’10-11 Bruins Season in Review:
Shawn Thornton
Thornton/By S. Bradley
There were no Boston-area natives on the Bruins’ roster that won the 2011 Stanley Cup championship.
But the way Shawn Thornton has embraced living in this city, he might as well be a native son.
Thornton’s dedication to this city and the Bruins organization were never more evident than when he spurned the chance to become an unrestricted free agent last summer and instead re-signed with Boston on a two-year deal worth less than market value at just a little more than $800,000 per season.
Thornton turned out to be one of the great bargains in all of hockey as he set career highs in goals, assists, points and plus/minus. All the while, he maintained his slot as one of the toughest pound-for-pound pugilists in the NHL and served as a dressing-room sounding board through the thick and thin.
Boston has embraced Thornton and he continues to reciprocate that love with the hardest-working shifts you’ll ever see.
Stats
Regular season: 79 GP, 10-10-20, plus-8
Playoffs: 18 GP, 0-1-1, minus-1
Contract status: Signed through 2011-12 at a cap hit of $812,500
Best regular-season moment: After a lackluster, passion-less 3-0 loss on home ice to Anaheim three nights earlier, Thornton made sure to wake his team up early against Atlanta. He dropped the gloves with veteran Eric Boulton two seconds into the game right off the opening faceoff. In case his fist-throwing ways didn’t do enough to spark the Bruins, Thornton also scored two goals and posted a plus-2 rating in a 4-1 win.
Best playoff moment: Seven games in the press box as a healthy scratch must feel like a lifetime to a guy like Thornton, who hates to watch hockey when he’s not playing it. When he got back in the lineup for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, he played his first shift as though he hadn’t played in years. His first act was a big hit on the forecheck on Alex Burrows. And then as the Garden crowd erupted, Thornton looked to the Canucks bench and verbally let Vancouver know the Bruins weren’t going to roll over after dropping the first two games.
Worst moment: Thornton’s worst experience this season had nothing to do with goal-scoring or fighting, it had to deal with his physical well-being. Cut just above his right eyebrow by a Fernando Pisani skate blade March 29, Thornton just missed suffering a life-altering injury. Luckily, he was healthy enough to miss just three games. And his manly scar will now just be part of his tough-guy persona.
Regular-season grade: A
Playoff grade: A-minus. Thornton and his linemates made up for some quiet games in the earlier rounds with a great showing in the second half of the Cup Final.
Carnac predicts … it doesn’t take Carnac to know what Thornton’s going to do next season. He’s going to accept whatever minutes the Bruins give him, drop his gloves when necessary and get tons of shots to the net — some of which will elude the opposing goaltender.
I never dreamed he would have the impact that he had when he came back in the lineup. The guy’s all business.
Without a doubt our fourth line is one of the best in the NHL. I think Claude does a good job of giving them more minutes when they play well. Shawn’s energy/hitting were very important to turning the Vancouver series around. I hope the times that Shawn is healthy scratch are very few next year. I do think that he is underpaid with what he brings to the Bruins.
Great signing. Also, have to remember the decoration he and Hniday did in the dressing room. Game 7 was the best performance by a fourth line I can recall. Hope the B’s can do right by him moving forward without breaking the bank.
yeah that cut was very scary-easily could have taken his eye. Loved the fact that he wasn’t a pansy about it-skated to the bench and was ready to go with his chirper even with half his face falling off.
I think as enforcer types go Thornton is the kind of guy you want on your team, because he does have some hockey skills (maybe not first line skills).
I honestly think he and Campbell were a very good fit and I think Campbell and Marchand helped Thornton produce his record breaking season.
I often get the feeling that given the chance Thornton would stay here and retire in Boston-he really seems to have embraced the team and city and the city has certainly embraced him.