“I was just saying on that particular play, I would have played it different. That’s the difference between me and him. I have been pumping his tires ever since the series started. I haven’t heard one nice thing he had to say about me. That’s the way it is.’’

-- Roberto Luongo

It's kind of hard to work up any hatred for Roberto Luongo.

Aaron Rome? Easy (and if the Bruins do lose this series, it is absolutely fair for a Bruins fan to play the Nathan Horton card. Trading Aaron Rome for Nathan Horton for the final four games of a Stanley Cup final is like trading LeBron James for Jason Terry for the last 15 minutes of an NBA Finals game).

Alex Burrows? The skating, chomping, flopping personification of perfect heel casting. 

Max Lapierre? Bill Laimbeer 2.0.

But when I see Roberto Luongo longing for love from Tim Thomas, a guy who was taking a buses from AHL town to AHL town while Luongo was making millions of dollars, a guy who has spent his career fighting to get chances while teams have fallen over themselves to land the services of Luongo, I can't help but have a measure of pity for Mr. Please Tell Me I'm At Least Pretty Good.

It can't be easy to look at the other guy and know the simple, screaming, so obvious even a hockey moron like Kirk Minihane doesn't need to be told truth: He's better than you.

The quotes? Perfect. I mean, if you are a Bruins fan, that is exactly what you want to hear from Roberto Luongo heading into Game 6. The guy is a complete portrait of insecurity in one of the few positions in sports where the mental stuff actually matters (I'd throw closer, quarterback and whatever position LeBron James happens to be playing in the fourth quarter of an NBA Finals game in the mix as well).

I'm not here to question Luongo's bona fides -- we all know about the Olympics and that he's a Vezina finalist and he looks shockingly like Sasha Baron Cohen -- but there is some serious mental fragility going on here, and if the Bruins are able to score first on Monday night there's at least a coin-flip chance that it's going to get ugly enough for Bruno that we will see Cory Schneider coming in from the 'pen.

Tim Thomas? Well, he's handled the situation perfectly (pause for shock). What is he supposed to do? Tell the media how great he thinks Luongo is? Why? Pretty sure that wasn't in the language of the contract he signed with the Bruins in 2009. 

Nope, Thomas has surveyed the situation and wisely decided against A) giving Luongo a lifeboat for the comments and B) maybe -- just maybe -- giving the opposing goaltender in the Stanley Cup finals some confidence by tossing a plaudit or three his way.

And by saying nothing -- or at least close to nothing -- Thomas has of course said everything. Anyone who has even casually watched this series now knows what most people in Boston already suspected: Roberto Luongo can't carry the jock of Tim Thomas. I don't care that Luongo is going to end his career with at least a couple hundred more wins than Thomas, or that he's played in as many All-Star Games or even that he won the gold-medal game for Canada while Thomas sat on the bench for Team USA.

None of that matters right now. Ask this instead: If the Bruins had the chance to swap Thomas for Luongo for the next three days is there is a chance in the world they would ever consider pulling the trigger? And who do you think the Vancouver players would prefer to have in the net on Monday night -- Luongo (who gave up 12 goals in Games 3 and 4 -- or twice as many as Thomas has allowed in the series) or Thomas, who has played so brilliantly in this postseason that he's already a lock for the Conn Smythe?

Look, Luongo was the fourth pick of the 1997 NHL Draft and has spent the last decade or so as an NHL A-lister. He's Silver Spoon all the way, I half-suspect that he takes a model train from the kitchen to the living room of his house. For the most part, he's always been the unquestioned top guy between the pipes (ugh, really wanted to avoid those three words) in whatever city he's played in and expects everyone to understand that and treat him as such.

Tim Thomas is in Act III or whatever it is of one of the truly amazing careers in Boston history. Hannu Toivonen (now a member of your Rockford Ice Dogs), Manny Fernandez (out of hockey) and Tuukka Rask (the master at awkwardly staring straight ahead during a Pierre McGuire update) are three netminders that the Bruins expected to beat out Thomas.

Didn't happen. Thomas is the ultimate hockey survivor, Tim Wakefield with a mask (and more skill). Luongo was the fourth pick of the 1997 draft -- Thomas was the 217th pick of the 1994 NHL Draft. Luongo was in the NHL at age 20 and was a starting goaltender the next year. Thomas played four years at Vermont, went to Finland, then to ECHL Birmingham, IHL Houston, AHL Hamilton, back to Finland (hold on -- we're only in 1999), IHL Detroit, a year in the Swedish Elite League, another season in Finland and a trip to Providence before making his NHL debut in October 2002.

I'm not knocking Luongo for being really good at a young age. It sure isn't his fault that Thomas kicked around in the minors and Europe for six years. But to expect someone who has had the journey of Thomas to waste his time lavishing praise on you -- after you basically vomited all over yourself in Boston and then took shots at the guy after Game 5 -- is disingenuous at best and borderline offensive at worst.

Great players don't give up eight goals in a Cup finals game. Great players don't get yanked in the postseason. And great players never beg other great players to allow them in the club.

Roberto Luongo was terrific (if not truly tested) in Game 5. He showed us something.

But he told us a lot more with his words after. And now the portrait of insecurity faces his greatest test.

I wouldn't expect a lot of support from Tim Thomas this time.