It’s as if Markus Naslund suddenly had this epiphany that struck him like the bolts of lightning that were raining down in the Lower Mainland today: He has figured out how to score goals again … he has to shoot the puck more.
Markus Naslund said in an interview today the following: “I’m going to try to shoot the puck more,” the Vancouver Canucks captain said Tuesday at training camp. “That’s something that’s achievable and I know if I do that, usually good things happen. That’s what I did in the past.”
Well hello Markus, that’s how goals are usually scored today in the NHL.
In the statistic of the day, during Markus Naslund’s 48 goal campaign in 2003 where he won the Lester B. Pearson Award he amassed a grand total of 294 shots on net, with 12 of those goals being game-winning goals. Last season, however, Naslund only put 222 rubber pucks on net, with only 5 of his 24 goals turning out to be game-winners.
It seems like a far cry from the Markus Naslund we knew in ‘03, but that’s been ranted several times and beaten to death so we’re not going to talk about that. Let’s face it, folks, Markus Naslund will never put 50 goals up on the board again; a new defensive system and the fact he’s in the backseat to the Sedin Twins will prevent that. However, that doesn’t mean the guy can’t up 30 to 35 markers. And sure, ten to fifteen goals may not look like it makes a difference, but it does. It could prove to be the difference in games, and it could prove to be the difference between finishing first and finishing last.
Whether or not people care to admit it, the improvement of this Canuck squad rests solely with the duo of Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison. Roberto Luongo? The Sedins? They’re going to be there, there’s no doubt about it. But what will push the Canucks from pretender to real Cup contender will be how much offense B-Mo and Nazzy can put on the board. It’s plain and simple.
A lot of people are harping about Mason Raymond’s play in training camp. Don’t get me wrong, I too think that Raymond has NHL-material in his DNA, but he looked less than impressive in the preseason game compared to Ryan Shannon. And perhaps the fact that it was Mason’s first NHL game and Shannon’s former team being the factors, but judging by last night’s game alone, Shannon definitely stood out on that Canuck lineup.
A lot of people don’t know much about Ryan Shannon, one of only two Canucks who have a Stanley Cup ring (Aaron Miller being the other). Shannon, like many of Brian Burke’s reclamation projects (Dustin Penner, Travis Moen, Francois Beauchemin), Shannon was an undrafted college kid who caught a lucky break with the Ducks and last season played 53 games for the Cup-winning Ducks as well as a handful of playoff games. Shannon hails from the not-so-much hockey community of Darien, Connecticut and played his college days with the University of Minnesota-Duluth (Which is ironically the same university Mason Raymond attended last season).
But what really separates Shannon apart from Raymond is the fact that he’s got one year of NHL experience under his belt, which is something that can’t be accomplished in college. Raymond will be an NHLer someday, but I’m fairly confident Shannon would be a more ideal roster player than young Mason from Alberta.
Oh yeah, and he’s fast. Like Steve Kariya fast.
