Toucher & Rich: Shawn Thornton On Ference, Savard, Trade Rumors
BOSTON (CBS) - With the NHL trade deadline less than three weeks away and the Bruins sitting on some salary cap room, rumors have already begun to swirl around Boston.
Shawn Thornton does not listen to any of them.
"I don't really watch the trade rumors, I can't stand them," the Bruins defenseman told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich Tuesday morning. "All the ones you hear about never happen, it's always the ones you don't hear about that go through."
After shutting down Marc Savard for the remainder of the season on Monday, the Bruins will have some flexibility when it comes to the trade market. General Manager Peter Chiarelli said the Bruins will be active before the deadline, trying to fill in a piece or two.
If the past is any precursor, all Thornton needs to do is take a teammate out to dinner to punch his ticket out-of-town. T&R call it "The Thornton Curse" after players like Shane Hnidy went out to dinner with Thornton, only to be traded shortly after.
This was cause for concern for Mark Stuart, who was driving Thornton to practice with.
"Yeah I'm well aware of it. I'm going to try to stay away from him just for that," Stuart joked. "The last few years that has been the case. I shouldn't even be giving him a ride to practice."
Thornton is used to standing up for teammates on the ice, and Tuesday he defended one off it. Teammate Andrew Ference has been under fire with the national media for calling Danielle Paille's hit on Dallas' Raymond Sawada "a bad hit" to the press after the game. Although the pundits took exception to the comment, Thornton says there are no issues within the Bruins locker room.
"I see both sides of it," Thornton said. "I know where Andy's coming from. You can't be hypocritical going after other teams when they do it and saying your teammate can do it. It's not easy to keep it within when everyone questions you. Those guys are fine, they've talked and there's no issues."
You can hear the Bruins take on the rival Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night on 98.5 The Sports Hub with pre-game coverage starting at 6:30p.m.
