The celebrants included Tim Thomas, the star goalie of those marvelous UVM squads in the mid-'90s. Navrat, who remains one of Thomas's closest pals, befriended the Davison, Mich., puck-stopper from their first days together at the Burlington campus in the autumn of 1993. They roomed together as sophomores. They shared their abundant victories, their occasional defeats, and they especially shared their dreams. Recently, following a Saturday Bruins matinee at the Garden, Thomas and his two daughters made tracks north to Portland, Maine, and the Thomas and Navrat clans engrossed themselves in a Sunday of snowmobiling and ice fishing. Navrat is in Montreal this weekend, watching Thomas participate in the NHL All-Star festivities for a second year in a row.
When St. Louis brought the Cup home to the party in Burlington, recalled Navrat, he couldn't help but keep his eyes on Thomas. His old buddy took it all in, and sincerely rejoiced in St. Louis's happiness. But Navrat also could see that Thomas, by then seven years along in pursuit of an NHL dream that he could never seem to catch, continued to stare at the Cup as if it mirrored something far more than his reflection.
"I know the guy," said the Czech-born Navrat, driving along Route 89 late Thursday night on his way to Montreal. "And I know exactly what he was thinking. You could see it in his eyes. I said to myself, 'Look at him, he thinks he can win this thing.' Did I ask him? No. But I didn't have to . . . I could just tell, all those years later . . . and I wish now I could put that in better words, but everyone was there, enjoying themselves, having a great time. And Timmy just had this look that said, 'This will be me.' "
