Canucks Visit Broadway & Face Former Captain Naslund

I was on my way to an appointment yesterday and was tuned into the Team 1040 on the radio, where I heard a poll being conducted on whether or not the Canucks did the right thing in not re-signing their former captain Markus Naslund.

Tonight, the Canucks enter Madison Square Garden and will face off against the New York Rangers and their former Captain. Naslund, the all time franchise leader in points and Captain of the Canucks for the last 11 years, did not really leave the city on a happy note.

His last game as a Canuck ended up being game 82 of the 2007-2008 regular season, the same night as fan favourite Trevor Linden. One of the comments that I heard on the show was that Naslund was not shown the same respect as Linden that night by the fans, who gave Trevor a standing ovation. Linden, by the way, is the franchise’s all time leader in games played, and is second to Naslund in career points.

There is no doubt that the fans showed a lot of appreciation towards Linden in that game, but saying Naslund was underappreciated may not be a fair assessment. Back then it was not certain that Naslund would be playing his last game as a Canuck, but it was clear that Trevor was going to announce his retirement. Regardless, I guess the question is really whether or not Markus Naslund deserves the same treatment as Trevor Linden.

Markus had a lot of great years statistically during his tenure in Vancouver, and will no doubt go down as one of the greatest Canucks of all time. He was part of a line along with Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison that was absolutely dominant for several seasons. However, during his 11 year tenure as Captain of the team, the furthest Vancouver went in the playoffs was the second round. Naslund was criticized on many occasions for virtually disappearing in the post-season.

On the other hand, no one can forget the magical run in 1994, when Captain Trevor Linden led the team to within one game of the Stanley Cup.

I do believe Naslund did a lot for the Canucks organization, but he never seemed to be the same player after line mate, Todd Bertuzzi, was suspended for the “incident” on Steve Moore. It was definitely time for a change in scenery for Naslund and a changing of the guard for the Canucks. So far it seems both the Canucks and Naslund are happy with their decisions.