Matty calls long distance to Mats

Apparently Mattias talked to Mats on the 18th. Here's a snippet from the article by Iain MacIntyre.

“It sounded like he was coming,” Ohlund said Friday when asked about his Thursday morning telephone call with Sundin. “I’m going to be honest: I did think I had a pretty good scoop yesterday morning.”

A few hours later, the National Hockey League team announced the most impressive free-agent acquisition in franchise history.

The way Sundin told it during a conference call Friday morning, the brief telephone call with Ohlund sealed the deal.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Ohlund said. “I just talked a little bit about our team and the way we play. That’s about it.”

Agent J.P. Barry, who represents both players, asked Ohlund to call Sundin to assuage his countryman’s fears about possibly disrupting the chemistry or continuity of the Canucks.

Sundin said he didn’t want to displace or upset anyone.

“I think that speaks about the kind of guy he is, to even have those concerns,” Ohlund said. “Obviously it shows he’s a very humble guy. That was one of things we talked about. Obviously, the guys in this dressing room are nothing but very excited to have him come in.

“We spoke for a couple of minutes, maybe, but I just said guys would love for him to come here and it would be a great fit for our team.”

Ohlund and Sundin were teammates, as were Canucks Daniel and Henrik Sedin, on Sweden’s gold-medal winning team at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.

“I’ve played with him a handful of times and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about him,” Ohlund said. “I don’t, by no means, know him really well, but he’s a nice guy.”