Joe Thornton nets first goal as a Maple Leaf: 'Just happy to contribute'

Jackie Spiegel

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Joe Thornton nets first goal as a Maple Leaf: 'Just happy to contribute' image

No one may be enjoying this NHL season more than Joe Thornton. 

After an overtime win over the Canadiens on Wednesday night, Thornton's first answer in the postgame presser began with: "Wasn't that fun?" He said it with a big smile. 

Jumbo Joe is definitely having fun, and it showed Saturday night in the Maple Leafs' 3-2 win over the Senators. The 41-year-old Ontario native is back in the area skating for the hometown Leafs. In his third game with the squad, he netted his first goal — and the smile afterward could not have been bigger.

"We didn't feel too good about our game last night. It was just a good 60-minute effort," said Thornton after the game, referencing Toronto's 5-3 loss to Ottawa on Friday night. "Just happy to contribute for the guys tonight."

Toronto was trailing 1-0 in the first period when Mitch Marner made a great play to settle the puck just inside the blue line before dropping it for the trailer Thornton — who, according to Marner, was yelling for the puck. The elder statesman, playing on a line with 20-somethings Marner and Auston Matthews, then took the puck and snapped it home from the right circle past Senators netminder Matt Murray.

"That line, you could tell right from the drop of the puck today that it was going to have a night," Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said.

"We have a lot of fun out there," Thornton noted. "I think we'll continue to keep growing as a line because we are having fun and we get excited before every game.

"I think you can tell each game we're getting better and that's a real good sign."

Thornton joined the Maple Leafs in December after 15 years in the Bay Area with the Sharks. According to Sportsnet Stats, Thornton is the second-oldest player to score a goal for the Leafs in team history. Allan Stanley is No. 1 at 41 years, 252 days; if Thornton nets a goal on or after March 12 (the Leafs play the Jets on March 13), then he would become the oldest. He is already the oldest forward; Stanley, who is in the Hall of Fame, was a defenseman.

When asked about joining the list, Thornton said with a chuckle: "I have to play a couple of more years, you’re saying?"

Before the puck dropped on the 2021 season, Thornton had 420 goals and 1,089 assists in 1,636 games with the Bruins and Sharks. He ranks seventh all time on the NHL's career assists list — now 45 behind Hall of Famer Paul Coffey as he added an assist on Matthews' game-winning power-play goal in the third period.

Jackie Spiegel