Last night wasn't just bad for the Leafs, it was apocalypticly bad. Every single matchup went counter to what would have best benefited the Leafs most, with only the Blues winning in overtime being the one slightly good thing by taking a point away from Jersey. What a shitty night. Tonight will be different however. Different because the outcomes of tonight's games have little to no impact on the Leafs' Playoffs hopes, thus it's possible for things to go wrong! Huzzah!

Dallas Stars (+0.2) at Buffalo Sabres (-0.2)

West Coast is the best coast.

Carolina Hurricanes (0.0) at Colorado Avalanche (0.0)

This one's easy. Cheer for a Colorado win so they don't end up giving Washington a lottery pick at the draft.

For the next two days, we're running 13 of our top memories of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. There are more to choose from but Sundin captaining Sweden to Gold in 2006 and his years as a Nordique won't make an appearance on the list. For help, I enlisted Mats Sundin's biggest fan Eyebleaf to help come up with and number the list. It's far from exhaustive and your mileage may vary on our choices but these were the 13 that came immediately into our minds so consider it a small token of our appreciation for one of the greatest Leafs of all-time.

We're back in 2001 for # 7. This time, we're at game two of the series which was one of the wilder Leafs-Devils playoffs games and a harbinger of the post-lockout shootouts.

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For the next two days, we're running 13 of our top memories of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. There are more to choose from but Sundin captaining Sweden to Gold in 2006 and his years as a Nordique won't make an appearance on the list. For help, I enlisted Mats Sundin's biggest fan Eyebleaf to help come up with and number the list. It's far from exhaustive and your mileage may vary on our choices but these were the 13 that came immediately into our minds so consider it a small token of our appreciation for one of the greatest Leafs of all-time.

It wouldn't be a series of memories about a Maple Leaf that played for the team during the late 90s and early 00s without at least one Ottawa Senators related memory. This one came when I was still high school.

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For the next two days, we're running 13 of our top memories of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. There are more to choose from but Sundin captaining Sweden to Gold in 2006 and his years as a Nordique won't make an appearance on the list. For help, I enlisted Mats Sundin's biggest fan Eyebleaf to help come up with and number the list. It's far from exhaustive and your mileage may vary on our choices but these were the 13 that came immediately into our minds so consider it a small token of our appreciation for one of the greatest Leafs of all-time.

This one is focused on one particular goal but it really could just be about how Sundin was the player that the Maple Leafs could count on when they needed him most. Sundin is tied for the most overtime goals (15) and I just found out (thanks Wikipedia) that Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, and Gordie Howe never scored one in overtime. I'd feel better if I read that in the Encyclopedia Britannica but it'll have to do.

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For the next two days, we're running 13 of our top memories of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. There are more to choose from but Sundin captaining Sweden to Gold in 2006 and his years as a Nordique won't make an appearance on the list. For help, I enlisted Mats Sundin's biggest fan Eyebleaf to help come up with and number the list. It's far from exhaustive and your mileage may vary on our choices but these were the 13 that came immediately into our minds so consider it a small token of our appreciation for one of the greatest Leafs of all-time.

Scandinavians are known for a lot of things: drinking a lot (true), beautiful blondes (very true), and being pretty reserved emotionally (that's what they say anyway). In Mats Sundin's tenure as captain of the Maple Leafs, that perception is what often kept media and fans from fawning over him to the extent that he likely would have received in other cities. My favourite remark by MF37 is that if he had been born in Kelvington, Saskatchewan there'd be a statue of him in Toronto.

While that was the perception, I don't think it takes much scratching beneath the surface to see just how much Mats wanted to win and just how much he came to appreciate the fans eventual warming to him in the twilight of his career in Toronto. He wasn't one for displaying raw emotions. His cool demeanour was often interpreted as aloofness (he'd have been enigmatic if he was Russian) but it just showed how much he mastered every aspect of his performance.

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For the next two days, we're running 13 of our top memories of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. There are more to choose from but Sundin captaining Sweden to Gold in 2006 and his years as a Nordique won't make an appearance on the list. For help, I enlisted Mats Sundin's biggest fan Eyebleaf to help come up with and number the list. It's far from exhaustive and your mileage may vary on our choices but these were the 13 that came immediately into our minds so consider it a small token of our appreciation for one of the greatest Leafs of all-time.

This entry is another that's heavy with symbolism although it does invite certain unwanted comparisons to the Auld Enemy Montreal. While they had a continuous period of success and recognisable names traversing the years to carry their closing ceremony from beginning to end, the Leafs had a long stretch of mostly dark ages before the torch passed to his hands.

Eyebleaf with les mots juste and a video after the jump.

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For the next two days, we're running 13 of our top memories of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. There are more to choose from but Sundin captaining Sweden to Gold in 2006 and his years as a Nordique won't make an appearance on the list. For help, I enlisted Mats Sundin's biggest fan Eyebleaf to help come up with and number the list. It's far from exhaustive and your mileage may vary on our choices but these were the 13 that came immediately into our minds so consider it a small token of our appreciation for one of the greatest Leafs of all-time.

Before, during, and after the 2004-2005 NHL lockout, John Ferguson Jr. misjudged any number of changes. Part of that was no doubt due to his inability to sell the MLSE board on his plan to rebuild the Maple Leafs through divesting themselves of a number of veteran players and putting a renewed emphasis on youth and player development. The other part was that he was an awful General Manager.

He did have one major thing going in his favour: Mats Sundin. And in the midst of the run to eighth place, Sundin had his best regular season game ever to keep the Leafs in a race in which they'd ultimately fall two points short.

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For the next two days, we're running 13 of our top memories of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. There are more to choose from but Sundin captaining Sweden to Gold in 2006 and his years as a Nordique won't make an appearance on the list. For help, I enlisted Mats Sundin's biggest fan Eyebleaf to help come up with and number the list. It's far from exhaustive and your mileage may vary on our choices but these were the 13 that came immediately into our minds so consider it a small token of our appreciation for one of the greatest Leafs of all-time.

In the 2002-2003 season Alexander Mogilny lead the Maple Leafs in scoring. This is obviously an odd choice for a list of memories of Mats Sundin but there is a method to our madness. It highlights a theme that you will no doubt remember from his career that will make numerous appearances on our list.

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