Leafs Nation: Bring Back Bowen; Sundin Underrated

There is a Twitter movement happening that is attempting to re-install Joe Bowen on televised broadcasts of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I am still waiting for a populist movement I can get behind.  I am sorry if this isn’t what you want to hear, but I see no need to make the broadcasts more shrill and annoying. If I never have to hear ‘Holy Makanov’ again in my life, I’ll be a happy guy.   In my opinion, the Toronto Maple Leafs are better on TV without Bowen.

If you want my opinion, someone should make a petition to get Greg Millen off my TV.  I could also do without Jim Ralph.  Why doesn’t someone do a Jiggs McDonald petition? Just kidding. The only announcers I have strong positive feelings for are Bob Cole and Harry Neale.  Everyone else is garbage in comparison.

Worst Take of the Day

There is a lot of arguing going on because the NHL is doing their dumb best 100 of all time.  I personally am sick of lists like this because our society seems too dumb to read anything that isn’t a list.  The consequences of this are that  Dog the Bounty Hunter’s closet peer is now the President.

But, since that list exists, it is causing all sorts of reactions, and Sundin being left off lead to this:

You can feel free to insult my mother, my wife, or my intelligence. But Mats Sundin?  The only good thing about being a Leafs fan for like twenty years?

Sir, you have gone too far.

Mats Sundin is one of the greatest players in NHL history and the best player in Leafs history.  The only reason he isn’t universally acknowledged as such is because he never won the Stanley Cup, and we overrated anyone who does.  This even though hockey is a team sport.

Sundin is essentially the Dan Marino (laces out) of the NHL.  The only players of his generation who were better were Lindros, Forsberg and Fedorov.

Had he been lucky enough to play on a stacked Detroit or Colorado team, he’d be ranked higher than Sakic or Yzerman, neither of which was a better player than Sundin.

Auston Matthews

I don’t think it’s too early to say that the only thing stopping Matthews from usurping Mats Sundin from being the best Toronto Maple Leafs player of all-time is career longevity.  He’s already the most purely talented.

In celebration of the Leafs finally having their own Gretzky/Lemieux/Crosby style player, let’s re-watch all his goals:

Matthews will almost certainly be the first Toronto Maple Leafs player to win the Calder Trophy since 1961 (Dave Keon).  One day he’ll likely win a Hart and Cup too.  Some people think Mitch Marner is better, but this just isn’t true!

The end.