The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Mats Sundin

Starting point is 00:00:00 Budweiser Zero and Matt Sundeen are marking Austin Matthews record-breaking moment by celebrating the Kings of Assists, because behind every goal, there's a bud who made it possible. Pleased to be joined by Matt Sundeen right now, Hockey Hall of Famer, and the man that held the record up until Saturday, two-goal performance by Austin Matthews. I am curious because, Matt, you held this record for 18 years. You're a proud captain, the Toronto Maple Leafs for a long time. went through your mind when austin matthews finally broke the record finally i was thinking i thought it was going to break it earlier earlier before christmas oh no i'm sure he he just the way i i i really

Starting point is 00:00:45 can can sense how he felt just to try to get it behind him and and focus on the important things in the midst of a important uh season and and uh you know um try to win uh points for tron instead of focusing on breaking records. I think it's something he's going to recognize even more once his career is over. But I'm sure he's relieved and in myself. Records are made to be broken. So I'm very glad that it's Austin breaking my goal scoring record for the Toronto Police. He's a fantastic player and an even better person and a captain.

Starting point is 00:01:23 You know, Matt, I'm really glad you said that because, you know, the record that you broke was Daryl Sittler's. And when I was a kid, you know, Daryl, my three favorites were Mike Palmetier, Boria Salming, and Daryl Sittler. Salming may be my favorite out of all of them. But I can recall being a kid and he broke Davy Kian's record. I thought how cool that was. And I like that you said that, you know, records are meant to be broken because I believe that

Starting point is 00:01:45 every generation of fan should think that their players are the best and breaking all the records from before. Do you feel that way? Absolutely. I think that's a natural way for. it to go and then some records are going to be harder to break obviously but yeah if obechkin can break when greta's goal scoring record any any record can be broken so we know that and you know different areas different types of hockey some areas are going to be more goal scoring because of

Starting point is 00:02:17 different reasons rules players but players are more talented today the game is faster we get rid of hooking and holding and trying to slow down our skills players and very glad to see Austin breaking my goal record with Toronto. You know, and none of it gets done without teammates and, you know, the lion's share of Austin's goals certainly helped along by someone like Mitch Marner. I am curious because you had a number of wingers when you played in Toronto. And I think a lot of people liked you with Gary Roberts and a lot of people liked you with Alexander McGilney. I always loved you with Michael Renberg. I thought Renberg was really underrated. He was. He was.

Starting point is 00:02:58 the way he would lean on defensemen all game long and then the third period would show up and the other team's D would be exhausted because there's big heavy Renberg leaning on them. Do you have like one of your linemates who you thought never really got their due and was really underrated? Well, I think, you know,

Starting point is 00:03:17 you mentioned Alex McGilney and I, you know, I look back at that. When he came to Toronto, he was at the end of his career. And it was too bad. We couldn't get him to Toronto. in his prime at 26, 27, or even earlier. But, you know, like you said,

Starting point is 00:03:36 goal scores and players are never better than your linemates. You're the people that pass you, the puck, the playmakers. But the complete team. And, you know, if you're looking to win a championship, whether it's Olympic gold or winning a Stanley Cup, you're never going to get further than you need a complete team from goal-tending to defense. to forwards to be able to get through because the competition is so hard.

Starting point is 00:04:03 And I'm sure Austin Matthews, you look at the players who's been around for these years, breaking my goal scoring record, he has some great teammates that helped him achieve this great goal. You know, one of the things that I've always enjoyed about, you know, living in Toronto and around Toronto, watching the Maple Leafs as a kid, I can still recall, as I mentioned, you know, Boria Salming and Inga Hammerstrom. Like they were the big two in the NHL for a long time. And then there were more with the Jets and the WHA.

Starting point is 00:04:34 And then Kent Nielsen became one of my favorites. And even to this day, there's William Nealander on the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I love that for a while there, Peter Forsberg was the best power forward in the NHL. And Nick Lindstrom can lay claim to being the best defenseman of all time in the NHL. When you think about Swedish hockey, the history of it in the NHL and where it's at now, what goes through your mind? Well, I think Sweden should be very proud, and the National Hockey League as well, but for a small country, smaller than a lesser population, or pretty much the same as Ontario, I think a little bit less Sweden is, you know, since the Boris Salming era, who paved the way for my generation, Lidstra, myself, Peter Forsberg, and others, to, when you look at it today, you know, someone told me, It's over 80 players that started in the starting rosters this year in the National Hockey League. I think there's over 100 that is in and out of the lineup.

Starting point is 00:05:37 And we look at the future for Swedish hockey. Right now, three of the top players in the world juniors are Swedes as well, you know, Anton Frundel and Ivar Stenberg and Vigo Björg. So there's a – Sweden has a very strong. strong hockey program. I'm very proud to be part of the area that I was in, but Swedish hockey is doing well, and we're still producing great players. So the system is very strong right now in Sweden for developing hockey players. I'm glad you mentioned those three as well, and specifically Vigo Bjork, who's just been every single game for Sweden in this tournament,

Starting point is 00:06:20 he's been the best player for Sweden. He might not be the biggest guy. I keep saying, If he's six foot two, he's going first overall, but he's been nothing short of outstanding. I want to ask you about Captain C2, because as you mentioned, there's a lot of things around being the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I've heard plenty of stories about how you handled the room and how you handled players. There was one I was reminded of recently where Pat Quinn wanted to close the door on a bus and just leave, but there was a player late. You said, Pat, no, I will handle it. We will handle this as a team and that player was never late to the bus. excuse me, to the bus again.

Starting point is 00:06:55 What type of extra pressure is there when you're the captain of this team? Well, you almost need to have been a player in Toronto to understand what representing Toronto in the National Hockey League is like. But it is different than anywhere else in the hockey world. I think we both know that players that come to Toronto, it doesn't matter if they're Canadian or even growing up, in Ontario or in the city, once they put on that sweater, they're like, oh, my God, wow, I didn't realize the media following and the interest for the team. So it's different, and it comes with certain things that you have to handle that has nothing to do with what's going on in the eyes, really in terms of answering for the team's performance.

Starting point is 00:07:44 And I think Austin has done a fantastic job. And, you know, I look at some of the best leaders that I play with and play it against, you know, including Joe Sackick in the beginning of my career, Nicholas Lidstrom, first European captain, I think, to win us down the cup with Detroit, watching Scott Niedemeyer all those years and Doug Gilmore and, you know, most of them very quiet in the dressing room, you know, and there's no secret. It doesn't just relates to hockey, but you lead by example. And all great leaders. leaders that I've known and played with in the national hockey league and in the national team have those characteristics. And I know Austin is the same way. He leads by example on the ice and he's a great teammate. And I know the respect he has among his teammates. So he's doing a great job in a very tough position being the captain in Toronto. And you draw the toughest assignments too. It's always the first line players that are out there against you. I remember like One of my favorite things to watch in your era was watching you play against Bobby Holick.

Starting point is 00:08:52 It's like, all right, here comes Matt Sundeen and Bobby Holick. It's going to be miserable for everybody. And as a fan, you're just going to enjoy watching it. Who are the toughest guys, two things, who are the toughest guys to play against for you that always gave you fits? And two, I had heard that you lobbied the Maple Leaf to try to bring in Bobby Holick as well. Was that true? You know what? I'm getting old, but I don't remember.

Starting point is 00:09:17 doing that getting Bobby Holic to the leaves I can I don't remember trying to lobbying for that but we were you know our area you know that the devils had a fantastic team they won the Stanley Cup a few times when we ran into them in the second round I think a few times and and and the end and we took them to six and seven games but but the combination of Scott Stevens and Niedermeyer there where you have one really solid strong defensive defensemen to try to hurt the forwards and then you have scott needy on his side that that actually beat forwards up the ice yeah and could carry the puck and and uh be a playmaker so i would say um

Starting point is 00:10:02 playing against the devils with and then once you beat them you had martin burdur back there arguably the best goal tender in the league at the time uh ray boer comes to mind unbelievable respect for what kind of a player what kind of career ray bork had as a uh as a a defenseman. And then I always talk about Nicholas Lindstrom, my fellow countrymen, that I had to play all the time when we play Detroit. And Nicholas had his own way. Never, I don't think he threw a hit in his 22-year career. But was never out of position, poked the puck away from the best forwards, and was miserable to play against. And you realize that the game, it wasn't that hard of your game, but we still lost. And Nicholas was plus four.

Starting point is 00:10:47 So, and they all did it in different ways. They really did. You know, one of the things when we think about goal scoring, we think about hockey sticks. I know I certainly do. And I can recall there was that era and everybody started grabbing them. Remember the era where everybody on your team and it seemed at times like you were the only one that really knew how to use it? Grabbed all those TPS XN tens.

Starting point is 00:11:10 And like everybody tried and taking a pass was hard. And then you'd guys would throw bullets at you and you would take it no problem, fire the puck. What do you remember from that era where everybody was hopping on the X-N-10 train? Well, they were breaking in the beginning, and I had a, you know, I used a very, I had a hard flex on my sticks, and I remember they were fine in stick handling and taking wrist shots and passes, but once you try to do it one timer, they broke in the beginning, but sticks came a long way and even shooting techniques. Nowadays you see, which I think is important, the one-timers, and especially on power plays

Starting point is 00:11:54 and getting the puck to the net quick, goaltenders are so good nowadays, and players are great getting in the line of the shot, so the quicker you can get the puck to the net, the better chance you have in scoring. But sticks came a long way from when I played, and we kind of started the era of the carbon and the lumeny stick in the beginning and the newer models. Man, you guys fired them. Okay, last one, last question for you. I recently did an event with Wendell Clark.

Starting point is 00:12:24 And one of the questions I asked Wendell was, where were you when you found out about the trade? I was shooting a Cheerios commercial in Mississauga. So I drove back to the city. I'm at the S.O. Station, not that there's a big deal that I remember. I was at front and Bathurst when I got traded. at the S.O. station and I turned the radio station on to see who we drafted.

Starting point is 00:12:48 That's right, because the Hartford draft was on. The draft was on, so I was, well, I wonder who we drafted. So I turned the radio station on, and that's when I heard I got traded to Quebec on the radio station. Where were you when you found out that you had been moved from the Nordiques to the Maple Leafs? Well, it was kind of funny. I was actually in a fishing, I was fly fishing in a stream. about 20 kilometers, 30 kilometers outside Kiranau, the hometown of Boris Harming,

Starting point is 00:13:20 because I was up there for Bois Hockey School. And we're standing there fly fishing and there's a helicopter coming in. And I'm there with my brothers and we're like, what's going on? And there's a TV team, a guy jumps out of the helicopter in a white t-shirt and jeans, a reporter and the poor camera guy same outfit and there was mosquitoes and black flies and and they got eaten alive they did the interview in about 27 seconds they jumped back to the helicopter and they left so i'll never forget that the moment i got traded so they were the ones that told you yeah they broke the story wow you've been traded to the leaves what do you think about that

Starting point is 00:14:04 yeah wow times uh times have changed and speaking on times of changes a new goal scoring king in Toronto. Matt, you're always generous with your time. I thank you very much for stopping by with me today. Much appreciated. And I know there's a big birthday party happening at your house, so we'll let you get back to your son's birthday. Thanks so much for this.

Starting point is 00:14:20 Thanks for having me. I said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head, lost all ambitious day-to-day. I can call it a ride I went to the dark man

Starting point is 00:14:43 He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those methods but it's me and myself and how this is going to be fixed in my mind I'm too on a bracket I turned on the music I didn't want to break up

Starting point is 00:15:09 Sending up and up and I don't get you sometimes losing I've been on the days that we're wrong

The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Mats Sundin

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