Joe Thornton. First off, Joe is cool. Very
cool. Not only was he good at what he did, he was at ease and made other people
feel good and at ease, too. That is very hard in any line of endeavor. Where to
begin? For me it was November 2005. I'm in the Boston area for work and the
Bruins are playing the Penguins that night. The NHL owners locked out the
players and cancelled the 2004-05 season so there was not much to talk about
for months other than the Pens' first-overall draft pick Sidney Crosby.
This was a chance to see him. I'd also never seen inside the new
(then) TD Garden arena, only heard from Bruins fans about how they loved that
creaky, fire-trap, old Boston Garden that was sacrificed in conjunction with
the "big dig" roadway and infrastructure project downtown.
The Bruins
finished 2003-04 on top of their division, only to be knocked out by Montreal
in the first round after once leading the series 3-1. Joe Thornton scored zero
in that series despite 73 points in 77 games of the regular season. The natives
were restless, even with the revelation that he'd been hurt during the
playoffs.
At least a guy as big as Joe could have pounded the crap out
of Saku Koivu or Richard Zednik. Even though he re-signed with the Bruins in
August, stories were that Thornton wasn't happy. Still, he was a presence
there, including a gigantic blow-up of him on the outside wall of the arena.
We got scalper tickets pretty reasonable the day of
the game and had very comfortable seats, like a theater. Despite the build-up,
Crosby's only contribution to the score sheet was getting a minor penalty. Joe
got two goals and an assist.
Meanwhile, the Sharks were off to a usual
rotten start, winning only two games than November. General Manager Doug Wilson
pulled the trade lever early, sending three players to Boston for Thornton.
(The early rumors were that they were going to trade Thornton for Patrick
Marleau, even up. Wow.) Joe was originally stuck on the third line center spot
vacated by Wayne Primeau and featured on the power play.
My wife had
said all along that he'd be a good player for the Sharks, and he quickly
started proving it. The Sharks took off over the rest of that season, finishing
second to Dallas in the Pacific Division with 99 points. Joe finished with 125
points (29 goals, 96 assists overall, 20 goals, 72 assists as a Shark) to take
the Hart (NHL MVP) and Ross Trophies (NHL scoring) and linemate Jonathan
Cheechoo 93 points (56 goals, 37 assists) took the Rocket Richard Trophy (goal
scoring).
Yes, even with the Sharks losing a rough Conference
Semifinals series 2-4 games to the Oilers (a possibly a better balanced team),
we fans were starting to feel better about the future. With Thornton, the
Sharks went on a nine year streak of making the playoffs, four of them with Joe
as Captain. No matter if a C was on his sweater or not, Thornton was the team
leader.
Family reasons and the Sharks' rebuild-that-at-first-wasn't
caused him to leave for final seasons in Toronto and Florida, but for most of
the NHL fans of a generation, he's certainly an all-time Sharks. And,
fingers-crossed, someday a Hall-of-Famer.
