Hopeful Bruin Thomas has taken long way around By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff, 9/18/2001

he road he took to Causeway Street from Burlington, Vt., was not exactly the AAA preferred route. Let's see, there was a right turn in Birmingham, a quick pass through Houston, a bit of a detour in Hamilton, Ontario, a swing through Tampa on the way to a minor league gig in Detroit, and significant stayovers in Finland and Sweden.

Now, Tim Thomas is right here, at the ready and hoping to land a goaltending job with the Bruins, knowing full well that this could be his last shot at the NHL.
''Realistically, I'd say this is probably it,'' Thomas said yesterday, following a morning workout at the FleetCenter in preparation for the Bruins' exhibition opener tonight in Detroit. ''I've had some good years in Europe, and I think I can play over there a few more years. But I'm 27 years old now, and if I'm going to reach my ultimate goal - to play in the NHL - it's getting kind of late.''
A standout for his four years at the University of Vermont, where he was a first-team All-American his junior year, Thomas is accustomed to taking a circuitous route. Consider:
Though he was a teenage standout in Michigan, his career had all but stalled out in junior hockey with the Lakeland Jets in Waterford, Mich. After not playing a single minute in net the first half of the season, he found himself volunteering to play forward, even fight if necessary. Then came Joe Murphy. Yes, that Joe Murphy. In the midst of a contract holdout, Murphy joined the Jets to keep in shape. ''Joe turned to the coach one day and said, `How come this kid isn't playing?''' recalled Thomas. ''That was my big break there.'' Who knew the Bruins had such a keen, if troubled, talent hawk on their bench in '99-00?
Late in the summer of '93, Thomas was all set to join Michigan Tech, where he might have had to redshirt his freshman year. Then, on Aug. 26, coach Mike Gilligan called from Burlington, offering an 11th-hour shot at full-time work with the Catamounts. Without a scholarship in place, Thomas was soon making the 101/2-hour drive to Burlington, after first securing a $1,900 loan to help pay tuition. Thomas went on to play all but one of UVM's games in four seasons. ''Something just told me to be in the East,'' he said.
Drafted 217th by Quebec in '94, he was cut in his first camp with the Avalanche (nee Nordiques). Signed to a two-year deal by Edmonton as a free agent in '98, he negotiated a buyout while playing in Hamilton (AHL) for a chance to play in Europe. The Tampa Bay Lightning gave him a look a couple of years ago but dispatched him to Detroit (IHL), and he never got into an NHL game.
''Sometimes it just comes down to a guy getting an opportunity,'' said Bruins assistant general manager Jeff Gorton, among those in the front office very impressed by Thomas's resume, competitiveness, and aggressive style. ''It's pretty easy sometimes for a guy to get pigeonholed, and then it can be tough convincing people otherwise.''
Two successful tours in Finland and another in Sweden were enough for the Bruins to extend Thomas the invitation this year. If he impresses them, he might get AHL work in Providence. If he knocks them over - perhaps as early as tonight, when he could get a few minutes against his home-state Red Wings - he could land in The Show.
''It hasn't been orthodox,'' said Thomas. ''But I am where I am today, and that's fine. I'm excited. My whole life, my goal has been to make it to the NHL, and I think I'm good enough - I hope I'm good enough.''
Back home in Flint, Thomas's parents yesterday were making final plans for today's hour-plus drive to Joe Louis Arena, where Kathy and Tim Sr. hope to see their boy play at least one NHL minute. They are, beyond question, dedicated hockey parents - so dedicated, in fact, that they sold their wedding rings some 20 years ago so that Tim Jr. could play in a hockey tournament in Canada.
''Oh, we did that, we did that for sure,'' said 47-year-old Tim Sr., reached at home yesterday after he had put in a full day at the used car lot he and Tim Jr. opened a couple of years ago in Owosso. ''But Tim didn't find out we sold them until years later. We just didn't think he needed to know it. Hockey was basically everything we did as a family, with Tim and his brother. All our money went to that.''

The rings fetched $150 and, as Tim Sr. recalls, the fee for the tournament ''took all of that, and then some.''
It wasn't until another family member mentioned it to him years after the fact that Tim Jr. found out his folks parted with their wedding bands. He's convinced they never would have told him, for fear he might think they were holding the sacrifice over his head.
''They never bragged about that or anything,'' said Thomas. ''If I was bad, they never brought it up, stuff like that. It was just natural for them. Some parents sacrifice everything for their kids, and that's just the way they've always been.''
To help add to the thinning family coffers, Thomas remembers the days he went door to door with his dad, selling apples, both in Flint and downtown Detroit. To this day, one of his favorite tricks is gripping both hands around an apple and twisting hard, breaking it in half, something he learned on the door-to-door apple beat. For the record, he tried the demi-apple death grip yesterday in the Bruins room but was foiled by a rock-hard Granny Smith.
Another favorite pastime is heading into the woods with bow and arrow to hunt bear. Last summer, in northern Manitoba, he dropped a 500-pound black bear with what he calls a ''recurve,'' reminiscent of the primitive bows that Native North Americans used in centuries past. Now, come on, who else could wear that third Bruins sweater, with the big bear on the chest, with such authority? The outside of his goalie mask is painted with a growling bear, along with the bow and arrow.
''One shot, right here,'' said Thomas, recounting his marksmanship, pointing under his right arm to trace the arrow's trajectory. ''I heard the death growl. Kind of spooky.''
Rooting section
Tonight at the Joe, Thomas figures, there could be upward of 30 friends and family members in the stands offering support. One of his hunting pals hopes to make the trip. His folks will be there, with his wife (the former Melissa Kane of Essex Junction, Vt.) and his year-old daughter Kiley. Teammates from not one but two of his summer softball teams were tidying up carpool plans over the weekend.
Bruins coach Robbie Ftorek wouldn't reveal how he will use his goalies tonight, but Thomas and veteran Byron Dafoe are slated to dress. By typical training-camp practices, Thomas should get at least 20 minutes of the workload. It could be a period's work that points him toward the big time, or plots a return path to Europe.
''He wants to be in the NHL,'' said Melissa, also in Flint yesterday afternoon. ''I try not to get too involved, but I think he is peaking now, getting better every year. And if he doesn't make it, well, he's OK with it. He'd be disappointed, but there is Europe, and he is 27 years old now - he's not 20, thinking this would be the end of the world if it didn't happen.''
In the stands, Kathy and Tim Sr. will be sitting side by side. For their 25th wedding anniversary, Tim got his wife a new wedding ring. He decided to go without another for himself.
''Not because I don't love my wife,'' said Tim Sr. ''But I'm always losing stuff like that, taking it off and forgetting it. It probably would have ended up in her pocketbook, and then I'd probably just sell it again, anyhow.''
The Thomases truly sound like remarkable people. Tim's younger brother, Jacob, is studying to be a preacher. Kathy and Tim Sr., their nest emptying as their two boys grew older, have taken in 40 foster children over the last four years. They now provide foster care to four girls, all of whom likely will be in the Joe tonight.
''When we got into this foster thing,'' said Tim Sr., ''people told us something like only one in a thousand ever will get their high school diplomas. We'll, we've had a few get their diplomas, and three or four have gone on to make good lives for themselves - you know, hold jobs, have apartments. That's been really nice.''
Jacob, a 6-foot-3-inch growling defenseman, these days studies at the Sunset Bible College in Lubbock, Texas. ''He scares people'' into being religious, kidded his brother.
Meanwhile, Tim Jr. keeps the faith that he's following the right path to his own dream.
''Will he make it?'' his father pondered. ''Oh, he's made it anyway, in my opinion, whether he gets to the NHL or not. How many have had the chance to play in Europe, and see the world the way he has? I mean, I pray he makes it, because it's his dream. But to us, he's made it already, paid us back a thousand-fold for anything we did - just by being the person he's turned out to be.''
This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 9/18/2001