WILMINGTON -- Tim Thomas is pleading the fifth, so he says.
That's the Bruins' goaltender's reason for not answering questions about his latest Facebook comments, directed towards religious freedom.
"That's my personal life," said Thomas after Thursday's practice. "It has absolutely nothing to do with the Bruins or hockey. I'm going to use my right to remain silent."
Thomas was pressed on the issue while standing in front of his stall at Ristuccia Arena, and was even reminded that Facebook was a public forum.
"You have the right to ask the question, but I have the right to not answer the question," said Thomas.
"This is my job," he added. "Facebook is my personal life. That's why. If you guys don't understand the difference between an individual and what they do as a job, or an athlete and his personal life, then I think there's a problem.
"I don't think that when you become an athlete, that you sign away your right to be an individual and to have your own views and to be able to post something on Facebook if you'd like."
Thomas ended up walking away from the questions by saying "I'm out, peace" when asked if he regretted posting the comment to Facebook.
Bruins coach Claude Julien spoke after Thomas, and said it hasn't and won't be a distraction to the team. Still, Julien admitted that he hadn't heard anybody in the organization say they support Thomas' opinions.
"I don't think I've heard anybody, starting from our owner to management to coaches and players, I don't think I've heard anybody support his opinions," said Julien. "But I've heard everybody say we support him as a player, and we do.
"We've got good team chemistry in that dressing room," added Julien. "We don't mix politics with our hockey team, and that continues to happen . . . I assure you that there's no issues in the dressing room, there never will be."