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Saving Joe Thornton Burns deserves more credit than Keenan Inside the Bruins Enough already with the Nobel Peace Prize accolades for former Bruins coach Mike Keenan for his handling of then-21-year-old Joe Thornton. Yes, Keenan was the right coach for Thornton that one season (2000-01), as the kid, with the rest of the cynical Bruins, had tuned out Pat Burns' constant whining. Thornton, along with others, needed a new voice, and Keenan gave Thornton a new point of reference as well: Mark Messier. Thornton, before the Bruins drafted him first overall in 1997 after finishing last overall in the league (thank you, Adam Oates), had been widely compared to Eric Lindros and Mike Modano, both established superstars to whom Thornton could not really relate. It's no secret the alliance Keenan forged with Messier when the two created the leadership synergy the New York Rangers needed to hoist their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. It was natural for Keenan to look at a raw and talented Thornton and see, in his crystal ball of hope, another Messier. So, in a Bruins post-game press conference one night, he made the suggestion publicly and challenged Thornton privately to aspire to Messier, to add that competitive, nasty edge to his game, to take it to the rink for the opening faceoff, to stop waiting for someone like Matthew Barnaby to bring it out of him in way of a dumb retaliation penalty. Point well taken. Keenan, ever self-absorbed, is sponging up the pats on his back that have come around the league with every Thornton goal and assist, even as he coaches now in Florida. Ever wonder, though, if perhaps Olli Jokinen, now flourishing under Keenan's tutelage in Sunrise, would have done so at age 18? He was chosen third in the same draft in which the Bruins tabbed Thornton first. Now 24, Jokinen's starting to get it, and Keenan will get credit for his progress, too. Certainly not Larry Robinson, the coach who lost sleep (and games) through the many diaper changes of Jokinen's first two NHL years with the Los Angeles Kings. Dare I suggest that, had Keenan coached the Bruins when Thornton was drafted, the kid would have been traded by now to some other team hoping to get something out of a one-time hopeful now ruined by unreasonable expectations? It's not as if Keenan made Thornton any more than Howard Cosell made Muhammad Ali. And, by the way, Thornton has not yet perfected the message of leadership Keenan meant to convey in his Messier speech; he's still not the player he can yet become. Thornton is infinitely talented but remains a lazy thinker on the ice. During the Bruins' swoon (winless in six), Thornton has produced. But he hasn't made necessary adjustments to his game that can help him survive what has been an onslaught of lumberjack defensemen and a turning of the cheek by the referees. Thornton, unlike every Bruins top-line center since Kenny Linseman, is a premier skater. Craig Janney was average, Adam Oates was tricky but powerless in his stride, and Jason Allison is the world's greatest street-hockey player. But Thornton can swoop through the middle of the rink and execute his great skills at warp speed. Problem is, he finds himself playing the game as slowly as Oates and Allison too much of the time. He opts for the familiar and the reliable, even when it becomes obvious he needs to try something else in order to keep the opponent honest. He lacks imagination. In Gallery Gods language, he thinks assist before he thinks goal. But I digress. Thornton is a wonderful hockey specimen and impossible not to like unless your name is Andrei Markov. Unfazed by thousands of empty seats, he remains agreeable to any reasonable off-ice request, making him an ideal front man for an organization that, no matter how much it wins, only a Stanley Cup will do for another New England embrace. His parents get the credit for that fact. But Burns, his first NHL coach, gets more credit in this space than does Keenan for protecting an 18-year-old Thornton from a salivating Boston media ("are you the messiah, are you the one?") and, by extension, Bruins fans, whose pupils rolled backward until No. 4's appeared. Upon his arrival, Burns literally begged the media to understand the reality of the situation, that Thornton was in fact an infant on a pro-hockey timetable. Even Ray Bourque told this reporter on the day Thornton was drafted, "I can't tell how good he's going to be, but I can tell you this much. He's going to be a heckuva lot better in four or five years than he is right now." From a conceptual standpoint, protecting the future of the Boston Bruins against themselves took even more courage by Burns, especially under the critical eye of his immediate supervisor, Harry "I want my money's worth" Sinden. Burns did his part brilliantly, correctly and successfully. Keenan was but a one-trick pony with every Bruin (just ask Don Sweeney) and wasn't running to Thornton with a message he got in a short visit with a burning bush. He was only repeating one of his rehearsed speeches, undoubtedly trimmed with tinsel terms like "education" and "commitment" and bogus phrases like "the culture of expectation." I'm more inclined to believe former Pawtucket Red Sox manager Ed Nottle when he told me, when asked if he felt a sense of satisfaction over the major league success stories that got started under his watch, that "they were gonna get there ... I think we just get in the way, sometimes." And Thornton, your typical Canadian good ol' boy who just happens to be the NHL's premier player at this moment, has been true to his nature in agreeing that Keenan deserves praise. He'd probably launch an equal toast to the kid who mows his parents' lawn in St. Thomas, Ontario. But now, with every step of progress he makes, Keenan's legend grows. And Burns is more and more magnified as the guy who was getting in the way. And, while we're at it, it should be noted that Robbie Ftorek, unlike Burns ("you don't teach NHL players, that's why they're in the NHL") and Keenan (whose message never changes), still believes an old dog can learn new tricks. Which means, he, not Burns and not Keenan, is most directly linked with Thornton's quantum leap to the scoring perch just below Mario Lemieux's. To quote Burns from one of his more motivational moments: "How 'bout that?" IT'S NOT HARVEST TIME, BUT FARM CROPS GROW Timely contributions, not just from Andy Hilbert, Lee Goren and Matt Herr but also from Martin Samuelsson and Kris Vernarsky, have helped the Providence Bruins win five in a row going into yesterday's home game against the Worcester IceCats. Friday it was Vernarsky, the former Maple Leafs prospect for whom defenseman Ric Jackman was traded (for whom Cameron Mann was traded -- not a bad set of moves, Mr. O'Connell), who scored a hat trick in a 6-2 win over the Lowell Lock Monsters at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. Now 17-9-5-2 (41 points), the P-Bruins are creeping up behind North Division-leading Manchester (N.H.). Goren, who added a pair of goals, was called up to Boston for Saturday's game against Florida. For you last-minute Christmas shoppers, two ticket discounts being offered for the holiday season by the P-Bruins: 1) a free team hat with the purchase of a book of 10 FlexTix ($130); 2) a discount on First Night Providence buttons ($9 instead of $12) and, with the button, a discount on a P-Bruins ticket ($10) for the New Year's Eve game (4 p.m. faceoff) vs. the Hartford Wolf Pack. For information, call the P-Bruins ticket office at 401-273-5000 or log onto www.providencebruins.com. Mick Colageo is a Standard-Times staff writer. Material from beat writers, Web sites and wire reports was used in this column. This story appeared on Page C10 of The Standard-Times on December 23, 2002.
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