After suffering severe brain injuries, Tim Thomas breaks years-long silence and returns to hockey

We haven’t heard from Tim Thomas in a while, but you remember him, right the Boston Bruins star goalie who hoisted the Stanley Cup over his head on the ice in Vancouver in June of 2011. 

A few years after the championship, he basically disappeared from the hockey world, returning in 2019 to reveal that he stepped away due to serious brain injuries that affected his life tremendously. 

10 years after winning the Stanley Cup with the Bruins, Thomas opened up in an interview with Sean Shapiro of The Athletic to explain how he is now ready to reconnect with the hockey world. 

“About 16 months ago, I came through the other side, so to speak,” Thomas told The Athletic. “As I continued to get better and better, I’m looking for things to be involved in that are interesting. I’m looking to reconnect with friends and acquaintances that I built over my life.”

While Thomas does not feel ready to share his entire story yet, he feels like he can now be back with hockey people. For example, he recently connected with Tuukka Rask and also texted Milan Lucic to congratulate the former Bruins winger for reaching 1,000 NHL games played.

“As I’m making more contact with ex-teammates, I feel like I’m slowly stepping back into that world, so to speak,” Thomas told The Athletic. “When you are in the space I was in, I devalued everything I ever accomplished and devalued everything that hockey allowed me to be a part of. “When you’re in a place where I was, where you are just struggling to be able to think anything, then you know … let’s just say my view swung too far to the negative. … And now I’m taking this first small step into the public. It’s part of that reconnect that I needed.”

He is now willing to return to hockey. 

“[Avoiding hockey is] starting to change. I can let hockey be part of my life again.”

We all wonder what it will mean in his future.