The Legacy of Sundin

It was a different hockey world when Mats Sundin made history.

His status as the first European ever selected No. 1 in the NHL draft back in 1989 was no small achievement, you should remember. Back then, Euros weren’t necessarily seen as players that could be trusted to be franchise players despite the success players like Jari Kurri had already experienced. The Iron Curtain had yet to fall, so players from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union were all but unreachable.

The year before, Teemu Selanne of Finland had been drafted 10th overall, the only European taken in the top 30. In the ’87 draft, every single player selected in the first round was a Canadian.

But in ’89, Sundin was still a slam dunk as the first pick. He was that much better than the rest of the world’s teenagers and he made history.

Twenty-years later, Sundin has hung ‘em up, a year too late, as it turns out. Had Sundin retired in the spring of 2008 as a Maple Leaf, the farewell would have been spectacular and his reputation would have been unsullied as one of the best Leafs of his generation.

Going to Vancouver for one unsuccessful half-season surely didn’t destroy Sundin’s legacy, but it did hurt it, made him appear interested only in cashing in one more time but unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to compete in the world’s toughest hockey league.

As it turned out, he couldn’t compete any longer, just as Guy Lafleur wasn’t the same when he came back as a New York Ranger, and just as Theo Fleury couldn’t crack the Calgary Flames roster this spring.

Once you check out, it’s hard to check back in. And while Sundin didn’t check out in the summer of ’08, it seemed he was dragged back to the rink, persuaded to play one more season by advisors, friends and family. His heart never seemed to be in Vancouver, although as always he said the right things, and he made not the slightest difference to a Canucks team that fell to Chicago in the post-season.

But if you remember all the seasons before that, Sundin had one heck of a career, a terrific ride. A Hall of Fame experience.

He scored 564 goals and added 785 assists in the regular season, and added another 38 goals and 44 assists in 91 playoff games. He was remarkably consistent and durable. He was more explosive in his early years with Quebec, but after being dealt to the Leafs in one of the club’s most controversial deals that sent captain Wendel Clark to the Nordiques, Sundin gradually evolved into a reliable power centre, usually a point-per-game player, and one who developed into a solid playoff competitor after being questioned for his playoff grit in Quebec City. Strangely, the team never found the perfect fit for him as a linemate, and looking back over Sundin’s long career one sees a series of different players rather than one winger who was always there riding alongside the splendid Swede.

The absence of a Stanley Cup ring injures the resume, but only slightly. Sundin did, after all, win three world championship gold medals with Sweden and the 2006 Olympic gold as well, certainly team achievements that are worthy of being in the same conversation as winning the Cup. Some will slam Sundin for being unable to bring the Cup to Toronto, but on those teams, with those players, it’s worth asking: Who could have?

The debate over whether he was a great Leaf captain, or a pedestrian one, will go on for years. He wasn’t as fiery as Doug Gilmour, and was surely never particularly popular in Toronto, never as beloved as Clark, Gilmour, Curtis Joseph or Tie Domi. Insiders would tell you, however, that he always cared about his teammates and tried to do the right thing while working for an organization that could at best be described as flighty and easily distracted.

The other mark against his name by many Leaf fans will be his status as the leading member of the infamous Muskoka Five, the group of Leafs that included Darcy Tucker, Bryan McCabe, Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle who collectively refused to waive their no-trade clauses in the winter of ’08 to allow interim GM Cliff Fletcher to trade them for draft picks and futures as the team stumbled through another non-playoff season.

Sundin insisted he believed the team could make the playoffs and didn’t want to join a Cup contender partway through the season, a claim undercut months later when he joined the Canucks in late December for the second half of the NHL season. In the end, it mattered little, for he couldn’t help the Canucks just as he wouldn’t have been able to help the Leafs. He was finished.

Five years from now, Sundin should be a first ballot Hall of Fame selection. But the Leafs shouldn’t wait that long to raise his No. 13 to the rafters of the Air Canada Centre. Next season, perhaps, would be perfect, just to make doubly sure he’s committed to retirement. The Leafs like to do these things in pairs, so put up former captain Rick Vaive’s No. 22 at the same time, an oversight that requires correction.

Both were outstanding Leafs and outstanding leaders. That no Leaf is currently viewed as worthy of wearing the captain’s “C” is, really, an indirect but significant tribute to both men.

Tavares Time

True story.

When the Tampa Bay Lightning were considering giving Steve Stamkos a night off as a healthy scratch in mid-season last year, part of the consideration was waiting until the Bolts were as far away from Toronto as possible to minimize the controversy, speculation and fallout from sitting the youngster.

So when did he sit? Jan. 9 in Anaheim, about as far away from Toronto as one can get and still be in the NHL.

Of course, that’s speaking geographically. Figuratively, you could argue that Long Island has become Antarctica to the rest of the NHL, which is why it may turn out to be the perfect place for John Tavares to begin his career as NHL player and franchise saviour.

Far away from the rumour-mill nonsense of the GTA.

Tavares, now 19, leads a four-pack of 2009 first-rounders to make the grade to start the NHL regular season, along with No. 2 pick Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay), No. 3 selection Matt Duchene (Colorado) and the fourth pick, Evander Kane of the Atlanta Thrashers. The Isles are also making noises about keeping around the 12th pick of the draft, Oshawa Generals defenceman Calvin de Haan, for regular season exposure, but de Haan is injured and also unsigned. (Photo: Tavares on draft day, 2009. Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

Tavares, clearly, has the biggest job ahead of him of any of the top picks. Not only does he have to try to establish himself as an offensive threat on a thin team – his wingers on opening night are likely to be Sean Bergenheim and GTA product Matt Moulson – but he has to try to be part of the effort to save the franchise as well.

It's not dissimilar to the task that faced Sidney Crosby when he went to Pittsburgh in 2005. The Islanders are losing an estimated $20 million per season playing out of antiquated Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and owner Charles Wang has told local officials that if he doesn’t get some good news on his massive Lighthouse Project by Saturday he’s going to start looking at offers to move the team.

Already this fall, the Isles played an exhibition game in Kansas City, although that contest drew fewer than 10,000 fans. Las Vegas would be another possibility, and if the NHL wins the Phoenix auction, at some point you’d have to wonder if Jim Balsillie and Hamilton would come up.

Five years after announcing the 150-acre Lighthouse Project, Wang still hasn’t seen a shovel in the ground. The scheme would include a new arena, commercial and residential development including a canal and all kinds of goodies, so naturally there are multiple layers of bureaucracy and politics to wade through, just as there would be in the GTA if such a plan were ever proposed.

Wang has complained the process is taking far too long, which is why he has set an unofficial deadline, and why local politicos are balking.

“We don’t tell them when they have to bring in a Stanley Cup,” said one town official quoted in Newsday.

That’s nasty. The once-great Isles have a lease at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum until 2015, but we already know from Phoenix the NHL doesn’t much worry about that stuff.

So into this maelstrom of insolvency and uncertainty goes Tavares. Stamkos had to deal with a lot of on-ice and off-ice issues in Tampa last season and survived, so theoretically so can Tavares.

It won’t be easy. But it helps that not as many people are watching the Islanders as once did.

It Could Happen

Somehow, the Maple Leafs will make the playoffs.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Can Toronto turn pre-season success into a playoff berth?

There, I said it. Now it will almost certainly haunt me for the next seven months.

Maybe it’s just a change of pace after predicting non-playoff campaigns over and over in recent years.

But suggesting a Leaf playoff berth certainly isn’t about logic. There are gaping holes in this Toronto lineup that can’t be denied.

But you can bet on an improved sense of team identity to help Brian Burke’s Leafs, and let’s face it, the mediocrity of so many Eastern Conference teams leaves the door wide open for any club able to put together a 93-95 point season.

The most worrisome part of the club, however, is that it is distinctly average to below average down the middle. There isn’t a 60-point pivot on the squad and goaltending remains an enormous question mark.

As I said, picking the Leafs, then, can’t be about logic. It’s more about a feel.

Some thoughts as the pre-season (mercifully) ends:

-- If Vesa Toskala is doing anything but sharing the goaltending load this season, there’s trouble. At 32 coming off hip surgery and a so-so season, Toskala isn’t going to suddenly rival Martin Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist and Tim Thomas in the east. Ray Emery maybe.

But if Jonas Gustavsson can play 35-40 games and be better in March than he is in October, there’s reason for hope in the Leaf crease, and hope the NHL’s worst defensive team from a year ago can move up to at least be in the top 20.

-- Those who believe the Leafs have all this excess blueline depth that Burke is going to be able to convert into an impact forward are living in a dream world.

Look folks, Ian White is still your No. 5 on defence. If you put Garnet Exelby, Jeff Finger and Mike Van Ryn on waivers today, only Exelby would likely go because of the prohibitive salaries of the other two.

There is no depth of significance here to trade. Tomas Kaberle is still the D-man to move, but now he’d have to waive his no-trade clause again.

-- The swing guy up front has to be John Mitchell, who apparently is now a left winger, not a centre. He loves to tease with his talent but his hockey sense is at times, well, peculiar, and he fades in and out. Mitchell could make a significant difference with this team, but that doesn’t mean he will.

-- Detroit has made a handsome living in recent years with late-blooming Swedes, and it's worth wondering whether the Leafs might have one of their own in Viktor Stalberg.

Not to compare Stalberg to the gifted Johan Franzen, but Franzen didn’t start making an impact until he was 27 years old. Stalberg is similarly sized and with a nose for pucks around the net like the one he re-directed out of mid-air on Saturday night.

That said, don’t be surprised if Stalberg also plays a little in the AHL as well this season.

-- The Leafs were a surprising 10th in NHL offence a year ago, but that was with both Nik Antropov and Dominic Moore having good seasons. They may have trouble keeping that pace up this season, but two players could have more of an impact as the season wears on than they will at the start.

The first, obviously, will be Phil Kessel, likely unavailable until mid-November. He can stretch a defence with his speed, although expectations of his production should be tempered by the fact he will have missed training camp and the first 15-20 games. If he can score between 15 and 20 goals for the Leafs this season, it will be a success.

The second player is Tyler Bozak. He may be with the Marlies by week’s end, but he’s going to play in the NHL this season. He’s somewhat reminiscent of Kyle Wellwood but bigger and, the Leafs hope, more responsible defensively.

-- The Leafs were criticized for acquiring veteran goalie Martin Gerber down the stretch last season because Gerber’s mostly solid play helped turn what might have been a pick in the top three selections in the entry draft into the No. 7 selection.

But maybe doing it the right way, trying to win games instead of tanking, won the Leafs points from the hockey gods as Nazem Kadri, the player drafted with that seventh overall pick, surely looks like a keeper.

But was it really necessary for Ron Wilson to label him a future NHL “superstar?” That tag will follow the kid around for years.

End of the Line?

Bart Andrus, you have to believe, has to beat the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg on Saturday.

Failing that, firing a coach mid-season for the second straight year may be the only option for Argonaut co-owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski.

Remember, last year Rich Stubler "saved" his job on Labour Day by beating Hamilton, but was gone a week later.

Andrus might have similarly postponed his dismissal by beating the Cats on Toronto's end of the early September home-and-home set. But the Argos looked mediocre at best last weekend in Vancouver and now they are presented with a Winnipeg team that appears to be in complete disarray under another first year CFL coach, Mike Kelly.

Toronto's not very good but Winnipeg's awful. So if the Argos can't win this one, that makes them awful and the CFL's worst team.

Would canning Andrus change that? Probably not, although part of the Argos problems this year have to be traced to the absence of CFL experience on their coaching staff. Running off Arland Bruce III has not turned out to be a productive move and insisting that Cody Pickett is the starting quarterback without much in the way of supporting evidence seems more of an act of stubbornness than confidence.

Certainly replacing Stubler last year with Don Matthews didn't accomplish anything. On the other hand, Hamilton's decision to replace Charlie Taaffe with Marcel Bellefeuille at same time Stubler was fired allowed the Tiger-Cats to install a new coach and new systems and establish some momentum that carried right through into this season.

Bellefeuille was clearly the right man just as clearly as Matthews was the wrong man.

Finding the right man to coach the Argonauts, of course, has been a major problem since the departure of Pinball Clemons.

A Lousy End

Wayne Gretzky deserved to end his coaching tenure with the Phoenix Coyotes like every other man to assume the position behind an NHL bench.

You know, fired. Dismissed. Have the team claim it's going in a different direction, or say it wants somebody who can work with young players. Or old players. Or can make the team fitter. Or understands how to win in the playoffs. Or can be a communicator. Or will shut down the country club atmosphere.

Whatever. Gretzky deserved to go out on his shield. In sport, there is sometimes honour in getting the axe.

But that appears not to be the way in which its going to go down for The Great One in Phoenix, and if you take stock in online polling, the remaining hockey fans there don't mind. Asked by azcentral.com if they wanted to see Gretzky back as coach, 83 per cent responded, "No."

Ouch.

Gretzky hasn't been at the Coyotes camp for 10 days, although its unclear whether he's been told to stay away or is boycotting the proceedings for legal or personal reasons. A Coyotes spokesman did tell the Arizona Republic yesterday that Gretzky is receiving his coaching salary, but just isn't working.

Gotta get me one of them jobs.

Theoretically, he could still come back to his old job, and when it comes to the Coyotes and their disastrous bankruptcy situation, it's wise to never rule out any possibility. Punch Imlach twice handed the coaching reins over to King Clancy for health reasons and twice returned to run the Leafs, you may remember.

But it sure looks like the hockey team has moved on, with decisions being made that would normally involve the head coach. Dave King was brought in yesterday as an assistant to associate head coach Ulf Samuelsson, while Sean Burke replaced Grant Fuhr as goaltending coach. Kyle Turris, the third pick of the 2007 entry draft, was demoted to San Antonio, surely another warning to all teams about the dangers of rushing youngsters to the big leagues.

The Coyotes are on the road now after drawing an estimated 2,000 fans to their Sept. 15 home opener, and still no sign of either Gretzky or a resolution in the team's ownership spat, with an emergency meeting scheduled for today.

It's pretty clear the treatment of Gretzky throughout this ordeal has been dreadful, and to some degree, it's the NHL that has allowed it to happen. Nobody wants to honour the contract he signed in good faith, and now he's been left hanging while the haggling continues.

No, he's not the best coach in NHL history. But last winter, when the Yotes were fifth in the conference around the NHL all-star game, he sure looked like he was learning.

Assuming his coaching days in Phoenix are over, however, right now its hard to imagine what his next step will be in the game he loves.

Don't Let the Door Hit You On the Way Out

The Boston Bruins, it seems, were determined to give Phil Kessel a swift kick in the drawers on his way out of The Hub.

He didn't want to play in Boston. He demanded a trade. He didn't train hard enough. He wouldn't backcheck. He hadn't forgiven the team for benching him during the 2008 playoffs. Claude Julien was mean to him. He was greedy. He was untruthful in denying ever asking for an exit visa out of town.

These were some of the grenades launched at Kessel over the weekend from Boston management after the trade that sent him from the Bruins to the Maple Leafs for two first round picks and a second.

Clearly, this was a trade Boston GM Peter Chiarelli didn't want to make but was forced into making by circumstance and the unrelenting pressure of Leafs GM Brian Burke. Burke's public acknowledgment that he had an offer sheet waiting for Kessel put a chill on the Kessel market that Chiarelli couldn't thaw. Teams like Minnesota and Nashville had interest in the speedy winger but weren't about to give up prospects and picks and then not be guaranteed to get the player.

So, after the trade, Chiarelli had to present the Bruins case in as positive a light as possible after initially refusing to make any comment at all on the day of the deal. His No. 1 priority was to make a strong argument that this trade wasn't about the Bruins being cheap and not wanting to pay Kessel, an accusation that was lobbed at the team for years.

Kessel, says Chiarelli, demanded a trade and wouldn't negotiate a contract, so that was that. Indications are that was indeed the situation, and Kessel's statement that he "never once" demanded a trade was really just semantics. Whether his agent made the demand or whether his unwillingness to talk contract was a passive aggressive strategy, it really doesn't matter now.

Clearly, Julien's coaching style was part of the issue, and so the most fascinating part of Kessel's career as a Leaf when it begins in two months or so will be how he and Ron Wilson are able to forge a working relationship. Wilson's a demanding coach, and he can be caustic and pointed in his public and private remarks when he feels it is warranted. San Jose officials make no bones about the fact they believe Wilson's riding of Patrick Marleau retarded Marleau's development.

Understand this. While Wilson and Burke are friends from years back, Burke now has more personal prestige invested in Kessel being successful than in Wilson, a coach Burke didn't hire. The Leaf GM will hope Wilson and Kessel get along very well, but it's a great deal more difficult to find top six forwards than head coaches.

Moreover, the three of them - Burke, Wilson and Kessel - may all be involved on the American entry in this winter's Olympics in Vancouver. They better all be able to work together.

Wake Up Boys

Nothing's been done that couldn't be un-done.

Well, not quite. Glenn Healy, once Paul Kelly's right hand man with the NHL Players Association, has returned to the world of broadcasting in the wake of Kelly's bizarre dismissal two weeks ago. That ship has sailed.

Otherwise, if the NHLPA wanted to reinstate Kelly — more specifically, if the player membership wanted it done — it's still possible.

It's a bit pie in the sky at the moment. But the coup artists and plotters that managed to oust Kelly after a year of planning that began in Chicago in August, 2008, continued in Vegas last June and came to a head in the Windy City last month, have so far failed to consolidate their new-found power after the decapitation of the entire union leadership.

Ian Penny, who managed to wrest a new five-year contract out of the union last June as general counsel and then completed his remarkable year by suddenly succeeding Kelly on an interim basis, remains a cloak-and-dagger figure, an individual of little or no standing in the hockey world and one as of yet unable to explain publicly how and why his predecessor was canned or how he plans to lead the organization. Boston defenceman Andrew Ference has emerged as a ringleader in the ouster of Kelly, but the best defence he's been able to offer up so far is that the players fired Kelly through a secret ballot.

Well, nobody ever said that wasn't the case.

Otherwise, it would seem more and more players are questioning the details of Kelly's suspicious 4 a.m. firing, and their agents are voicing those concerns publicly. Pat Brisson and J.P. Barry, two of the biggest names in the game, are urging players to ask questions and find out what happened. Barry's involvement is particularly important since he used to work for the union.

One of Brisson's most famous clients, Sidney Crosby, chimed in today by saying all the players deserve a "good explanation" of what transpired in Chicago.

Chris Chelios, who was in the meeting that ended Kelly's tenure, is now saying that the entire process was at the very least "questionable." Former NHLPA executive Vincent Damphousse has spoken publicly about the "paranoia" in the union. Players familiar with the entire episode now understand that Kelly was under internal siege for a year or more, that his fractious relationship with former ombudsman Eric Lindros may have been his undoing and that the "office review" that skewered him was a rather clumsy attempt to assassinate his professional reputation. That said, it worked.

Despite his denials, Lindros is still very much a part of this picture. He certainly knew the details of the evidence that was used against Kelly in last month's meetings in Chicago even though he hadn't been working for the union for six months. Asked by text message if he intended to return to a position with the union in the near future, he responded, "I have no intentions."

If there was a groundswell of support for Kelly, could he come back? It's theoretically possible, but unlikely. The fact he was axed under the flimsiest of accusations that the plotters have tried to turn into Watergate doesn't change the fact that he was fired, and it's not easy to go back. Moreover, the dreadful bureaucratic structure of the union will make it impossible for any future executive director to lead the NHLPA without worrying about his job and authority every day.

But at the very least there should be yet another internal investigation of union activities and practices, something similar to that carried out by respected Toronto lawyer Sheila Bloch after the Saskin mess. Players will roll their eyes at that suggestion, but if they're smart, they're starting to understand that a very small cabal of players, retired players and suits — the names of some of whom they wouldn't even know — managed to have their leader canned without asking the wider membership what it thought.

All the player reps had to do was wait a few weeks for the players to assemble for training camp and it would have been easy to canvas opinion and develop a real consensus.

But the plotters didn't want that to happen. That should tell you something. They saw an opportunity and seized it.

Players in general couldn't give a fig about their union. But they'll get their backs up if they think they've been hoodwinked, and that feeling is starting to spread.

Time to Decide

It's pretty clear the Phil Kessel situation is coming to a head.

In fact, sources indicate that if Kessel isn't traded in the next 48 hours, the Maple Leafs may be prepared to lay down an offer sheet in order to bring the issue to a conclusion.

All along, the Bruins have said they will match any offer for the 21-year-old restricted free agent. At the same time, doing so would require the B's significantly restructure their roster given that they have only $1.7 million in cap space and a Kessel deal is expected to carry with it a cap hit of between $5 million and $5.5 million annually. The Bruins would have to keep Kessel on the books for a least a year if they matched, so they couldn't match and then turn around and move him elsewhere.

The other problem for Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli is that an offer sheet could be heavily front loaded, possibly for as much as $10 million in the first year.

Other teams have been mentioned as being in the running, but that may not really be the case. Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher did have brief talks with Chiarelli about Kessel weeks ago, but the Wild signed Petr Sykora to a one-year, $1.6 million contract today and are no longer interested in Kessel.

Nashville would like to be a potential destination, but its believed Kessel doesn't want to sign there, leaving the Preds in the predicament of possibly trading away assets to get the winger, then being hit with an offer sheet themselves.

The other team is believed to be the Rangers, who are grappling themselves with signing centre Brandon Dubinsky, albeit for a lot less money.

The Leafs are believed to have offered two first round picks and a second - more than the free agent compensation of a first, second and third -  but could amend that to involve young players. Nazem Kadri, however, is out, and probably Tyler Bozak and Christian Hanson are too since GM Brian Burke knows future attempts to sign NCAA free agents would be damaged if he dealt either Bozak or Hanson just months after signing them.

Winger Viktor Stalberg or forward Jiri Tlusty are possibles, but the Bruins would likely view either as anything but a guaranteed contributor for this season. Tomas Kaberle, included in trade talks between the two clubs in June, now has an active no-trade clause again.

For the Leafs, waiting much longer carries with it the risk that other teams might suffer injuries and therefore join in the bidding. So the likeliehood is that this weekend will see Kessel either traded or tendered an offer sheet.

Kessel is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and won't play until mid-November. But he should know the identity of his new team within days.

Leafs New Minutes Man

Ron Wilson must have figured, "Why wait?"

He obviously intends to play the heck out of defenceman Francois Beauchemin this season, and that process started in the first exhibition game last night against Boston when Beauchemin received 26 minutes of ice time.

Even though the Leafs didn't dress Mike Komisarek, Tomas Kaberle or Luke Schenn, it's a trend likely to continue, with Beauchemin likely to become the club's new No. 1 defenceman in terms of ice time and responsibility.

Kaberle may have more flash, and Komisarek's an imposing figure. But Beauchemin, Leaf fans will learn, is probably the best two-way defencemen the Leafs have had on their roster since Dave Ellett. Just guessing at this point, but Beauchemin and Schenn seem destined to become the first lockdown Leaf defensive pair in a long, long time, a tandem that can be put out in the final minutes of a period or a game to protect a one-goal lead.

Kaberle and Bryan McCabe could attack. But defend when it mattered? Never a strength.

Beauchemin, 29, can also handle power play duties, one of the reasons Hockey Canada saw fit to invite him to the Olympic team's training camp last month in Calgary.

Over the past three seasons in Anaheim, with Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger hogging all the ice time. Beauchemin still averaged more than 25 minutes per game. When the Ducks won the Cup in '07, Beauchemin actually led all Anaheim players in ice time, averaging 30:33 per game in the playoffs while playing an extraordinary 632 shifts in 20 games.

He's not particularly big, but he's tough. He plays with his head up and is obviously fit after being criticized for carrying extra pounds earlier in his career, one of the reasons Columbus let him go to Anaheim in a trade.

There's a little bit of Wendel Clark in Beauchemin, a little bit of the farmer mentality. His father-in-law, incidentally, does run a farm near Sorel, Quebec, and when Beauchemin played in Hamilton several years ago for the AHL Bulldogs, he preferred to live way out in Jerseyville, Ont. in a farming atmosphere.

Others may get more ink on this Leaf team. But if its going to be successful, the quiet, no-nonsense Beauchemin will be the linchpin on the blueline, sucking up all kinds of important minutes.

Pressure Cooker on Court

If anything, the last few days have demonstrated why the U.S. Open is utterly unique in the world of tennis, perhaps sports.

In rapid succession, the world's best female player - Serena Williams - and best male player - Roger Federer - wilted under the hot lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows.

Williams lost on Saturday night to an unranked Kim Clijsters, who had been out of the game for three years, and made herself look like a boor for berating a lineswoman while costing herself the match. At least, after two false starts, she finally apologized yesterday and with apparent sincerity. Matter closed, in my books.

Then there was Federer. Against a 20-year-old Argentine to whom he'd never lost, Federer looked in complete command after a set-and-a-half but then gradually watched his game unravel. His opponent, Juan Martin del Porto, got away with an obvious cheat by claiming not to have been ready when Federer fired an ace, and that seemed to begin the processing of unnerving the seemingly nerveless Swiss who had won the tournament five straight times.

As has happened before, the replay review system drove Federer crazy - he once asked a Wimbledon official to turn it off during a match because it was "killing" him - and benefited his opponent. How the greatest player to ever hold a racquet has become so awful at playing the replay challenge game is strange, indeed.

As the match wore on, del Potro adjusted his game, reading Federer's slice better and taking some oomph off his first serve for more consistency. Federer, meanwhile, double faulted over and over, unwittingly mimicking the serving problems many of the world's top female players have been having. As he fell apart, he started whining at the chair umpire, hardly a Serena-like volcanic explosion, but surely a sign the moment was getting to him.

To understand the atmosphere at the U.S. Open, you really have to go there. It's different than the other Grand Slams, all of which have their own personalities. For starters, it's the last major of the year, leaving players to wait until January to prove themselves in a sport that has really become primarily about four tournaments. At the U.S. Open, the combination of late night tennis, the largest main stadium in tennis, noisy and demonstrative fans - a match on Louis Armstrong court is like going to a hockey game - the New York atmosphere and even the way players are interviewed by ex-players on court immediately after matches seems to create a steaming cauldron which brings out the worst in some. Like boxers, players are out there alone without helmets and facemasks to disguise their demeanor and moods utterly exposed when things go sour.

At the same time, the Big Apple brought out the best in Clijsters and del Potro, a new-old star and the tallest man at 6-foot-6 to ever win a Grand Slam event in tennis.

Williams' outburst was a scar on the game, but she and her sister, Venus, remain one of the greatest stories in sports history. Federer, meanwhile, may be the best, but the challengers never stop lining up to take a swing at him. His emotions got the better of him under the unrelenting scrutiny of the New York audiences. That said, he won two more Grand Slams this season, including the French dirt title that had eluded him, and like Clijsters, became a parent for the first time.

The game of tennis received oodles of attention over the past three days, some of it good, some of it unpleasant. But it surely showed itself to be a game with personality.