When the Toronto Maple Leafs traded away fan favourite Wendel Clark to Quebec in 1994, the man who came the other way was supposed to be the answer to the Leafs prayers. Mats Sundin was 23 years old and had scored 135 goals in 4 seasons with Les Nordiques. He was part of a great team that would eventually win a Stanley Cup in Colorado with the likes of Joe Sakic, Adam Foote and Mike Ricci. But the Leafs really wanted the Big Swede, and were willing to part with Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre and some young talent in order to get him. I recall our meeting at the Hot Stove Lounge at Maple Leaf Gardens. Sundin was all smiles, happy to get out of Quebec City and into the hockey mecca known as Toronto. Unfortunately for Mats, the Leafs glory days of the early 90s were over. The 1994-95 season was strike-shortened to 48 games and even though Sundin led the team in scoring, the Leafs were an old team by then. Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuk were 31. Mike Ridley, Randy Wood, Mike Gartner, Dave Ellett, Jamie McCoun and Garth Butcher were all over 30. Coach Pat Burns had taken the Leafs to back-to-back Conference Championships, but couldn't squeeze much more out of this team.
But every night, Sundin was there. He logged the most minutes, took the most abuse from opposing players and continued to play at a high level. In fact, I don't remember him missing a game in all the years I hosted Leafs games on Global TV, and then became the radio colour voice of the Leafs alongside Joe Bowen. A quick check of the records showed that Sundin missed all of 7 games in the six seasons I covered the team. One time, he twisted his ankle so badly, it was almost a certainty that he wouldn't play the next night in Chicago. Not only did he play, he scored twice and took a vicious Chris Chelios two-hander to the back of the leg for good measure. Afterwards, in the dressing room, I noticed what I thought was a tattoo of the Swedish flag on his leg. It wasn't. It was the bruise left by the Chelios hit.
Sundin's nickname was "Big Weed". He was, and still is, a big guy. At 6'5 and 230 pounds, he towered over many of his teammates and opponents. You could see him coming a mile away. When he got on the team bus or the team charter plane, it always seemed as if he was ducking to get in the doorway. I'm 6'3", and he always appeared to be a good head taller than me. And on skates the guy was 6'8 and could skate like the wind. As the Leafs eventually traded away Gilmour, Andreychuk and the rest of the veterans, Sundin had to deal with a plethora of wingers who weren't nearly as talented as he. Jonas Hoglund, Mike Johnson, Derek King, Sergei Berezan, Freddie Modin, Dmitri Khristich, Mikael Renberg and Nik Antropov, to name a few. Not once did he complain to management or the coaching staff about the talent level of some of his teammates. While other, less talented centres had wingers who could snipe 30 or 40 goals a year, Sundin rarely had the pleasure of playing alongside those types of athletes.
When reflecting on Sundin's career, I will remember that he played hurt a lot. He stood up for his teammates. He was an outstanding international player (See Sweden, Olympics and World Championships) and he averaged exactly a point a game over an NHL career which saw him play in over 97% of his teams games. He was, in a word, a "horse", and deserving of a spot in the Hall of Fame. I expect the Maple Leafs will retire his number 13 some day. I hope it's sooner than later. Was he the greatest Leaf ever? You be the judge.
No comments:
Post a Comment