Ritter's Rant: Farewell to Mats Sundin; Does Anyone Want to Lead the Canadiens?

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter

Say what you will about Mats Sundin; today, one of the classiest players to ever don an NHL jersey retired from hockey, and the NHL is weaker for having lost him.

Sundin played 1,346 NHL regular season games and along the way collected 564 goals and 785 assists, good enough for 1,349 points. For the record, that ranks Sundin 25th overall in NHL history, just behind legendary Montreal Canadiens forward Guy Lafleur, who had 1,353 points in 1,126 career NHL regular season games.

Sundin, who was arguably the best player to ever don the Blue and White, will always be remembered as a player who constantly (at least until the whole trade deadline debacle) put the team before himself and a guy who could flat-out play.

Congratulations Mats. With all due respect, with a bride like yours, I think most NHL players would be happy to stay home and be put out to “stud.” Enjoy your retirement!

With Mats out of the fold, many Swedish NHL hockey fans will have their satellites tilted towards Tampa Bay in hopes of catching a glimpse of homegrown rookie defenseman Victor Hedman. Hedman has the size and abilities to be a top-tier NHL defenseman, and he gets my early vote as this season's rookie of the year.

You gotta love some Leaf fans. Recently, I wrote a piece warning Leaf fans not to anticipate a great start to the season. October will be tough for the Leafs with games against Ottawa, Montreal, Washington, Pittsburgh, and the New York Rangers, just to name a few. My prediction? A .500 record would be admirable.

Well, it seems Leaf fans don’t care what I think; currently, 47.5 percent of all Leaf fans/readers believe the Leafs will go 6-4-2 in October. Go figure!

Sticking with the Leafs, it seems Brian Burke and Ron Wilson have elected to go with three alternate captains for this upcoming season. Francois Beauchemin, Tomas Kaberle, and Mike Komisarek will all be wearing an “A” when the puck drops Thursday night when the Leafs play host to the Montreal Canadiens at the Air Canada Centre.

In the end, it is expected that sophomore defenseman Luke Schenn will eventually be selected to be the Leafs' captain, but for now, Kaberle, Komisarek, and Beauchemin are great selections and should perform admirably. For the record, the Leafs have not employed a captain since the departure of Mats Sundin.

And now, the Montreal Canadiens...disgruntled forward Sergei Kostitsyn has been suspended by the club for refusing to report to the Canadiens' AHL affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs and, as such, has requested a trade. Guess that means Kostitsyn is off the short list to become the Canadiens' captain.

They said it was going to be different in Montreal this season—seems to me the soap opera has already begun...the Captaincy controversy, rumors that Bob Gainey's head is on the chopping block, many NHL pundits questioning the Canadiens' offseason spending, and now this? Oh boy...it's going to be another long season for Montreal fans!

Until next time,

Peace!