@FlameRaptorRaven

2mo

Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 11: Out of Nowhere

The Bruins may only have 1 Stanley Cup in the 21st century, but they’ve been a consistent threat the last 20 years. Many Bostonians have (wrongly) blamed goaltending for their lack of championships. It’s understandable when you look at the reason why they won their only Stanley Cup back in 2011. It was thanks to the single greatest outlier in NHL history. In 2006, Tim Thomas was 32 years old. He had played just 42 NHL games and ranged from good to bad in that time. The 06-07 season looked like a make or break year for the goaltender. As the #1 goalie in Boston, Tim Thomas was bad. With recent acquisition Tukka Rask waiting in the wings, it seemed like the old man’s time in the NHL would be short. So of course, he went on to become the best goalie in the NHL for the next 4 years. Among goalies with at least 50 games played from 2007 to 2011, Tim Thomas leads the pack with a save percentage of .928. The only goaltender within range is Tukka Rask, Thomas’s backup. That may make you think he merely benefitted from a great team. While he was blessed to play with defensive monsters in Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron, he was still the most important part of that team. In his magnum opus season, 2011, Tim Thomas put up a massive .938 save percentage as well as 39.6 goals saved above expected (GSaX). For those that don’t know, GSaX is a metric that attempts to quantify how many goals a goalie would be expected to give up by calculating the chances of each shot becoming a goal. Having a positive GSaX means a goalie prevented more goals than expected, having a negative number means they gave up more goals than expected. It’s not perfect and multiple sources have their own ways of calculating it. All you need to know is Tim Thomas put up the same GSaX (according to Moneypuck’s model) as Connor Helleybuyck did in his MVP season just last year in 6 less games. Tim Thomas’s magnum opus wasn’t done after the regular season. In 25 playoff games (the 2nd most ever in a single season), Thomas put up a gargantuan .940 save percentage and 4 shutouts. 2 of those shutouts came in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals and game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. That made him the first goalie ever to put up multiple game 7 shutouts in the same playoff run. Only 1 goalie has matched it since. Tim Thomas was obviously awarded the Conn Smythe for his efforts as playoff MVP. At the time, he was 37. That is how old Bobrovsky is right now. Thomas was out of the NHL just 3 years later. Tim Thomas is the single biggest and greatest outlier in NHL and maybe all of sports history. In 2011, he punctuated that claim to fame by becoming a Stanley Cup Hero.

Bruins

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The Most Famous Photograph in Hockey

Ok so on Mother's Day in the year 1970 this picture was taken at the Boston Garden. Bruins were up 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, tied 3-3 in overtime against the St. Louis Blues and the game could've gone either way. But 40 seconds into OT, Derek Sanderson finds Bobby Orr cutting toward the net. Orr buries it past Glenn Hall. Right after the puck goes in, a Blues defenseman named Noel Picard trips Orr's skates and Orr goes flying like a cartoon with his arms straight out, stick still in his hand, mouth open and mid-scream. Some photographer named Ray Lussier had moved seats right before OT started. He's the only guy with a clean angle which makes it so rare. He clicks the shutter in that moment and he gets THE photo. The most famous picture in hockey history. You've seen it a million times even if you don't watch hockey. Bruins win their first Cup in 29 years and Orr is just 22 years old. He wins the Norris (best D-man in the league) AND the Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) in the same season. Scores the Cup winner in overtime. And all of this on Mother's Day! 22 years old and probably the greatest defenseman who ever lived. Some guys are just built different.

@nationalryanleague

Vegas joins the NHL!

On June 22, 2016, Las Vegas officially became an NHL city when the league awarded Bill Foley’s expansion group the franchise that would become the Vegas Golden Knights. A decade later, that announcement looks like one of the best decisions the NHL has ever made. The Golden Knights became the first major professional sports team in Las Vegas, helping change the city’s reputation as a sports market, and paving the way for the NFL’s Raiders, MLB’s Athletics, and continued NBA expansion talks. Nobody could have known just how quickly the franchise would take off, seeing a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in its debut season, playoff appearances in eight of the first nine years, and a Stanley Cup championship in 2023. Foley ended the announcement with a line that resonates in the heart of all who adore the team and have grown with them, “Las Vegas is hockey-ready. We’re convinced of it. We know it.” Go Vegas, baby!

@Bro

Biggest loser in Hockey?

This has been on my mind a lot lately and yes you can call me salty or whatever. On December 12th 2025 the Vancouver Canucks traded star player Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild for Marco Rossi, Zeev Buimm, Liam Ohgren and a first round pick. Many Canucks like myself were very upset but saw it coming a 100 kilometres away. Buy as soon as Quinn Goes to the Wild he shows his true self. Before his first game against his former team he was asked about his former team and his response “honestly I don’t know any of there guys” Not a good look as*hat He was the Captain of the Canucks for two years and played there for almost 7 seasons. You know at least AT LEAST SIXTEEN OF THEM He also treated his tenure with the Canucks as a prison sentence always with one word answers but as soon as he goes to the Wild he’s all jolly. He never seemed happy even though his best years so far are with Vancouver. He never smiled and never did anything for this community he never cared to help people less fortunate in Vancouver especially going to B.C. Children’s Hospital where Canucks captains always have gone. No he’s done nothing. Sorry this was kinda a rant