While showing the final minutes of the Chicago Blackhawks-Vancouver Canucks game CBC panned over the Canucks bench and paused at Mats Sundin. The image broke my heart. There was the great former Leaf on the verge of tears knowing that what very well may be his last chance at winning a Stanley Cup disappear. Full disclosure: I didn't want the Canucks to win. This was not because I did not want Sundin to win a Cup, but because if any team should bring a team back to Canada it should be the Leafs. If Sundin was on the Wings, Ducks, Caps, Pens, or even the Hurricanes it would have been a different story. Unfortunately, he was on the Canucks, a team that I could not bring myself to cheer for. Some Leafs fans could make the transition but I couldn't.
Nevertheless, if this is indeed Sundin's last game he has left us with some remarkable memories.
Who could forget the hattrick, OT winner and 500th goal all on one shot?
His goal against Carolina, in the final seconds of Game 6 of the 2002 Conference Finals, sending the game to OT. This was perhaps the loudest I've ever screamed at a goal.
His emotional return to Toronto
Good bye Mats and thank you.
One. More. Year.
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