Josephine and Mats Sittin' In A Tree...

Looks like Mats has a new SBP in his life. No, Alfie is not getting traded to the Leafs. Mats is dating new girlfriend Josephine Johansson. A Google Images search has turned up these entries for Mats new plaything (25? Way to rob the cradle Mats!) and I assume that she is the fetching blonde and not the first image. Any confirmation would be appreciated.

Happy Birthday Mats!

36 years ago today, in Bromma, Sweden, the 18th captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs was born. While it took some time for the Leafs' faithful to warm up to him he is now viewed with the same affection as previous captains. After picking up his 700th assist on Saturday he continues his assault on the Leafs' record books tonight against the Islanders.

I could go on and on about Mats' place in hockey (HHOF) and in the annals of Leafs' history but here is a list of his achievements as well as a couple of commercials and highlights from a pair of recent tour de force performances.

Awards & achievements

• Swedish Champion in 1990.
• First European born player to be drafted first overall in the NHL entry draft.
• Named to the Elitserien World All-Star Team in 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1998.
• Named to the World Championships All-Star Team in 1992 and 2003.
• World Championships' Best Forward in 1992.
• Named to the Canada Cup All-Star Team in 1991.
• Named to the World Cup of Hockey All-Star Team in 1996.
• Played in the NHL All-Star Game in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 (injured) and 2004.
• Named to the NHL Second All-Star Team in 2002 and 2004.
• Named to the Olympic Tournament All-Star Team in 2002.
• Gold medal at the Olympic Tournament in 2006.
• Achieved 500 goal plateau on October 14th, 2006.
• Achieved 1,200 points on December 26th, 2006.
  

Records

• Currently holds the NHL record for most overtime goals with 15
• Longest serving European captain of an NHL franchise in league history
• First Swedish player to reach the 500 goal milestone
• Most career assists by a Swedish hockey player
• Most career goals by a Swedish hockey player
• Most career points by a Swedish hockey player
• Most consecutive 70-or-more point seasons (13) (excluding the shortened 1994-95 NHL season) (shared with Wayne Gretzky)
• Most assists in a period by a Toronto Maple Leaf (3) (tied with Darcy Tucker)
• Fastest overtime goal- 6 seconds (tied with Alexander Ovechkin and David Legwand)
• 38th highest career points
• 31st highest career goals
• 2nd all-time in goals scored for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Monday Morning Odds and Ends

Mark Zwolinski adds to the pressure on JFJ to make some tough decisions. Darcy Tucker is attracting a lot of interest from his home province and the Western Conference. The talk from his agent had been that he was going to be looking for something in the $4M-$5M range when contract negotiations started but the starting point has been pegged at a 5 year deal for $17.5M or $3.5M/year. The deal is a little long considering Tucker's style of play and that he will be 36 at the end of the contract but the price is a little more reasonable.

Mats Sundin has also attracted interest from the Anaheim Ducks. The article notes that the Leafs will have to take the $6.3M cap hit because they will have to pick up the option to keep the Captain. He has a no trade clause but I can imagine him being tempted into a run for a Cup that he deserves. His addition to Anaheim would definitely make them a strong favourite to win the Cup and they have a lot of young players that could make an immediate impact for the Leafs in Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf among others.

Ken Dryden opines on his jersey retirement on the day that his number 29 will be honoured by the Montreal Canadiens. There were a few good pieces written about the subject that were split on whether to honour or retire. Good arguments were made for both sides with Bitter Leaf providing some good criteria to consider when retiring a jersey, Wardo at Leaf Club pointing out how players enjoy the history of their jerseys, and Reality Check at Eyes on the Prize focused on the joy that having their jersey retired would bring to a player. Well Dryden sees both sides of the argument and points out that he enjoyed seeing young players wearing his number:

It used to be ... that when a special rookie arrived in a team's training camp, that player would be given No. 9 or 7 or 2, whatever the number that was special to that team. One of the great and surprising thrills for me was seeing goalies wearing No. 29 after me. For a few, it may have been because I wore that number, but over time it became a goalie number.

Ever the politician.

Leafs v. Avalanche: Pre-Game Thoughts

The Avalanche pay the ACC a visit on the back of two straight losses and apparently neither one was very pretty. Jose Theodore has had a rough go of things over the past two games and tonight should be no different considering his 5-10-2 (with three ties pre-shootout) in 23 appearances against Toronto. The Leafs are averaging almost 40 shots a game so if Propecia doesn't bring his 'A' game this could be a third straight high-scoring affair. The Leafs have lost the top spot in team scoring to the Sabres after last night's 9-1 crushing of the Flyers which has already led to some blood-letting. Here's hoping for a matching outburst to bolt us back into the lead!

Tonight, Mats Sundin will be honoured by the club for scoring his 500th goal. He has already gotten a nice pair of cufflinks which is nice but, along the lines of Bitter Leaf Fan's thoughts, maybe Canadian citizenship would be the greatest gift.

Injury Watch
Michael Peca will be in the line-up which will hopefully mean that we will see a much better defensive effort from the second line. Nik Antropov and Ben Ondrus are both still making their way back from the IR. Not that either one of them will drop back into forward lines that are starting to click. It will be interesting to see what happens to both once they are completely healthy. I would imagine that they would each get a two week conditioning stint at the Ricoh. As for the defencemen, no news on Carlo but Kronwall skated and it hurt a lot. It seems that with the time he has taken to return from an ankle sprain that he might have the dreaded 'high ankle sprain', a condition which is notoriously tough to recover from fully.

Predictions:
The Leafs will again frustrate with less than 60 minutes of effort but will still emerge victorious. Toronto hockey fans will get to see former St. Mike's Majors deity Peter Budaj when he comes in to relieve a shell-shocked Joey T.

6-2 Leafs: Mats (2), Tucker, McCabe, Steen, Peca

Leafs 5 v. Flames 4 (OT): Captain Clutch Notches Milestone

Game Recap
Scoresheet
Statistics

There are a few painful truths (aside from no Cups in 40 years) that are part and parcel of being a Maple Leafs' fan.

• If they trade a prospect/player away then you will have to watch him kill the Leafs every time he returns to Toronto.
  

• If a team is struggling then they will find that the Leafs are a cure-all for their ills.
  

• If a local boy is playing in front of his friends and family then get him in your pool because he is going to light up the Leafs.

Saturday night the Leafs managed to overcome the last two thanks to their captain's amazing game. On a night that saw the Leafs allow a Calgary team to almost match their goal output for the season and local product Mark Giordano scored his first two NHL goals Captain Clutch showed why his name is bandied about as one of the best Leafs ever.

Mats Sundin continued his great play to start the season and led the new run and gun offence with a man of the match 4-point performance. On the powerplay he took a Bryan McCabe pass and buried the feed into the open net. With the score tied at 3 Mats took a Darcy Tucker drop pass and ripped a wicked wrist shot over Kipper's right shoulder to give the Leafs the lead once more. With a sense for the occassion and the dramatic Mats waited until it looked like the Leafs would once again have to settle for 'at least we got a point'. Tucker was called for hooking (or lifting the stick) with 8 seconds to go in the game leaving Toronto shorthanded in overtime. Undeterred, the captain muscled the puck from the Flames, drove up ice, and ripped a trademark slapper over Kiprusoff's glove hand to win the game, complete his hat trick, and notch his 500th goal. In doing so, Mats became the first Leaf to score his 500th goal in the blue and white.

The rest of the game is easily relegated to meaningless in light of the captain's heroics but there were some matters of importance. Brendan Bell returned to action and did not look out of place on the blueline. Mike Peca missed the game as a precaution due to a hip flexor problem. His absence was especially felt because John Pohl, who picked up the ice-time, did not have a good game. He was weak on the puck, looked a step behind the entire game, and his turnover led directly to the Flames' 4th goal. Alexander Steen finally broke his goose egg with a less than pretty goal. Lying in the crease after crashing the net he had the presence of mind to sweep at a loose puck to tie the game at 3s.

All in all, it was a good effort from the Leafs. They let the Flames get back in the game and get into the lead but they also managed to maintain their composure and not let the game get away from them. The lapses in concentration are worrying but on such a magical night they can be swept under the rug. Although they better not keep coughing up leads because who knows how long the Leafs will lead the NHL in scoring.

In honour of the captain's achievements he gets the only say in...

The Final Word

"It's certainly a fun way to get my 500th goal. It's a special way," he said later. "I'm very proud of it. It's an achievement not many players have reached in this league and, once I'm retired, I'm going to appreciate it even more. I'll remember this game for my whole life."
Mats Sundin, Captain Clutch, who will be sorely missed in Toronto when he retires.

The End is Nigh!

After two weeks the seemingly interminable pre-season is nearing it's end. The Leafs have a home and home starting tonight in Detroit before setting the roster. The staggering amount of games played (from six to eight) can only be viewed as a corporate cash grab that does nothing to make a coach's decisions easier (a couple of games would serve to confirm a coach's pre-conceptions) and puts players at risk (Evgeni Malkin separating his shoulder and Joe Corvo breaking his foot are two examples).

However, because of injuries to the defence corps and a few open spots among the forwards, not to mention the Great Backup Debate, these last two games will offer up a few interesting stories to follow:

1. How will Andrew Raycroft deal with being 'The Man' in the hockey fishbowl that is Toronto?

These back-to-back games will be the first real look at this year's version of the Maple Leafs. We will get a good idea of how Raycroft will look behind a revamped defence and how he will do against one of the top teams in the NHL (32 saves against Montreal is nice but it's Montreal)

2. Will the players on the bubble cement a spot?

Andy Wozniewski will get a couple more shots to show that he deserves one of the open spots on the blueline. Bates Battaglia has probably done enough to get a fourth line spot but now is not the time to take his eyes off the prize. Especially considering that Jeff O'Neill is now on the bubble because of inconsistency throughout the pre-season. And Sergei Berezin Redux is going to have to show more offensive potential. If Suglobov can play a tight game, create chances, and NOT MAKE BLIND BACK PASSES then he will be a good bet to stay up with the Leafs.

3. How will the top line of Sundin, Ponikarovsky, and Wellwood fare?

This is going to be Maurice's top line. The key to this is whether Poni can keep up his play from the end of last season and whether Welly can make the transition to the wing despite taking a few good licks this pre-season. Maurice has already said that he will be getting the captain a lot more ice-time so the chemistry that this line develops will be key to the Leafs making a good start to the season.

4. Will the addition of Peca pay off?

Last year the Leafs had the 24th ranked penalty kill. This pre-season, largely without Peca, the Leafs are ranked 26th. However, he has already shown that he has the potential to single handedly turn this stat around by being a part of 15 straight penalty kills in his two pre-season appearances. Oiler Fans love to bash the Leafs for this pickup but if the Leafs can make serious progress in the PK then he will be worth every penny of his salary.