Come early April, the Florida Panthers’ Shawn Thornton famously dropped his skates in a trash bin after his final game. The two-time Stanley Cup champion retired immediately after his final April 9, 2017 game on the road versus the Washington Capitals. They beat the Caps 2-0. Thornton spent the brunt of his career in his beloved Boston with the Bruins. Known as the “Instigator,” Thornton spent 1103 of his minutes in the penalty box. He was best known for his ability to start and win fights with rival players. If you look on HockeyFights.com, 242 of their videos belong to the Instigator. Of course, a fair sized portion of those fights were in the AHL, but that still adds up to 1210 minutes, and that’s just from the videos that the owners of the site deemed worthy of recognition. Starting out with the Chicago Blackhawks, he quickly became a major “hit.” He had two points in 13 games, one goal and one assist, in his rookie 2002-03 season, but that combined with 31 penalty minutes helped start the blue collar career of the great Thornton. He spent one year in the 2006-07 season with the Anaheim Ducks when accompanied by stars Ryan Getzlaf, Scott Niedermeier, and Corey Perry he won his first Stanley Cup. Spending 88 of the minutes of the 48 games he played, it was clear to the entire National Hockey League that you didn’t mess around with him or one of his teammates without suffering the consequences of a blow to the head. The Bruins saw this in him and decided he was the right guy to defend their stars, Marc Savard, Phil Kessel, and Zdeno Chara.
Thus started the long Boston career of the beloved Shawn Thornton: they’d only miss the playoffs once in his seven year tenure and his fellow fourth linemates of Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell helped him build the best fourth line in all of hockey. When Boston won the Finals in the 2010-11 season, a major factor was how there was an unrelenting stream of skill and hard work from the first line to the fourth, mainly perpetuated by Thornton’s ethic of never quitting. The B’s relied greatly on Thornton’s veteran presence to teach the younger players and to show them the type of playing that led to a Cup win. Thornton, now a front office executive for the Panthers, decided that he would only exercise to “not get fat.” He’s officially done with skating, playing hockey, and most importantly, fighting. His second Stanley Cup winning year was his best year as he got himself 20 points (10 goals and 10 assists), and it’s safe to say that Thornton had a great career. Jesse A. Cook “Shawn Thornton: The Last Instigator” June 28, 2017
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It’s time for Music City to bring home a cup named Stanley. They made the great offseason move to trade Shea Weber to the Montréal Canadiens for P.K. Subban. The Nashville Predators are now down two games to one to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. Why, not only will the Preds win the championship series, but why do they deserve it?
It’s not necessarily that Nashville is predestined to win the 2017 Cup, but it’s just that the Penguins shouldn’t. There are several teams that have won too much in the NHL: the Pens, Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, etc. Any of the remaining teams could deserve to win, but why is Nashville most deserving? That’s a good question, I mean, why not Sergei Bobrovsky’s Columbus Blue Jackets who had that insane winning streak at the beginning of this 2016-17 season? Why not Brad Marchand’s Boston Bruins who scraped their way into the postseason by beating powerhouses at the end of the year? Why Pekka Rinne’s Nashville Predators? Well, to begin with, they fought off the rallying St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks in the last two rounds. The Blues were the second round matchup and the Ducks were their opponents in the Western Conference Finals. What’s more remarkable is their victory in the first round: The top seed Chicago Blackhawks laughed in the face of the bottom seed Predators before Game 1. How could Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, and Pekka Rinne’s feeble Nashville Predators, who had barely nudged their way past the Winnipeg Jets take on Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Corey Crawford’s Blackhawks? Well, in the Game 1 Smashville shutout on the road, the Preds’ Viktor Arvidsson scored the only goal in the first period. Game 2 saw another Rinne shutout with a 5-0 victory which brought the series to Tennessee. Game 3 started out with two Chicago goals from Dennis Rasmussen and Patrick Kane in the second period. In the third, Filip Forsberg took the game into his own hands and fired two goals, one early in the period and one late, past Crawford to tie the game 2-2 and bring us to overtime. It wasn’t until 16:44 in OT that the tie was broken by the Preds’ Kevin Fiala. The current score in the series worried the now horror stricken Hawks fans as they trailed three games to none to the eight seed. Despite the third period goal from Jonathan Toews, the two goals from Josi, one goal from Colton Sissons, and final goal from Arvidsson brought the final score to 4-1 Predators, just confirming the Windy City’s worst fear: they’d, not only lost to, but been swept by the last seed in the Western Conference, Nashville Predators. With 94 season points, Smashville would have missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, yet Chicago had been knocked off by them. Now, we move past the implications for who deserves what more, and to who has more skill. In this series, the defending champ Penguins are favored by 145 points to win. Now, that does not mean they’ll win Games 4 and 5 276-131; it means that if you bet $100 on the Predators winning, and they do, you win $145. Pittsburgh is clearly heavily favored to take this series, which would be their third since 2000 and their fifth total. This year is Nashville’s first appearance in the NHL Finals. Despite the previously presented information, Pittsburgh gave up more goals than Nashville. The Preds also have won a higher percentage of faceoffs than the Pens, which, when combined with the apparent lacking defense of Pittsburgh, does not come out with a Pittsburgh victory. Now, Rinne, after yesterday’s game is 1-9 against the Pens; and his newfound momentum and complete steely-eyed nature in front of the net will almost assuredly carry Music City to their first NHL parade. The Predators have given up very few goals this postseason and are neck and neck with Pittsburgh for goals scored. That combination does not add up for the Pennsylvania side of the coin. The Predators have faced great adversity this season and they have really excelled of late. No team is more deserving of this Stanley Cup victory than the Predators of Nashville, Tennessee. Sidney Crosby and the Penguins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have had their fun, but like LeBron James in the NBA with his Cavaliers of Cleveland, Ohio, they will most likely lose on their quest to defend their title. Jesse A. Cook “P.K., Pekka, Preds” June 4, 2017 |
AuthorJesse Cook: High school junior. Does play-by-play for the Sharon Varsity Eagles softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and football teams. Fanatic of the Boston and Cincinnati teams in the Big Four sports. Designs graphics of athletes, politicians, and musicians at Picsart.com. Archives
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