Fans have said it, analysts have said it and now a player is saying it: The Bruins should have responded better to Matt Cooke's violent hit on Marc Savard.
"I don't want to take anything away from my teammates or bad-mouth anyone at all, [but] I'm pretty positive if I was on the ice something different might have happened," Thornton said in a radio interview on WEEI on Wednesday.
Thornton explained that he, like most of his teammates, were watching the puck and therefore didn't really see the hit. He also said that he doesn't expect his team to be able to respond by exacting any revenge on Cooke next Thursday when the Penguins play in the Garden.
"There's not much you can do, the way the league is," said Thornton, who is tied for eighth in the NHL in fighting majors this season with 17. "You wait and see what [league disciplinarian Colin Campbell] does with the decision, I suppose, and that's about all you can do.
"The way the game is, it's not like it was 10, 20 years ago, where you could just go put five guys out on the ice the next time he comes into town and beat the snot out of him, because you'll end up getting a bigger suspension than [Cooke] did for hitting him. The game's changed a bit that way. Do I agree with it? No, I'm kind of old school. I'm more an eye-for-an-eye guy on the ice. That's the way it is nowadays. So, I guess you just come back and play and put it in the back of your mind. I don't know. You take care of it when you can. But I doubt it will be a retaliation right away like people expect, because you just can't get away with that anymore, unfortunately."
