Nichols' Notes

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Shawn Thornton spoke with Sun Sentinel writer Harvey Fialkov about his journey as a hockey player with the Boston Bruins. Thornton signed a two-year deal to play for the Florida Panthers when Peter Chiarelli opted to move in a different direction.

"I've worked very hard over the last 16 years to become more than a one dimensional hockey player," Thornton said. "I think I bring other things to the table. I am smart defensively, and pretty good positionally, and every once and awhile, I surprise people with some skill.''

Also: "I'm not really good at a lot of things,'' Thornton said. "I probably strive to be a little better than average at most things, but I come from a fairly tough upbringing and I've always been able to take care of myself.

"I've always taken pride in being on top of my conditioning my whole life. … Obviously, winning a couple of Stanley Cups didn't hurt, either. All these things combined have helped me stay around a little longer than others."

Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews joined Sportsnet 590 Thursday afternoon, with part of the discussion centering around the eight-year, $84 million contract extensions he and Patrick Kane signed recently.

Was there anything to the talk that you and Patrick Kane might have opted for five-year deals, so that you could hit free agency twice at a relatively young age? How close were those rumours to the truth?

“I don’t know. I guess there’s some different looks that you have to kind of explore when you’re going into a contract year and negotiations, but I think it was just a matter of finding the right balance between years and amounts and making sure that it’s all going to coincide well with the cap and bode well with the rest of our team for years to come. So I think we got the best of both worlds in a lot of different ways there.”

Is there a worry that your two deals could limit Stan Bowman’s ability to surround you with enough talent to succeed?

“We know that the reality of the cap system is there is always some juggling that you have to do considering the circumstances. We look at the way the game has grown the last 10 years or so with confidence it’ll keep on doing so. There’s a lot of talented players that we want to keep as part of our leadership group on our team, so considering that, we know we’re going to have a good chance to keep our group together and have a great chance to win and have a winning team every single year.”

The Kings and Blackhawks have done an excellent job of keeping players around, but has it been frustrating to see some players you want to keep still have to go because the salary cap says so?

“The summer of 2010 was definitely tough when we lost half our team. So many key players like Andrew Ladd, Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien. Go down the list, the team we could have had the year after; but somehow, a couple of years later, we’re still there. Still in the mix. And we won our second Stanley Cup. So we don’t want to have to regroup like that ever again, but we’re confident we can keep on being competitive like L.A. has every single year.”

How does it feel to be mentioned in the conversations as being one of the best players in the game with Sidney Crosby?

“I think you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt. I mean, I think there’s many situations where our team success in Chicago could hit a rough patch and myself and Kane or whoever else normally gets the credit for that could take most of the responsibility. So it goes one of two ways. I think it’s an honour to hear something like that, but like I said, I still feel every year I’ve got a lot to prove and as a team we want to win more than ever, having had that experience twice already.”

I hear you work on something every summer. Is that true and if so, what are you working on this summer?

“I think you learn a little bit more about yourself and what can make you a better player every year and I think for me it’s just been mostly off the ice and tailoring my nutrition and what I eat and how I can make my training – not easier, but pay off even more. For me, I’ve learned that it makes no sense to work harder if you’re not recovering right and I think you learn things like that as you go along.”

CSN’s Tracey Myers details the willingness to learn of Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw, who has seen his game evolve since he broke into the NHL.

“I want more responsibility in every game,” Shaw said. “I love being part of the bench and keep working to get better at it. I’m the kind of guy who, once I get somewhere, it’s not enough. I want more.”

He added, “I just want to keep bettering myself. I just keep working, keep working.”

How do you feel the Toronto Maple Leafs have fared during summer? The National Post's Michael Traikos has come up with five ways the Leafs changed their culture this off-season. He fleshes out 1) the hiring of Kyle Dubas, 2) the long-term commitment to Jake Gardiner, 3) the creating of internal competition, 4) acquiring pieces to dress a legitimate fourth line, and 5) choosing skill over size at the draft.

In writing about Robin Lehner's new three-year contract with the Ottawa Senators, The Sun's Bruce Garrioch notes there haven't been any discussions with Craig Anderson's camp on an extension. Anderson has one year remaining on his four-year, $12.75 million pact.

Garrioch also indicates Bryan Murray has 'intensified discussions' with reps for both Bobby Ryan and Clarke MacArthur, who are entering the final seasons of their respective deals.

ICYMI Wednesday, Kyle Turris spoke at length on a variety of topics relating to the Senators and Coyotes.

Solid read from Jeremy Rutherford of the Post-Dispatch on the Statsny family connection with the St. Louis Blues, including interviews with Peter, Paul and Yan.

Yan and Paul had a dream of playing together in the NHL like Peter, Marian and Anton did with the Quebec Nordiques. Pretty sure I have a hockey card with all three of the elder Stastnys somewhere in my old collection.

Peter wore No. 26 on his jersey and Paul elected for the same number playing for the Avs. Yan then explains his own jersey number selection.

 “The only reason I picked 25 was in case my brother came to St. Louis,” he said. “If my brother and I were ever to play together, he would wear that number because he’s a better player than me.”

And just when you think the ‘awwww’ factor can’t be exceeded, Rutherford points out that Paul has ‘Brother of Yan Stastny’ in his Twitter bio.

"He's a guy that I look up to right next to my dad," Paul said. "He's my older brother, he's always going to be my best friend and that's never going to change."

DallasNews.com’s Michael Florek takes a look at how the Stars approach hockey’s advanced stats, beginning with Jim Nill’s description of how the Detroit Red Wings, his former employers, were approached five or six years ago on that very topic.

Stat consistency is a theme throughout the article, which is worth a few minutes to peruse; which then leads into something the Globe and Mail has covered before – player tracking systems.

Florek: Marc Appleby is the president of PowerScout Hockey, one of a few companies bringing player tracking to hockey.

PowerScout uses a three-camera system to track every player’s and the puck’s movement on the ice. With that data, PowerScout’s computer can deduce skating speed and distance skated, pass/shot speed and percentage, takeaways, shot attempts and a range of other analytics.

Corsi and Fenwick, now used as proxies for possession, are unnecessary, according to Appleby. A player tracking system could give exact possession data.

“This is kind of the holy grail,” Appleby said. “There’s nothing left to measure. This I think will fundamentally change the way that teams will look at (hockey).”