For anyone who follows hockey, especially Leafs hockey, Saturday Feb 21st 2009 was a night to remember. It was so special due to the fact that former Leafs captain Mats Sundin returned with the Vancouver Canucks for the first time to face his old team. Mats had played 13 seasons (the same as his number) with the Toronto Maple Leafs and in that time managed to become the highest scorer in Leafs history with 989 points in the 981 games he played for the franchise. For anyone who can do math, that means he averaged over a point a game. That is quite an accomplishment.
I guess I should stop living in the past and focus on Saturday night's game. In the week leading up to the game, the return of Sundin was the only thing they talked about. They said it was the game to watch as it would be full of emotion due to the mixed feelings between the fans and Mats Sundin. A common topic discussed by many hockey analysts was the question about the fans reaction when Mats Sundin would step on the ice. One of CBC's commentators Don Cherry said he thought that "he will get a standing ovation" and he was right. Although the Leafs faithful booed Sundin when he touched the puck (as they do with many former players), he received a standing ovation as a medley of Sundin was shown overhead on the Leafs "Jumbotron" early in the game. As a result of the overwhelming appreciation by the Leafs, Mats Sundin became very emotional and the game was delayed for a few minutes as Mats regained his composure.
The game was very well played by the Leafs in my opinion and it really showed how much talent the Leafs have. If they could play like they did against Vancouver, in every game they played, they would be a very serious Stanley Cup contender. Vesa Toskala played a magnificent game as he had not played for a week and wanted to prove he was the Leafs main man between the pipes. Toskala has been under critisism throughout his career with the Leafs and with his stellar performance on this Saturday night, he proved to a lot of people that he is very capable. He played out of his net in order to cut down the angles and stood up more often to take up more net room, instead of reacting too quickly and going down, and as a result giving the shooter a lot of room to bury the puck.
After regulation time was over, the game was tied 2-2. For anyone not really into hockey, after regulation time expires the game goes into a 5:00 minuter overtime period. If after that overtime period the game is still tied, it goes into a shootout where each team can pick three shooters. For the Maple Leafs, Jason Blake, Niklas Hagman and Mikhail Grabovski were chosen and for the Vancouver Canucks Paval Demitra, Kyle Wellwood and ,of course, Mats Sundin were named the shooters. Jason Blake was up first and his shot was stopped by the Canuck's Roberto Luongo off the right pad. First up for the Canucks was shooter Paval Demitra who easily scored on the right side of Vesa Toskala. Second to shoot for the Maple Leafs was Niklas Hagman, whose attempt mimicked the one by Jason Blake who shot just a few minutes before. The second shooter for Vancouver also was a former Leaf. However, Kyle Wellwood's shot was less than enthusiastic and trickled past the net. Young rookie Mikhail Grabovski was up third for the Leafs and he scored a perfect goal as he fooled the All-Star Luongo, thus tying the overtime. Of course, it was going to be Mats Sundin, the former pride of Leafs Nation, the man who had more records for the Leafs than anyone else. Mats was about to either win over his new team, or break the hearts of his old team. Being a professional athlete, he had to do what he had to do. With great speed and power, Mats came in on Toskala and scored a beauty, leading the Canucks to victory and making his visit back to Toronto a great one to remember.
In response to the boos exhibited by the crowd at parts of the game, I thought they were being unreasonable. Had they forgotten all the things Mats had done for that franchise over the past 13 years? Surely they couldn't have forgotten that quickly? Perhaps it is just a way of the fans showing that the Leafs fans are the most religious fans in the world as they tend to boo other former players when they come to town, such as Bryan McCabe of the Florida Panthers. I thought Mats played a tremendous game which reflected his stellar play when he donned a Leafs jersey. Mats will be missed as his time with the Leafs will get farther and farther away from the present. As a Leafs fan, I will never forget Mats, as I, along with an entire generation of Leafs fans, grew up watching and cheering him on every Saturday night. To you Mats, thanks for the memories.
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