With the announcement by Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli earlier this week that the team would not be re-signing 4th line winger and enforcer Shawn Thornton, it marks the end of a very successful era in Bruins hockey. Thorty was a fan favorite and, in many ways, the heart and sould of the Boston Bruins. It was probably time to move on, but let’s take a moment to sit back and appreciate what Shawn Thornton did for Boston.
Thornton arrived in Boston in the summer of 2007, signing with the Bruins just weeks after his breakout season concluded by raising the Stanley Cup over his head as a member of the Anaheim Ducks. That was also the summer that marked the arrival of current Bruins head coach Claude Julien as well as two guys names Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett for the Celtics. Of the four, Thorty’s arrival received the least amount of fanfare or anticipation, and in a year when the Red Sox won the World Series, and the Celtics won their first NBA Title since the days of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish, and the Patriots came within a helmet-catch by a guy who never caught another pass in the NFL of going 19-0, the Bruins quietly turned themselves into a contender once again.
Shawn Thornton was the tough guy the B’s had been lacking for a long time. The Bruins were not only on the way back, but they were playing like the Bruins of old. Many fighters in the NHL can only fight. I’ve written about John Scott before and how guys like that are bad for the league and bad for the sport, but Thornton was a more traditional enforcer like what Terry O’Reilly was for the B’s in the 70s and 80s. He wasn’t quite the scorer O’Reilly was, but he could play the game, and the amount of ice time Julien gave him reflected that.
While Thorty did have his moments on offense, like the that beautiful penalty shot goal against the Winnipeg Jets a couple years ago, his biggest contributions to the team were in changing the mentality of the team. In the 2011 playoffs, the Bruins got the offensive spark they needed in the Eastern Conference Finals against Tampa when they put Tyler Seguin in the lineup in place of the concussed Patrice Bergeron, but when Bergy was healthy enough to play, Thornton was the odd man out. It’s no coincidence, in my opinion, that the B’s fortunes turned around in the Stanley Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks when Thornton was inserted back into the lineup in place of the concussed Nathan Horton. The year before that Thorty was the guy who stood up to Matt Cooke after effectively ending Marc Savard’s career, and was there to defend his teammates too many other times to count in his seven years in Boston.
The Bruins fell in the playoffs this spring to their bitter rival the Montreal Canadiens. While the Habs got scoring production from their 4th line, the Bruins struggled to get offense from every line. Montreal has a player similar to Thornton in fellow 2007 Stanley Cup champion George Parros, but the difference between the two is that Thornton had to play significant minutes in the playoffs, while Parros was sitting in the press box as a healthy scratch. I hope Chiarelli decided to part ways with Thornton to retool the team but not to make the 4th line the scapegoat for Boston postseason woes. Shawn Thornton did not put them over the top (not that it’s his role to do so), but David Krejci and Brad Marchand didn’t put the puck in the net at all. Milan Lucic squandered golden opportunity after golden opportunity. Tuukka Rask was good, but Carey Price was better. The Bruins were good enough to win the President’s Trophy, but couldn’t get out of the Atlantic Division in the playoffs, and Shawn Thornton is hardly the only one to blame.
The 2013-14 season was not Thornton’s best, and his attack of Brooks Orpik in a game I went to in December did not make him look good, but I’m sure Bruins fans are smart enough to not remember him just for that. Shawn Thornton was a Bruin. He was a Bostonian. He helped bring the Stanley Cup back to the city he loved, and did what he could to help the city heal after the Marathon tragedy last year. He was so much a part of Boston the last seven years, that it earned him a cameo appearance in Ted. Wherever his hockey career takes him, he will always be remembered fondly by Bruins fans. Thanks for the memories, Thorty!
Dave's Words 