The Bruins' resident tough guy had never scored more than six goals in a season in the NHL entering the year. Last season, he managed just one goal in 74 games.
So when he scored his 10th goal of the year with just one-tenth of a second left in the opening period of Wednesday's 3-2 win over the New York Islanders, Thornton was pretty excited about the accomplishment.
"I'm happy to get it," Thornton said. "It's not much of a milestone for most guys, but for myself it's a big one so I'll take it.
"It's a big number for me," Thornton added. "Ten's not a lot for the average guy, but for myself it's a big number. I always thought I had the potential to get there and I'm very happy I was able to prove it this late in my career."
Thornton is in his 14th professional season. The first 10 of those were spent almost entirely in the American Hockey League, and he reached a point where he was just about ready to give up on his NHL dreams.
"The year in Anaheim, I talked about it with my wife," Thornton said. "We were going to try one more team and if I didn't make it, that was probably going to be it. If it had been [playing in] Portland all year, I would have really had to evaluate what I was going to do. I was 29 years old, and 600 or whatever games is a lot to play down there [in the AHL]. It can wear on you. So I'm very fortunate that a team gave me a break and it's been awesome ever since. My whole career has been great, but the last five years have been a dream come true."
Thornton finally made it up to Anaheim as a regular in that 2006-07 season, which ended with him hoisting the Stanley Cup after playing 15 playoff games for the Ducks. He signed with Boston the following summer and hasn't seen the AHL since. But even with a regular job in the NHL secured, Thornton still hadn't contributed offensively the way he felt capable. Until this year.
And while Thornton was ecstatic about reaching the 10-goal plateau, his teammates may have been even happier.
"Especially for a guy like that who's doing such a tough job, it's nice," captain Zdeno Chara said. "He's getting rewarded. To score 10 goals for him it's basically like maybe 30-40 goals for some goal-scoring guys. Obviously that's not his job. That's not his role. But to see him do that, it just shows that he can play the game. He can contribute in many ways. I'm happy for him."
Bruins coach Claude Julien agreed, while noting that there was still another offensive milestone Thornton wants to reach before the end of the season.
"I think everybody is happy for him, anytime you hit double digits [it's special]," Julien said. "His comment to me was, 'Hopefully I can get an assist tonight, so I can be 10 and 10, instead of 10 and nine.' Because he's looking a little selfish with more goals than assists. So that's, as you know Thorty, that would be one of his quotes."
While praising Thornton's offense, Julien didn't spare the ever-quotable tough guy from some friendly jabs about his defense.
"I was more preoccupied with talking about his play on defense there on that one shift in the first period, where the guy shifted around him," Julien said. "He's been bragging about playing defense before [in juniors and the AHL], and I told him it certainly didn't show on that play. Little jabs here and there on the bench with Thorty, but he likes to keep it loose."
Thornton entered some pretty rare company with the goal. He joins linemate Gregory Campbell as the first Bruins teammates to collect at least 10 goals and 10 fighting majors in the same season since Cam Neely and Nevin Markwart accomplished the feat together in 1986-87.
"That's a pretty cool thing," Thornton said. "It's just a stat, but I think it's pretty cool that we've played together all year except for the last three games and for both of us to be able to accomplish it, it's probably a little more special that we're so tight. I'm glad that we could do it."
Thornton did it in his first game back after missing three games with a cut on his forehead from a skate blade that needed over 40 stitches to close. Campbell, who assisted on Thornton's goal and scored the game-winner himself, was happy to have his linemate back beside him.
"He was excited to be back, you could tell that," Campbell said. "He had a couple extra jumps in his step, and he was good for our line. He added a lot of energy and it's nice to see him rewarded. We get a lot of chances and it's not often that they go in, so it was nice to see that."
