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Seal the deal already!
posted by Mike Boone at 17h35 EST on Jul 12
Toronto: Nah. After everything that's gone down? New coach. Long-term rebuilding program. Who needs the aggro?
Vancouver: The good news? They're $10 million under the cap.
The bad news? They're still the Vancouver Canucks.
Granted, Sundin would get to play with the Sedin sisters, Mattias Ohlund and Alexander Edler. But Swedish talent notwithstanding, this isn't exactly Detroit-by-the-Sea.
Mike Gillis is a rookie general manager. The coach, Alain Vigneault, was not his hire.That's never a good situation (as we shall see in Pittsburgh).
No matter what Gillis does, Vancouver has as much chance of winning the Stanley Cup in '09 as Adam Sandler has of starring in a remake of Wild Strawberries.
Besides, what kind of jive-ass name is "Canucks", anyway? In New England, the terms is a slur against Franco-Americans. Alleged use of it cost Edmund Muskie a run at the presidency.
Why would any sensible person rather be a Canuck than a Canadien?
This brings us to ...
Montreal: Sundin is the missing piece of a Cup contender puzzle. He knows it, we know it, everyone knows it.
Here are the wingers Sundin could centre: Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Andrei Kostitsyn, Christopher Higgins, Sergei Kostitsyn, Guillaume Latendresse.
Would he rather play with Pavol Demitra and Kyle Wellwood?
Twenty-one NHL teams had more goals than the Vancouver Canucks last season.
Do you remember how many teams outscored the Canadiens?
None.
Add Sundin to that attack and ...
Fuhgetaboutit!
But don't forget the intangibles. This will be the centennial season of hockey's greatest franchise. What player wouldn't want to be part of that?
Is there a more fitting valediction to Mats Sundin's brilliant career than a season playing for frenzied fans in the league's largest building?
Last but not least: Bob Gainey.
The Canadiens general manager has pursued the courtship with tact and class. Gainey has shown Sundin the love without being a jerk about it.
Canadiens can't pay as much as Vancouver. But as Guy Carbonneau said this week, Mats Sundin has enough money. If he's coming back, it's for rpide, love of the game and, just maybe, the desire to accomplish something he never managed to do in Quebec City and Toronto.
How do you say "no-brainer" in Swedish?
Brothers and sisters, this is a slam-dunk.
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Who is available if Sundin is not. I see the flyers have 3 centers tied up with 17 Mill. They are over on cap space too. Briere, Richards and Carter make up the 3. Can the Flyers pay a 3rd line center 5 million. I would make a deal for Carter. He is Big 6'3" and young at 23. This would give us another ssolid player and cost us some choices or current picks. It would leave us 2 million is space and we can sign O'Byrne and maybe Breezy too.
??????????? They just signed Carter and Richards??????? and last year Breire????? don't hold your breath.
Did it ever occur to people that Sundin might not only want to retire, but actually will retire? Just a thought.
Sundin would be a great fit for the Habs. I think they will be a contender even without him if the team stays healthy. Laraque should help in that department. lol!
All said Mike, I hope you're right.
Sens fans are the worst Canadian Hockey fans... they care the least about hockey in Ottawa ...move em to the QC or Winnie ... it makes sense, the Sens are as shallow as their fans
If he didn't add latendresse, i woulda believed Montreal had better linemates.
as it stands right now, the Habs are like an Ikea bookcase... there's one piece missing
you're right Mike....no brainer...he's gotta join our team....oh it would be so sweet to rub it in all those smug Leaf fans' faces
They'll be rubbing it in our faces, they're obnoxious, have tunnel vision and are shameless. Oh, and another thought, what if Sudin signs with us and ends up having a bad season? Imagine the laff fans, doesn't bear thinking about.
You're right about fans. I have a friend who is one as well. (Just one friend.) He has pretty much thrown in the towel on them. The squad they field next season should probably be playing in the "A." While we'll be on the "Drive for 25," they will be on the Quest for Tavares." And, they might even blow that as well.
The one thing that really blows my mind is that they are so hateful, they have a seething burning hatred. I enjoy sticking it to them, but it's all in jest, but they're serious about it all. Cherry is a typical example, it's so obvious. They all need to get a life.
Or just pick another team to cheer for.
Another thing that amazes me is how can a whole fan base have such low expecations? They still sell the place out. We have a collective meltdown if the Habs loose two in a row. Not to mention 15 years without a cup, we're like cocaine addicts and the cup is our crack...it's been agony.
oh please, we'd sell out if we were in a 40 year drought too. We can't go and critisize Leafs fans for maybe their one good quality which is loyalty. I don't look down on them as much as everyone else does, I think Bruins and Sens fans are way more pathetic.
Hear, Hear, sens fans are idiots. I had one of them telling me yesterday, that the sens have a winning record against Montreal in the regular season in the last five years. To which I replied, "Who cares, if you don't win the Cup, it means nothing."
They will always be happy with just making the play offs. That's what you get when your owner is really a leaf fan who is still in the closet.
As Carey Price said so eloquently last year "They don't hang regular season 'League Champion' banners in this building.
I grew up in Western Quebec with Sens fans and Leafs fans, and I can tell you I'd take the Leafs fans anyday. You can't even argue with a 'Turds fan, they just get all in a huff and start to cry. A Leafs fan will argue until he's blue in the face even if he knows he's wrong. Leafs fans are more fun. As a 9 year old I was involved in some epic trash talk during the 93 playoffs, and you got to admit it would have been great if they made the finals. I guess deep down inside I wish they would get a little better so the rivalry could get improve.
Bruins fans are obsessed with saying the refs won it for the Habs. Apparently the Bruins never lose, the refs just steal the games from them.
It's funny how the Broon's fans always blame it on the refs, even though we all know most of the ref's in the NHL come from the toronto area and are staunch leaf supporters. ;)
they're idiots. sorry, but they just annoy me. They're all about the moral victory because they are such losers.
Bill, you don’t mind if I call you Bill, do you? It's just that you seem so familiar. I know I've seen that face before.
My contention is that 75% of the sens fans are ex-leaf fans, who like rats on a scuttled boat, know when it time to sink or swim.
Although I was born in Ottawa and still live here, I would never have even considered switching my allegiance from the bleu, blanc et rouge. I have nothing but disdain for these turncoats.
call me anything you want...
I disagree, I knew a bunch of 'Turds fans who were turncoat Habs fans. I used to get a kick out of asking them if they still cheered for the Habs in 1993, and they always said yes. They were always so hateful towards the Habs, and that was always very weird to me because I could never picture myself hating the Habs, but then again I can never picture myself deserting them for another team. I was still young and impressionable when the Turds started to get good but I always thought they were lame. As much as I hate the Leafs, I always thought it was a thing of beauty everytime they beat Ottawa in the playoffs. the entire city would throw a tantrum.
So true. One of my best friends is an ex Habs fan, and he is unbearable now. He hates the Habs, which I find so un-believable. I think he feels threatened.
I'll tell you a little trick I use on him when he gets to mouthy. I tell him he was never a real Habs fan (I usually say he must have been a closet leaf fan) because a real Habs fan would never switch to a mickey mouse franchaise like the sens. It drives him nuts.
It's funny, I cheer for the leafs over the sens now, too. It is the weirdest feeling because I would cheer for a team of ax murdering Russian baby killers before I would cheer for the leafs.
haha, its funny and it hits a nerve because its so true. How anyone could switch to the Sens from the Habs (and yeah even from the Leafs, at least they are original 6) is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond me. Everything about the Sens just reeks of Mickey Mouseism, from Bryan Murray's dumb trades to Dean Brown yelling SCRAAAAAMBLE to that annoying little theme song, I can't stand them.
It was funny, on Easter weekend I was visiting my parents (who don't have cable) and we were stuck with the Leafs-Sens on Saturday night and had to settle for updates from the Habs-Bruins games, and it was so funny because we were all cheering for the Leafs, like yelling when they scored...of course I was mostly happy cause the Habs were beginning to run away with first but it was still weird.
On the number of battles fought, Robert E. Lee had a winning record against the Army of the Potomac in the American Civil War. Some just happened to be more important than others.
At least we're on the right track. I think what you want to shoot for is to be like Detroit, the hockey equivalent of the Yankees. You might not win every year, but you are at least in the hunt. The leafs only hope is that they can pull a Pittsburgh or Chicago and really suck long enough to get some quality young talent. I really think the League should let teams carry forward unused cap money in the next CBA. Why should it be use it or lose it? It forces teams to piss away a lot of coin on players just for the hell of it. I like Michael Ryder, but after the season he had last year, the Bruins should be paying him 4MM Japanese Yen a year, not U.S. dollars.
'The hockey equivalent of the yankees' are the Detroit Red Wings?? I was suprised that you wrote this. Although yes the wings have been more consistent the last 10 years or so I think the whole world knows the hockey equivalent of the yankees is the Montreal Canadien.
I liked Ryder too, but I don't disagree with what Carbo said, if Julien was nuts enough to give him that kind of money, he should share it with him.
Brian, the leafs will tank this season, finish last overall, then lose out in the lottery and the 5th last finisher will pick Tavares.
I was asking a leaf fan/friend how he could stick with a team, that is so obviously going in the tank, trying to land Tavares and sticking to them this season. He doesn't think the leafs are selling the farm.
These people have to be the stupidest hockey fans in the world.
I saw an old guy with a leafs jacket waiting at the old Cunard/White Star slip on the West Side of Lower Manhattan last week. I was stopped at a light so I asked him what he was doing? He said he was waiting for Titanic to come in. I said, really? He replied, that his brother had told him they might be late.
Captain Cliff Fletcher of the SS Minnow.
Have you seen the t-shirts they are marketing in TO. They have a picture of Cliff Fletcher winking with the caption, "Fletch Knows Best." It's right up there with one I used to have with the Three Stooges on it: "Moe Knows Hockey."