George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers had not quite arrived in 2021 when Joe Thornton all but declared them a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
During the pandemic-shortened 2021 season, the Panthers took a step forward.
They finished second in the reworked Central Division, and gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a fight in the first-round of the playoffs before bowing out in 6.
The Panthers looked like a team the NHL may need to take seriously.
Only they were, after all, still the Florida Panthers.
Then Jumbo Joe Thornton, a Hall of Famer who had never won the Stanley Cup, signed on to win a championship with the Panthers.
Yeah, the Florida Panthers.
Teams started to look at the Panthers a little differently.
After all, if Joe Thornton was going to go ring chasing with the Panthers, perhaps they really were a contender.
“We wanted to win for him,’’ Aaron Ekblad said, “just as much as we wanted to do it for ourselves.”
On Saturday night, the San Jose Sharks — the team which Thornton made his Hall of Fame bones with from 2006-20 — officially sent his No. 19 up into the rafters.
Thornton played 24 NHL seasons with the Bruins, Sharks, Maple Leafs, and — finally — the Florida Panthers.
Joe Thornton may not remembered for ending his career with the Panthers.
After all, he only played 34 of his 1,714 NHL games with Florida.
They were, however, his final 34 NHL games. Make that 35 when you count the one playoff game.
Regardless.
The Panthers certainly remember their time with Joe Thornton.
And are thankful for it.
“What he achieved during his career, as big of a name and legend he is, he came here and was an unbelievable teammate,’’ Sasha Barkov said.
“He was close to 40 at that time, and he acted like he was a kid. He was excited about everything, he hung out with all the guys and went everywhere with us. He brought his own personality into the room and made that year so much fun for all of us.
“He gave us his best in every practice and every game.”
Thornton played the 2020-21 season with the Maple Leafs after leaving the Sharks.
As a free agent, he was looking for an up-and-coming team he could help get over the top.
The Panthers ended up needing him more than he thought.
Florida started the 2021-22 season with coach Joel Quenneville, but after a 7-0 start, he was forced to resign after the Chicago Blackhawks sex assault scandal came to the forefront.
The Panthers’ dream season was unraveling.
Florida put assistant coach Andrew Brunette in charge, and he helped lead the Panthers through the rough times all the way to the best record in the NHL and the Presidents’ Trophy.
But many credited Thornton for being there for them as a peer to help them get through as well.
Brunette included.
“The thing I remember most was his attitude, and I have tried to carry that with me,’’ Ekblad said.
“In an 82-game season, you are going to lose; you are going to suck, or feel amazing, or just terrible. Sometimes you play the best game of your life. With Joe, whatever the situation, he was positive 100 percent of the time.
“If we lost, he got on the plane and still turned the music up high. He taught us how to bounce back and get after the next game.”
Even though the Panthers got swept out of the playoffs in 2022, what Thornton showed them carried through the next couple of seasons.
Ekblad said those lessons helped the Panthers win the Stanley Cup that Thornton never did.
“I think we brought that with us into the playoffs the past few years, how to get off of the mat quickly and not dwell on things,’’ Ekblad said. “We all have bad days, but you saw him play all these years and he had fun every day.
“That probably helped him over the years.”
Anton Lundell was a fresh-faced rookie on that 2021-22 Florida team — and Thornton had plenty of fun with the young center.
Lundell struggled to grow a beard. Thornton joked that the South Florida humidity was no match for the thick growth which had become his trademark.
The two hit it off right away.
“He was playing in the NHL before I was born,” Lundell said. “All the guys laughed about that.”
But Thornton treated Lundell — and everyone around the Panthers, from their media staff to equipment managers to the most veteran of players — the same.
Everyone was part of something bigger.
“To have someone like Joe here for my first season was pretty awesome,’’ Lundell said. “To see how he did things, to be able to talk about things with him, was very helpful to me. He still loved playing hockey. It was cool to see that, to just be around him.
“He had such a passion for hockey that was unmatched. He wanted to play every single night. And when he did play, he left it all out there. He never had a bad day, never complained, was always positive.”
How positive could he have been?
“He reminded me of a kid in a candy shop. Every day,” Carter Verhaeghe said. “He brought so much excitement to the practice rink or the arena. There was excitement for him around everything that we did. He was always buzzing around and that is contagious.
“We had an awesome year, and being around Jumbo was such a big part of that.”
One day, the Panthers may end up retiring No. 19.
It will be to honor Matthew Tkachuk, whom the Panthers acquired not long after they were swept by the Lightning in 2022.
But Thornton was the last player to wear that number before Tkachuk took it.
It was almost a passing of the torch.
“He gave us his best in every practice and every game,’’ Barkov said. “He kept things loose, but worked harder than anyone else. When you got to the rink, he already had his skates on.
“He was on the ice long before the second guy joined him. He was even there before [Sergei Bobrovsky]. That tells you all you need to know. No one is on the ice before Bob. He was just unbelievable.”