The NHL will start its 92nd season tonight, but without one of its biggest international stars. Mats Sundin, who spent 13 seasons relatively unworthy of note with the Toronto Maple Leafs, retired yesterday.
“Toronto is and always will be my second home,” said Sundin, who gave special thanks to the Maple Leafs organization.
Sundin, an eight-time NHL all-star, is the leading all-time Swedish scorer in NHL history with 564 goals, 785 assists and 1,349 points. And while he never did win a Cup, captaining Sweden to an Olympic gold medal in 2006 did give his career some closure.
“It was a tough decision,” Sundin told reporters of his retirement. “It’s sad to tell you that my career as a pro hockey player is over.”
During his nearly 20 years in the NHL, Sundin help lead a parade of European stars to North America, including fellow Swede Peter Forsberg. Sundin has already ruled out consideration of playing for his homeland in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Which is too bad, because it’s not like they’re gonna notice one more foreigner over there.
Dominic Moore of the Toronto Maple Leafs has a momentary lapse of concentration and forgets what sport he’s playing, which is unusual, because they don’t play too many sports on a white sheet of ice. Actually, his stick broke, and by rule, he can’t play with a broken stick, so he improvised. After he went back to the bench, he put on a pair of cleats and gave one of his teammates a blow job. Hey, that’s just what I heard. Don’t shoot the messenger.
[Gunaxin]
On Wednesday night, the Maple Leafs’ Niklas Hagman scored the decisive goal in a shootout with the Devils, and it’s easily the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in a hockey game. Well, the coolest thing that doesn’t involve people punching each other, or Plexiglass shattering, or a skate cutting open someone’s neck.
Hagman scored by using his skates to spray ice shavings in Martin Brodeur’s face as he flicked a backhand home, a maneuver so simple and effective (and dastardly) that I can’t believe I haven’t seen it done before. Although, to be fair, I only watch about 40 seconds of hockey per week. This could be happening every five minutes in every game and I wouldn’t know.
The Bruins’ Milan Lucic checked Maple Leaf Mike Van Ryn into the boards last night, and needless to say, body checks are 800 times sweeter when the glass explodes into a thousand pieces and cuts innocent bystanders. My God, this is what I’ve wanted from hockey all along.
Now, I’m not saying replace ALL the Plexiglass in NHL arenas with regular breakable glass. Just some of it. Like, at every game, have two or three panels of regular glass hidden randomly around the rink. It’ll really keep fans on their toes. A little Russian roulette never hurt anyone. Well, except for the people who get shot in the head.
