BOSTON – On the night they sent Mats Sundin’s banner into the rafters at Air Canada Centre, he spoke from the heart. He talked about how much he came to miss the spirit of Torontonians after retiring back home in Sweden. And he pointed out that the immense interest and support from Maple Leafs fans can occasionally become a burden for players.
“When you’re a young man in your 20’s it can be overwhelming,” he told the crowd in February 2012.
Sundin has been closely following the team’s first-round series with the Boston Bruins – even catching some of the action live despite the challenges of a six-hour time difference – and can empathize with the scrutiny Auston Matthews has endured this last week or two.
When asked what kind of advice he might offer the 20-year-old centre ahead of Wednesday’s Game 7 at TD Garden, Sundin suggested that Matthews is bound to come out of this playoff experience for the better no matter what happens next.
“I think the biggest thing is not to take it personally and realize the situation,” Sundin told Sportsnet from Sweden. “Representing the Toronto Maple Leafs, being the biggest name and the best player on the team, it comes with the territory. If you’re in a franchise like Tampa or maybe some other city, you kind of go under the radar a little bit.
“But in a city like Toronto and a franchise like the Toronto Maple Leafs, there’s so many [people] cheering about how the team is doing and how he is doing.”
Matthews had a goal, an assist and a team-high 23 shots through six games. He called Game 7 the biggest of his life.
The Leafs are seeking to win their first playoff series since Sundin’s 2004 team dispatched Ottawa in the first round. It’s been a bleak period for the franchise. But what Sundin sees now when he looks at the organization is two key ingredients that have been missing for a long time – hope and possibility.
“I think Brendan Shanahan and the management have done a great job of building,” he said. “With [Mitch] Marner and [William] Nylander, I think Matthews is surrounded now by players that can really help him be successful and lead the team. With saying that, there’s great hope for the franchise.
“I think Auston Matthews, I mean he’s a young man and he’s a great player already, but he’s going to become a great player and a leader for the Toronto Maple Leafs for a long time.”
Sundin retired as the organization’s all-time points leader and was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He won an Olympic gold with Sweden in 2006, and three world championship golds, but still considers the near-misses with the Leafs the high points of his career.
Toronto played 13 playoff rounds in a six-year span while Sundin was captain, twice reaching the Eastern Conference final. He sees some similarities in the offensive depth enjoyed by the current team and his 1999 team that reached the third round.
“We had a younger group of guys and we had a good mix with veteran players,” said Sundin. “But also we had four really strong lines and I recall players like Steve Sullivan, and a lot of guys that were on our third line, that were scoring over 20 goals.”
You can hear the nostalgia in his voice while describing what springtime in Toronto came to mean to him.
“I’ll never forget driving down to the Air Canada Centre for a playoff game and you have all the Bay St. people going to work, and they would have their suit on, and they’d put their Maple Leaf jersey on top of it,” he added. “Just going down for the morning skate or coming down for the game, just seeing what the playoffs and the Toronto Maple Leafs mean for the city and the fans in Toronto just made everything so much more important and enjoyable as a player.”
He feels a deep connection to the city and was saddened to hear about the van attack that killed 10 people earlier this week. From the moment he arrived in a trade from Quebec at the 1994 draft, he felt comfortable.
“It’s Canadians,” said Sundin. “I think as a born and raised European, and a Swede, I really felt that I felt a connection with people in Canada and especially in Toronto. There’s a humbleness. In the National Hockey League, there’s so many great players coming out of Ontario and the Toronto area that go on and become superstars in the league and great representatives of the sport of hockey, but there’s always been a humble part – like a lowkey part – about people out of there.
“Even though the success and everything that’s been there, there’s been a way of handling all that that I’ve really been impressed with.”
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Sundin has been distant from the organization recently, not partaking in any of the centennial celebrations in Toronto last season or attending the event in Los Angeles where he was named one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players of all time.
He’s focused instead on family life in Stockholm. But even with the three young kids he and wife Josephine are raising, he’s kept close tabs on the Leafs. And on the morning of Game 7 in Boston, he expressed confidence that the team would be able to finish off its comeback from 3-1 down in the series.
“Playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs for 13 years, obviously we have to believe Toronto wins and goes on to the second round,” said Sundin.
“I’ll be in Toronto later on here in the playoffs.”
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