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Leaf droppings
Sundin isn't the answer
1/18/08 - By Ken
Smyth
Before the Toronto game last Saturday a Leaf-y fan sitting
near us said that the Patrick Marleau for Mats Sundin trade was going down this
week. I reminded him Sundin is already traded to twenty other teams since last
June by the Toronto media. Even with a superstar salary, all those apartment
deposits are a stretch.
By the end of the first period I was hoping
that the trade could be made right then and there, but the Sharks won and all
was forgiven. Which brings up the question- emotion aside, why make trades like
this at all?
Both the Sharks and the Maple Leafs need a shake-up but
for different reasons. Toronto is an awful team in a demanding town; they need
to start rebuilding with young, cheap players or move the franchise. Mats
Sundin has pumped as much as he could into the team but its not gong to be
enough.
The Sharks need a heart, along with a couple other organs
better not described in a family article. It's unclear if Patrick Marleau will
be one of them, but getting a transplant from the flabby body of the Leafs
isn't going to do it.
The Sundin rumor target moved on to Dallas,
maybe a better fit because they're an older team and have people to help Mats
with the assisted living. Still the Sharks are a work in progress, not quite
rising to the intensity of teams at their level or way below it, but picking up
enough points to reassure themselves that there's nothing too wrong.
In the Pacific Division, neither the Sharks, Dallas
nor Anaheim are a complete flop or a great success. Phoenix, too, is for real
now that they have a goaltender who doesn't scare his teammates every time the
puck crosses the blueline. Outside of us die-hards, Sharks' fans are patient.
By Toronto standards, we're nearly dead, but at least we have a team that
isn't. And if Doug Wilson wants another older player for some leadership on the
ice and presence in the dressing room, how about John Madden of the Devils,
since Bob Gainey isn't likely to quit Montreal and get twenty years younger.
More Mats Sundin- déjà vu?
This rumor is an odd
callback of the 1994 trade that brought Mats Sundin to the Leafs, when he was
the young talent and Wendel Clark was the old guy expected to bring leadership
to the dressing room. That trade actually worked out for one team: Sundin kept
his scoring touch and blossomed into a team captain. On the other side Clark's
bash-into-people game wasn't a fit with the Nordiques/Avalanche and he was
traded to the Islanders after one season.
Contact Ken at at
Kenin210@eudoramail.com
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