November 5th, 2014
by Dakota Antelman
Standing amidst a crowd of reporters Tuesday afternoon was a familiar Boston face.
Former Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton played seven seasons of hockey in the Hub and attracted city-wide respect as well as league wide fear during that time. He was a brute force on the ice, knocking bodies around like bowling pins and tossing off gloves like they were vile creatures. With his physical presence, will to stand up for his teammates, and still present goal scoring skill set, Thornton drew comparisons with some of the most legendary Bruins of all time.
Just like the Terry O’Reily and Mike Milbury like players scattered throughout Bruins history, Thornton laid down a legacy of broken teeth, frequently uttered profanity and knuckle bruising helmet shots. Just like those players, he was loved by fans of the team dearly and deliriously. But above all and as has been commanded by the legal changes to the NHL rule book since O’Reily and MIlbury played, Thornton walked a line that he very rarely crossed.
He lived by the code of hockey, rarely even attracting a second look from the department of player safety’s discipline committee and never falling onto the blacklist of hatred that many of the NHL’s top enforcers eventually land on.
It was hard to hate Shawn Thornton and so, when Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announced this summer that salary cap contains would force the team to part ways with Thornton, there was almost universal sadness.
In a statement released that day, even Chiarelli acknowledged that.
“I told him [Thornton] that he was one of the most significant acquisitions that we made — one, for the role that he played, and two, for the person that he is,” Chiarelli said. “It was nice to rehash his time. It was sad to tell him he wasn’t coming back.”
Soon after that though, Thornton was gone from Boston with his locker cleaned out and his legacy no longer an ongoing one. Further completing the detachment from his seven year home, he then signed a two year, $2.4 million deal with Florida.
Since then the Bruins have managed. Boston recognized the need to bring in somebody to play the role of a gritty fourth line thug and tried out quite a few such players during a rather chippy preseason.
Due to his performance and expansive body of experience, longtime AHL fighter Bobby Robins was promoted to the NHL squad. Robins was thrown into the lineup in the place of Thonrton and quickly gave fans a bit of consolation when he and Luke Schen threw down on opening night.
Robins has actually done pretty well in the sheer fighting aspect of what the team is asking him to do. But needless to say he lacks the kind of unrivaled, leave-it-all-on-the-ice kind of leadership attitude that Thornton blessed his teammates with.
Though he was never even considered to be a captain, Thornton was the recognized catalyst to many of the Bruins greatest moments while he was on the roster. He was the player that behind the scenes shows revealed to come into the locker-room barking encouragement and insisting that no game’s score was final until the final buzzer sounded. Beyond that, he was the kind of player and the kind of person who could, after applying generous helpings of roundhouse punches to opponents, completely change personas and become a soft spoken well-mannered member of the community.
The love for Thornton was omnipresent. The love for Thornton, solicited by any one of his actions on or off the ice, was shown when he finally returned to Boston albeit in a different sweater.
In a ceremonious gesture, Panthers head coach Gerard Gallant included Thornton in the starting lineup. That meant that he was able to have his name announced at the start of the game the act of which drew fourth the first loud cheer from Bruins fans of the night.
“It’s pretty touching, you know,” Thornton said. “To get a standing ovation in a visiting arena is pretty special and I appreciate it. The fans have always been great to me here and again tonight. It’s pretty nice.”
Among a Bruins team that has already seen several player homecomings this season, the general consensus was that this one was by far the loudest.
“Every time someone’s come back to town that’s been on our team they get one, and it was great,” Bruin winger Brad Marchand said. “He was here for a long time and the city loves him. He was a good teammate, so it was good to see and it was fun to play against him.”
Bruins coach Claude Julian agreed with his players.
“It’s nice they paid tribute to him,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We’ve always liked Thorty, he’s an honest player and a hard-nosed player who understands his role and has always been very positive in everything he’s done. To me, he’s been a good asset to that Florida team.”
The game proceeded and Thornton went on to play a career high 16 minutes and 3 seconds. He took one shot on goal and, despite ending the night with a plus/minus rating of -1, played relatively well.
The Bruins would go on to win the game on Brad Marchand’s second overtime goal of the season.
An honest team player, Thornton acknowledged his dissatisfaction with that result.
“I just wish we would have won but as far as getting it over with, I enjoyed it. I was looking forward to it and it was everything and more.”
For a moment, it seemed like those seven years of the Shawn Thornton fight club had never ended. He stood speaking to reporters in front of a TD Garden logo with humility in his voice and a faint bruise glistening on his cheek. But when one looked none too much further they saw the all red Florida Panthers cap atop his head and the nylon jacket with the pouncing cat upon his shoulders and chest.
As a result Bruins fans simply cheered for the one game, not the 82, that they got to see him play.
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