Bruins Trade Thornton

The Boston Bruins front office is a joke. I am almost too angry for comment.

I just about dropped my bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup on the floor when I heard that Joe Thornton was traded to the San Jose Sharks for three marginal players: Marco Sturm, Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau.

What in the world was Bruins GM, Mike O'Connell thinking?

The Bruins (8-13-5) are having a terrible season. It is getting painful to watch. I expected management to make a move that would shake up the team. There was still time to get hot and salvage a playoff spot. A logical move may have been to make a coaching change or to trade Sergei Samsonov who will be a free agent at the end of the season.

It was an absolutely atrocious move to trade Joe Thornton at age 26, the face of the franchise in the prime of his career without getting a player of equal value in return. The Bruins front office should have been thinking up a way to surround Thornton with better players, not how to send him packing.

Mark my words: 12 years from now Joe will retire from hockey with a Hall of Fame career behind him and the Bruins still won't have won a playoff series. Sharks fans are positive that they got away with a highway robbery.

Good luck in San Jose, Joe. In Boston I guess we're starting the process over again - with this move, the Bruins will be the frontrunners for the #1 draft pick in 2006.