Mats Sundin told a Toronto radio station this week that he has not yet decided “IF” he wants to play hockey anymore let alone where he wants to play. The former Leaf Captain continues to struggle with that heavy decision.
It really isn’t a decision at all then is it. If you are in September and you still cant decide if you even want to play hockey anymore doesn’t that mean that you don’t. If you get to September and that burn to get on the ice and compete isn’t there then maybe the question has been answered already.
Fans are waiting, teams are waiting and other players are waiting and Mats it appears could care less. Several NHL teams have been saving a roster spot and a big hunk of cash in case Mats wants to play and he wants to play for them. Other players will be moved to accommodate that. They would love to know what is happening with their careers too, but that's no concern to Mats.
Last season when Sundin turned down several requests from Toronto to waive his no trade clause one of his reasons was the full season issue. He believes players should finish the season with the team they started with and anything less is simply a rental and he didn't want to be a rental. OK, so a full season includes a training camp and exhibition games. Camps open in less than 2 weeks and Mats is still deciding if he wants to play? If he decides he does but not until December was last years reasoning a smoke screen for something else?
Mats has no money issues in his life. Over his career he has earned over 74 million dollars plus endorsements and investments. Mats and generations of his family will never have to worry about money. So the issue is really desire and he seems to have a complete lack of it.
For that reason should NHL teams be lining up to try and lure him back? Just like the teams which were wary of his drive to win when he refused to waive his no trade clause in Toronto last year, he seems to be completely lacking in the kind of push you need to play in the NHL at the highest level.
Mats has never been a dog player. He has never mailed it in and maybe that’s his biggest fear. Maybe he is scared that with this lack of excited anticipation for the start of the season he see’s himself as a player who might not be able to push himself to be the player he has always been. No shame in that. The shame is waiting for some epiphany or some magic voice inside Sundin’s head to tell him that he does or doesn’t want to be an NHL player anymore.
This waffling is not only infuriating for those teams who have set aside money to sign the big Swede should he return and pick them as the winners of the Mats lottery. It is an insult to every hockey lover who would give anything for one day of his gifted life. When the fans watching the game care more about Mats playing than he does there is something very wrong with the wires that spark his hockey DNA. Maybe those wires are no longer connected.
Come back or go away I don’t much care anymore. Just stop the waffling. Retire and fade away and then if you decide in a year (or maybe by Christmas) you do want to play again just un-retire. The NFL has the Brett Favre flip-flop Mats can be ours.
See you at the rink.
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19 comments:
Give us a break, Dean! Mats has more class in his pinkie than Daniel Alfreddson has in his entire body. He can take as long as he wants to decide - that won't change the fact that he's the class of the league. Yes, I admit, I have an agenda - In a game call about 8 years ago, Sundin "snowed" the goalie when stopping on a breakaway attempt... And you used the phrase "a classless move by a classless player". I love you Dean, I really do but I've never forgiven you for that comment.
Dean calls it as he sees it and that is what I respect about him.
I am so sick and tired of reading/listening to Leafs fans bitch and complain about everything.
Yes, your team sucks. Yes, they have sucked for a long time. And, no, they won't win the cup this year either.
So, stop being so bitter all the time and do something fun, like watching an exciting Sens game where Dean and Gord call the action!
Leafs suck!!! Here's to another year of futility.
If the teams are tired of waiting for Mats to make up his mind, they should move forward with filling out thier rosters for the upcoming season. He is holding no one or no team hostage. He is an unrestricted free agent...I stress the unrestricted part. Does that not mean he can do whatever he feels is in his best interest. If teams move on and he does not have the level of choice that he has now, that rests on his shoulders. The issue is that the teams that are waiting know that he will make them better than the other players that are still available. If they are still willing to wait all of the 'arm chair' GMs out there should just get a grip and relax.
One this is certain in all of this: Danielle Alfreddson has no class.
I like the way you always tell it like it is Dean. I guess Mats will be Toronto's "Niedermeyer". Wait until my team doesn't have to pay me a full salary, then I'll come back and save them money. As for who has class - Daniel Alfredsson has a whole lot of it. I don't know Danielle Alfreddson, so I couldn't say if she does or not.
Go Alfie! Go Sens!
Geez - he's seen a LOT of miles.
What's wrong with waiting,
getting all of the little wounds healed and coming back in January.
Mats flew into TO (from Europe) to attend a charity game and is flying back home two days later...this from a guy who refused to get traded because he considered himself a true TORONTONIAN?
The Pope is more a Torontonian than Mats.
Alfie classless? Ha!
Alfie's full of class, unlike most Leafs fans.
Sorry dude, it's a generally acknowledged fact in the hockey community that Alfie is classless. Just too many boneheaded actions that reveal his true character, ie: his playoff hit on Tucker, the "slapshot" as time expired heard round the world, the "I don't care about the cup, I'm not from Canada, the lockerroom cancer, etc etc and on and on
re:"it's a generally acknowledged fact in the hockey community that Alfie is classless"
Ahhh Dean! The granola-crunching, thug-hugging, knuckle-dragging boneheads from the big smoke are out in full force with their anonymous drive-by smear campaigns!
Those comments are so off-the- chart laughable that I dont know where to begin to reply (or should I).
I'm sure Sens Nation would have loved to have such "class" acts as Tucker, McCabe, Domi, Tlusty, Mark Bell, Holwegg, Green, or better yet Jeff Finger!
I'm sure we'd rather have players committed to signing fat contracts with no-trade clauses, versus actually MAKING the playoffs...!
I'm sure we'd love to have a search for a GM that lasts 18 months.
Ahh the insanity!
Keep it coming Leaf Nation, I need the comic relief.
I have to side with the "Leaf fan" on this one. I'm a long time Sens fan, but I've never been a fan of Alfie. I wouldn't say more a bad character and bad leader than classless, but he certainly isn't classy.
Are you guys kidding me?!? Alfie is the classiest guy in the league. Maybe even in all of professional sports, past and future. Yes, the guy is that classy!
+1 for Alfie being very unclassy
+1 Alfie is classless
A classy player is a Cal Ripken Jr. or Mark Messier. umm little Daniel is not even close to that level of player.
Sundin with the limited talent on his team had only 9 fewer points than Alfredson. Whichever team he plays for that team will do well, no doubt. I wish him the best.
What has Alfredsson really accomplished yet? Shoot a puck at an opposition, throw a stick in the arena, make predictions that don't work out. I mean if Toronto has been so bad for so long why hasn't Ottawa (supposely a superior team) not beat them when it mattered. Toronto has been bad since the lockout no doubt, but what's Ottawa's excuse (which I am sure people will have one) for not winning.
You're being waaaaaaaaaaaay to hard on Sundin.
Next year Daniel Alfredsson's contract expires and he gets into his option years.
If he takes a few months, maybe more, to weigh his options of returning as Captain, retiring or going into Sens management or whichever...where's the harm?
Just because the media wants neat headlines and everything cut and dry does not mean it has to be so with a person's decisionmaking.
This is hard for Sundin, let him take his time and make the right decision for him.
Wow at the 'classless' comments.
First of all, Alfredsson is SELFLESS. He has deferred salary, taken a pay cut and kept out of the limelight so that losers like Jason Spezza (I'm giggling while talking guys!) and Heatley get adulation thrown at him.
Like any captain, he'll stir the pot when needed. Has he done boneheaded stuff (the shot at Nieds, the fake stick throw, saying we'd win game 7 against the Leafs) sure he has.
Do I wish Alfredsson and more of the Senators just bit their tongues and played and produced results? Sure I do. But that's not what we have.
We have an owner that's on an another planet thinking of soccer in a hockey market, a GM that makes more jokes than cogent roster moves and a team that's a country club with no fear of losing ice time or a roster spot because no one calls out their underachieving butts.
Alfie and Sundin are both in 'class'es of their own.
Country club Alfie! That's the nail on the head! What a panzie that man is...
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