Bruins can no longer live off tradition, loyalty of their fans

Joe Thornton is on a tear and the Bruins are not. That is all that needs to be said about the state of the Boston Bruins, but there is a whole lot more being added.

The Bruins are off to a terrible start in the NHL. They are closing in on the time when they will not have the games left to make the playoffs. That may not matter, since the way the team has played, Boston does not deserve to be in the postseason.

The insult to injury has been Thornton. He was the Bruins team captain and their future. On Nov. 30, he was traded to San Jose in what will continue to be one of the blockbuster deals of the year.

Note there is no weighing of the deal by considering what the Bruins got in return. It doesn’t matter. The acquisition of Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau isn’t even mentioned. Thornton was another tier up and is playing that way.

Thornton is the NHL Offensive Player of the Week. He led the team to five consecutive wins and had two goals and 10 assists in doing so.

Thornton is a happy player.

“The transition game here in San Jose is very crisp. It suits the offensive players very well because we get the puck so much,” said Thornton this week.

Read between the lines and he is saying that is one of the differences in playing on the left coast and not in Beantown. You have to read between the lines because Thornton is taking the high road and says no bad things about the Bruins or Boston.

For the Bruins, his play only makes their miserable season worse. There is no life on the ice in Boston and a lot of sullen faces.

It is being suggested that to inject life into the Bruins the next move will be the firing of coach Mike Sullivan. If that happens, he will be more the sacrificial lamb than the ineffective coach.

There is a malaise that surrounds the Bruins and it has been there for some years.

Perhaps it begins with ownership, Jeremy Jacobs and Delaware North Corp., that seems to react to the bottom line only.

President Harry Sinden has done the bidding of the corporation for 17 seasons. He has a reputation of, let’s say, being thrifty and seems to have little respect for the current players and the money they command.

Mike O’Connell is in his sixth year as general manager and follows the lead of ownership and Sinden. He, too, may become a sacrificial lamb, but not soon. He does what he is told.

This is an organization that has, since the early 1990s, found it good enough to try and make the playoffs, missing in three of those years, and leave it at that. The Bruins have lived off the tradition and loyalty of the fans.

That is not enough any more. The TD Banknorth Garden is not Boston Garden. Fans will not just show up to enjoy the atmosphere. The Big, Bad Bruins don’t exist any more and cannot in the new NHL.

We are seeing just the first swirl of the waters in what needs to be a tidal wave in Boston to get the Bruins back to respectability.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.