Shawn Thornton Calling Out Alexei Emelin's Goonery Is Hilarious

Panthers forward Shawn Thornton—who has amassed, literally, 10 times more penalty minutes than points in his NHL career—is not happy with Alexei Emelin's gritty of play, apparently.

Thornton, still fuming over Emelin's high hit on Panthers captain Derek MacKenzie in the second period of Florida's 6-2 loss to Montreal, ripped the hard-nosed Canadiens blueliner after Thursday's game while taking a couple shots at the state of the league, too.

"I think he's what's wrong with the league these days. I think there's no accountability anymore. You can run around and take headshots at our captain and just turtle and the refs save your life," Thornton told La Presse.

The specific play in question occurred with under nine minutes left in the second frame.

After connecting with a high hit to the the head of MacKenzie, Emelin was assessed a two-minute minor for elbowing. Thornton immediately grabbed the Canadiens defenceman and dropped his gloves, but Emelin wasn't having it and politely turned down his invitation to dance. Though this most recent incident seemed to be a tipping point, the rivalry between Emelin goes back several years to the divisional battles between Boston and Montreal when Thornton was a member of the Bruins.

"I'm getting out at the right time, because I liked the game when you had to be a man and look at yourself in the mirror. So that's my honest opinion of that guy. I don't have any respect for him. I think he's a pretty good defenceman, but I don't like the way he plays," Thornton said.

"I don't mind people playing hard but I've seen him with a lot of cheap [expletive] in the last 10 years. I don't mind battling, but I've seen him head hunt a lot of guys and never, ever answer for it."

The comments show Thornton's frustration with the current state of the game, but mostly call out Emelin's of play and (lack of) character, which seems funny and somewhat hypocritical from a player who made a career out of intimidating opponents and treading the line between grit and goon. He's no angel himself, to say the least, which was all but confirmed in 2013 when he received a 15-game suspension for hunting down then-Penguins blueliner Brooks Orpik, blindsiding him, and smashing his head into the ice.

The NHL's new moral compass has won two Stanley Cups while amassing 102 points, over 1,100 penalty minutes, and 140 regular-season tilts in 702 NHL games. With not much use left for his role in today's NHL, this season is most likely Thornton's last. He'll exit the league as one of the final true enforcers in the game.