Here’s a prediction: After the Bruins practice Monday on their first day back from the All-Star break, Claude Julien will address the media and declare the Tim Thomas White House fiasco old news. 

Unlike when he made a similar claim following Snoozegate with Tyler Seguin early in December, Julien will be right this time. Same with Thomas, who chose the typical route of blaming the media for all the attention his controversial decision has received. 

The fact that this column exists contradicts what it’s trying to achieve, but there have been more than enough opinions on Thomas in the last seven days. One story mutated into several stories, and eventually it turned into a big game of Which Writer Can Say The Stupidest Thing.

Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette won that game Sunday, calling Thomas a racist and saying that he skipped the meeting with the president because Barack Obama is black. 

Wrote Todd:

"Thomas’s decision to skip a team visit to the White House because he buys the garbage pumped out by Glenn Beck and his ilk was bad enough. But then, having pulled a highly public stunt to call attention to his whacko politics, Thomas blamed the media for paying attention.

Look, if this cretin wants to stand outside the White House and spew his drivel, that’s free speech. But standing up the president? All that does is show that Thomas has the class of a swamp-rat.

What’s worse, you know Thomas would not have done this with the liberal Democrat Bill Clinton in the White House. Truth is, he felt free to dis Barack Obama, because Obama is black."

First, the fact that Todd felt free enough to use the word “dis” is comical enough. When Thomas was in his hotel room watching the Bruins walk out behind Obama, I’m sure he and a bunch of his sixth-grade classmates were cracking up over how badly he had “dissed” the president. Dissed and dismissed, indeed. 

Then there’s the matter of suggesting Thomas is a racist. Thomas claims that his decision had nothing to do with his political party, and no one’s asking you to believe that. So far, the only thing that’s been said about race was an irresponsible tweet from TSN’s Dave Hodge noting that all three of Thomas’ children’s names start with the letter K. 

Hodge eventually realized (or someone who pays his checks eventually told him) what a horrid accusation his tweet carried, and he apologized via Twitter for what he said was a “tongue-in-cheek observation.”

What’s Todd’s excuse going to be? Unlike Hodge, Todd came right out with the race card. He didn’t just imply it. 

And this whole ugly mess of libelous claims of racism is where ThomasGate (using two lazy “-gate” jokes is still better journalism than lazily calling Thomas racist) has taken us. Thomas may have lobbed a fastball over the plate for these character stories, but the media has crushed it out of the park, found the ball and kept hitting it. 

Was Thomas' decision selfish? Sure. Was he trying to call attention to his political beliefs? Not necessarily. But what Todd wrote is exactly why our job as media members is to report on how these guys play and not what goes on inside their heads. You just have to wonder what's going inside Todd's head for him to make such an accusation without an ounce of evidence backing him up.

The Bruins, a close-knit team, knew about Thomas’ quirks well before he decided to make the controversial decision to skip the White House. Maybe they like that about him, and maybe they don’t. Maybe there are things about other teammates they don’t like. Speculating minds don’t know that, but we all know that they won the Stanley Cup with Thomas, his political beliefs, his tendency to make it about him, and everything else that comes with him. 

Think of it this way: If the Bruins win the Cup again this season, something they appear to be in fine shape to do given their depth and the strong goaltending they got from Thomas and Tuukka Rask right up until a couple of weeks ago, will the media act all surprised when Thomas doesn’t visit the White House next season? No. It will be old news, as we know Thomas’ beliefs. They were even published in the media guide prior to the season when he said he’d have dinner with Beck. His beliefs aren’t a new development -- but it seems someone else has something else to say about them every day, and that’s what’s made news.

Todd did that and took it too far Sunday. Hopefully, he’s the last to do so.