This column originally ran in The Standard-Times on June 14, 2011.

By Nick Tavares

Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas celebrates his team's 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks with teammate Zdeno Chara. The Associated Press

BOSTON — Only Roberto Luongo knows why he chose to start a war of words between Games 5 and 6.

On a night when the Vancouver Canucks could have raised the Stanley Cup for the first time in their 40 years as a club, Luongo was putrid. He made only five saves, allowing three goals before he was mercifully replaced by Cory Schneider at only 8:15 of the first period.

Schneider fared slightly better. But it wasn't enough to keep this series from going back to Vancouver for a deciding seventh game, the Bruins 5-2 winners.

To say Luongo could've had these goals is an understatement. Brad Marchand beat him short side on a breakaway. Just 35 seconds later, Milan Lucic charged down his right side and beat him in the small part of the net.

By the time Andrew Ference's blueline shot buzzed by him, it was essentially over. Luongo didn't even make it to the 9-minute mark of the first period.

Meanwhile, Tim Thomas walked Luongo's talk, another win for the disrespected netminder.

As he has been all season with the pressure on, Thomas was solid, at times remarkable, stopping 36 of 38 shots to give Boston to their first chance to raise the Stanley Cup in 39 years.

But even for Thomas, a goaltender who's had his abilities called into question his entire career, the scrutiny on his style and his effectiveness has been high. For a critic, look no farther than Luongo himself, who noted that, if anyone would have made the save on Maxim Lapierre's game-winner in Game 5, he would have.

"It's an easy save for me," Luongo said after Game 5, "but if you're wandering out and aggressive like he does, that's going to happen."

Could Thomas have stopped any of the three goals that Luongo let up in the first period? Probably.

But he wasn't dumb enough to say so. Instead, Thomas let the comments roll, like everything else this series.

"You're focus is on the game and playing the game," Thomas said before the game. "You try to get the same focus that you had as a kid when you were out playing on the pond and you're just enjoying the game.

"Really, if you approach it like that it can be really fun."

Despite the questions likely to come streaming in to Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault, and despite Luongo's third clunker of this series, expect him back in net on Wednesday night. As far as which Luongo shows up, it's anyone's guess.

For now, Thomas and the Bruins roll back to Vancouver, and that alone speaks volumes.