Joe Thornton’s had enough. He’s young, rich, and becoming one of the best at his profession. Problem is, he thinks he could be doing his job much betterand feels his industry should be doing more to allow him to get the job done.

Earlier this week, the 24-year-old Bruins captains made headlines in Canada when he admitted that he has harbored thoughts about retiring.

He’s tired of the clutching, grabbing, and holding going on, and thinks the NHL needs to put a stop to it.

“This might be my last year,” Thornton told TSN’s Gino Reda. “It’s not worth the pain. My back is killing me and things like that. It’s just not worth the ordeal.”

Thornton’s complaint is nothing new. In the mid 80s, Mario Lemieux talked about leaving the game, and before that it was Wayne Gretzky. Cam Neely and Phil Esposito uttered similar thoughts.

On Friday, one of the greatest ever weighed in on the subject.

“We just need to open up,” said Bobby Orr at a news conference in Canada. “If they’re going to make a change, the change I’d like to see them try is take the center line out. I think that would really open it up and that would help eliminate some of the trapping.”

The men who play and have played the game know something needs to be done. The fans who watch the game know it, too. When No. 4 talks, you need to listen. Let’s hope Gary Bettman and the board of governors are also listening.

On Thursday night, there were 10,000 empty seats in Carolina; 8,000 in New Jersey and 9,000 in Nashville. The Bruins have only had more than 16,000 fans at the FleetCenter twice this season.

At times, the game is still terrific. On Tuesday, the Bruins beat Edmonton 4-3 in Boston. It was a free-flowing offensive game that say 73 shots land on net. The outcome wasn’t settled until the end, and the fans at the Fleet (and watching on TV) had to be satisfied.

So why aren’t these kind of games happening every night? Because the calls aren’t being made. As long as referees look the other way, more and more fans will, too.

Joe Thornton isn’t going to retire anytime soon. “I hope to play for this team for another 20 years,” he told NESN the day after his TSN comments.

That’s a good thing, because the game needs more players like him. He’s got the tools to be one of the all-time greats.

Now, the league needs to find a way to let those tools be put to work.

Lewiston native Tom Caron is a NESN analyst for Red Sox and Bruins telecasts.