When a player suffers a nasty injury, generally the reaction from people is hushed silence and some “atta’ boys” from the bench to wish the guy well.
Such is not the case for Boston tough guy Shawn Thornton on Tuesday night against the Blackhawks. Early in the second period, Thornton got caught just above the eye by the skate blade of Chicago forward Fernando Pisani in what turned out to be quite the bloody accident. Thornton got up from the ice bleeding profusely and headed towards the Bruins bench where he’d eventually be given 40 stitches to close the wound. To get to the bench he had to skate past the Chicago bench and that’s when things got a bit dicey.
As Thornton headed off to be treated for the cut, someone (or many) from the Chicago bench started yapping to Thornton as he skated by. (Video) Thornton stopped dead in his tracks to shout back at the hecklers from the Blackhawks bench and, suffice to say, he wasn’t too pleased after the game when discussing it as the Chicago Sun-Times’ Adam Jahns found out.
Joe Haggerty of CSN New England got a little bit more from Thornton who, even in his state tonight, found a way to keep it amusing as he tries to get to the bottom of the case.
A short time after the incident, Zdeno Chara had some terse words on the ice for Patrick Kane. We can only imagine the diminutive Kane being a bit intimidated by the towering Chara having words with him. Whether that means it was Kane who was mouthing off from the bench, we don’t know.
Given the Blackhawks reputation for getting lippy with opponents on the ice, even without the likes of Adam Burish and Ben Eager who are playing elsewhere or Dave Bolland who’s out with a concussion , it’s not entirely shocking that they’d use the moment to say a few colorful things to a guy heading off. That said, it’s pretty easy to be tough from the bench and getting on the wrong side of Thornton isn’t something we’d like to do. Perhaps the Blackhawks are fortunate they only play Boston once or twice a year.