Keep Sundin
This season has made for some strange twists as a fan - who would have thought it was possible to feel bad for Sean Avery, for instance? OK, I still didn't, but that was as close as I'd like to get. Nothing has been stranger than the ongoing conflict between our natural desire as fans to see the Leafs win and the realization, uglier than a skills competition featuring Mark Osborne, Brad Marsh, and Bryan Marchment, that the Leafs need to lose before it gets better, first to bring about some end to management's inertia, and now to have a shot at some of this in June.
Its led to some ugly moments. Kim, Blog Honcho and Quebec Desk Correspondent Fred Isher, and I watched the recent San Jose debacle, Tillweisers in hand. Unsure how to feel over the Leafs jumping out to a two-goal lead after 40 excellent minutes of hockey, we jokingly consoled ourselves with the knowledge that the Leafs would find a way to blow it in the third. Of course, Kim and I still felt like crap when they did, and had to console ourselves by taking apart the Habs on my copy of NHL 06, the only venue on earth where Jason Allison and Jeff O'Neill were useful that year, much to Mr Isher's chagrin. The PS2 don't lie, Fred!*
I had a similar moment watching the game against Washington. Having watched us give away yet another third period, I was content for us to lose at Whack-A-Mole and cross another necessary 0 points off the schedule. And then Sundin took the wheel. Charging in at the end of a rush, blowing by the much-younger game-tying goal scorer Alex Semin (and showing him what playing 60 minutes is all about in the process) and banging in an admittedly Raycroftian rebound to tie Rocket Richard on the all-time goals list and give the Leafs a win. I stood up and cheered. And dammit, it felt great.
And this is the guy we want to trade?
Yes, it's one of the rare times when seemingly 99% of the fans and 100% of the mittenstringers agree. Sundin has to be dealt for assets to help the team rebuild. This has culminated in the farce of Sundin being constantly badgered about whether he wants to go, columns about Mats 'doing what's right for the Leafs' and taking a deal only to return again next year, the crowning glory being the Star's article inviting former GMs and wannabes to speculate about what they could get for Sundin, proving that many of them can't even make a good fake deal (I'm looking at you, Milbury). Meanwhile, Mats continues to bust his ass and be one of the only players worth watching most nights on a team that appears to take its cues on competitiveness and fight from Spencer Rice.
David Johnson has already laid out the rational case for keeping Mats. I want to make the fan's case. Fact is, and a fact Leafs fans should already know by now, is that some things are just as important as winning and losing. As our captain, we have a no doubt Hall of Famer still scoring, hustling, setting an example all over the ice. A guy who has committed to Toronto time and time again, the one person of unimpeachable class and dignity under pressure throughout the long embarassment of the last half decade (well, him and Andy Frost). We're going to suck badly enough over the next few years - should we do it without Mats? Aside from (hopefully) the thrill of watching prospects develop, watching Sundin finish up his career as a Leaf is one of the very few pleasures we have to look forward to over the next few seasons. That and Ottawa and Montreal's annual springtime bedshittery, natch.
The other day, I was sitting at home at the computer when my dog (named after an underachieving Leaf - don't all raise your hands at once!) started barking at the door, as he does whenever the neighbours across the hall are coming and going. Unbeknowst to me, however, they were taking care of a friend's dog, who had busted through my only partially closed door. (Hey, I can't let Michael Moore down). This big bulldog cross burst in, my dog freaks out, and the neighbour chases it while I let out a startled yelp, the kind Woz makes when someone passes him the puck. Not exactly how Tom Berenger would have handled it, you know?.
The point is, I feel like a loser enough of the time anyways. I don't need to be sitting in front of the TV in June, cheering for Mats to win the cup for Detroit or San Jose or someone. You know who that's for? Bruins fans. Well, fuck that. If we're gonna suck, and we are, I want Mats to be there, the shining star atop the sea of crap, the guy who loved the city and the team so much he chose to stay instead of bolting town for a cheap shortcut at a ring. The guy I can look at through the next couple years of losing to Florida and Carolina and say "there's the best Maple Leaf I've ever seen."
Still not convinced? How about this: Bryan McCabe, (C).
*In case you were wondering, I'm pretty good but no this guy. Although, come to think of it, he plays as Chicago and doesn't even roll four lines. Yeah, I could take him.
Fuckin awesome blog post. I'm about as big of a Sundin fan as there is, and, man, that was just a beautiful piece of writing. Shit, that's really all I can about that. I've got a ton of emotions running through me right now after reading the post (as fucking gay as that sounds) but, shit, Mats is amazing and you're right, fuck cheering for some other team to win it just because Mats has got a new sweater on. He's ours. Look at that lineup, he's all we've got left.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to link to this post on my blog. I probably don't get 5% of the readership you do, but I don't give a damn about that. All Maple Leafs fans need to read this right here.
Thank you for keeping it real.
And keep up the good work on the blog. It's a definite subscriber.
Peace.
And fuckin' go leafs go.
I haven't seen that McDonald's advert in ages. "You can buy me a Big. Mac." Damn right, Mats.
You're tearing my heart. I want him to stay but I want the mother lode of assets the Leafs could get for him. If they can convince him to leave and come back I would be happy as long as the move got a good return. We could pretend that the next few months were just a nightmare.
However, if the trade is shitty then I'll be upset. I am so conflicted.
You might as well keep him. This is what? His 17th season? A full 14 seasons past his best years (with the Nordiques, natch) and a year or two at most away from retirement. What "mother lode" could you possibly hope to get for Sundin, anyway?
Another great post, well done.
On a rational level, the case for trading Sudin is pretty much iron clad. If he retires at the end of the year or if he signs with another club as a UFA the Leafs are out whatever potential assets Sundin could have been traded for. Anyone with half a brain that looks at the 25+ deals that went down at the trade deadline last year knows that Sundin should yield huge returns (see: Forsberg, Peter).
But sports and cheering for your favourite team isn't about being rational. It's about hoping and dreaming. Suffering through blow-outs and holding your breath as the clock ticks down while the Leafs scramble in their own end tryng to protect a fragile one-goal lead. It's about leaping off the couch for OT winning goals and smiling when the TTC puts "Go Leafs Go" on their bus displays during the playoffs.
Sundin is one of the few Leafs who make me feel like I'm not just cheering for laundry.
I think Mats has earned the right to chose his own path out of this town.
The rational part of me hopes it's a blockbuster deal, but the fan in me wants to see him stick it out, re-writing the Leafs record book with almost every game he plays.
Great to see this has sparked some. Don't get me wrong - I know that we could get a buttload for Mats, and I want the Leafs to be relevant/good again as soon as possible. But in addition to all the emotional reasons I want him here, there are some other questions.
Couldn't we get as much for Kabs? Don;t we need one true pro to help break these young guys in so they don't wilt under the pressure, to show them how to succeed in TO? Look how Tlusty spoke of him the other day.
Mats has earned the right to do whatever he wants - if he does want to go to a contender, all the best.
But I do think there's a lot of value in him staying, especially since I believe there needs to be something to rebuild around. If he was planning on retiring at the end of the year, I feel like he would have said something.
Also, rue, check the NHL scoring leaders. I know you're not using to looking at them since there's never any Habs on there. Mats would fetch plenty.
"Couldn't we get as much for Kabs? Don;t we need one true pro to help break these young guys in so they don't wilt under the pressure, to show them how to succeed in TO? Look how Tlusty spoke of him the other day."
I know that nothing is certain, but isn't the idea that we trade Mats and he comes back in the summer. We'd still have him to cheer for and rebuild around, plus the prospects and picks he brings in.
As for Kabs...isn't he the kind of guy that might be worth having around to help the kids. I think he could be a good influence on Stralman (and Drew Doughty). Plus, we'll probably still be crap in two years, and we can peddle Kabs then.
This is based on nothing, but I can't see us dealing Sundin and then him coming back. That's asking a lot, I think.
If Kabs was so good, you think he would have rubbed off on Woz a bit... kidding.
Not even the reincarnation of Tim Horton could help him.
Seriously, you make a good point, but I'm not nearly as fired up to see two more years of Kaberle. Plus, it seems to me his game has declined this year - maybe we should sell him now while his value is high. Or maybe he's just having a tough time playing on this team. I wouldn't blame him.
This could be fun:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?page=campbell0128
The thing about Sundin-- and he's proven it time and time again-- is that he's good enough to lift a terrible team to the heights of mediocrity. So, unless you want to start down the road to another 40 years of what they've just gone through, keeping him is a terrible, terrible idea. Of course, I kind of think that Leafs fans secretly do want 40 more years of mediocrity. It's part of the whole identity of Leaf culture that you ignore how completely without vision they are and keep on hoping for the best and pretending what they've got is good enough. Jeez... now you're even arguing to doom the team to more mediocrity yourselves! It's pretty remarkable if you ask me. And by remarkable I, of course, mean really sad-- kind of like referring to Matt Stajan as either good or young.
Now... a couple of specifics. For one, to the point that you could probably get just as much for Kaberle? Maybe that's true-- he's younger and somehow magically signed to a reasonable contract-- but why do you have to trade one or the other? And the point about cheering for laundry... you're still going to end up cheering for laundry regardless of how Sundin leaves the team. If you keep him, you'll just be trading for shittier laundry.
No, this team needs to be blown up good. All good things need to come to an end, and for the Leafs and Sundin, they passed that point about three years ago.
Mats Sundin is the Leafs. No other on the team is so consistant and talented. Such as McCabe, he a dead weight, penalties, giving up the puck, even scoring on his own net, dump him if they got to dump someone