To be honest, I thought the Bruins were a flawed team in some respects, especially getting the puck out of their own zone. As a Boston fan, I admit I came down on Chara many times, because as a heralded defenseman, I thought he gave up the puck in his own end too often with bad passes, and the team as a whole seemed to have one move deep in their own zone: bank it behind the net, no matter who was on the other side.
But as someone who played goal for fifteen years, I could see the strength in Thomas’s play. Even if he is unorthodox in some respects, he had superlative balance, always seemed to stay right over his skates, had good anticipation, and was aggressive, aggressive, aggressive.
For me, it was the play a few games back where a Vancouver player was standing right in front of him and knocked an incoming puck out of the air with his hand. The puck dropped right as his feet...before he could whack it in, Thomas decked him.
As a goalie, I have had that happen more times than I can count, and it is a move that always made me feel completely helpless. The player often knows right where the puck will fall, and it is a bang-bang play...that was emblematic to me that he did exactly the right thing at the right time there.
That's classic Hal Gill!
He either ices the puck or gives it away. He skates like he's wearing cinder blocks for skates....there's never any urgency with him, he lumbers after the puck. At least Chara can skate.
Hey, how about me make a trade????