How In The World Is Tim Thomas Not In The HHOF?

[NVious]

The fact that his backup replicated his RS and PO performance 2 years later might suggest that Thomas was not the one most responsible for the goal against numbers

"Backup" Rask is borderline HOF calibre himself and you're describing him as a "backup."

Rask and the rest of the Bruins core also failed to win the cup again.

 

[Shonky]

Bit of a nutter

 

[Jumptheshark]

Bit of a nutter

All goalies are

 

[Martin Skoula]

You brought up Cheechoo to imply he's basically a one season wonder, I showed you other years he was great. Not sure what bringing up goalies that have 250+ wins in the NHL has to do with him, if anything it further highlights my point in that they had longer careers, at times were great, had more wins and yet nobody in their right mind would take them over Thomas because again what matters most for a goalie is pure excellence, not being able to put together 12+ years of over 900 save percentage

No one’s saying he’s a bad goalie, the question is about the hall of fame and the only two seasons that qualify for hall of fame seasons are the ones where B tier journeymen didn’t outperform him. .920 in 2008 or 2011 isn’t the same thing it is today or in the 90s/early 2000s. Also Chechoo’s 37 goals were basically the same distance from the rocket that Thomas’s .920 was from the Vezina.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

"Backup" Rask is borderline HOF calibre himself and you're describing him as a "backup."

Rask and the rest of the Bruins core also failed to win the cup again.

And the only reason they won in the first place was because Colin Campbell rigged it in their favor

 

[WolfgangPuck]

Thomas was good enough to be inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame

 

[Habssince89]

Great peak, but a bit of a product of the Bruins system (His aggressive style is very flawed and needs the Chara Bs to cover for his terrible rebounds.) TT is a great story and being a product isn't necessarily a bad thing, but ultimately he just doesn't cut it.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

.692 sv % against Max Pacioretty that year.

Patches in his prime had maybe one of the best shots in the league at the time. So much power for so little effort.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Quick was much, much better the following season for Los Angeles. How many times did the Kings need to score 4-5+ to compensate for multiple weak goals allowed by Quick*? Thomas made his teams play extra games in more than one round with his inconsistency in 2011.

(*The answer is zero times).

Honestly, as a fan of a team who got eliminated by both the Bruins and the Kings, the Kings defensive structure was even more solid than the B's.

The B's in 2011 bled more high quality chances whenever Bergy or Chara/Seidenberg weren't on the ice.

The Kings played as Brian Burke would say "like a cult". Total buy-in top down.

Quick was excellent, Thomas was ethereal. He single-handedly was the difference and earned every sliver of the Smythe that year. I remember I got the NHL 12 demo and full-on body-checked him every chance I got out of sheer frustration.

That was the difference between the two. 2011-12 as a season was just so much more defensive-minded because Sutter and Hitchcock got hired by teams that everyone had wrote off for whatever reason. I thought highly of both the Blues and Kings. LA was actually I shit you not my dark-horse pick for the Cup before the season began. I was a huge Mike Richards fan.

 

[edevils]

2 Vezinas
1 cup
1 Smythe
Highest career playoff save percentage average all time
4th highest single playoff save percentage all time

You have goalies like Luongo who won nothing and are in, Vachon who only has 1 Vezina, some pretty mediocre wingers/center/D who don't even sniff Thomas's peak, even his story of how much he overcame is amazing. He needs to be in the HHOF

He had the wrong politics.

 

[edevils]

Are you kidding me? Clearly Vladislav Tretiak isn't in in the HHOF. Are you blind? I'm going to double down when presented with evidence to the contrary. I don't have time for your "facts" and quite frankly I don't care either.

I thought you'd be a nicer poster because you're always liking peoples' posts.

Live and learn.

 

[Summer Rose]

I thought you'd be nicer poster because you're always liking peoples' posts.

Live and learn.

There smiley face at the end of my post is the "sarcasm" face.

It's also just kind of a parody of some people who do exactly that.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Same reason why Theo Fleury and Alexander Mogilny isn't in the HHoF.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Thomas was good enough to be inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame

Standards are lower... sorry. They just are

 

[Jumptheshark]

There smiley face at the end of my post is the "sarcasm" face.

It's also just kind of a parody of some people who do exactly that.

Personally I thought you were under orders to stock me

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Same reason why Theo Fleury and Alexander Mogilny isn't in the HHoF.

Honestly I can see why Mogs isn't in the Halll, but Fleury not being in the Hall just kind of underscores how willing the committee is to protecting a pedophile over actually hockey talent.

Mogs has good precedent to not be in the Hall, though I strongly disagree. Theo I just unequivocally disagree on. That is IMO so much worse...the Hall is protected by a bunch of abuse enablers.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

He belongs in the HHOF without a doubt. The media torched him for not going to the White House. I've lost count of how many athletes since then have refused to go to the White House, and somehow they get patted on the back, while Thomas remains the bad guy. Hopefully Thomas gets in at some point. His peaks and awards are greater than the entire careers of some HHOF members.

 

[NVious]

No one’s saying he’s a bad goalie, the question is about the hall of fame and the only two seasons that qualify for hall of fame seasons are the ones where B tier journeymen didn’t outperform him. .920 in 2008 or 2011 isn’t the same thing it is today or in the 90s/early 2000s. Also Chechoo’s 37 goals were basically the same distance from the rocket that Thomas’s .920 was from the Vezina.

As opposed to the guys getting in with less awards than him? I think if you asked 1000 Hockey fans who they'd take Thomas or Howard/Elliot, 1000 would say Thomas, you can tell them "ackshually, they had more wins and a higher save percentage in these specific seasons," you'd maybe get 1 to change his mind. Btw those guys also outperformed Price/Luongo/Lundqvist at times so no they weren't journeymen either as you describe them.

Cheechoo has one major award, Thomas 3. Cheechoo has 0 memorable playoff performances, Thomas arguably single handedly won the cup for the Bruins with his 963 save percentage in the finals.

 

[Romang67]

Is there any other player in the HHoF who wasn't forced to retire early and whose NHL career for all intents and purposes spans 4 seasons, 3 of which was HHoF worthy?

Longevity matters for the Hall. It always has. Thomas doesn't have it.

Thomas wouldn't be a lock for the HHoF regardless of politics, and people need to stop pretending he is.

 

[Bruins4Lifer]

He should be in. His peak was unreal and deserves more recognition.

 

[Terry Yake]

probably because his career was short. longevity matters

refusing to visit the white house is not what's keeping him out

 

[kingsholygrail]

Despite popular belief there is no actual criteria for who gets into the HHOF. The committee decides for their own reasons that are not consistent.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

He should be in. His peak was unreal and deserves more recognition.

I disagree, in that I wouldn’t call it unreal. It was very real and it pains me greatly. He chanelled prime Hasek at his peak which was straight out of this solar system.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

the irony is MAF and Marleau are going to both get in for having long and mediocre careers.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

the irony is MAF and Marleau are going to both get in for having long and mediocre careers.

Neither one was "mediocre" by any reasonable definition of that word. Even relative to the NHL, they were above average (and as you note, for a long time).