The one's of you who know me had to listen to me last season when I was raving about the Ricci-Sundstrom-Thornton line. They were awesome. They fed off each other and lifted each other's play up several Levels. Not only were they best line on the Sharks, they were the best 3rd line in the NHL.
Darry Sutter didn't believe in calling his lines 1st line, 2nd line, 3rd line, 4th line. He would take the hottest line and make them the 1st line. Many times last season, the Ricci-Sundstrom-Thornton line would be the starting line, and be the 1st line for the entire game. Sometimes they would be 2nd line. Regardless of whether the Ricci-Sundstrom-Thornton line was 1st line, 2nd line, 3rd line, they were awesome.
Enter the off season (after last season). Nabokov's, Stuart's, and Sundstrom's contracts were up. Dean Lombardi very frequently takes too long to resign the important players. Sunstrom was home in Sweden during Contract Negotiations. Lombardi took so long to resign Sunny (August) that he couldn't get a VISA to get back into the United States. He missed all of Training Camp, and Preseason and the first few Regular Season games before he could get his VISA to return to San Jose.
Between Suter's retirement, Thornton's shoulder injury, Stuart's injury and contract problem, Nabokov's contract problem, Sundstrom's contract problem and VISA Problem, Darryl Sutter was without a lot of the very important players for the team. They all missed Training Camp, Pre Season and except for Sunny, they missed 15 to 20 Regular Season games. Just about the time everyone was back, San Jose fired Darryl Sutter (I still say firing Sutter and hiring Wilson was a big mistake).
This season we have been seeing the good teams struggle and the nothing teams excel. I think the way the NHL has been handling the enforcement of the rules has had more impact on the good teams and physical teams than many people realize. Why else would the sucky teams like the Ducks be excelling if it wasn't for the sorry excuse of the "new" rule enforcement and no fighting, turning our game into figure skating with sticks.
Niklas Sundstrom is a very good player. San Jose is going to miss him on the ice. I am really P.O.'d the Sharks got rid of him just so they could get McLaren.
I haven't forgotten what McLaren did to Zed in the Playoffs last season, and I'm not apt to forget it anytime soon. I did welcome Dan McGillis to San Jose but this is one San Jose resident who is
NOT going to welcome McLaren here.
Sunny may or may not help the Habs. I don't blame him for being pissed about his lack of playing time in San Jose. The minute Sutter was fired and Wilson was hired he cut Sunny's ice time. Sunny has been struggling like lots of players this season but he was just starting to come around. Wilson came into San Jose, when they were struggling with the rules, and decided to juggle the lines constantly, adding to the problems on the ice. Finally last week Wilson put the lines back the way Sutter had them, but he was still trying to force them to cover their net a new way. Wilson has been trying to fix what really wasn't broken. He hasn't been letting the team do what brought them success last season. It has really screwed the team up. Don't fix what ain't broken. If San Jose had given Darryl time to get the team going after he had everyone back, I think by now the Sharks would have turned around. They were showing indications of it when Darryl was canned. Wilson set the team back. I hope they fire him.
With no Training Camp, no Pre Season, and not the first few Regular Season games, through no fault of his, Sunny may not be able to perform at last season's level for the rest of this season. It may be next season before he can turn it around. Please be patient with Sunny. I can't express how good a player he is. The only other drawback I see is that he may not be a fit with the Habs. If he isn't, then he might not play to the level he is capable of and at the level he played in San Jose.
Please take my word for it. Sunny is a really good player. He's really a nice person too. McLaren is crap. Montreal won, San Jose lost.
I'm not a Sharks fan. I'm a Leafs fan that supports the home team unless they play my Leafs. But just because I'm a Leafs fan doesn't mean I can't appreciate or like players of other teams (The Leafs have some players I don't like). I'm really going to miss Sunny in San Jose and I'm really going to miss the Ricci-Thornton-Sundstrom line on the ice here.
Be good to Sunny and take good care of him for me. And please, have patience with him. If he is a good fit for the Habs then you should be pleased with him. If not, please send him to the Leafs so I can have him on my team.
I wish Sunny all the best in Montreal and I hope he does as well in Montreal as he did in San Jose last season.