Did you know that perhaps the biggest single season goaltending record is about to be broken by the St. Louis Blues’ No. 2 goalie? 

One season ago, the NHL was carefully watching Tim Thomas. As long as he didn’t fall apart over the last few games of the season, he was going to cap his season – already being considered one of the best by a goaltender ever – by breaking the single-season save percentage record. He did just that, breaking Domink Hasek’s .937 mark from 1998-99 by finishing the regular season with a .939 save percentage.

Thomas played 57 games in that season with 54 starts. He faced 1,811 shots, 1,035 of which came against teams that would go on to make the playoffs.

This season, Blues goaltender Brian Elliott, who essentially splits time with Jaroslav Halak but has gotten the minority of the starts (Halak has started 45 games to Elliott’s 35), is going to break Thomas’ record with his .943 mark.

Dance around the terminology all you want, but a No. 2 goalie is going to break Thomas’ save percentage record.

“If I figured it was going to be broken, it would have to be broken that way,” Thomas told WEEI.com Friday. “If you play over 50 games compared to 37, it's going to get a lot tougher. But that's OK. That's cool. He's had a great year.”

In order to qualify for to be a single-season save percentage leader, a goaltender needs a “minimum 0.3125 games played per scheduled game,” which in an 82-game season means that a goalie needs to play in 26 games. So even though Halak has gotten the majority of the starts in St. Louis, Elliott, with his 37 games played, will go down in history.

This isn’t to take away from Elliott’s season. His performance this season is much like a sustained version of what Tuukka Rask had going in the first half of the season. Rask led the NHL with a .946 save percentage on Jan. 17, and even though he was doing it while playing behind Thomas, it was still impressive.

Still, it wouldn’t have been considered quite as historic as Thomas’ 2010-11 regular season. Thomas was the No. 1 guy, and he got not only the majority of the starts, but the majority of the tough games, as is evident by the previous statistic about shots faced vs. playoff teams.

This season, Elliott has faced 679 shots against playoff teams, meaning Thomas saw over one and a half times more shots against top teams than Elliott has this season. Elliott has still shined against such opponents – he has a .941 save percentage with five shutouts against teams that made the playoffs this season – but he hasn’t had to face them nearly as much.

Thomas says that he, “doesn’t really care” that his record is being broken. He knows what he did last season and doesn’t feel that somebody else holding the record will take away from what he did over a longer stretch.  

“It’s totally different,” Thomas said. “It's more of a credit to what he's done this year. Different circumstances, but the same type of thing.”

As he approached the record, Thomas remembered last season as difficult and he had a hard time keeping it out of his mind. 

“It became a little bit of a distraction for me,” Thomas said. “I didn't think about it all year long, and then I had it brought to my attention. You can't help but think about it a little bit."

Given the circumstances, Thomas’ expectations on himself increased for the playoffs. He put together a regular season unlike any other in the history of the game, so it was only natural to feel that bigger and better things had to follow.

“Yeah, I didn't know we were going to win the Cup though," Thomas said. "I can't say that. I knew I wanted to give it the best shot I absolutely could. If anything, coming off the save percentage record and stuff, it was a relief to be going into the playoffs, where in reality it's the score at the end of the game that matters, not really the save percentage.”

Soon, the save percentage record won’t be Thomas’ problem anymore. Elliott should get another start or two, and unless he starts playing very uncharacteristic of himself this season, he’ll be the new record holder, strange as it may seem.

Records were meant to be broken, but in this case a major record is being broken in iffy circumstances.