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.
Writing down full descriptions for hockey fights is tiresome and forces me to learn background information I don’t want to know, so here’s a little breakdown of the roles in this quick and dirty Canucks-Oilers dust-up:
Mattias Ohlund: checker
Erik Cole: checkee
Cole’s teammate Sheldon Souray: puncher
Ohlund: punchee
The most important thing about this video? It’s buying me some more time to put together a sexy WAG gallery for the next post. And it also gives the hockey fans something to enjoy. You know, when they’re not too busy reading The New Yorker and sipping brandy. By which I mean “chewing Red Man.”
[FanIQ]
Swedish garage rockers the Hives are touring North America, and their stop in Vancouver included some time on the ice against the Canucks:
[T]he photogenic fivesome… put a hockey challenge before three Swedish members of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks…
Somehow, amid the clattering of sticks, the swooshing of air, and the slicing of ice skates, the Hives managed to put up five against the highly-trained Canucks. But, alas, it would not be enough, as the professionals– though outnumbered– emerged with a 6-5 victory over their garage-rocking opponents.
Man, this is bringing up of all sorts of old memories for me. The Hives part of the story takes me back to 2002, when the music world was abuzz over them, the White Stripes, the Strokes, and — to a comically undeserving extent — the Vines. Meanwhile, the Canucks part of the story takes me back to… ummm… a previous life where I toiled in the icy purgatory of Canadia?
[FanHaus]
I feel obligated to mention that that the Canucks beat the Stars 5-4 in Game 1 of the their playoff series. Apparently the game was tied after they had played the three periods of regulation, so they played almost four full twenty-minute overtimes before somebody decided to score because he was sick of fucking skating around and getting hit. I guess this makes playoff hockey a lot cooler and more exciting because it doesn't revert to a shootout, but I can't watch two hours of hockey on TV. I'm not sticking around for five-plus hours, or however long it took.
The crazy thing is that this isn't even the longest hockey game ever (it just felt that way if you watched it). It was the sixth-longest, which is mind-bottling to me. And Roberto Luongo got 72 freaking saves in the win, which ALSO isn't a record.
Wait, his name's Roberto? A Hispanic person plays professional hockey? That's got to be some kind of record, right?
