NHLVideo

The Bruins’ Shawn Thornton Will Miss At Least A Week With A Concussion Because Of This Fight

The Bruins’ Shawn Thornton is a classic enforcer. That’s why he’s stuck around with the Bruins over the last several years after drifting between minor leagues and the NHL for much of his career. Even when he was drifting, the one constant: he racked up tons of penalty minutes. When you’re that kind of player, you better know how to fight. And Shawn Thornton knows how to fight. But unfortunately for him, the Sabres’ John Scott also knows how to fight. And John Scott is huge. So last night, when the two came to blows, this happened:

And now Thornton’s out 7-10 days thanks to a concussion sustained during that beating. Really, Thornton deserves some credit for squaring off with Scott, who’s listed as being approximately six inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than Thornton, at all, but he never had much of a chance here. And Scott must have had the feeling it hadn’t exactly been a fair fight when he noticed Thornton shaken up after the brawl:

“I was asking our trainers how he’s doing. You never want to hurt somebody, I was kind of concerned after the first period; we never saw him again. I still don’t know how he’s doing, hopefully he’s doing well. You hate to see someone leave the game like that.”

It’s sort of fascinating seeing that quote and fully realizing the complete lack of personal animosity underlying these instances of grown men beating the crap out of one another. (Well, sometimes it’s not personal.) Scott didn’t want to hurt Thornton, but he had to. Business. Always business.