Noticed a few people giving the Lucic/Miller incident credit for waking up the Bruins....I actually think credit needs to be given to Shawn Thornton as well. He had a shift pretty shortly after the Miller hit I think where he came out and just started jawing at every player who got in his way and you could clearly see the Sabres were scared ****less of him. Then for the rest of the game, every time there was a scrum he was getting right in there, not letting his teammates get in trouble.
I know people give him a hard time for having 'staged' fights and following the code maybe a little too closely, but when he is genuinely angry and just flat out screaming at opposing players he looks like a psychopath and I think genuinely throws the other team off their game, especially a team that has no one to answer the bell.
Anyway, just pointing out that he is 100% doing his job perfectly right now and I wouldn't want to lose him any time soon.
Thornton is a respectable tough guy, a team guy who works hard and is a genuine motivator. He's the kind of guy you like to be on your team. Honestly, as he was brought up in comparison to Thornton, I don't like Lucic as a tough player much. Plays like last night's with Miller rub me the wrong way for some reason, I have more respect for the way a guy like Thornton motivates his team.
He knows his role and performs it well. He rarely takes bad penalties, plays a responsible game and has good speed and decent hands. The one thing i would wish he were better at is his body checking.
What impresses me most about Sugar Shawn is, that despite him being such a bad guy on the ice - indeed being incredibly valuable for the Bruins in doing so - he does so much good for the locker room and for charity off the ice. Who'd ever imagine a 217 pound beast ripping off heads on a regular basis could bring this much of a human touch around the game of hockey.
I don't see Shawn leaving anytime soon, just like ference, he's really taken to the area as more than just the place he plays. He does his job, and does it damn well too.
Welp, ummabout to jump on a plane for the deep south...all this drunken drivel is pretty much at a close...
For some reason I was thinkin' about good ol' Shawn this morning, as I was zooming about town, past the occupiers, picking up credit cards and breaking hearts left and right...and I thought I'd put a little thing together. It ain't my best work, but it's the thought that counts, right?
Thornton is the man!! One of my favorite Bruins fighters of all-time. I was hoping that he would be able to bridge into more of a Chris Neil/Brad May career where he can pick his spots. I agree with the other thread that he is too small and getting too old to deal with some of these bears that are coming into the league.
His leadership and energy made all the difference in the Stanley Cup run; and I hope that this concussion doesn't spell the end of his career; but for an 'enforcer' that will be even more difficult to come back from!
It's not the brighest idea to keep fighting the way he does after a concussion, but we will see...Hopefully the Bruins bring in someone to lighten his load occassionally.
It's not the brighest idea to keep fighting the way he does after a concussion, but we will see...Hopefully the Bruins bring in someone to lighten his load occassionally.
