Zac Rinaldo vs Shawn Thornton

Thornton is a true pro, avoids the instigator and sticks up for his team mate.

Clean hot from Rinaldo and props for dropping with a much bigger Thornton, great hockey all round.

ThIngs were going well for Rinaldo...
great hit
charging into battle
early edge...
and then Thornton got loose...

Oh well
three out of four ain't bad

The fight was all Thorny as he deposited Rinaldo with a nice right to the ear. But props to Rinaldo for trying to energize the lackluster Flyers on enemy ice by taking up the challenge to fight, albeit unsuccessfully, from Thorny.

There is no love lost between those two as heard from the on-ice mike last year as Thorny was taunting Rinaldo about being shipped to the minors.

The Flyers don't have a Thornton-type fighter and they badly need one.

Rinaldo just found out he wasn't paired up with Horton, Thorton with a dominant win.

The only person that voted for Rinaldo was his mother.

I've been hard on Rinaldo this year for not fighting tougher guys, but props to him for this one. Clean hit but it was a little bit of a run and with Thornton out there you figured this might happen. Rinaldo started well but once Thornton got his grip the fight was over. Win Thornton.

First let's start by saying that the very brave and heroic Thornton wins this mismatch of 40 lbs. All Rinaldo does is hit Boychuk cleanly and then he first has the Cowardly Chara going after him nice size mismatch of a foot and close to 95 lbs. Only to get challenged by Thornton. WHY CAN't BOYCHUK FIGHT HIS OWN BATTLES............oops see too valuable excuse # 10.Rinaldo accounts well for himself here in an obvious size mismatch and they only spineless gutless people here are BOYCHUK , CHARA , AND THORNTON......Jack Edwards knows nothing about fighting if he thinks Thornton's actions are somehow heroic here.Bye the way 40 lb difference between Boychuk and Rinaldo.....Disgustingly cowardly.

You Bruin supporters are clearly delusional. If you read my former post I predicted that LUCIC. CHARA. THORNTON.....would all be no shows against Toronto and guess what that's what happened they never fight the one's they're supposed to. Both my brother and I train fighters ( boxers ) I can tell you that Thornton is avoiding the Orr's and the Mclarens of the world because his confidence is at a low and just like in boxing after a bad loss we hand pick opponents to get them on track. He fought Erskine and barely eked out a win. All this stupidity about too valuable to fight.........that should ring true for every fight if they are too valuable THEY SHOULD NEVER FIGHT ANYONE..........In Thornton's case ......he is nursing a head trauma and shouldn't be fighting.....But fighting in the defence of say Seguin I better understand.......fighting for Boychuk......who is also bigger than Rinaldo , and quite capable .......anywhere in any fighting capacity MMA and boxing these huge size mismatches would never be sanctioned. So in a nut shell when a clean hit is delivered and an undersized guy has to defend himself against 40 to 90 pound weight differences .......and to come on here and cheer your guy like he is some kind of hero............we'll quite frankly you are either a Bruin supporter or delusional.

IT ALSO SHOULD BE SAID THAT THE ABOVE APPLIES LESS TO THORNTON THAN THE OTHERS.....Also LUCIC is a boxer I've actually seen him sparring while visiting B.C. Guess what if he had the balls he probably could beat MCLAREN............if only he would grow a pair.......you can't sit for 5 minutes when you fight a guy like Prust and cry you're too valuable when the true heavies come knocking........because let's face it 5 minutes is 5 minutes.........and you look like a spot picker and a chicken. JUST SAYING............CAN't. WAIT FOR THE HATRED....

Hate em both but glad Thornton beat scumbag Rinaldo's ass.Too bad Thornton didnt keep throwing punches at Rinaldo.Rinaldo is a big fan of punching guys that are defenseless.

Did Rinaldo vote for himself?

I know some will identify the size mismatch here, but Francesca Rinaldi always is the smaller man, and normally Thornton also gives up size... All I kept thinking was "Uppercut, Uppercut, Uppercut..." Straight out of the Nintendo Punch-Out arcade game...

Love the uppercuts by Thornton. Rinaldo hung in there though so good job by him trying to light a flame into the lifeless Flyers but Thornton too strong in the end.

Mismatch! Thornton easy.. props to rinaldo from dropn the gloves tho

Nice to see Thornton tune in Rinaldo. I wonder if B J Crombeen sent Thornton a thank you card after Rinaldo teed off on a falling Crombeen a few weeks back.

Not a Rinaldo fan, but that was a clean hit and while I wished he eat some Thronton rights, I have to give him some respect for taking the fight -- which was a Thornton win BTW

There's a part of me that wanted to see Rinaldo get the Sh!t punched out of him for the Crombeen incident...
I heard what he said to the ref when he was mic'd up, and I didn't buy it.
Rinaldo is an experienced fighter, you acquire a sense of your opponent in a fight. I firmly believe he knew Crombeen was in trouble and refused to let up.
We've had a few knock-outs the past few weeks and every one of the winners let up afterwards (so why didn't he on Crombeen ? ).
Good job by Thornton...