2. Tim Thomas & Tuukka Rask
After Manny Fernandez retired in the summer of 2009, Tuukka Rask & Tim Thomas became the goalie tandem in Boston. The 2009-10 season saw Thomas decline a bit from his past couple of seasons, despite having a .915 SV%, a 2.56 GAA, and five shutouts on the season, Thomas posted a losing record of 17-18-8. Rask took over the number one position and went 22-12-5 with a .931 SV% and a 1.97 GAA with five shutouts. Rask played every game of the 2010 playoffs where the Bruins passed the Buffalo Sabres in six games in the Conference Quarterfinals, but then suffered a historic collapse in the Semi-Finals. The Bruins were up in the series 3-0 on the Flyers and then lost the next four games and were eliminated from the playoffs in seven. Rask went 7-6 with a .912 SV% and a 2.61 GAA average.
After Rask’s great regular season, it was assumed by many that he would be taking over the number-one spot from Thomas permanently. However, in the summer of 2010, Thomas went through surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left hip and came back better than ever in the 2010-11 season. Thomas went 35-11-9 with a .938 SV% and a 2.00 GAA with nine shutouts. This would earn him the Vezina Trophy at the end of the season. He went on to have one of the greatest single postseasons in Boston Bruins history, going 16-9 with a .940 SV% and a 1.98 GAA with four shutouts.
The Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup, defeating the Vancouver Canucks in seven games. Thomas won the Conn Smythe Trophy, the first American born-goaltender to win the award, and holds the record for most saves in a Stanley Cup Final series (238), most saves in a playoff year (798), among all the accolades he holds for that extraordinary season.
Thomas kept his number one spot in 2011-12, going 35-19-1 with a .920 SV% and a 2.36 GAA with shutouts. Rask bounced back from his losing season the year before and went 11-8-3 with a .929 SV% and a 2.05 GAA with three shutouts. The B’s were not able to replicate the outstanding postseason from the previous postseason, getting knocked out of the Conference Quarter-Finals by the Washington Capitals in seven games. Thomas went 3-4 with a .923 SV% and a 2.14 GAA with one shutout.
On June 3, 2012, 38-year-old Thomas announced on his Facebook page that he would be sitting out the 2012-13 season to focus on ‘Friends, Family, and Faith’. On February 7, 2013, he was traded to the New York Islanders, but never played a game for the team. Rask played for the Bruins until he retired in 2022 and holds the record for most wins in Bruins history (308), and most playoff wins in Bruins history (57). The duo holds the Bruins record for most regular season shutouts as a pair (29). Tim Thomas holds the NHL record for highest career playoff SV% (.933%) and was inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.