Tuesday, August 12, 2008

In Praise of Mats

Leading scorer? Check. Letter on his chest? Check. All-Star? Check. Olympic Gold Medallist? Check. Swedish? Check. Gentleman? Check. Stayed out of the penalty box? Check. Point-per-game player over his career, good for 30 goals a year, ran the power play? Check, check, check. Cool nickname? (Le Petit Viking?) You better believe that's a check.

Oh, one more thing: 19 points to lead the Habs in scoring in a little thing called the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs. You might remember it more like this.

A Mats helping lead the Habs to a long-overdue Cup? Check.

All hail Le Petit Viking, the Mats we know and love. The Mats who wasn't tall enough to climb the fence, let alone sit on it all fucking summer.

15 comments:

L Dude said...

OK, so it's time for Le Grand Viking? The Procrastinating Viking? The Make Up your Fucking Mind Viking? The That's IT! I Don't fucking care any more so keep your Swedish fucking ass in Sweden Viking?

I'm bored. If you want to kill some time you can always Design Curtis Sanford's Mask

I think I finally figured out the link thing. That deserves a drink.
Later.

Young HF29 said...

Now this is a Mats post I can get behind. Or on top of, considering Mats' size. All hail #26

Habsfan10 said...

Sanford's mask should look like a baseball cap, since that what he'll be wearing on the bench backing up Luongo.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

aww, poor habs fans, still waiting for mats...

keep waiting. like the rest of us.

patience, my dears, patience.

good things come to those who wait...well, except if you're a leafs fan like myself.

i have no issues with sundin heading over to montreal. i think it would be pretty fantastic to see sundin surrounded by the type of offensive talent he never had in toronto. and that building you guys have, man, that place is loud. unfortunately, toronto will never be like that. fuckin suits.

but, we're all waiting like the rest of you. so i'm preaching patience. sundin's good people, never done a douchebaggy thing in his life. i know it's been forever, but the least we can do is be patient and wait for him to finally make up his mind. it's been about 3 and a half months already. what's another few weeks?

Anonymous said...

The Economist writes:

"A consistently intelligent and amusing ice hockey blog...it is hard to imagine how good this site could be if it were not for the quite serious class A drug problems the authors struggle with."

Jeffhk

HockeyTownTodd said...

* World Junior Championship All-Star Team, 1978
* Swedish Player of the Year, 1980
* Swedish league Champion, 1980, 1992, 1994
* NHL All-Rookie Team, 1983
* Played in NHL All-Star Game, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1989(injured, did not play)
* NHL Second All-Star Team, 1986
* Stanley Cup Champion, 1986
* Lady Byng Trophy, 1988
* World Champion, 1991
* Olympic Gold, 1994

Doogie2K said...

So based on uniform numbers, does this make Our Mats twice the Mats the Other Mats is? Gentlemen, I believe so.

hmanpuckfan said...

So, if Le Petit Viking and the Fence Sitter come to Centre Bell together, do you put out the Welcome Mats?

I think I've lost my mind!

Young HF29 said...

@hmanpuckfan - while your puns fell somewhere on the middle of the groan-a-meter, your incredible avatar makes up for everything

long live the yellow and green skates

Senators Lost Cojones said...

Et le but, marqué par le numéro vingt-six...MATS NasLOOOOOOOOND!!

Cracked me up every fucking time. Of course, I was 12...but still.

Anonymous said...

I miss the little Mats...

And wow, I've forgotten how hideous Vancouver's old sweater was. Reminds me of my aunt's wallpaper. Not that their new colours are much better, but at least they're sort of Whalers-y.

And by the way, hello! I've been reading this blog for only a few days and it's bloody hilarious. Cheers!

fezworth said...

@#31 - One of the things you'll soon realise is that the entire blog is merely a canvas for JeffHK to post his ranting insane comments. Something to look out for!

Senators Lost Cojones said...

PANTS!!

Sorry...got caught up in the hype.

fezworth said...

@SLC: Thank you for the laugh of the day. I had forgotten about that!

Sandra Cormier said...

Mats can go wherever the hell he wants. Obviously, he doesn't want to stay in T.O.

I hate to admit it, but I'm a fence-sitter too. I was born in Montreal but live near Toronto, so both teams hold a place in my heart.

The Rocket gave my mom his autograph in the hospital where I was born. She held onto it for years, but lost it in a move. She didn't tell me it existed until just a few years ago, just before he passed away.

I wish I could have added his signature to the many already on my copy of The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carriere.

--Sandra Cormier, a hockey romantic