Okay, let’s start with what this is not, which is some sort of postscript on the considerable career of Joe Thornton a.k.a. Jumbo Joe.
Before going any further, let us pause and consider the nickname. Most people I’ve talked to consider the nickname a play on the size of the most famous guy born in St. Thomas, Ont. Somehow, though, there is surely a tie to Jumbo the elephant, star of P.T. Barnum’s circus.
Jumbo was in town for a show in 1885 and wandered one evening onto the train tracks. There are myriad of myths about what happened—among them, the fact that Jumbo was trying to save a small elephant named Tom Thumb and/or his beloved trainer, or that Jumbo was half in the bag (he was known to enjoy a late-night whiskey).
Though Barnum rescued the bones and carcass of the mighty beast for their historic significance and commercial potential, Jumbo was filleted by butchers in St. Thomas. That last bit is a piece of local lore that the tourist board would surely deny but it does discourage shoppers in St. Thomas supermarkets from buying unmarked meat in the freezer section.
Thornton came into Air Canada Centre last night with a San Jose team that was playing okay-ish at 16-11-1 but didn’t really resemble the Sharks of May and June. The visitors came from two goals down in the third period to steal two points in a 3-2 shootout victory.
Jumbo Joe didn’t get a point, didn’t really make much of an impact, and seemed to be playing catch up a lot of the night. He took a regular shift between Patrick Marleau, another 37-year-old, and Joe Pavelski, who has succeeded Thornton as the Sharks’ leader up front. Which is to say that Thornton was rolled out in a position to be an impact player but didn’t make much of it at all.
He even got his turns in overtime but in 3-on-3 his struggles were even more obvious—he got away with a hook on Nazem Kadri but who doesn’t? And no ref with a heart would drop the gavel on a former Hart and Art Ross winner who’s hanging on.
Thornton is not completely shot but as far from a franchise centre as he has ever looked. Weighing Thornton’s numbers, just two goals in 29 games so far this season, you’re left to wonder how much longer you’re going to be able to watch him—and if he’ll ever get another shot at the Stanley Cup which has so far eluded him.
Back in the spring, Thornton reached back and found a game resembling that of his prime. With three goals and 18 assists in 24 playoff games, Thornton didn’t exactly carry the Sharks to the Cup final where they lost to the Penguins, but he played way better than you’d think a 36-year-old centreman could.
Yeah, he was coming off a point-per-game regular season (19 goals, 63 assists), and, yeah, he was voted onto the second all-star team, but it was the Sharks, a team that hadn’t advanced as far as the Western Conference final since 2011. And it was Thornton, a guy who has endured a lot of stinging criticism of the years, some of the lashing coming from San Jose general manager Doug Wilson, who led the way.
On the basis of last season, his playoff performance and, probably, love of a feel-good story, Thornton landed a spot on the roster of the Canadian team at the World Cup. That seemed to be a pretty good bookend on his international career, given that he made his big international pro debut at the last World Cup, which was contested back in 2004. He went home from Italy without an Olympic medal in 2006, celebrated with a gold in Vancouver four years later and was off the radar in 2014.
Thornton didn’t have much to do with the Canadian team’s gold-medal cruise in the World Cup this fall but he got marks for attendance and another item for the trophy case, maybe a last one before they send him off with a night in San Jose.
You had to wonder if the Sharks would have been better off if Thornton had given the World Cup a pass. What would have been his shortest summer ever was made even shorter by a last chance to wear red and white.
Last night Joe Thornton played his 1,396th NHL regular-season game and has been just about a point-per-game player. He’s 20 assists short of 1,000 and you have to think he’ll deal a momentous set-up at some point as spring nears, health permitting.
He’s 21 goals shy of 400 and I’m not sure what sort of odds you should lay on him making it—not happening this year and given that he hasn’t scored 20 in a season since 2011 next season would be no gimme. Will he keep playing beyond that, an orbit of the earth short of 40? Hard to imagine.
Thornton will be in the Hockey Hall of Fame someday. A first all-star team berth, thrice on the second all-star team, an incredible body of work. And maybe Sharks coach Peter DeBoer can find some way to recharge Thornton’s battery this season, scratching him out of some games on back-to-backs or something like that.
That would be a hard sell to Thornton, less so if he were to take a close look at his form these days. He deserves to go out better than did poor Jumbo.
