While it has only been three straight solid games by Joe Thornton, one has to ask if he has finally figured things out.
Jumbo Joe — despite being one of the true good guys in the game — has toiled for years with the label great regular season player, disappears in the playoffs.
But in this second round against the two-time defending Western Conference Champion Detroit Red Wings he has been a different player than what has shown previously in any post-season.
It is far too small of a sample size to definitively say that the penny has dropped, but it would only be fitting that it has come against the Red Wings.
While it is almost considered blasphemy to question the leadership of their former captain Steve Yzerman, it is easy to forget that until the Red Wings broke their Stanley Cup drought in 1997 he very much carried the same label as Thornton.
His regular season stats were terrific, but his playoff efforts were less than inspiring.
Yzerman was in impact player from the time he stepped on the ice for the first time in his rookie season in 1983. The only time in his first 11 seasons Yzerman was not a point-a-game player was in his injury shortened third season of 1985-86 when he scored 42 points in 51 games. While he never won a scoring championship thanks to two other superstars named Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, he eclipsed the 100-point mark in six consecutive seasons, topping out at 157 points in the 1988-89 campaign. The streak was ended by another injury shorted season when he tallied 82 points in 58 games in 1993-94.
The problem always was the second season.
Despite being a five time 50-goal scorer, that lethal sniper’s touch never translated to the post season, and only once was he able to propel the Red Wings beyond the second round — a run that ended in the Campbell Conference Finals in his 1986-87 season — in those first 11 years.
It wasn’t until the first post-lockout season of 1995-96 that Yzerman finally appeared to understand what it meant to play in the post season as the long playoff runs started in Detroit, culminating in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.
Thornton meanwhile has also battled injury throughout his career, but in his prime he posted three 100-point seasons, which possibly could have been four had it not been for another lockout.
He has also been a point-a-game player ever since his third full season in the league — during a time when it was much more difficult to rack up points than the freewheeling 80s and early 90s when Yzerman was in his prime.
And like Yzerman in the first half of his career, the playoffs have been a major hurdle, struggling to take either of his teams — the Boston Bruins and the San Jose Sharks — beyond the second round.
But why now? Why has it suddenly clicked for this perennial, post-season under achiever?
I don’t think his Olympic experience this season can be given enough credit.
He was surrounded by guys who had won, guys who expected to win, and ultimately a team that did win. It was a roster constructed by Yzerman. While his role on that team diminished as the tournament went on, he was there to fully absorb what was taking place and the way things were being done. It was a mentorship that he never really had growing up with the Bruins.
It took some adversity for those lessons to check in — Dan Boyle’s own goal — but it appears they have.
It was a similar experience Stevie Y got in 1996 on Canada’s World Cup team — although that team ultimately came up short in the final, the key notes were very much the same. The next year the Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup in 42 years and Yzerman went from shrinking violet to legend.
Thornton’s legacy will come down to how far he can follow Yzerman’s lead.
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com