But, at close inspection, to the trained hockey eye, there was just no there there this season with Thornton.
Early on, second week of the season, he had a bad back. For two months, he rarely was spotted in front of the net, where the league virtually hung out a ''vacancy" sign this season, encouraging one and all to work the low slot. Thornton just never registered with the front desk. He was content, comfortable to set up shop behind the goal line or stand along the right half-board, looking to pass, clearly steering away from heavy contact -- or the places one might expect heavy contact.
Is that what we call Bruins? Hardly.
It was, quite frankly, puzzling to the point of disbelief.
It was that level of disinterested, even disconsolate play, that led general manager Mike O'Connell to wheel Thornton out of town. It was a combination of lack of play, real gritty and committed play, and a heavy paycheck, one that accounted for a sizable chunk of the club's $39 million salary cap.
Consider: Thornton over the summer signed a three-year guaranteed deal worth $20 million. Everyone immediately labeled it a no-trade contract. Truth is, as evidenced by this deal, the no-trade did not apply to this season. It begins with the 2006-07 season. All of which means the Bruins had only this season -- the two-thirds that remain of it -- to get out from under the deal if they felt he wasn't worth the money. They watched him play. They looked at the books, as well as the decline in the standings, and for the last two weeks O'Connell worked the phones feverishly to get him gone. They felt he wasn't worth the money.
Clearly, the names Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm, and Wayne Primeau don't have the marquee value of Thornton. Fans love big names in this town, which is why there was such gnashing of teeth not long ago when the Patriots finally dumped Drew Bledsoe and got on to the business of winning, winning, and winning some more. Even with Tom Brady so blatantly in command of the position, the Bledsoe boosters couldn't understand why the Patriots were saying adieu to Drew. Some of the fanboys still haven't recovered.
