prince_eric | So long, Joe, and thanks for all the fish

So on Wednesday morning, I was getting ready to go with my wife to run some errands, and was flipping around on TV when I found Don Imus' broadcast on MSNBC. Stopping there for a while, the sports reporter came on and was providing a half-heard rundown of the previous day's action. He grabbed my full attention, however, when in between basketball scores he uttered the words "And in hockey news, last night the Boston Bruins traded center and captain Joe Thornton." Despite Imus having him go back and restate this one, nothing further was said.

In the mad scramble, it appears that yet again, the Bruins have turned to the San Jose Sharks, and traded with them one of our top players.

When all is said and done, I do think that the Bruins have gotten the better end of this deal, but I don't think that San Jose made out as badly as some might think (especially certain toadying members of the local sports media, that look to be nothing more then water carriers for the Bruins management and ownership, and talentless assclowns like the Curly-Haired Bastard who just seems to enjoy taking shots at everyone). Joe is a gifted player, and the biggest knock on him is really that he's not Captain material. This works out well for San Jose -- Joe is showing up as just a very gifted player, and isn't expected to be the captain of the team, or getting labeled with "savior of the franchise" and being expected to carry on the tradition of past greats like Orr, Bourque, Neely and O'Reilly. Once all that weight gets dropped off of his shoulders, I think he'll go back to the player of a couple years ago, and show more of the talent and promise that people expected from him.

I was also surprised, however, that management had reversed a long-standing policy of knifing the head coach in the back for their inability to pull their heads out of their asses long enough to actually field a decent team, and this time buried it in the back of "The Franchise", despite a rather noted lack of whining and sniping from him (the Bruins are rather legendary for running star players out of town for pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes -- Andy Moog and Adam Oates chief among them. Not that I'm bitter, or anything). The day after the trade, the management's big three, Sinden, O'Connell and Jacobs himself were all working the airwaves and busily rewriting history. Joe was a disappointment because he didn't do much his first few years in the league, ignoring that the coach that was brought in when he was drafted was one that was known to work better with veteran players, and not be so good at bringing up young talent. He was labeled a "top-fifteen player", who clearly wasn't worth the top-five money he was getting, ignoring the fact that he was signed to this contract just months ago, and ever since he had been drafted was labeled by everyone as a top-five player. His heart was questioned, despite having played a sub-par playoff series the last NHL season with a rib injury that would have sidelined him for several weeks if it was the regular season, and played without mentioning this injury or ever using it as an excuse.

So long, Joe, and good luck in San Jose. You were brought in with much fanfare and lofty expectations, and then saddled with a revolving door of coaches and players, and then expected to take on the captaincy of the team and follow in the tradition of names like Bourque and O'Reilly, and despite not living up to that particular bar you were an above-average player that showed flashes of the skill and ability that got you those expectations, and you always handled yourself with class off the ice.