A day later, Jim Kelley is still wondering what exactly Mats Sundin did to deserve the Mark Messier leadership award.
PITTSBURGH — This was supposed to be a column about Brooks Orpik and the colossal hits he threw in the third period Wednesday in helping Pittsburgh beat back the beast that is the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, a performance that was every bit as inspirational to the Penguins as Sidney Crosby’s two-goal effort or Marc-Andre Fleury’s third-period heroics in goal.
Then again, I was thinking of highlighting Gary Roberts and how while the 42-year-old legend is clearly slowing down, he still managed to harness his fading physical abilities for one more stirring playoff performance, a physical performance that not only helped produce Adam Hall’s game-winning goal in Pittsburgh’s eventual 3-2 victory, but also so inspired Orpik and some of the other Penguins foot soldiers that one could have made a case for awarding Roberts one of the game’s three stars.
Acknowledging that I’ve been a little Pittsburgh "heavy" in terms of balancing out the pieces, I toyed with the idea of perhaps illustrating the unfailing brilliance and uncanny leadership of Detroit’s stunningly good defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom, or perhaps the quiet brilliance of Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, or maybe even the steely though slightly glassy-eyed efforts of Johan Franzen, who has battled back from a concussion and is still taking a beating in front of the Pittsburgh net.
Good story ideas all, but my thoughts keep coming back to Mats Sundin’s show-stealing performance here Wednesday when he accepted the first (and presumably annual) Mark Messier leadership award and used the occasion to float the idea that he is in complete control of his future with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Two words: Spare me.
First of all, I will go to my grave wondering what exactly Sundin did to deserve this "coveted" but heretofore nonexistent award.
Looking at the efforts of the above named players in Wednesday’s pivotal game, I found myself hard-pressed to remember the night that Sundin carried a team, a franchise and a whole city on his back and performed with the kind of majesty and intensity that Crosby did.
I don’t recall any of Sundin’s "big-game" performances equaling the game-changing hits or cold-eye intensity that Orpik and Roberts displayed Wednesday night. Maybe I missed it, but I never quite picked up on Sundin’s quest to be the best two-way player in the game the way Zetterberg and Datsyuk have.
Don’t misunderstand; I think of Sundin as a good player bordering on great, but in the area of leadership, quiet or otherwise, he’s maybe a B to B-plus at best.
So by my analysis this seems for all the world to be an award that could have gone to at least a dozen other players. Was there any consideration given Alex Ovechkin and how he carried the Washington Capitals to the playoffs this season almost by himself? Or perhaps Daniel Briere and his role in turning around the worst to nearly first Philadelphia Flyers? Fill in your own pick because there’s room for a long list before one comes to Sundin’s accomplishments over the 2007-08 season.
So right from the get-go this looks for all the world like a bogus award given out after a poorly thought-out criteria evaluation to a player the Players Association would applaud for standing up for his contractual rights, but that’s only part of the problem.
Once on stage, Sundin revealed that the naming of the next Leafs GM might have a bearing on his decision to stay or go, the implication being that if he doesn’t like the new hire or the way the new hire might treat him, he may choose to move on.
Well, fine, that’s Sundin’s right, just as it was his right not to waive his no-trade clause at the trade deadline and while I’m fine with that, Sundin needs to be fine with this: The next GM may see no need for your services next season big fella, and if he doesn’t, all of Leafsland should be fine with that as well.
Sundin may be worth upward to $8 million on the open market and good on him if he gets that kind of an offer, but he’s not worth near that amount to the Maple Leafs, a team that went nowhere with him last season and can equal and possibly better that standing next season without him.
Think about it. If the new GM has half a brain he would be quick to realize that two competent free agents at half the price –that’s $4 million each—are better than one at $8 million. It might sting a bit if Sundin comes into the Air Canada Centre wearing the sweater of the Montreal Canadiens or the Detroit Red Wings or some other visitor, but would that be any worse than the pain that came at the end of last season when he sat out the final games with a groin injury?
At least with two very competent players in his place, you get a 50-50 chance that one of them will be on the ice even if the other comes up lame. If you spread that money out over three pretty good young players at $2 million apiece, the odds are even better.
And seriously, should the Leafs’ new GM - or even the current one - even be thinking that investing that kind of money in a 37-year-old is the key to ending a three-year run of missing the playoffs? Correct me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t a Messier-like leader be able to lead a team as average as the Leafs to an eighth-place finish in a decidedly average Eastern Conference at least once in a three-season span, or are we talking about a Messier-like performance of the kind when the Ultimate One was spinning his wheels in Vancouver with what was then one of the higher salaries in the game?
Won’t a new GM, who will clearly come in with a solid plan, solid timetable and enough job security to not have to worry about one singular gate attraction in a town that would buy tickets to see a dead seal in a blue and white sweater, at least toy with the idea of losing for another year or so with something other than $8 million tied up in a pretty good player who never quite gets it done in the leadership department?
I like Sundin as a player and a person and even a captain in the way that a captain should represent a team and a town without falling victim to turmoil and temptation, but if the show we saw Wednesday is a preview of a hardball game for big money and a contract for longer that his skills would reasonably allow, I say so long Mats baby, don’t let the door hit you on the you know where.
If you want to end your career as a Maple Leaf, well that’s the decision for the new GM, not for you. If he wants you, it has to be on his terms, not yours.
You’re free to sell yourself to the highest bidder, but if you want that bidder to be the Leafs you need to understand that it will be the new guy, not you, who will be calling the price-point shots.
That’s what leaders in management are paid to do.