DETROIT — The thing about Joe Thornton, the one fundamental truth about his sunny personality, is that he never appears to have had a bad day in his life. This, surprisingly, in the minds of some National Hockey League thinkers, has occasionally been seen as a bad thing. The thinking is, if you can't be a dour sourpuss every waking moment of every waking day of your professional hockey life, it means you don't care enough about winning.
Of course, the San Jose Sharks know what it's like to have a dour sourpuss as their main dressing-room influence. For years, the face of their franchise was Owen Nolan, a moody, brooding player, whose moods — from day to day — were wildly unpredictable. Personality-wise, Thornton represents the polar opposite.
From the moment he arrived in a trade from the Boston Bruins in the middle of last season, the Sharks' culture, make-up and direction changed; the pendulum swung from one emotional extreme to another.
Thornton won the NHL's MVP award last season for lifting a team far out of the playoff picture into the No. 5 seed and winning the scoring title to boot. This year, it was more of the same — he finished second in the overall scoring race behind the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby and was the league's assists leader with 92.
More than anything else, Thornton's presence brings a lightness to the team off the ice that sharply contrasts with its on-ice demeanor. For proof, consider how methodical the Sharks were in polishing off the Red Wings 2-0 on the opening game of their second-round playoff series. Thornton did what he does best, setting up the game winning goal with a seeing-eye pass out of the corner. Once they built a two-goal lead, the Sharks assumed a defensive posture and shut the door.
"The thing about him is, Joe absolutely loves the game of hockey," said Sharks' general manager Doug Wilson, who made the biggest trade of his life when he sent Wayne Primeau, Brad Stuart and Marco Sturm east to the Bruins in exchange for Thornton. "Example: During the year, he had a broken toe, a broken finger, but he would not stay away from practice. We could not get him to stay away.
"In this day and age, you've got arguably one of the best players in the league who loves the game that much and doesn't want to let his teammates down - anybody that perpetuates that myth, that belief (that Thornton is too easy-going), they just don't know Joe and they haven't spent enough time around him. This guy is a hockey player, pure and simple. He loves the game and he'll do anything to win."
Sharks' forward Bill Guerin played with Thornton for two seasons in Boston and joined the Sharks at the trading deadline. According to Guerin, having someone with Thornton's disposition as the team's go-to-player means they can take their cue from him at key moments in the game and nobody gets flustered.
"He's such a happy-go-lucky guy," said Guerin. "Everything's good. Life is good — and you know what? In pressure situations, you can look over at the guy and he's just like, 'okay guys let's go.' Nothing's uptight — and that helps. That's infectious. That goes through the room. It's good."
Guerin spent the past few seasons playing in Dallas and St. Louis, but since re-uniting with Thornton in San Jose, says he's seen a maturation occur.
"I do see a change, a big change," said Guerin. "Now, he feels a bigger sense of responsibility. Along with him and Patty (Marleau), this is their team. He realizes that now. I don't want to say he didn't before, but he was just younger then. I think he's been ready the last couple of years to take on the responsibility of being the leader of the team."
Thornton had six assists in five games as the Sharks defeated the Nashville Predators in the opening round. Last year, they took a 2-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers in the second round, before losing a pivotal third game in triple overtime — and fell apart after that, losing four games in a row.
According to Thornton, the biggest change in the Sharks year over year is that their expectation levels are much higher.
"Last year, we were so far out of the playoff picture that the focus was just getting into the playoffs and then seeing what we could do," said Thornton. "This year, we know what we can do and our expectation is really to get to the Cup final and win the Stanley Cup. We have the team to do it. So it's just a different mindset."
The Red Wings' Kris Draper played with Thornton on Canada's 2004 World Cup team, a 2006 Olympic team and a world championship team. In the opener of the series, both Draper and Pavel Datsyuk took turns playing head-to-head against Thornton's line.
"The one thing about Joe is, he makes the players around him that much better," said Draper. "He has such good vision. He can make those passes, where it doesn't look as if there's a lane, but he finds a lane. Even down low, he's so big and strong and he has that big wingspan he uses to his advantage.
"The best thing to do against a guy like Thornton is to try and make him play in his own end. You want to get some good cycle shifts and some good grind time in the offensive zone. That keeps him 200 feet away from doing something dangerous."
