And round and round it went yesterday on Causeway Street. Everyone was politically correct in the wake of Thornton getting the boot. The GM didn't point fingers. Coach Mike Sullivan was in lockstep, too, praising Thornton's talent and contributions under his watch.
Heck, had Thornton not been headed off to Buffalo to meet his new teammates for their game tonight, the three might have posed for a farewell group hug on that humongous spoked-B painted at center ice. You betcha.
Let's face it, folks, Thornton is gone because the management and coaching staff had enough of his game. Fed up, they ditched him for three respectable NHLers -- Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm, and Wayne Primeau -- who will have to provide the lineup one heck of a defibrillating jolt to: 1) break the team's festering funk, and 2) make the wounded Bruins fandom forgive the front office for dealing one of the city's all-time favorite sons.
Last night, with Stuart, Sturm, and Primeau in their new threads, we got our first taste of life after Jumbo, and it played pretty well on the palate. It took the speedy, darting Sturm all of 77 seconds to poke home his first goal as a Bruin, providing a doorstep redirect of a Brad Boyes relay. A little more than seven minutes later, Sturm and Stuart assisted on a Patrice Bergeron power-play strike that made it 2-0. Stuart's setup was a dandy, a slap pass from above the right circle that Bergeron converted with a one-time slap shot from the left circle. All in all, a bold play with some style, some purpose, and a little bit of dazzle.
Keep in mind here, GMs don't ditch franchise players unless they are disgusted with their play and/or are only a step or two from getting knocked off the jobs themselves. In this case, it's the ''and" rather than the ''or." O'Connell is gone if this deal doesn't work out.
''Absolutely. Absolutely," said O'Connell, acknowledging the position he's in now, and where it puts him in reference to the firing squad. ''That's the job." O'Connell at his best. Matter-of-fact as ever.
