Thornton is one of the league's brightest stars, that's why it's so troubling that he's so frustrated with the current play in the NHL.

"I look back on it with thoughts that this might be my last year. It's not worth the pain. My back is killing me and things like that - it's just not worth the ordeal." Those are the sentiments that Boston Bruins star Joe Thornton shared on his frustration with the current style of play being deployed in the NHL. Sound familiar? It should because Mario Lemieux made very similar comments 7 years ago prior to his initial retirement from the game in 1997. Lemieux was 31 in the middle of his prime and had just led the league in scoring again and yet felt that he should step away from the game because his body could no longer take the punishment of constantly getting hooked, held and generally obstructed from an open style of play.

In 1996 Lemieux called the NHL a "Garage League" because officials were not calling penalties that would help open the game up. Prior to his retirement Lemieux commented on the state of the NHL. "There are a lot of great players in this league. If they can apply the rules a little bit and let some of the greatest athletes in the world go out and be great, this could be the greatest game in the world. And hopefully, they can open their eyes a little bit and see that they have a lot of talent in this league. Hopefully, they'll do the right thing and open the game up." Well, seven years later and the situation has worsened to the state where the NHL is now a boring game. Thornton is one of the league's rising stars and if he's already suffering from back pain at the young age of 24, then he may follow the same path of chronic back pain that Lemieux has suffered through the bulk of his career. The referee's explanation to Thornton about the obstruction is: "You're big and strong, stay on your feet, keep your legs moving and fight through it." There in lies the problem; the NHL officiates with a double standard.

	The thought of fishsticks isn't exactly intimidating.

The bigger players in the league are expected to deal with more on-ice abuse than their smaller counterparts. The double standard existed through the 90's when slighter players like Gretzky and Gilmour were given the benefit of doubt over calls that would have never been called on a bigger player like 6'4 Lindros or Lemieux. If you look at some of the best players in the league right now a lot of them are termed as bigger players: Thornton, Marian Hossa and Todd Bertuzzi are three of the NHL's best, but yet watch them on any night and they have defenders draped all over them like an Armani suit. Bertuzzi and Hossa have even been forced to deploy the football style stiff-arm to fend of checking opponents. Players who are very strong on their skates and like to carry the puck like Hossa and Jaromir Jagr will never draw penalties because ref's always look for players to fall down on the play to actually blow the whistle. And in mentioning Double J, I mean old Jagr, not this new Jagr. New Jagr should be forgotten like the Islanders Highliner Fisherman jerseys, Clear Pepsi, and any of Steven Seagal's work prior and post Under Seige.

I've taken enough marketing courses to know you can only dress-up or BS about a product so much before some marketable aspect needs to exist. As a whole the NHL has little to market because it hinders the shining of their superstars. The NBA works in the opposite extreme. The Association takes leaps and bounds to provide ample room for their stars to shine. They gave Michael Jordan room to take an extra step when he drove to the net. They gave Patrick Ewing more than a few steps of lenience. Shaq is given plenty of room to do his offensive foul thing and even A.I. is able to get away with his carry cross-over move. The whole point I'm making is that the NBA takes a blind approach to all these infractions because they know people want to see the stars shine. People buy tickets to watch individual stars shine. I really don't understand why the NHL doesn't grasp this concept.

The NHL's national TV contract comes to an end this year and it may be very difficult to get a comparable deal. The NHL's national TV contract already ranks far below the other three major sports and the situation will never improve if the action fails to improve. Hasn't the NHL learned anything from the players that milk the system? You need to have an MVP type performance in your contract year. Remember the start of last season when for the first month of the season the officials finally cracked down on the obstruction penalties? Penalties were being handed out like drug offences in the NBA. Scoring was up for the first time in a long while. To counter the argument that if you call more penalties the games will drag on and take longer to play consider this: In October of 2002 89% of the games played were finished in less than 2.5hrs. The players eventually adjusted to the crackdown and the parade to the penalty box slowed but players were still cognitive that the rules were being enforced and they couldn't get away with things they've once relied on. The obstruction crackdown didn't even last to the Christmas break before the NHL had spun itself back into its bleak style of play.

As fed up with all the obstruction as Joe Thornton is I know he won't retire, but clearly the league should listen to one of their brightest stars, because judging by the attendance at games the fans are listening and choosing to stay away.