OTTAWAIt was another day and another round of questions for Tim Thomas, who was pulled from a podium during NHL All-Star player availability after answering a barrage of questions for roughly five minutes.
In that time Thomas answered several queries about the All-Star game and skills competitions before getting more questions about his political decision to skip the White House earlier this week. Thomas has attempted to close out the subject with his Facebook statement from Monday night and some brief comments on the subject during and after Thursdays All-Star Draft.
But the questions arent going anywhere.
While Thomas wasnt directly asked about the White House event, he answered a couple of questions about whether or not he feels the issue has been a distraction for his teammates.
"The controversy is all media driven and it has been from the start. Everything that I said and did was as an individual. It was not as a representative of the Boston Bruins, said Thomas. All it has to do is with me. But its separate from hockey. That's my personal life and those are my personal views. Those are my personal beliefs.
"It has nothing to do with hockey. It has nothing to do with this All-Star Game. It has nothing to do with the Boston Bruins.
Thomas was asked a follow-up about reports that he isnt considered a good teammate, or potential issues that his White House could have with the rest of his Bruins teammates. Thomas fired back against those critics, and appeared to take a shot at TSN media personality Dave Hodge for a highly inflammatory tweet that clumsily attempted satire by painting the Bs goaltender as a potential racist based on the notion that his childrens names all began with the letter K.
Boston Bruins
I dont think I should address stuff thats made up out of thin air, said Thomas. I would really appreciate if people would leave my teammates and my family out of it. Im looking forward to getting back on the ice because thats what I do and thats what I love. Im still going to have a lot of fun with it.
With that Thomas was ushered off the podium by Bruins media relations guru Matt Chmura before his scheduled appearances for a series of television interviews during Fridays afternoon access period.