James Lang- USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Bruins don’t miss Tim Thomas. The Bruins shouldn’t miss Thomas, and most importantly the Bruins fans shouldn’t miss Thomas. If you really think about it Thomas played them all pretty dirty. He wins a Stanley Cup and decides to take a sabbatical? That really isn’t okay. Sure Thomas won the Cup, but fans put up with his poor puck handling, his sloppy skating, and his inability to play positional goaltending. For every ten highlight saves he had no business making he let in five goals that a junior varsity goalie at a division three high school could have made.

Had Thomas been playing in the NHL for 17 years and needed to take a break that would be one thing, but for a guy that had maybe one of the roughest career paths to the NHL to just up and leave? It just doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t see Martin Brodeur taking any sabbaticals. Did you?

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In a way he did the Bruins a favor. He left so they could give Tuukka Rask the contract that he deserved. Rask was the future of the Bruins anyway, and maybe Thomas saw the writing on the wall and this was just an easy way to break his contract and end up somewhere with less pressure. Playing for the Florida Panthers is probably a pretty good place to be with no expectations. It may also allow for Jacob Markstrom to sit on the bench and watch someone who can win games, whether I like it or not.

Regardless, the most important part of this entire saga is the contract that Tuukka Rask received because of this and the stability that the Bruins received in return.

Tony is a columnist at www.rantsports.com and you can follow him on twitter @tony_sports