"Before he stepped on the ice, Mats Sundin was handed one of his old hockey sticks by long-time Leaf equipment manager Brian Papineau.

Said Mats: "I don't need that today."

Couldn't have hurt the 2012 Maple Leafs, though, as they turned in one of their worst performances this season on the very night that a former captain, No. 13, had his number raised to the rafters, the 18th gonfalon draped from the metal struts beneath the ceiling at the Air Canada Centre.

Took precisely one minute and 37 seconds for that silken portraiture to be hoisted aloft, taking its place (fittingly) next to compatriot Borje Salming, who led the Swedish charge to Toronto two generations ago.

Sundin had talked to Salming on Friday and received pretty much the same advice he got back in '94, when informed of his trade to Toronto from the Quebec Nordiques, this while the two Swedes were fishing up in Lapland: "This will be good. Enjoy it.""