Canuckz.com » Markus Naslund

Henrik Sedin Nominated for the Hart Trophy

Tonyz Tanti — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:48:34 +0000

Breaking news: Henrik Sedin will be nominated for the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP. He will be joined by Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby on the ballot. I don’t think he’ll win, but what great company to be with. I know that there was a movement for Ryan Miller to be on the ballot, but I don’t know if his numbers were stellar enough to get him on there with this crop.

This is only the third time that a Vancouver Canuck has ever been nominated for the league’s top individual award. The other Canucks to be nominated were Roberto Luongo in 2007 and Markus Naslund in 2003.

Team Sweden Roster Announced and Samuelsson is Pissed

Tonyz Tanti — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:15:14 +0000

The defending Olympic champions, Team Sweden, announced their 23 man roster on Sunday. The Swedes are flying a bit under radar at the moment, as a lot of their top players from years past are now retired or nearing retirement: Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg and Nicklas Lidstrom. Speaking of Forsberg, he’s playing in the Swedish Elite League this season. Apparently he’s playing pretty well too. His 15 points in 9 games were enough to warrant a spot on the Olympic team. In case you were wondering about Markus Naslund, he has 8 points in 8 games but was not selected.

So who made the team? Take a look:

King Henrik will be in between the pipes as the clear starter for the Swedes once again in 2010. Look for Gustavsson to be his backup. If Sweden is to win gold, it will need to come with some spectacular goaltending from Lundqvist.

Goalies:

Jonas Gustavsson (Toronto Maple Leafs/NHL), Stefan Liv (HV 71), Henrik Lundqvist (New York Rangers/NHL)

Sweden’s defense will once again feature six-time Norris trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom. Niklas Kronwall and Mattias Ohlund will also be leaned on heavily, but their blueliners are a little thin after that. All the more surprising that Alex Edler was not named to the team, while NHL castaway Magnus Johansson was.

Defenders:
Tobias Enstrom (Atlanta Thrashers/NHL), Magnus Johansson (Linkopings HC), Niklas Kronwall (Detroit Red Wings/NHL), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings/NHL), Douglas Murray (San Jose Sharks/NHL), Johnny Oduya (New Jersey Devils/NHL), Henrik Tallinder (Buffalo Sabres/NHL), Mattias Ohlund (Tampa Bay Lightning/NHL)

Assuming his foot holds up long enough, Peter Forsberg will certainly provide an unexpected boost to Sweden’s forward group. A healthy Forsberg gives Sweden three potent centres, joined with Nicklas Backstrom and Henrik Sedin. After Daniel Sedin, Daniel Alfredsson, Henrik Zetterberg and maybe Loui Eriksson, their wingers don’t have a whole lot to offer. This didn’t escape Mikael Samuelsson, who is PISSED! When asked for his reaction, Samuelsson had this to offer:

“I pretty much have one comment and maybe I’ll regret it,” Samulesson said. “But they can go f*** themselves. That’s what I really think.”

This rare moment of candidness from an NHLer was probably in bad taste, but it’s hard not to agree with him. In 2006, Samuelsson played well on the team that eventually won gold in Torino. He’s having a pretty decent season and can play in an offensive and defensive role. He’s put up better numbers and has a better resume than Patric Hornqvist. Fredrik Modin hasn’t had a decent season in a few years, yet was named to the team. Mattias Weinhandl had trouble cracking the Minnesota Wild lineup just three years ago, but is playing well in the KHL and made the team.

Forwards:
Daniel Alfredsson (Ottawa Senators/NHL), Nicklas Backstrom (Washington Capitals/NHL), Loui Eriksson (Dallas Stars/NHL), Peter Forsberg (MODO Hockey), Tomas Holmstrom (Detroit Red Wings/NHL), Patric Hornqvist (Nashville Predators/NHL), Fredrik Modin (Columbus Blue Jackets/NHL), Samuel Pahlsson (Columbus Blue Jackets/NHL), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver Canucks/NHL), Henrik Sedin (Vancouver Canucks/NHL), Mattias Weinhandl (Dynamo Moscow/RUS), Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit Red Wings/NHL)

Also NOT selected to the team was Tommy Salo (who is still having nightmares at last report):

Nazzy’s Coming Out of Retirement! To Play in Sweden….

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:23:33 +0000

It appears that Markus Naslund and Peter Forsberg will be returning to pro hockey together, playing for their hometown team of Modo in Sweden. The two of them are clearly very loyal to Modo, as they are reportedly going to play for FREE! This will mark the third (and presumably final) time that Forsberg and Naslund have played together for Modo. The two played together previously for Modo before their NHL careers and during the lockout canceled season in 2005-06.

The most interesting part of this new development could be the impact on Team Sweden for the Olympics in February. Forsberg has reportedly shown interest in playing in February but up to this point, Naslund hasn’t. He may or may not be interested, but if Naslund and Forsberg click well together in Modo, why wouldn’t Naslund want to have his swan song in the Olympics? It would mark his first return to play hockey in Vancouver since he last played for the team in 2008. He also missed the chance to play for Team Sweden in the 2006 Olympics, thus missing a chance at a gold medal. Consider further that Team Sweden doesn’t exactly have the best depth right now, and I think there’s an outside chance that Naslund could be in the 2010 Olympics.

Bertuzzi Back in Mo-town

Tonyz Tanti — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:14:53 +0000

On Tuesday the Detroit Red Wings signed Todd Bertuzzi to a one year, $1.5 million deal. This is an interesting deal on a few fronts. First, anytime a team decides to roll the dice on big Bert, it’s interesting. Second, it’s Bertuzzi’s second tour of duty with the Wings, he was a late season addition with Detroit in 2007. And third, Bertuzzi, at least on paper, it’s a bargain. He actually put up respectible numbers with Calgary last season, notching 44 points in only 66 games. Of course it’s the defensive liabilities and attitude problem that scares away most teams.

If there’s one team that has the leadership base to deal with Bertuzzi, it may be Detroit. And if there’s one coach to harness Bertuzzi, it may be Mike Babcock. Detroit is the only team in the league in which signing Todd Bertuzzi makes sense. Detroit is a team where he can play on the 2nd or 3rd line, and fade into the background a little bit.

Call me crazy, but I’m still a bit of a Bertuzzi fan. During his best years in Vancouver (2001-02 and 2002-03), he was arguably the most dominant player in team history. Just think about it. Pearson Trophy winner Markus Naslund played for Vancouver at the time and teams spent all their time coming up with game plans to stop big number 44.

In case you needed a refresher…

Comeback Payback in Chi-Town

Nazzy Speaks! Jersey Retirement Next?

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:59:45 +0000

Good article in the Province this weekend about about Markus Naslund. For the first time since his retirement, Naslund spoke candidly to Province reporter Jim Jamieson about life after hockey. This of course means that the debate of whether or not to hang his #19 from the rafters of GM Place has heated up. When asked about it, Naslund said “It’s very flattering. If you ask any athlete, to have your number retired is one of the most flattering things you can have happen. It would be a great honour”. Typical response from a guy who has been a class act throughout his whole career.

So should Naslund’s number be retired? It will surely serve as great debate for Canucks fans. I think it should (and will), but I don’t think it will be retired this season. The memory and bitterness of Canucks fans is still too great about Naslund’s final 2-3 seasons in Vancouver. People have forgotten about the amazing seasons he had for the franchise. If people can forget that Pavel Bure demanded a trade and sat out most of the 1998-99 season while still under contract and want his number retired, surely a lot of people will want Naslund’s number retired in a couple of years from now.

For those of you against having Naslund’s number retired, consider this: he is the all-time franchise leader in goals and points (while playing fewer games in a more defensive era than Smyl or Linden). At the top of his game, few in the league compared to Naslund. His best two seasons in 2001-02 and 2002-03, he scored 40 and 48 goals, doing so in a very defensive era of the league. In 01-02 and 02-03, only Jarome Iginla (52 goals in 01-02) and Milan Hejduk (50 goals in 02-03) scored 50 goals in a season. When you compare that to Bure’s best two seasons in a Canucks jersey (back to back 60 goal seasons in 92-93 and 93-94), you can see just how impressive Naslund’s achievements were. Bure’s first 60 goal season was a time when Mogilny (76 goals), Selanne (76 goals), Lemieux (69 goals) and Robitaille (63 goals) all scored more than him. Bure lead the league in goals in 1993-94, but not by much. Hull, Fedorov, Andreychuk, Shanahan, Graves, Sheppard, Modano and Neely all scored 50 or more goals (Neely actually scored 50 goals in 49 games that year). My point here is that Naslund’s best years were comparable to that of Bure’s (who would have his jersey retired had he not demanded to leave town), and his all-time numbers eclipse that of Linden’s and Smyl’s (who both have their jerseys retired).

Now I know what all of you are probably saying, “Naslund didn’t have any success in the playoffs.” While it is true that Naslund never reached the 3rd round with the Canucks, his playoffs could hardly be called failures. In his prime (2001-02 to 2003-04), Naslund scored 25 points in 27 playoff games. His best playoff came in 2003-04 when he was playing hurt (courtesy of Steve Moore) and was without Todd Bertuzzi. He got 9 points in 7 games that year, playing with Brendan Morrison and Matt Cooke. The Canucks playoff failures were more due to the team not having any kind of above average goal-tending (Cloutier’s goal from centre ice in 2002, Cloutier’s .868 SV% in 2003, and the Cloutier-Hedberg-Auld combo in 2004). Ask yourself this, would Bure and Linden be looked at the same if Kirk McLean hadn’t made “the save” in 1994 to keep their season alive? Of course not. Naslund never got a chance to do the things that Linden and Bure did in the playoffs because he simply wasn’t given the opportunity. Maybe that’s just bad luck for him, but I think he did enough in the playoffs to warrant his jersey hanging in the rafters.

So should the Canucks retire his jersey? Give your opinion in the comments section.