Thornton hasn't been keeping up the pace

Thornton hasn't been bad, but he also hasn't been good. That's bad news for the Bruins, because, fair or not, they're only going to go as far as their first line will take them. Thornton is the pivot of that trio, with wingers Mike Knuble and Glen Murray, and he's not getting them the puck the way he was last year. Worse, his scoring is down markedly, and he's on track for about a 50 percent hit on the 36 goals he delivered last season. At best, he's playing like a junior Jumbo Joe.

The way things look, Thornton will finish with around 80 points. Here in the dead puck era, that's not all that bad. Heck, back when scoring was easy, as recently as the early '90s, that would translate to something in the 110-to-120-point range.

But here in Year 7 of Jumbo Joe's career, it looks as if he has developed the Seven-Year Hitch. He is supposed to The Guy in the Black & Gold franchise. He is supposed to be among the NHL's top three scorers, no ifs, ands or butt-ends. Instead, as of yesterday morning, he was in a six-way tie for 12th, his production in lockstep with Marian Hossa, Marc Savard, Ladislav Nagy, Sergei Gonchar, and Shane Doan.

Tell me who you hang with, I'll tell you who you are. Would you take any one of those guys for the Bruins' captain? Of course not. Thornton is better than all of them -- far better in most cases -- but you wouldn't know it by the numbers he has posted thus far.

Due to a very challenged defense, we now know this isn't a much better team than the spoked-B edition that took a polite, unassuming bow in the '03 playoffs as the New Jersey Devils' warmup act. It already has the air of a club looking just to get by, suffer through the 82 games, take one on the chin in the postseason and then await the great labor war ahead in '04.

However, the Bruins have a bonafide netminder in Andrew Raycroft -- his numbers are right there with those of high-profile veterans Nikolai Khabibulin and Jeff Hackett -- and that alone should be making up for some of those blue line deficiencies. In fact, Raycroft has mitigated some of the ongoing damage back there, but the slow-to-get-it-going offense hasn't lived up to its end of the deal. Add a decent blue liner, who knows what might happen, right? Wrong. Because in its own way, the offense has gone as bad recently as the defense.

Not that Thornton is alone among the offensive mediocrity. He has been off, while Sergei Samsonov (6-10--16) has been in a dizzying downward spiral. The Magical Muscovite, who averaged 73 points in the two seasons prior to his lost season [cracked wrist] of 2002-03, looks as if he will be challenged to match the 47 points he posted in 1997-98. He was the Rookie of the Year with those numbers. But again, seven years into the league, and blessed with great talent, he could be expected to be pushing 90 points this year. Another 47-point season? The upward trend is going decidedly down the drain.

Murray is the other big gun, and he finished with a career-high 92 points last year. His 26 points thus far would have him pegged for about 70 points over the 82-game season. Ugh. Meanwhile, Knuble has been blanked in five of the last seven games, but a good start still has him pegged for 61 points, which would be, believe it or not, a career season for the 31-year-old left wing.

It is fast becoming a very strange season for Thornton, one with a sinking profile and points to go with it. When the club's strong start began to fizzle, the captain began to grouse and shout about the ever-present clutch-and-grab game that he must battle. Fair enough. It's bad for everyone, and someone with Thornton's credentials is entitled to speak his mind, even if yelling at the NHL's city hall has proven to be nothing but a waste of breath (see an outspoken but underheard Brett Hull in Detroit for confirmation).

In the midst of his frustrations, Thornton told TSN reporter James Duthie that maybe the fight wasn't worth it and he might consider calling it quits after this season. Not exactly what a club wants to hear from its 24-year-old franchise player. Quit? Heck, in many ways, management considers he hasn't even started. To wit: since his arrival here in the fall of '97, the Bruins have lost four of their five playoff series, and overall have lost 18 of 29 postseason games.

Thirty-one-plus years past their last Cup, the Bruins now are smack dab in the middle of their Thornton Era. This is his team. He wears the C. He makes the big money. He draws the most attention, in every way, including the nagging and oft-untalented checkers who all but begin chewing at his heels in warmups. He is the face of the franchise. If the Bruins are going anywhere, it will have to be on the back of his big body.

The numbers are down; his game's off, too. If ever a franchise player were faced with a franchise-player moment, it's now, with all the Hub of Hockey beginning to wonder if he's really got game.