Making something out of nothing

• How long can the media ride this lame, stale, story out? Ask again in 6 months....it appears Mats Sundin is still trying to decide.
  

After 384 reports that Mats Sundin has spoken with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Detroit Redwings, 761 reports that he's still making a decision about a comeback and 544 reports on what he's been doing in his life i will say this in the least irritated way possible.

Time to give it a rest.

It was the most hyped comeback since Mario Lemeuix, even though Mats Sundin, fresh off six months of indecision, really had never left at all. Out of shape and out of words to say why it took him so stinking long to make a career choice, he stepped onto the Rexall Place playing surface for his first shift and lasted about as long as it should have taken to make his 'beaten to death' drawn out decision.

5 seconds.

As the game progressed, you could see the swede rise above the rust and contribute one shot on goal...quickly justifying about $500,000 of the $10, 000, 000 he will make this season. In the following 25 minutes, it appeared he was having a tough time deciding when his next shift should be.

Via a sound bit placed in Sundin's under-used equipment, let us go straight to what is (possibly?) a standard player-coach conversation..

Vigneult: Uh Mats its your turn, go out and make us proud
Sundin: Not ready yet coach
Vigneault: When is your expected return going to be?
Sundin: well considering that shift was about 5 seconds, i'm feeling a little winded...so...does Feb. 12th sound good to you?
Vigneault: Hey as long as it gets us to June, then do what you like bud... Would you like another pilsner with that? OH for MATS SAKE who rolled up the red carpet....?"
Sundin: forget the red carpet coach, i wanna be a team player...just give me a signing bonus and i promise ill be back by the 3rd period.

Oilers fans appropriately booed him each time he touched the puck. He was a player who spurned the Leafs a chance to stock up on the future, a player whose every action, move, step, laugh, was recorded by way the "Sundin Cam" Refusing to let the Toronto Maple Leafs be a trader, he quickly showed himself a traitor, eyeing up oodles of cash over loyalty and common sense. But through it all the media jumped on this story like it had secrets to immortaility, like it actually had what it sorely lacked...intrigue.

Consider this day by day report of the much deserved attention the Swede sensation has received:

November 7th- Sundin talks with agent
Nov. 8th-Sundin sleeps in until 11:30
Nov. 10th- Semi-retired Sundin considers full time retirement.
November 18th-returns from week vacation in Bahamas to declare he's far from making a decision
December 5th- Breaking news: Sundin took 14 minutes to walk to the corner store today, further showing signs his foot speed is no longer at NHL level.

Oh and I suppose he probably talked to his girlfriend, read a book, taped his hockey stick and did everything possible except the one thing everyone was waiting for him to do... make a choice.

This spring, Mats Sundin will again be a hero, Toronto media and hungry, attention driven journalists will be hoping that this story will play out in cinderella fashion. In a dream world, he will score 30 goals in the regular season, followed by 15 more in the postseason en route to carrying the Vancouver Canucks to their first ever Stanley Cup championship. 90% of fans will jump on the bandwagon for a player who never believed in being a rental player, and a team who fell for one of the most overrated sideshows the NHL has ever seen.

When spring comes around....I won't be one of them.



BleacherBuff