Nazzy retiring?

Unconfirmed news came today that current NY Ranger, and all-time awesome Canuck, Markus Naslund may be hanging up the skates for good. You can read the TSN report for more details, or check out Puck Daddy for a detailed explanation of how Nazzy, in his usually classy way, put the team ahead of his own interests.

In short, the Rangers would have had to pay him $2 million if they bought out his contract, which was a likely scenario given the team's cap-crunch. By retiring Naslund forgoes the $2 million but saves the Rangers valuable cap space for next season and the one after. How many pro athletes would forego that kind of cash to avoid screwing over a team with which they had only spent one season?

It is sad that Naslund did not retire a Canuck, but no doubt he expected more from himself in his new start in New York. His numbers this season were decent, but not Naslund-like: 24 goals and 22 assists for 46 points in 82 games. This continues the downward trend since his brilliant 104-point campaign in 2002-03.

Naslund will go down as one of the greatest Canucks of all-time. He holds club records for goals and points, and was peer-voted to win the Lester B. Pearson Trophy in 2003. While he wasn't the same heart-and-soul type of player as Trevor Linden and Stan Smyl, he was nonetheless an excellent captain in his own quiet way - though the burden of the 'C' did seem to be wearing on him as the seasons dragged on.

I hope, and expect, that Naslund's number will one day be hanging alongside Smyl and Linden in the rafters of GM Place. We will have to wait for the official announcement before reflecting too much further on Naslund and his impact on the Canucks organization, but here's wishing Markus all the best with his future plans.

And I can't help but wonder, if he chooses to play a season in Sweden next year, if we might see Nazzy back on GM Place ice for one last hurrah with Team Sweden at the 2010 Olympics. I have a feeling that the applause would bring down the house.

Leafs Bashing Week II - Canucks win, Leafs fans show their class

Last night's game between the Canucks and Maple Leafs was a highly emotional affair given Mats Sundin's return to Toronto. I like giving Leafs fans a hard time, but last night they were all class.

The night had some pretty special moments, beginning when Sundin was treated to a standing ovation when the scoreboard flashed a tribute to him during the first TV timeout (some of them booed when the play started up, but hey, it's hockey and he's on the other team so that's okay):



Then, after a late goal by Alex Burrows to send the game to OT and an exciting extra period, the scene was set for some drama in the shootout.

Blake was stopped by Luongo. Demitra scored on Toskala. Hagman was stopped by Luongo. Wellwood could have ended it, but he shot wide. Next up for the Leafs was Mikhail Grabovski - if he scored, it would give Sundin a chance to win it for his new team:



Classily the fans cheered when Sundin came out to shoot, and even when he scored. Pretty impressive stuff. Sundin was named the game's third star, giving him one more chance to feel the love from Leafs fans and an opportunity to salute them in return:



Ordinarily I would feel the urge to gloat about the Canucks victory over the hated Leafs. But based on what I saw last night I am disinclined to do so. Good on ya Leafs Nation. I hope the Canucks faithful give Markus Naslund a similar show of respect when he visits with the Rangers next season.

Top 5: Canucks Stories of 2008

It was quite the year for the Vancouver Canucks, a year that ran the emotional gamut. Hopefulness, tragedy, bafflement, bemusement, resignation, excitement, nostalgia, disbelief - these, and more, were the feelings to which Canucks fans were subjected in 2008. With that, let's count down the Top 5 Canucks Stories of 2008:

5. Canucks Give Roberto Luongo the 'C' (But He's Not Allowed to Wear It)
Just over a week before the start of the 2008-09 season, Coach Vigneault announces that the Canucks' keeper will also be their captain. To call this move unorthodox is an understatement - no goalie had captained his team in over 60 years, and the NHL has a rule that forbids a goaltender from acting as the captain during a game. Luongo, therefore, does not wear the 'C' on his jersey (though his new helmet features the letter prominently) or speak to officials during the game. Luongo justified his selection by reeling of five shutouts and an 11-5-2 record in 19 games before suffering a groin injury in a late-November game.

4. Naslund, Morrison Depart as UFAs
It was the end of an era. At one time Markus Naslund, Brendan Morrison and Todd Bertuzzi were the most feared line in hockey. With the now-nomadic Bertuzzi already long gone, the final 2/3rds of the West Coast Express played their final season with the Canucks. Former captain Naslund left for the New York Rangers, while Morrison signed with Anaheim where he was (briefly) reunited with GM Brian Burke. Naslund left as one of the best all-time Canucks, holding the club record for goals and points.

3. RIP Luc Bourdon
Tragedy struck the Canucks community on May 29 when 21-year old prospect Luc Bourdon was killed in a motorcycle accident in New Brunswick. Bourdon's career had been on the upswing, as he played 27 games with the Canucks during the 07-08 season. He was honoured in a moving pre-game ceremony before the Canucks home opener this season.

2. Mats Sundin (Finally!) Signs With the Canucks
The Swedish all-star managed to please not only Canucks fans, who are ecstatic, but also countless hockey fans who had grown sick of his 6-month saga as an unrestricted free agent. The Canucks originally offered Sundin a 2-year, $20 million contract in July. Sundin eventually signed with the team in December. In the meantime many deadlines were set and missed, teams dropped from the Sundin derby like flies, and the field was whittled down to the Rangers or Canucks. In the end Vancouver won what was essentially a war of attrition, leveraging its cap space and relatively strong start to the season over other teams which were forced to abandon the Sundin chase. Sundin's impact on the club remains to be seen - his signing, however, was certainly one of the huge storylines of 2008.

1. Canucks Miss Playoffs, Fire Nonis, Hire Gillis
Okay, so I'm cheating here by rolling three stories into one. Nonetheless, they are interlinked and as such I'm going with it anyway. The Canucks stumbled to the finish line in 07-08, sliding all the way to 11th in the Western Conference. This represented a huge step backward for the club, which had hoped to build on it promising 06-07 campaign in which they made the second round of the playoffs. Firing Dave Nonis, who, y'know, was only responsible for fleecing the Florida Panthers out of Roberto Luongo, was a surprising and seemingly knee-jerk reaction from the team's owners and drew some criticism from fans. Hiring a player agent with no GM experience had fans sweating bullets.

Gillis has had a wacky but effective start to his tenure. He made his monstrous pitch to Sundin, and then stuck to his guns in his dogged pursuit of the Big Swede. He made a goalie the captain. And he introduced a wide range of unusual measures to the club, including monitoring players' sleep patterns and hiring a dietician to assess their individual nutritional needs (I think they put Kyle Wellwood on the celery diet). Gillis stopped short of group meditation and burning incense in the locker room, and so far his moves are looking pretty shrewd. The Sundin and Luongo cases have already been discussed in this post. His other player-friendly moves, which also included upgrading the players' lounge at GM Place, have apparently been well received by players and helped build a sense of trust between players and the organization.

Finally, Gillis made some other sound hockey moves. He plucked Kyle Wellwood from waivers, and the reclamation project has 14 goals in 36 games (insert me blowing my own horn here). He signed Pavol Demitra, who has been solid thus far in 08-09. And, in what may turn out to be the Canucks' best draft pick in a decade, he drafted Cody Hodgson with the 10th overall pick in the 2008 draft. Based on his excellent NHL training camp, stellar OHL season and brilliant World Junior Championships, Canucks fans have every reason to be optimistic about the up-and-coming prospect. There is, then, silver-lining to the disastrous conclusion to the 07-08 season. Even Don Cherry agrees!



Honourable Mention: Trevor Linden Retires, Canucks Retire His #16
I know it seems shocking that this story did not make the Top 5, but like I said the Canucks had a momentous 2008 for both good and bad reasons. No story has occupied 'Nucks and Pucks more than the retirement of Captain Canuck. Linden was the subject of this blog's first ever post, and of a two-part Top 10 list of his greatest moments upon his the retirement of his #16 jersey in December. Nonetheless, it does not rank as one of the top five most important stories of the year - though symbolically for the history of the franchise it would likely rank as number one. The fact that I am attempting to justify its exclusion from this list speaks to the huge impact that Linden has had on the Canucks organization and its fans - but his retirement had a lesser role in defining the Canucks' fortunes in 2008 than did the five events on this list.