Boston's Mutt Beats the Hype

It's no surprise to see Boston's Tim Thomas absent from the NHL All Star ballot.

The stats say Thomas is the best goaltender, but he's never been endorsed by the NHL hype machine. He's a mutt in a league that prefers to market goalies as sleek greyhounds bred for greatness.

Thomas is every bit as good as Marc-Andre Fleury in Pittsburgh. But unlike Fleury, he didn't arrive as a toothy teenager, gelled and buffed for draft day, with "franchise savior" virtually stamped on his forehead.

Thomas has much better numbers than Carey Price in Montreal, but it's Price who endures comparisons to Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.

Thomas didn't get a $67.5 million contract at the age of 24, like Rick DiPietro.

Nobody heralded his first season as the arrival of a new era, like they did when Kari Lehtonen showed up.

But while Lehtonen falls out of favor in Atlanta and DiPietro watches his back-up take over as the Islanders' new hero, the mutt in Boston wins hockey games.

Tim Thomas didn't play an NHL game until he was 28 years old, and didn't earn a regular job until 2005, 11 years after the Quebec Nordiques drafted him in the ninth-round.

That's a more interesting story than the hokey "golden boy" narrative assigned to every top draft pick.

They're loving the "modern day Gumper" in Boston, and voters have bumped him up to fifth place as an All Star write-in candidate.

Unlike the NHL, some fans apparently value production over hype.

Photo: Tim Thomas shows his style. (Elsa/Getty Images)