Goodbye, Tim Thomas

The Boston Bruins finally traded Tim Thomas Thursday, sending him to the New York Islanders for a conditional second-round pick. (Hockey Buzz got the scoop.) The goalie is in the midst of a season-long break and likely won’t play this year. It’s also unclear whether he’ll play for the Islanders at all, or get shipped somewhere else.

Thomas, 38, had one of the strangest career trajectories of any Boston sports star. He led the Bruins to a Stanley Cup (2011) and won two Vezina trophies (2009, 2011)—all in his mid-30s. His late bloom led the media to dub him a “great story,” which he was. But his unlikely rise made his fall even tougher for the city to take. About a year ago, Thomas refused to visit the White House with his championship-winning teammates. “I believe the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people,” he said on his Facebook page. Naturally, that caused a shit storm that didn’t really subside until last spring, when he announced he’d be taking a year off from hockey.

Right wing politics be damned, here’s how I choose to remember Thomas: making an diving stick save during Game 5 of the 2011 Eastern Conference finals. I guess a non-eccentric never would’ve attempted such an audacious maneuver.