Joe Thornton's Sentimental March Toward Stanley Cup Glory Isn't Over Yet

PITTSBURGH — He's surrounded again, down to his last shot, like Butch and Sundance in Bolivia. For Joe Thornton, the movie has finished like this before. Too many times.

His team is down three games to one in the Stanley Cup Final, with Game 5 Thursday night at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. The Sharks have to win three straight games, and they have to do it against a powerhouse Penguins team that has coalesced at just the right time. Thornton is still looking for his first goal of the series, as the Penguins' swarming defense has totally disrupted his game and those of the Sharks' other top forwards.

But Thornton won't go down without a fight. He'll play the game the same way he always has in his 18 NHL seasons, in which he's second on the active list, behind only the ageless Jaromir Jagr, in career points. The length and greatness of his career have made him a sentimental fan favorite to finally get his hands on the cherished chalice.

But if it isn't good enough? Then he'll shake hands and try to get it again next year—and he'll enjoy himself. People can feel sad if Thornton doesn't get the Cup. But nobody should feel sorry for him.

It's been a heck of a ride for the great hockey player with the Amish beard in his first career trip to the Final. If it comes up short, life will go on. Thornton is a good family man, a good teammate and, as teammates will tell you, just a good person.

"Jumbo is one of the best guys I've ever been around and really learned so much from," Sharks defenseman Brent Burns said. "He just goes about everything in the right way. He's a guy you'd want your own son to be like."

Says Sharks forward Joel Ward: "I didn't know much about him before I signed here, but what a great guy. Like, he's just a kid at heart really, just loves to play the game and laugh and joke with the guys, and he plays hard every single second. He's been an inspiration to me and I know to many other guys in this room."

When the Sharks got into Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Thornton and some teammates took in a Pirates game at PNC Park. With that beard, which he started growing during the regular season, Thornton looks like a real pirate.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

"The beard? I mean, what's not to love?" Sharks teammate Logan Couture said. "It's got its own zip code."

Thornton, who turns 37 next month, has not been terrible in this series. He's still getting his stick on the puck, still taking that extra second or two of patience with it and setting up teammates for chances. But whereas Thornton might normally have three or four seconds with the puck, he's only had one or two against the voracious Penguins pressure.

But for so long this season, Thornton seemed impervious to the limits of age. He tied for fourth in the league in scoring with 82 points and had 18 points in his first 18 postseason games, entering the Final with Pittsburgh. In the four Stanley Cup Final games, however, he has points in only one of them (two, in Game 3). Like other Sharks forwards, he's been second to the puck more often than not against the faster Penguins.

If it ends Thursday, 2015-16 will still go down as perhaps the best season of Thornton's career. He was stripped of his captaincy before last season and had some cross words with Sharks general manager Doug Wilson. After his team missed the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons, it was easy to wonder if this was the beginning of the end for Thornton.

The answer: no. Thornton, in fact, wants to play into his 40s, according to National Post correspondent Iain MacIntyre. He has one year left on his contract.

Rocky W. Widner/NHL/Getty Images

"I love to play and I just, I feel good playing with who I'm playing with on our team," Thornton told reporters during the Western Conference Final.

While he avoided the media Wednesday, Thornton laughed and smiled a lot at practice. He and the Sharks had the same demeanor after losing Game 4 of the Western Final to St. Louis, with the rubber Game 5 in St. Louis. They went on to win the series in six. Does that mean anything now? Maybe not, but it does show that Thornton and the Sharks aren't curled up in the fetal position, waiting for the end.

"I think the one thing about our group is there's a lot of belief in our game and in each other," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said Wednesday. "The other thing about our group is they've been on the other side, up 3-0, saw how quickly that vanished against L.A. three or four years ago. We have some guys that vividly remember that. They know how quickly a win can turn the momentum."

It is natural to wonder, though, if Thornton will ever get this close again to a Cup. The Sharks finished just third in the Pacific Division, let's not forget, and were pushed to seven games in the second round to Nashville. They had a tough Western Final with the St. Louis Blues and now have clearly been the inferior team so far to the Penguins.

It may be wrong to label San Jose's playoff run of the Cinderella variety. But it hasn't been a steamroller either.

The Sharks may learn some valuable lessons from the Penguins for retooling their team moving forward. If the Sharks can develop another good prospect or two, such as the Pens have with Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary, or maybe add a piece or two via trade like the Pens did with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino, maybe they can surround a strong forward core even more with youth and skill.

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

For one more season, at least, the Sharks figure to be built around Thornton. His passing ability remains extraordinary, and his defensive game has improved to the point where some felt he should have received consideration for the Selke Award.

Burns definitely thinks Thornton has a few more good years left in him.

"He's in great shape, but the important thing too is he just loves to play the game. He's not just hanging on. He wants to get better every single night," he said.

Thursday might be the last night of hockey for a while for Jumbo Joe. Then again, a bounce here, a bounce there, and maybe this thing will go back to San Jose. And from there? The Sharks need to look no further than their Bay Area brethren, the Golden State Warriors, for evidence that a series is never over until it's over.

The credits haven't rolled in this movie just yet.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report.