Thomas: I gave Burrows 'little love tap'

Tim Thomas acknowledged after his 4-0 shutout of the Canucks in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals Wednesday at TD Garden that he had finally reached his boiling point with Bruins nemesis Alex Burrows. 

Thomas was just under two minutes from the shutout when Burrows set up in front of Thomas and jabbed at the butt-end of Thomas' goalie stick as the Canucks were trying to spoil the shutout and score on a power play. TV replays showed Burrows taking a swipe at Thomas' stick and the Bruins goalie retaliated by taking a whack at the back of Burrows' legs. 

"They'd been getting the butt end of my stick," Thomas said. They did it a couple of times on the power play in the first period also. I don't know who it was, I was focused on the puck. That was like the third time that he'd hit my butt end on that power play. They were on 6-4 [power play], we were up 4-0, the game was getting down toward the end, so I thought I'd give him a little love tap and let him know, I know what you're doing, but I'm not going to let you do it forever."

Thomas hinted that he doesn't expect it to spill over into Game 5 Friday night when the two teams meet in Vancouver, with the Stanley Cup finals tied, 2-2. 

"So, that's all that was," Thomas said. "It was a typical battle."

For more, visit the Bruins team page at weei.com/bruins [1] and the Big Bad Blog [2].