I'll add that I like players, but I love my team. Thornton is my favorite player of the bunch (and up until a couple seasons ago, my favorite player in the league) and has been since his arrival, but I am reaching a point where the Sharks' future rests on correctly maneuvering through this changing of the eras.
With each loss and minute of boring hockey, I grow more ready to just move the major pieces and start the re-tool. There are still plenty of pieces here that with picks and prospects can make it entertaining to watch them fight to make the playoffs for two to three years before becoming a serious contender again.
It'll hurt at first to see some of the names in a different jersey, but until that happens, this process cannot start. It's like breaking up with a serious significant other when a relationship just won't work. That person is all you have known for some time, but in time you will know it was for the better.