AND THE CIRCUS LEAFS TOWN...

The Mats Sundin circus is finally over as the big Swede decides to join the Vancouver Canucks. I admit it, I was sure Markus Naslund had convinced his friend that the Garden is the greatest place to wind down your career, but I guess money talks more than Naslund. In the end the New York Rangers couldn't match the Canuck's big offer.

In his column for ESPN, Scott Burnside, who isn't very impressed with Sundin's career or possibly just pissed off that left Toronto, wrote the following.

"In all his time in the NHL, Sundin, 37, has managed to appear in zero Stanley Cup finals games. He has won no major awards. He was part of Sweden's gold-medal team in the 2006 Torino Olympics. But the Vancouver Canucks are likely paying him a prorated salary of $10 million to play in the NHL, not on the big ice surface of a once-every-four-years tournament."

Scott also wrote that Sundin is a fine hockey player, but the fact that he has never stepped up in the playoffs seems to overshadow the good things in his career. Mats Sundin is not Mark Messier, not many players, if any, are. Messier was an exceptional player and leader, the likes of we will most likely never see again. But is Sundin a good leader? Yes. Did he play on a crap team all these years? Yes.

When the Maple Leafs lose it is Mats Sundin's fault, yet when the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup yearlier this year no one claimed this was Nicklas Lidstrom's doing. Don't get me wrong, I think Lidstrom is one of the best skaters to ever lace up, but he is also the captain of a great team. I would actually suggest that these two captains (although Sundin is no longer wears the C) are quite similar in their style of leadership, simply by leading by example in showing a tremendous work ethic.

Of course Mats Sundin's accomplishments would rank higher had he won trophies and the occational cup along the road of his otherwise impressive career, I can't help but sense a somewhat bitter tone in Burnside's critique. Was Sundin wrong to refuse to waive his no-trade clause last season? Perhaps. I admit it seems strange now as he joins a team halfway through the season because he feels they have a shot at the cup, which is exactly what he refused to do back then. On the other hand, this was the first time in his NHL career that he could choose where to play. Marian Hossa was in the same situation prior to this season and he also recieved massive critisism for his choice. I think a lot of people fail to realize how much it means to these players not to feel like a commodity.

I am just glad this whole thing is over.

____________________________________________________________________

Fighting sleep as Canucks fall short

Sometimes, or rather most of the time, living in Sweden makes it really hard to follow the NHL, unless you are a night person. I'm not. A west-coast game starting at 7.00 pm airs at 4.00 am in Stockholm, which in my case makes it pretty much impossible watch since by that time I am sleeping like a bear around December. But even the games starting around 1.00 am are a challenge for me, and though this may sound sad to most people, around the end of the 1st period me and the sandman will be out of there.

Last night the Vancouver Canucks were in Motown taking on the league-leading Detroit Red Wings. This was not a game I wanted to miss. A win for Vancouver meant they would move into first place in their division, and for the Wings a win would end a three-game losing streak. It started at 1.30 am and I actually contemplated getting a few hours of sleep before it started, but instead I watched Entourage and 30 Rock. I drifted off sometime after Conan and didn't awake until the 3rd was on the way. It was already 2-2 and there would be no more scoring, much thanks to Roberto Luongo who was standing on his head while taking his Canucks to a shootout, he had 47 saves in total. Markus Naslund scored one for Vancouver in what was his 1,000th NHL game and Dan Cleary scored a deuce for the Wings, but of course I missed all that.

What I didn't miss was Hasek shutting down Trevor Linden, Alexander Edler and Taylor Pyatt to seal the win for the Wings. Henrik Zetterberg was the lone scorer in the shootout.

This Sunday the Boston Bruins will try to bounce back into winning mode as they take on the struggling New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers currently sit last in the Atlantic division and in 9th place in the Eastern conference, Boston are 8th with they same number of points as the Rangers.

Speaking of the Rangers; What's going on with them, or rather, what's going on with Jaromir Jagr? Is his poor goalscoring due to the simple fact that he is no longer the big star of the team. No doubt he ended up in the shadow of big acquisitions Chris Drury and Scott Gomez, and a guy like Jagr can't be too happy with that situation. So either give him some more attention, reassure him he is still the star or trade him somewhere and move on. My guess is the former super-Czech and two-time Stanley Cup winner will end up with either San Jose or Colorado. I do think it would be cool to see what he and Big Joe Thornton could do together. With the would-be 100 point scorer Joe Sakic injured the Avalanche also need a offensive boost to get that playoff spot. A Jagr in a new environment could provide just that. My gut says San Jose simply because they are no strangers to big gutsy moves.