Thomas officially inks deal on day Bruins look to clinch Conference crown

*After signing his new huge deal, Tim Thomas will be in between the pipes today against the New York Rangers in a potential first round playoff preview.




With a win, or overtime loss, the Bruins will clinch the Eastern Conference.


* Phil Kessel and Shawn Thornton will be out of the lineup again today. Both should be back next week.


*Aaron Ward will not play today because of an undisclosed injury. According to Claude Julien, Ward suffered the injury on Thursday against Ottawa. Julien said the injury is not serious and that he expects Ward to play on Tuesday against the Senators.


~ Now from my expert take on the situation I am guessing it is a hand injury for Ward-o. He was seen shaking his hand on the bench after taking a shot off the mitt on a penalty kill.


*Steve Montador, will take Ward's spot in the lineup. It looks like Montador will skate on the fourth line and Matt Hunwick will take his spot on the blue line.

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Tim Thomas had a press conference this morning to discuss his new four year, $20 million deal.Some quotes from Tim Thomas' press conference this morning.

*Why stay in Boston?

"You have to think about, 'Would you rather go someplace else, or would you rather stay in Boston?' After weighing things over, over, and over, the answer always kept coming back Boston," said Thomas. "It's a great place to play. Great teammates. Great fans. I'm very happy to be looking at the next four years in Boston."

*On the length of the deal at his age, and the end of his career.

"I've never really felt like it was close," Thomas said of the end of his career. "I still don't feel like it's close. I still feel like it's a long ways away."

*Chiarelli on the cap numbers and trying to keep the team in tact."I'd like to sign everyone, but we have to make decisions over the summer," Chiarelli said. "We'll look at the performance of players, then we do the math. We've been doing the math from the time I've come here. That's a large part of the job. What is important to the organization is that we have terrific goal tending for a long time. Sometimes you have to put aside the math -- not completely -- and make the decisions like we did with Tim."

*Thomas on his thoughts of the deal?

"In hindsight, I'd have to say everything worked out perfectly," said Thomas. "Here I am in a great hockey town and in a great situation. I'm looking forward to the next four years, playing in that hockey town and for that organization. I'd have to say everything worked out as it should have."