For much of the 2009-10 season, once Tuukka Rask assumed starting duties on a regular basis, there wasn't much news coming out of the Bruins' morning skates. This season — at least in the earlygoing — there will seemingly always be intrigue as to who will be the starting goaltender for that night's game.
That mystery is solved for Tuesday, as Tim Thomas is expected to start against the Capitals.
NESN's Naoko Funayama reported that Thomas was the first goalie off the ice at Tuesday morning's skate in Washington, D.C.
It will mark Thomas' third straight start after Rask started the season opener. While coach Claude Julien sometimes didn't always let a strong performance from Thomas affect his decision for the next game's starter, he may be taking a different approach this year.
Thomas is 2-0-0 with a 0.50 goals-against average and .984 save percentage, as he picked up a shutout against Phoenix and limited the Devils to just one goal.
In his career, Thomas is 10-4-2 with a 2.62 GAA and .916 save percentage against the Capitals. Rask has played against the Capitals just once, going 0-0-1 with a 2.96 GAA and .900 save percentage. That overtime loss came last April, when Brooks Laich scored the game-winner 44 seconds into the overtime period.
Last year, Thomas was given starts after all of his five shutouts. However, following Rask's knee injury in March, Thomas didn't make three straight starts for the rest of the season.
On Monday, Julien insisted that having two capable goalies is no problem for him or his team and that "with three games this week, there's a real good possibility you'll see both of them."
