Nobody will ever know how close John Ferguson Jr. was to trading Tomas Kaberle and Alexander Steen for Chris Pronger the summer of 2006.

It's these small things that make life so special.

Special nights for Leaf fans have come seldom over the past 40+ years. The odd playoff round clincher here, glimmer of hope there, a win to stop us from fully bleeding out.

It's a franchise that has not won anything significant in a long time. And for that reason, tonight's honoring of Mats Sundin is even more important.

On many nights during his 13 years as a Leaf, Mats Sundin was the only thing fans had to cheer about. You could always count on him to do something special. To score a goal when the team needed one. To make a pass with the clock ticking down. To represent the emblem on his shirt and the C over his heart with dignity.

In the past week a lot of media and bloggers have jumped on the greatest  memory wagon to carry them to this Saturday night. I'm going to do the same.

Flames @ Leafs, October 14, 2006. My best friend and I, in the 4th row, right behind Kipper, the game tied. Most know what happened next. But for those who don't recall, Mats Sundin scored his 500th NHL goal. In overtime. The game winner. A hat trick.

Man, did I tell that story to anyone who would listen for the next week.

Whether the highest scoring Swedish player of all-time will one day become a Hall of Fame member, we've had this discussion a million times here at BoO. Personally, I think he will. But for tonight, it's not about the HOF, or whether he's a better captain and player than Daniel Alfredsson, which is where this conversation usually travels on this blog.

It's about the Leafs giving honor to a player who absolutely, without a shred of doubt,  has earned it.

Thanks Mats.

Man, no time to do this proper but had to put something up before the puck drops.

Both teams are healthy and both obviously need the win! Should be a great tilt!

See you later in the comments...

We've already compared failed Cup guarantees from BoO captains (no comment from Leaf fans on that whole episode), so now it's time for an update on Kadri v. Turris I.

A few things to note:  both have slipped in PPG, +/- and FO% (it was too much trouble to segregate Turris' PHX v OTT FO%, so we'll leave it as is).  Turris, however, has increased his category lead count to 8 by adding a goal, and a realbeauty off a feed from Alfie against Boston.

It is going to be very interesting to see the progression of former 3rd overall pick Turris, and guaranteed Calder Trophy winning Kadri (theme!)  over the next few games. 

Oh wait.

Read this story.

It's been 5 days since a real hockey game has been played and I just can't help myself.  Bill Watters tweeted the following hockey trade rumor between the Jackets and the Leafs:

Jackets trade to Toronto: Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius 
Leafs trade to Columbus: Luke Schenn, Mikhail Grabovski, Mike Komisarek and Nazem Kadri.


What's interesting about this trade is that the salaries actually match up. Around $12M from each team, according to Mike Augello. At first glance, the Leafs get the best player in the deal in Rick Nash. That has been a trend in Burke's dealings, which gives this some chance of being credible. Toronto would lose two of their past four first round draft picks in Schenn and Kadri, and Grabovski who is on his way to his second 30 goal season. Komisarek and his $4.5M salary go the other way too.


My take: I love Rick Nash, and moving to Toronto would re-unite Nash with his favorite hockey team growing up, and give the Leafs the size and skill up front they are looking for. Huselius is injured reserve for a few more weeks, but he could be a valuable guy and at 6'2" also brings some size. 


Toronto give up a lot in Schenn and Kadri, as far as controllable and reasonably priced talent. Komisarek I don't think anybody would think about ever again, and if Grabovski is truly seeking the $5M salary that rumors say his agent has kicked off negotiations with, then he might be gone this June anyway. 


If Burke came to me and said "your call, you can make or not make the trade but you have to decide right now, I say make the deal. Rick Nash would look good in a Leafs jersey and he's 27 years old and locked up for 6 more seasons. 

In this writers opinion, Ottawa's GM and Coach still have work to do before being considered anything but a struggling franchise with a couple of wins lately.

Leafs ranked 8th and Ottawa 20th.

Thanks to the fine folks at PPP for the link, whom I agree with that the Leafs seem ranked a little high.

The All-Star festivities kick off tomorrow evening with the draft.  The Battle of Ontario has 7.5 participants in this year's edition.

On the undeserving side are Leaf Captain and the leagues most overrated player as voted by his peers, Dion Phaneuf and alleged distributor of hooker DNA Joffrey  Lupul.  There's also some short guy with a fancy car.

On the ridiculously under-represented side, we have:
Underappreciated Milan Michalek and his dashing good looks,
The guy who should have been picked after Jake Gardiner,
The number 1 active PPG centremen over 500 GPs  in Jason Spezza,
Rookie of the Year candidate Nazem Kadri Colin Greening.

In case you are doing the math, that list is missing one name.  But that's ok.  That all-star is Captain, he is omniprescent, he is around us, he is one with us, he is the leader of all things hockey, and hair, and moustaches.  He is what George Lucas based "The Force" upon.  You know who he is.

How will each of these players perform?  Well, amongst all of the other distractions and  political issues  likely to see some airtime, it will be interesting to see how Kessel and Lupul do on a team with more than just two average hockey players.

*not via ballot stuffing or home rink politics. Actually rewarded for his play, which has been sensational.

With Greening's two goals yesterday, he moves to a tie for 5th in rookie scoring. Cowen is 1pt behind Larsson for rookie D. Note that Cowen and Greening are 1st and 4th in Hits for rookies too - just another part of the reason the Sens are doing better than expected. Nobody pencilled in that kind of production from these two players.
Leaf fans, you can see Gardiner and Frattin lower down on the page on the NHL site - just ahead of Daugavins.

THM Addition
(sorry Don - didn't want to over-post so I figured it'd be kosher to add to your youngin' post)

In another thread, Muppet commented that Kadri has a higher PPG than Turris.  Over several seasons Turris is running at 0.385 (.39).  Kadri is at 0.4.

What about this season, though, the only one that presently counts?  Let's have a look at a category-by-category breakdown (Phoenix numbers removed for Turris):

SJ Mercury:
Hat-tip to SensTown tweet.

All you need to watch is the first 22 seconds to understand how soft the Leafs are.  Z.Smith wasn't even aware someone ran into him.

Yes.

Okay, worst in the last 40 years or so? Don't know much about Jimmy Thomson or Sid Smith.

Or as it will be known - the BBOO.

Lineups from Mirtle:
Leafs projected lineup
Lupul - Bozak - Kessel
MacArthur - Grabovski - Kulemin
Lombardi - Connolly - Crabb
Rosehill - Steckel - Brown
Aulie - Phaneuf
Gunnarsson - Schenn
Gardiner - Franson
Reimer

Sens projected lineup
Michalek - Spezza - Greening
Condra - Turris - Alfredsson
Foligno - Smith - Neil
Butler - Konopka - Daugavins
Kuba - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Phillips - Carkner
Anderson

The Leafs dumped Kadri for this game for Rosehill - a guy that last played Dec 19 - a whole 3:33 of ice on that agaim (again from Mirtle).
Scared about getting pushed around in their own building?

I'm thinking the first goal is an important one in this game - especially if the Sens get one early and get Reimer off to a questionable start.

Man - should just have copied Mirtle's whole Leafs Beat column...
There was a ton of talk about the revival of the Battle of Ontario at the rink, with both teams potentially set to make the playoffs in the same year for the first time since they met in Round 1 of 2004.
No Leafs players are left from those days, while the Sens have Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Chris Phillips and Chris Neil. Only Sens coach Paul MacLean seemed to feel the rivalry was still going strong. (Joffrey Lupul said he didn't even remember watching any of their previous playoff meetings.)
Doesn't seem right! Bring back Darcy!!