Results tagged “matssundin”

It’s that time of year again, the time when Canadians feel obligated to throw their unconditional support behind the last Canadian team playing for the Stanley Cup. This year's bearer of "the Cup dreams of an entire nation" (as TSN's Jennifer Hedger put it) is the Vancouver Canucks, who eliminated the St. Louis Blues in a surprisingly easy four-game sweep. (Neither of the other two Canadian playoff participants, the Montreal Canadiens or the Calgary Flames, made it out of Round #1—although at least the Flames didn’t get swept, nor did their fans litter the ice after the team was eliminated.) The question is: should Leaf fans be doing likewise?

Given his flair for the dramatic, it seemed almost inevitable that Mats Sundin would cap his return to Toronto with a game-winning goal. He did exactly that, scoring the shootout winner as his new team, the Vancouver Canucks, came from behind to beat the Maple Leafs 3–2. A scattering of boos accompanied Sundin throughout the game—but a first period video montage of Sundin’s Maple Leaf career allowed the fans to applaud their former captain, and they seized the opportunity. By the end of it, Sundin was on the brink of tears; then, as he’s tended to do throughout his NHL career, he saved his best for last, beating Vesa Toskala with a perfect backhander for the winner. Seldom has a Leaf loss felt so sweet.

Mats Sundin returns to Toronto tomorrow. It'll be nothing if not interesting.

Mats Sundin—last seen shilling for PokerStars.net and, before that, captaining your Toronto Maple Leafs—is a thirty-seven-year old man headed west. He signed with the Vancouver Canucks yesterday afternoon.

Mats Sundin is no longer a Maple Leaf: he's off to the Vancouver Canucks, choosing to sign with the team because they have better Stanley Cup prospects. We'll have more about the move tomorrow, but suffice to say we, along with most everyone else, have been wondering how he's lasted here this long.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in Calgary tonight to take on the Flames, and as fans we'd be remiss if we didn't mention what happened the last time they met. Thanks to the NHL's wonky "unbalanced" schedule, the Leafs and the Flames haven't played each other since October 14, 2006. On that night, Mats Sundin made history.

Get little Timmy and Cindy-Lou on the horn, stat! Health Canada has contradicted last week's warnings from Toronto Public Health that children should reduce cell phone use, saying that the science doesn't support the conclusion that your kids' brains will mangled and cancerfied by cell phone heat and radiation. Well, except for this study. And this one. Oh, and these ones.

Far be it from us to conflate professional sports with Bill Shakespeare—but the Toronto Maple Leafs’ actions before, during and after Tuesday's NHL trade deadline recall Macbeth’s famous words: full of sound and fury, yet ultimately signifying nothing. Charges of heresy will be duly acknowledged.

No Country For Old Men cleans up at the Oscars. The Coen Brothers finally got some big-time recognition with nods for best picture, best directing, best adapted screenplay, and best husband of Frances McDormand. In other news, a bunch of Canadians got nominated for stuff and didn't win any of it. (There! We could totally write entertainment news for any major Canadian newspaper now!)

If you're reading this and it's between the hours of 7-9:30pm EST, do yourself a favour and tune into Hockey Night in Canada. You might be witnessing the end of an era in Toronto sports.

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times for the Toronto Maple Leafs; in fact, the past couple weeks have been nothing short of surreal. First, the best of times: wins against the high-flying Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, followed by a thoroughly unexpected Hockey Day in Canada victory over the league-leading Detroit Red Wings, have given the team a boost. Injured players are getting healthy. The return of the much-maligned Bryan McCabe has apparently galvanized the team's defensive corps, not to mention relegated Andy "The Cause" Wozniewski to the Toronto Marlies. Mats Sundin, meanwhile, who turns thirty-seven years old today, has fifty-eight points in fifty-seven games—not bad for a guy with a "career-threatening" injury (we'll never tire of using it against you, Steve Simmons!).

We have no problem admitting our man-love for Mats Sundin: he's been the captain of our favourite hockey team for most of our adult lives, he's one of the greatest Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time and he's a shoe-in hall-of-famer once he retires. Seeing him score his 500th career goal still ranks as the greatest sporting moment we've ever witnessed. We know we're supposed to be too old and too sophisticated to have favourite athletes...but if we weren't, Sundin would be head-and-shoulders above everyone else.

One month into the new NHL season, and this much is obvious: the Toronto Maple Leafs are a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, dressed in the league’s silly new jerseys. The Leafs are scoring more often than your younger sister, but they’re also leaking goals at a potentially historic rate. They’ve lost two games by 7–1 final scores, but they’ve also got an 8–1 win and consecutive 4–1 road victories against consensus preseason favourites (Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers). The result is that the Maple Leafs are one of the most entertaining teams in the league, even if they’re seemingly hell-bent on driving their doggedly loyal fans to drink.

It's been a strange week for Leaf Nation.

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize. And then Ann Coulter's head exploded.

With much-maligned NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in the crowd, the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped the puck on the 2007-08 season at the Air Canada Centre last night. He was probably unable to catch a glimpse of a homemade sign halfway across the arena that read: “Bettman: ruining the NHL since 1993.”

Photo by Little Dragon.

I love the smell of police raid in the morning. Toronto Vice arrested 60 people in the Jane and Finch area this morning in a raid called Project Kryptic. They seized "30 kilos of cocaine, hash oil and marijuana with an estimated street value of $1 million" from the Driftwood Crips. That's actually pretty badass.

The Maple Leafs have announced that GM John Ferguson will get a one-year contract extension. It's not that we think he's doing a bad job per se (though, sorry to break it to you, no Stanley Cup this year) but we kinda find ourselves agreeing with the Globe's David Shoalts in saying, "So what?" It's a slightly more exciting announcement than, "Our team colours will continue to be blue and white or white and blue, depending where we are playing," but not by much.

It was only a few days ago that (now former) Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was given the support of the President. But now, the day after the Republicans were sent packing in the House of Representatives and (it looks like) the Senate, Rummy is packing his bags as well.

With all the personnel changes the Maple Leafs made this offseason, it appears little has infact changed on the ice. With the team opening their 2006-07 pre-season against the Buffalo Sabres at the ACC Monday night, it was the same old story for Mats Sundin's team. Excessive penalties, an inability to score, a bleeding Darcy Tucker, average goaltending and Bryan McCabe's goatee each contributed to a performance that was all too familiar to post-lockout Leaf fans. Even with their unsightly new uniforms, the Sabres had no problem picking up where they left off last season. After dominating the Leafs head-to-head in 05-06, the Sabres scored all of their goals on the powerplay, while Martin Biron turned aside twenty-three Toronto shots in the 4-0 victory. Three of those Sabre goals came during a stretch of the second period in which the Leafs committed six consecutive penalties. All-in-all, it was a dissappointing start to what fans had hoped would be a more satisfying season. The team now travels to Ottawa to play the Senators tomorrow night.

After last night's closing ceremonies, Torontoist wonders if their Itallian cousins will know what to expect when they arrive in our county next summer. What is our national identity exactly?? Because as of today, the world is probably as confused as yours truely. Snow shoes, ice fishing and ice sculptures bred way for a performance by Avril Lavigne as the Olympic Flag was handed over to Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan. Interesting combination.