This will be kind of weird, because Patrick Marleau is a good guy, but nowhere near as charsimatic as Thornton. And Tasca nailed it when he said the media was not happy with Thornton in Boston.

San Jose was groomed by Owen Nolan to expect the captin to run over people as well as scoring the game winning goal. As much as Thornton shunned the media, Owen Nolan was someone you do not mess with. He did not want to say one word to the media, instead letting his actions on the ice speak for themselves. I can understand that, but it is not the best thing for selling hockey in a non tradional market.

One thing that will be cool for Thornton is the same thing Damphousse experienced after coming over as a Captain from the Canadiens. He could walk down the street and no one knew who he was. The local media, except when it comes to NHL as a sport, is notoriously soft on its start players. I guess Terrell Owens is an exception there too.

If he gets off to a good start on the ice, and presses the flesh for a week or two to make the rounds of all the local media, he will buy 2 years to find himself on the ice.

But the trades are not over. When backup goaltender Vesa Toskala [600,000] comes back from injury and regains his form, Nolan Schaefer [400,000] will probably be sent to Cleveland. Then the Sharks will take a serious look at moving Nabokov [3,300,000], an unrestricted free agent after this year. If they dealt Nabokov for a PP defenseman, had Toskala-Schaefer in net, and Marleau-Thornton on the top line, this could be a playoff team.

Or maybe someone panicked.