Interesting dialogue going on in one of the posts today.
Our good pal Nealio spoke out on the issue of the Sundin saga:
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Nealio // December 18, 2008 at 12:13 pm (edit)
Why, why, why on Earth did this rediculous spectacle have to happen. I used to love Sundin, now I can’t stand to hear his name. I know I’m not the only one. Realizing of course this is as much the media’s fault as his own, the guy made his bed, preached his bullshit about the ‘right’ thing to do and has infamously now changed his mind. He’s goes to the Rangers and I have to believe now anytime he shows up in an Arena in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and perhaps even Calgary or Edmonton, this guy is going to get booed mercilessly. Deserved or not, he made his bed and sure hopes he enjoys how it feels to have made some many enemies in the process.
The worst part is, I still have a Sundin jersey at home sitting in my closet that I paid top dollar for at the time I purchased it. Me and probably thousands of others. Hey sure, it happens all the time, people switch teams.
Boy, why couldn’t we have drafted Yzerman. Or Sakic. Or the few others who lived, breathed and retired with ‘their’ teams…
He sure knew how to fuck the organization and fans over in the process. He could have helped us get a 2yr-3yr head start on our rebuild process if he had to have agreed to be traded back at the deadline. Oh right, he doesn’t believe in joining a team unless it’s right from the start of training camp.
Ya ya, he doesn’t owe us anything at all, right. Well at the end of the day I don’t believe many of the fans are feeling much of anything for him anymore and we sure would have liked a much better ending than this….”
It is hard to disagree with a whole lot there…
Here is my reply to Nealio..
I truly believe, 100% without question that had he been left to his own devices he would have retired. I think a lot of outside factors pushed him to this….
That really is a shame because you have to ask yourself why? The best solution is he joins a team and wins the cup. Having not been there all year would have the same asterisk on it that the naysayers (Sundin included) had he moved last season at the deadline. Remember folks, there are no guarantees. The downside if he doesn’t win are huge (at least in my perspective). If he goes to a team and gets injured, or worse doesn’t, but doesn’t play all that great (hey he is 38) and the team fails…then what? What if the team gets bounced in the early rounds of the playoffs? What about his reputation then. What if he goes to the Rangers and they throw a few bodies overboard and that disrupts the chemistry and he is painted as the villain; the proverbial cause of the demise/failure?
I have voted against Mats coming back here. At least if he came back here (and I don’t want that) he wouldn’t have that added baggage. He would have come here to provide that veteran leadership. In that case there is nothing too lose. Easy for me to say from the sidelines. I just don’t know if I would do it this way.
Thoughts?