Toronto - Bruins captain Joe Thornton figured his infected left elbow would be healed enough to allow him to practice with his teammates at the Air Canada Centre yesterday. But the young center's optimism - supported by the doctors who examined him at the rink during the game against Toronto Tuesday night - was for naught.

Instead, Thornton was on a plane back to Boston yesterday, where he is expected to be examined by club physician Bert Zarins at Massachusetts General Hospital today. Thornton, who has an infected bursa sac, is likely to be treated with intravenous antibiotics and it's very possible, according to coach Robbie Ftorek, he could be kept in the hospital overnight. It's highly unlikely Thornton will play again until at least next week.

Thornton said he fell on the elbow in a game against San Jose Dec. 23, but he felt fine over the Christmas break. He started feeling poorly Sunday night after the Wives' Carnival and then woke up Monday with the elbow swollen and very sore. He went through the entire practice at the Ristuccia Center Monday, however, and then went to see Zarins to have it drained.

When it didn't improve on the trip here, it was determined Thornton wouldn't play against the Maple Leafs.

''He had a couple of different opinions so he felt he was going to be able to [skate],'' said Ftorek. ''It turned out that he has to take care of it right now. It's just unfortunate, but he's got to take care of it now.''

Doctors in Toronto thought he'd be better off heading back to Boston.  ''The doctor made [the decision yesterday],'' said Ftorek. ''He's got to get into the hospital and get some antibiotics into him and keep it immobilized. The best place to do that is at home. The doctor here did a really nice job. He was hopeful that he'd be better and then get some more treatments and be better [today], but when he saw it [yesterday] morning, he suggested he go home and get into the hospital and get the antibiotics going in there and immobilize it and treat it that way. Because we were leaving town, it was best for him to get back home and do it.''

Ftorek said there's no way to know for sure what caused the injury. Hockey pads and assorted other gear harbor a tremendous amount of bacteria and all it would take was a raw area exposed to bacteria to develop into a full-blown infection.

''Usually it's the equipment, but it can be anything,'' said Ftorek. ''In Joey's situation, I just think it was probably ... because it was all healed, it was all fine, so I kind of think it was from rubbing it, which provoked it from inside.''
Ftorek said there was no correlation between the hand infection suffered by Toronto forward Mikael Renberg, which nearly cost him a limb or worse, and their handling of Thornton.

''Our players, they're our assets and we make sure they're good and healthy before they come back,'' said Ftorek. ''If there's something wrong, we make sure it's taken care of.''

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 1/9/2003.
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