Former Leafs Return to Haunt Fans

Note: With just a few hours to go, SBN's resident Leafs expert shares his thoughts on the long, winding road it's been so far for Toronto and sir Mats. With some gratuitous Pudge references as well (as if you'd expect anything less? tisk tisk)

Hello, my name is PPP and I hate former Leafs. Not forever mind you and not constantly but at least sometimes. Usually, it's when they come back to the ACC and proceed to bury a couple of goals and leave town with two points. Tonight my hate will be focused on two former Leafs. I was originally going to do an entire post avoiding names and at the end it would have all been about Kyle Wellwood but someone already did a pretty good job.

Anyway, I hate Mats Sundin and Kyle Wellwood.

I'll deal with the Sultan of Sweat first. He had the potential to be an important part of the Leafs' offence. He had a great first year helping to pull the strings on the powerplay. His vision and touch led him to put up 45 points in 81 games in his first season and then had 42 in 48 games before injuries derailed his season. That summer he spent mostly playing XBox according to his father and struggled with injuries last season. That might have made a professional athlete re-dedicate themselves to rehabbing and training. Instead we got this version of Candyland Kyle:

Nothing that the Leafs did could get the Baconator to change his ways. Getting waived and picked up by the Canucks didn't wake him up. Instead, he changed nothing!

Then the Canucks waived him and still stunk! Wellwood got off to an unsustainable start (you mean that 35% shooting percentage won't last?) and Leaf fans got to hear a lot about the Prince of Pringles lighting up the league. Now that he has only two assists and 22 shots in the last 19 games we don't have to read ridiculous articles slamming the Leafs for getting nothing in exchange for Captain Crunch.

Now, on to Mats. Here's what I wrote at the time of his signing:

However, a few years from now after Mats has hung up his skates (for real this time) the Leafs will announce that they will be raising number 13 to the rafters. The team will hopefully have found success and fans will begin to remember the good times that he provided us. I'll probably find a way to get a ticket to the game and along with everyone in the building I'll give him the standing ovation that he deserves. Much in the same way that Habs fans re-embraced Patrick Roy the softening of Leafer's hearts will be gradual but at the end of the day the great memories will vastly outweigh the unfortunate way in which things ended and we'll tell the next generation of fans about how we were lucky enough to see Mats Sundin cruising the ice in Toronto, carrying a team on his back, and leading from the front.

Of course, that day will come someday but for now Mats, you are dead to me.

I don't know if I would boo if I was at the game tonight. Mats broke a lot of hearts. The last return of this sort was Doug Gilmour's:

You can go through my site and see the back and forth on the issue if you're really interested. It'll give you a much better view of things than the traditional media who are working under some erroneous assumptions. The fans in attendance, unless Sundin gets announced in the starting lineup, will probably react like they did in the video above. Once the Leafs show their montage people will definitely cheer.

That would soften the hardest heart. No one has ever suggested forgetting the past and when it's shown to you there's no forgetting how you felt when you saw that big grin.

The best thing about tonight is that this entire saga will actually be finished. We went from "will he be traded?" to "will he return?" to "where will he sign?" to "how will he be received?" and it's been very exhausting.