Thornton: Be or not to be

Since Neb start a interesting thread regarding Thornton; i guess i can revisit that case too.

Do the B's miss him? That's interesting question. Production and marketing wise, probably. Leadership and physical presence wise, no. The Whole Thornton case is related to a high potential player who came to an organisation who saw something in him that, in their opinion, never developped. Jacobs, Sinden and MOC saw in Thornton the HUGE hard nose hitter with skills and a ton of leadership. In fact, the skills were there and Thornton produced accordingly. But, when you look at Thornton, the guy didn't have the personnality to be a strong leader who can rattle the cage. The guy is calm and frustration is not something he used to. Honnestly, with great leaders like Ray Bourque or Bobby Orr, Thornton had no chance. The font office and the fans were spoiled , many years, by a high quality and dedicated captain like Bourque was. Anything below that would be a deception. Looking back, I think it's a fair assertion to say that, in that context, Thornton was DOA.

Now, that Thornton is under the SJ sunshine, things look a bit different. Yes, we saw him produce, last year, with Cheechoo. The two of them were the same combo as JT was with Murray in Boston. But, in the playoffs, B's fan saw something that they were used to: Thornton disappearing. All of the sudden, the 2003 playoffs memory came back to their memory and re-act the 3-1 lead collapse the team suffered. In the second playoffs round, last year, JT was a no show. In fact, he was less then impressive and now, he's stuck with a " fall apart under pressure " tag. Do JT worth 6.6 per? Do SJ expected the same results as an organisation as the B's did? Do they will reach a better result? Only Wilson can answer those questions. The stakes are open but until Thorton delivered a Stanley Cup, whatever the team; Neb's question will remain: Thornton who needs em?