“One winter evening I had gone through all the steps in my evening routine and gone to bed. I was lying there in the dark just about to fall asleep when the bedroom was lit up by a blue light. It was my phone that rang. I checked the clock. Eleven in the evening. Who called this time?
I answered. It was a man who spoke. An unknown voice, rough and calm. “If you play tomorrow, you’re dead.” Then he hung up. The heart was pounding. I lit the lamp, sat up in bed,” Sundin writes in the book Round trip: my story, Bookmark Publishers, and remember back to a shocking day.
At full throttle for the threat
After a few hours of sleep and discussions with the team’s security department, Sundin decided to get ready for the match. And in the book he talks about the decision.
“I wanted to play. I didn’t want to hear that voice in my head wondering how he had gotten my number. The rest of the day I was at full throttle. The slightest sound made me flinch. And as I stood on the blue line at the pregame ceremony, I looked up at the crowd. I never used to do that otherwise. I had never felt unsafe in the arena before or worried about who was in the audience.”
Glad to be off social media
When SVT Sport meets Mats Sundin in central Stockholm, he feels, despite the death threat, happy to have played in the NHL before social media became what it is now.
– I think it’s a tougher climate today for the players both in the NHL and other leagues. This probably applies not only to ice hockey but to all sports where the tone has been turned up in general, we were probably better off, he says.
In the player above, Sundin talks about the death threat and what may have been behind it and what it was like to go out on the ice.
Mats Sundin: When a Phone Call Turns into a Death Threat!
By Your Favorite Comedic Collective
Ah, winter evenings—a time when the only thing that’s supposed to threaten your slumber is a snoring partner or the remnants of that questionable chili from dinner. But for Mats Sundin, a rough-voiced caller had other plans. Imagine being all cozy, about to drift into dreamland, when suddenly: 🎶 Your phone goes off like the fridge on a sugar rush! 🎶
So there he was, lying in bed like a perfectly innocent ice hockey superstar, and instead of counting sheep, he gets a message fit for a soap opera: “If you play tomorrow, you’re dead.” I mean, good luck trying to sleep after that! One minute you’re thinking about tomorrow’s match, the next you’re contemplating whether to dust off your will.
Decisions, Decisions!
After a frantic chat with the security department—because hey, who needs sleep when you’ve got a ghostly voice to contend with?—Sundin decided to put on his skates and play. That’s right! Forget fright, he was ready to take on the ice like a gladiator going into the Colosseum! But can you blame him? The thought of that voice echoing in his head? That would be worse than losing a game! Talk about performance anxiety!
“I wanted to play. I didn’t want to hear that voice in my head,” he penned. It’s like facing off against an opponent; only this time, it’s a call from a jokester whose idea of a prank is a tad too extreme. I imagine Sundin out there on the blue line: “Look, I’m up for a beatdown on ice, but can we keep the death threats to a minimum?”
Thank Goodness for No Social Media!
Fast forward to a chat with Mats, and he’s relieved he played in the NHL before social media turned athletes into targets. He said it best: “It’s a tougher climate today for players.” And let’s be honest, social media throws a whole new layer of craziness to the mix. Back then, if you wanted to threaten an athlete, you had to pick up the phone like a decent human being—not tweet about it while hiding behind a cat meme.
Imagine it now: instead of sitting down with a proper cup of tea, every player’s just waiting for the next notification on their phone, wondering if they’re the star of the evening’s outrage online. “Oh great, someone’s created a meme about me getting checked into the boards. How delightful!”
Final Thoughts
In all seriousness, Mats Sundin’s tale is a chilling reminder of how fragile the boundary between sporting heroics and personal safety can be. Sports should be about glory, not ghastly phone calls. Whenever you hear that ring in the night, it should be a pizza delivery—not a death threat! So here’s to athletes taking the ice with their hearts racing for the right reasons. Maybe more importantly, let’s leave the calls to our mums who just want to know if we’ve eaten properly!
