Bruins season 2021-22

It was the morning of March 18, 2010. That night, the Bruins were playing Pittsburgh for the first time since Matt Cooke dropped Marc Savard with a life-changing hit to the head.

Everyone knew what was coming. Somebody would challenge Cooke to a fight.

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The Cooke fight

Thornton was nearing the end of his first shift when Cooke rolled over the boards. The right wing approached his opponent. Both players dropped their gloves. Thornton got the better of Cooke, landing a few shots on his way down.

Behind the scenes, communication was critical to ensuring everything went smoothly.

Before the game, Thornton, Chara and Recchi talked about what had to be done. Thornton told his teammates he wanted the responsibility.

During pregame warmups, Recchi approached Pittsburgh’s Bill Guerin, who was a friend. Recchi told Guerin that Cooke had to answer to Thornton. Guerin agreed. Guerin said he would tell Cooke what had to be done.

In retrospect, had Guerin not encouraged Cooke to fight, the geared-up Bruins might have taken out their anger on some of Pittsburgh’s other players. This would have put the game on high boil.

“When we talked to Rex, he brought up Billy’s name. Of course,” Thornton said. “That’s exactly who he should be talking to. He’s the super-vet in that room. He’s exactly the one that should be having that conversation. Because he gets it, too. He played in a different era. He really understood what the ramifications would have been had it gone the other way.”

After the fight, Thornton approached Eric Godard and Mike Rupp. He asked Pittsburgh’s tough guys if things were good. They said yes.

“Just to make sure,” Thornton explained. “It was what was agreed upon. Just wanted to double-check. If not, everybody needed to know it wasn’t done and get mentally ready for what was coming. Not that that’s what we wanted. But just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. I had fought both those guys multiple times too. There’s always a mutual respect factor 98 percent of the time between enforcers. I thought it was the right thing to do.”