Items that may grow up to be columns, Vol. XIV, Chapter 2:

TROUBLE BRUIN? — Probably just wishful thinking, but Tim Thomas’s grandstand play Monday, showing up President Barack Obama and upstaging his teammates’ day at the White House, isn’t likely to win him any new friends in the Boston locker room. Or the front office.

Even allowing for the eccentricity of goaltenders in general, Tim-Me’s carefully-planned decision to taint the American head of state’s celebration of the Bruins’ Stanley Cup win — putting himself ahead of the team with a private anti-government political protest — was in spectacularly poor taste.

Nothing wrong with having political views, and expressing them — that’s what democracy is all about — but dragging teammates into a controversy not of their making, not showing up to answer questions, and leaving them to face the music is not what team-first guys do.

Looks from here as though Tim-Me’s tires are a tad overinflated, and he’s been manning the pump.

ET TU, MICHAEL? — You know you’ve stepped over the line when your anti-government protest is even criticized by anti-government protestors.

Filmmaker Michael Moore — he of Fahrenheit 9/11 fame — had this to say on his Twitter account (@MMFlint): “Tim Thomas & I went to the same high school. I can tell u this: People in Flint LOVE Obama, desperately need Obama, & DETEST Thomas' actions.”

KKKALM DOWN — Listen, if Don Cherry’s still working in Canadian television after all the borderline/inappropriate/xenophobic stuff he’s spouted over the years, veteran TSN host Dave Hodge’s um ... joking Twitter reference to Thomas snubbing Obama on Monday shouldn’t get him in any trouble with his bosses.

“@TSNDaveHodge: Don't know if it's fair to point this out, but Tim Thomas has three children named Kiley, Kelsey and Keegan.”

Being somewhat thick, the whole KKK thing didn’t occur to me, when I first read it. After all, Roger Clemens had four sons, Koby, Kory, Kacy and Kody, and claimed they all had K first names because of his strikeout records. And all had middle names beginning with A because, well, they’re Roger Clemens’s sons, and he was one of baseball’s foremost A------s.

But the reaction elsewhere to Hodge’s dig was swift and critical, and Hodge — whose tweets are almost invariably clever — must have been feeling at least a little heat from above. Tuesday’s mea culpa: “To clarify, yesterday's tweet was simply a satirical, tongue-in-cheek observation meant to be humourous and not intended to be offensive.”

So there. Toothpaste, get back in that tube.

IT’S ALL OVIE — Anyone but Alex Ovechkin would have got five games for the hit he delivered to Pittsburgh’s Zbynek Michalek the other night — he left his feet, targeted the head, and he’s a third-time offender.

But a measure of just how much the NHL hates to suspend a star player is the fact that it’s not going to punish Ovechkin for sulking and skipping this weekend’s all-star festivities in Ottawa. After letting perfectly healthy veterans Nick Lidstrom and Teemu Selanne say thanks but no thanks, the league probably figured it could hardly insist that a suspended player show up.

So Ovie’s got a nice, extended vacation. That’s what three games is worth.

Ray Ratto, who covers the Bay Area sports scene for Comcast in San Francisco, will stage his own protest.

“Because of Ovechkin's decision, I will continue not to watch the NHL All-Star Game,” he tweeted (@RattoCSN).

Very sensible.

SHOCKING — In case you were under the impression that “professional” and “amoral” were not one and the same, we present the case of the two New York Giants special-teams players who admitted they were targeting the head of San Francisco 49ers kick returner Kyle Williams in Sunday’s NFC championship game because of his history of concussions.

"The thing is, we knew he had four concussions, so that was our biggest thing, was to take him out of the game,” said Jacquian Williams, whose hit forced Williams’s decisive fumble.

Said Devin Thomas, who recovered the ball on both of Williams's miscues: “He’s had a lot of concussions. We were just like, ‘We gotta put a hit on that guy.’ ... [Tyler] Sash did a great job hitting him early and he looked kind of dazed when he got up. I feel like that made a difference and he coughed it up.”

Far from surprising, the certain knowledge that an opposing team will always target a player’s perceived injury if it knows where to aim is pretty much the justification for NHL teams hiding injuries under non-specific names.

POT, MEET KETTLE — Wonder if Tiger Woods regrets having dismissed his former coach Hank Haney’s upcoming book, The Big Miss, as a money grab. Considering Woods is getting a $1.5-million appearance fee for playing in Abu Dhabi this week rather than at Torrey Pines, it’s amazing he would have the brass to accuse anyone else of stooping to the profit motive.

Ironically, with all the free publicity Tiger’s snotty comments have given it, Haney’s book — probably less a tell-all than a tell-some, leave-some-out — is guaranteed to be an instant best-seller.

OH, CHANADA -- Those who don’t watch figure skating, or those who would never admit it if they did, may not have seen Canada’s athlete of the year at last weekend’s Canadian championships. But anyone who saw Patrick Chan skate could hardly have done so without breaking into a grin.

He’s no kid anymore, exactly, but at 21 Chan has become, by quite some margin, the greatest skater of his generation. If he lands the jumps, he is untouchable — and the outpouring of love he got in Moncton on the weekend didn’t sound like a crowd that was very bothered by his pre-Christmas lament about being under-appreciated in Canada.

The 300-plus points he got from the excited domestic judges, nearly 20 over his own world record, may have been more emotional than logical, but he is genuinely that good.

HAD TO HAPPEN — ESPN's John Clayton has reported that Montreal Alouettes’ Marc Trestman interviewed for the Indianapolis Colts head coaching job on the weekend. Smart, smart guy. Dull, dull interview. Same combination as New England’s Bill Belichick.

ccole@vancouversun.com

On Twitter: Twitter.com/rcamcole

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