BOSTON — It will come as no surprise to Bruins fans to hear that Shawn Thornton was at the center of two of the more physical sequences Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.
Thornton, a season-and-a-half removed from his final game in black and gold, put a hurting on both Jimmy Hayes and Zac Rinaldo during the Bruins’ 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers, sending the former to the locker room with a shoulder to the jaw and dropping the latter to the ice as retaliation for a borderline hit on Panthers teammate Connor Brickley.
When questioned about the incidents after the game, however, neither Hayes nor Rinaldo had a bad word to say about the former Bruins bruiser.
“He was just playing hard,” said Hayes, who was teammates with Thornton last season in Florida. “I got a pass, and I just got overextended and a little low. I’m good buddies with Thorts. It wouldn’t be a head-hunting thing; that’s just a hockey play. It happens quick.”
Hayes missed the tail end of the first period after taking the hit, but he returned to the bench to begin the second and played the rest of the game.
“Just the league protocol,” the Bruins winger said. “It happened, but it was just him playing hard. I don’t think it was anything intentional.”
Bruins coach Claude Julien declined to comment on the hit.
Rinaldo’s run-in came early in the third, with the Bruins holding a two-goal lead. After dropping Brickley in front of the Florida bench — and earning a charging minor in the process — the first-year Bruin had to answer to Thornton, who dealt Rinaldo a swift beatdown before quickly relenting.
“Thorts is a tough guy, and I’m not surprised,” Rinaldo said. “I mean, I’d probably do the same thing if I was in his situation. They were down 2-0 at the time, they needed something, and he stepped up to the plate. I’d do the same thing.”
Thornton finished with four penalty minutes, two shots on goal and three hits in 7:27 of ice time.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
