Colin Campbell

He's being interview on the Fan590 right now by the "Bobcat" right now. The topic is regarding Thornton threatening/saying he'll leave this year. Interesting to note, Campbell said one of the teams that make the least complaints is the New Jersey Devils. They don't whine and keep winning.

:handclap:

He's being interview on the Fan590 right now by the "Bobcat" right now. The topic is regarding Thornton threatening/saying he'll leave this year. Interesting to note, Campbell said one of the teams that make the least complaints is the New Jersey Devils. They don't whine and keep winning.

:handclap:

Thornton's getting plenty of support from his hometeam fans, which I find follows the same free passes he's always gotten from the local media for the most part ever since he arrived here in MA. He can do no wrong in Boston in stark contrast to guys like Ramirez, Martinez, Garciappara, Nixon, Brady etc... He's a terrific player that was named captain of the team prematurely and still has a good ways to go with regards to realizing what it means to be a true leader in this day and age. He ripped the officiating to no end last season then went and got himself arrested in a barroom brawl and now he's back to the same Mario-isms of yesteryear after Mike O'Connell made it a big point of tailoring the entire offseason around accelerating Thornton's leadership abilities. Mario was called a crying whining baby when he did this and the same was done when Gretzky said it.

Good perspective on the whole Thornton situation here:

http://www.foxsports.com/content/view?contentId=1835960

Thornton should just play hockey

BY DARYL REAUGH
FOX Sports Net
Nov. 11, 2003 9:04 p.m.

RAZOR'S RANTS

FOXSports.com: Bruins center Joe Thornton was quoted today saying that he's fed up with all the clutching and grabbing in the league and that he has considered retiring. What are your thoughts on what he's saying?

Daryl Reaugh: What is he now, Mario Lemieux?

When we were in Boston last week, there was an article that came out about him. Obviously, he was upset. He wouldn't talk to the media after a game against San Jose. Then the thing came out in the paper that he was a little miffed about players hanging on to him when he has the puck, and they get away with it because there's so much attention paid to making sure guys don't do that AWAY from the puck. It's almost like it's "no holds barred" when you're dealing with the guy who actually HAS the puck. And that's frustrated him.

But then, you can spin it completely back around again. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. In that game (Stars vs. Bruins), there was a call against Mike Modano when Thornton had the puck and Modano was called for holding or something like that. It was exactly what he was lobbying for and what the Bruins were lobbying for in the paper. But when you saw it again on replay, it wasn't so much that Modano was holding him as much as Thornton was grabbing on to his stick and holding Modano.

That's what you end up with. If you took all the times when the Joe Thorntons and all these other people think they're being wronged, whatever way it is, I think you probably see just as many infractions from their end as the guys who are trying to defend them.

Everyone's going to lean on the fact that this isn't supposed to be a completely easy league. You're supposed to fight through some stuff in order to score. His situation probably gets to be overwhelming frustrating because he's the focus every night. But that's part of being Joe Thornton. That was part of being Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux and a lot of other guys, too.

FOXSports.com: He said the refs tell him, "You're big and strong, stay on your feet, keep your legs moving and fight through it."

DR: Yeah. Well, isn't that hockey?

If these guys want to turn this into ringette (a hockey-like, non-contact game played mostly by females), they can do that for them and take body-checking out. I'm sure a lot of the players would like if they didn't ever have to worry about being hit. But you'd better stop calling it the National Hockey League and hockey in general and just call it what it is. And that's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Ringette".

It's easy for me to say now that I'm a broadcaster, but the immediate reaction would be, "Just shut up and play."

To come out and say that he's going to retire . . . He makes over $5 million a year. It's like someone in a workplace saying, "I can't get my work done because every time I try to make copies we're out of toner. So I'm quitting. I can't do what I do without toner, so I'm quitting."

Please. He's gonna quit. Whatever.
.
.
.

He's being interview on the Fan590 right now by the "Bobcat" right now. The topic is regarding Thornton threatening/saying he'll leave this year. Interesting to note, Campbell said one of the teams that make the least complaints is the New Jersey Devils. They don't whine and keep winning.

:handclap:

Historically over the past 5 years or so the Devils have fewer power plays than any other team, and they are also short handed less than any other team.