Ference on D&C: Thomas 'a great teammate'

Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference made his final weekly appearance of the season with Dennis & Callahan Friday morning to discuss the B's loss to the Capitals in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Ference said it's not accurate to say the Capitals wanted it more than the Bruins, following Washington's overtime victory in Game 7 of a series in which every game was decided by one goal.

"Everybody wants it," Ference said. "You can't paint it with a broad brush, either. Certain guys handle pressure better than other guys. Certain teams handles situations, making sure that the little details of the games, the little turnovers or the little extra moves that were unnecessary -- all these little plays add up, especially in a series that's so tight and low-scoring. It's more mistakes and mental lapses, maybe a battle here or a battle there is lost, not out of will or desire but just out of poor decision or bad positioning or something like that."

There has been speculation that Tim Thomas may have played his game for the Bruins. Ference insists he has no problems with the controversial goaltender.

"Timmy's going to get picked apart probably for a lot of comments after this year," Ference said. "There's probably some people outside of the locker room that are probably still feeling left a little raw over the White House stuff and all that. But really -- and I would tell you different, I think I am honest enough to tell you that it really doesn't bother us that much in the locker room. That's who Timmy is, and he's been our teammate and he's been his own guy for a number of years. And that's fine by us.

"He does his thing, he stops the puck, he battles like crazy and he wants so badly to win. What more could we ask for? That's our teammate. To me, that's the definition of teammate is a guy that you can look at and trust that he's going to bring absolutely everything to the table to do his job well. So in my book, he's a great teammate."

While the Capitals emerged victorious over the B's, Alex Ovechkin did not live up to his billing as Washington's top player in the series.

"If you look at him just as a player, he hits hard, he flies around and he causes some disturbance. So, he's a good player," Ference said. "But he's definitely not -- and I think everybody agrees -- he's not like he was a few years ago where it was just scary, every single time he's on the ice it feels like he's going to score a goal."

To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page [1]. For more Bruins news, visit the team page at weei.com/bruins [2].