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Joe Thornton to Jarret Stoll: ‘Just keep your head up’

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Los Angeles Kings head coach Darryl Sutter called Raffi Torres’ hit on Jarret Stoll “careless.” San Jose Sharks captain Joe Thornton seems to think that Stoll was the one being careless.

Thornton, 33, told CSNBayArea.com that he’s surprised the NHL wants to discuss the check with Torres.

“We were kind of shocked today to hear he has to fly to New York for the hearing,” Thornton said. “We didn’t see anything wrong on the play.”

The Sharks captain argues that the league is putting hitters in a tough spot.

“It almost seems like the player getting hit has no responsibility at all right now,” Thornton said. “In that case, I think Jarret probably wasn’t expecting to get hit, and it just looked like a clean hit. It seems right now that the responsibility is on the hitter, and not the receiver right now.”

Apparently he’s not very happy with that standard, then.

“No,” Thornton said. “The way I was brought up was to keep your head up. Just keep your head up. When I was six years old, I was taught that.”

He wasn’t the only Sharks player to support Torres. Logan Couture called it a clean, “shoulder-to-shoulder” hit. Joe Pavelski described it as a “hard call in our book” and head coach Todd McLellan didn’t even think Torres deserved to be whistled for a penalty on the play.

Either way, Torres’ availability seems unlikely (at best) for Thursday’s Game 2, so the Sharks need to move on.