four games for the B's, went 3-1, only to be sent back down to the minors.
OK, so you're thinking, "Great. Nice story. Journeyman gets discovered. He earned the Bruins' No. 1 spot heading into this season's training camp."
Funny, that's what Tim thought, too. But there was a new coaching staff, as well as new players. So much for being the clear-cut No. 1.
"I realized I was going to have to start all over," Thomas said. "Once again, I was going to have to earn the respect of the coaches and the players. I had to get this new group to say, 'I didn't realize how good Tim Thomas was.'"
It was almost like last season never existed.
"If that wasn't enough, my first week of camp in which we primarily play intrasquad scrimmages, I was about the only goalie being scored on," Thomas recalled. "In fact, one day during that week, they brought in the winners of a 'Be a Bruin' contest. There was a goalie, a forward and a defenseman who got to play in these scrimmages with us. It was so bad for me, the goalie contest winner allowed fewer goals than I did!"
Despite the frightening start, Thomas recovered. Not surprising, considering we're talking about a guy who used to hunt bears with a bow and arrow back home in Michigan.
Said Thomas: "Because of my experience of not taking anything for granted, knowing this was a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of business, I used the adversity as a driving force and it inspired me to get the No. 1 job back."
So far this season, Thomas has started 32 games, posting a 17-10-3 record and 3.26 goals-against average. Putting Thursday's Leafs game aside, Thomas has been a key reason the Bruins are battling for playoff contention (through Thursday, Boston sat ninth overall in the East, just three points out of the No. 8 spot).
A good example of why Thomas has been Boston's first-half MVP? Take a look at a game from earlier this season, the day after Thanksgiving. The Bruins were being thoroughly outplayed, falling behind 3-0 to Carolina. Thomas stopped 22 of the Hurricanes' 25 shots before he was pulled by Bruins coach Dave Lewis.
"As I skated off and took a seat at the end of the bench, I was trying to rationalize why Coach took me out," Thomas said. "I thought I was playing pretty well. But then I'm thinking, we had a game the next night against Toronto, and I had started 18 straight games. [Lewis] was probably just giving me some added rest."
The next day, Thomas found out the true reason why he was yanked when he read the postgame recap. The quote from Lewis: "I thought Tim was our best player. I didn't want to subject him anymore. We had 19 players that were off their game and he was the only one that was on."
When was the last time you knew of an NHL coach taking his best player off the ice?
So, what is Thomas' secret to success? Same thing it's always been. While some say it's a superstition, Thomas told me it's just a routine.
"I have a cheeseburger the day before a game," he said.
When Bruins teammate Marc Savard found this out, Thomas never heard the end of it. Thomas said Savard would "super size" his every word to him, calling him everything from "cheeseburger to tank," egging him on to have more cheeseburgers because the team would need him "to be huge for us in the net."
Thomas tried to alter his routine once, opting for a healthier grilled tuna steak instead of a cheeseburger.
"I got sick," Thomas recalled. "Since then, I've stuck to red meat."
As for Savard's teasing? "Doesn't bother me," Thomas said. "In fact, I challenge Marc to a body fat contest. Any time, anywhere. He can pick the place and we'll measure up. I might tip the scales at 200, but my body fat is just 10.5."
Thomas believes the Bruins can make the playoffs this season for the first time since the 2003-04 campaign. After all, this husband and father of three is living his dream. He is finally enjoying his first full NHL season. As long as he stays healthy, he believes the best is yet to come.
No wonder his favorite movie is "Rocky."
"Everyone knows the story. It's about a guy coming out of nowhere, and when he gets his chance, nobody thought he could do it. But he proves them wrong," Thomas said.
"Thing is, I didn't come out of nowhere. I was successful everywhere I played, the University of Vermont, the European leagues and the various minor leagues. That's why the success I'm having in the NHL didn't surprise me as much as it did other people."
While packing his things to move from Michigan to a new place in Boston, Thomas said he came across his first grade notebook. He opened it, and inside he found he had written, "He wanted to play in the NHL when he grew up, and he would run in his goalie pads everyday if he had to just to make it."
Thomas didn't have to run, he walked. But he definitely enjoyed the journey.
Hooked on hockey, Linda Cohn is an anchor for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNEWS. She has been with the network since 1992 and promises a gluttony of glove saves in her weekly column. You can e-mail her at linda.cohn@espn.com.