Thornton surgery goes well

Bruins captain Joe Thornton underwent surgery yesterday to stabilize his fractured right cheekbone. General manager Mike O'Connell said the operation, performed by Dr. Michael Yaremchuk at Massachusetts General Hospital, was a success.

"The doctor was very pleased with the procedure," said O'Connell in a statement. "He wants to keep Joe in the hospital overnight as a precaution and we expect him to be released [today]. Joe will miss [tomorrow's] game against Florida at the FleetCenter and will be listed with a day-to-day status after that game."

Thornton, 24, suffered the injury Monday afternoon in a fight with Rangers center Eric Lindros.

It's expected Thornton will be able to return next week, possibly for Tuesday's game against the Islanders in New York. Thornton was voted the starting center for the Eastern Conference in the upcoming All-Star Game Feb. 8 in St. Paul, but he won't be the only Boston player in the lineup.

Last night, the reserves, selected by the NHL hockey operations department in conjunction with the 30 general managers, were announced, and defenseman Nick Boynton was among those added to the roster. It will be Boynton's second appearance at the mid-winter festivities. In 2002, he was on the roster for the Young Stars game.

This year's edition of Young Stars, which will almost certainly include Bruins Andrew Raycroft and Patrice Bergeron, will be announced tomorrow.

Boynton joked that finding out he made the team made him wonder who was picking.

"It'll be neat," said Boynton, who admitted being spooked when summoned to coach Mike Sullivan's office. "It's something you kind of dream about as a kid. I'm real honored."

Boynton said it was all the more special because of the adversity he had to overcome when he was diagnosed with diabetes.

"Five years ago now when I started in Providence, I didn't really picture myself getting to this point, so I'm really happy with the way things worked out," said Boynton. "The Bruins stuck with me even though I struggled at the start of my pro career, and I'm just very fortunate and I'm real happy."

Speed added

Former Carolina coach Paul Maurice coached newest Bruin Craig MacDonald (who made his debut for the Black and Gold last night against Buffalo) for parts of three seasons when MacDonald was called up to the NHL during his time in the Hurricanes' organization, and Maurice believes the forward has a strong offensive upside. "At one point, he put some pucks in the net and he did it at the American League level," said Maurice, referring to MacDonald's 19 goals in 64 games with Lowell in 2001-02. "In Carolina, I never really gave him the chance to play with players where he could create a little bit of offense, but I think, for the most part, [the Bruins] are going to have a real good penalty killer and a guy who's going to add a lot of speed to the team, a real good pressure guy. He can play left wing and center and I think he can probably play right [wing]. He's fairly versatile." . . . The Bruins' scratches were defenseman Jeff Jillson and left wing Doug Doull . . . P.J. Axelsson played in his 500th NHL game.