Lance Hornby at the Toronto Sun
Unless the Hockey Hall of Fame committee succumbs to Maple Leaf myopia, there won’t be a second consecutive slate of Toronto-tinged inductees to announce in a few days.
While it would be nice for Mats Sundin, Gary Roberts and Curtis Joseph to get in on their first try, they’ll likely be in a pool with other new eligibles behind the two strongest entrants — the much-decorated Joe Sakic and Brendan Shanahan. The aforementioned Leafs trio join four-time Cup winner Claude Lemieux and American scoring ace Jeremy Roenick.
Sakic and Shanahan are legit first ballot HHOFers. Claude Lemieux is a turtling piece of human excrement and can wait for a year devoid of any real talent for his induction. But you just gotta love that last suggestion by Horby.
Mats Sundin has more goals than Roenick; 564 to 513. More assists; 785 to 703. And a better PPG rate over a similarly long career; 1.002ppg over 1346 games to 0.892ppg over 1363 games. Neither has a Cup ring, but in international play Sundin has an Olympic goal medal as the captain of Sweden and three more World Championship golds, whereas Roenick has but an Olympic silver medal.
Then there's the whole intangibles thing surrounding Sundin, what with him being the first ever European selected first overall in the draft, the highest scoring Swedish player in NHL history, and is the goals and points record holder for an Original Six team. He scored 20+ goals for 17 straight seasons ( a record), and only had 2 full seasons below 70 points.
But all that aside, Jeremy Roenick should be the one who gets into the HHOF because he provides lousy commentary on TV during intermission. /dismissive wanking motion
Sundin is the definition of a 1st ballot HHOFer. Were I given a ballot it'd read: Sakic, Shanahan, Sundin, and Boris Mikhailov. Claude Lemieux, Jeremy Roenick, and the others cannot hold a candle to the accomplishments of those four, at least not outside the infantile minds of Toronto Sun journalists. (Full list of eligible candidates here.)
Links after the jump.
Leafs Links
Clarke MacArthur Is a Good Player
But BCP would trade him away.
Jeffler weighs in on the Luongo to the Leafs rumors.
This time the Leafs get Grigo. Giggity.
Scrivens and Reimer: Platoon Possibility
Can't be worse than Reimer/Gustavsson.
Leafs' Team Needs: Top 4 Defencemen - Cheap
Too bad we've already got a vastly overpaid Bottom 2.
Mike at VLM talks about this distinguished Leaf.
Other Links
The Best Ever Draft Picks From 1-30
Ovie is a runner-up at #1 and Sundin isn't?
