As the Boston Bruins head to D.C. for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on Monday night, the inevitable (and predictable) has occurred: Goalie Tim Thomas' decision not to attend a White House celebration of the team's Stanley Cup championship, for political reasons, is being revisited.

Bruins Coach Claude Julien (via Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post), when asked about potential razzing from Washington Capitals fans about it: "As far as I'm concerned, he's here to play hockey."

Ah, and the fans are there to watch hockey, and some of them will do so behind President Obama masks.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post reports that a few Capitals blogs are leading the effort to troll Thomas with Obama and White House iconography from the stands during Game 3. They include Russian Machine Never Breaks, which offered the posters seen above and wrote:

Despite the mewling whines of "Leave Timmy alone!" coming from the Boston area— we believe this is a winning strategy. An angry Tim Thomas gives up goals. A scored-on Tim Thomas gets angrier. And then he gives up even more goals. It's a vicious cycle, and we just need to get it started. Distraction is the name of the game. (Actually, the name of the game is still hockey but we don't play hockey, so we're gonna do this instead.)

Brooks Laich Year and Sick Unbelievable have their own signs as well.

Thomas reopened this storyline by refusing to address it before the playoffs, and when Capitals fans troll, they troll hard.

So here's our question: How many Republicans that can afford lower bowl tickets for the playoffs will participate in the weaponization of Obama to mock Thomas?

Hopefully, it's a bipartisan spirit in D.C. Monday night, as everyone reaches across the aisle to work together in the name of hockey snark.