Naslund plans to stick with it

Declining numbers don’t always mean declining fortunes for an NHL captain known as a sniper.

In 1997, 1998, and 2002, Steve Yzerman led Detroit to the Stanley Cup, but only scored 85, 69 and 48 points respectively in the regular season. Those numbers were a far cry from his best year (155 points in 1988-89), but Yzerman didn’t care, because he was too busy drinking champagne from a certain silver mug.

Yet Markus Naslund would still naturally prefer to believe he still has a chance of, say, recording 80 to 90 points in 2007-08, rather than emulating the 24 goals and 60 points he earned last year, or slumping lower. Naslund, 34, knows that his ability to make Vancouver’s second line a feared offensive force will be crucial in terms of taking pressure off the Sedin twins, especially come playoff time.

The Canuck captain will hope to develop chemistry with the right center early on to avoid droughts like last year, where he went goalless for stretches of 17 games (November to January) and 10 games (March). Although Naslund’s traditional pivot is Brendan Morrison, coach Alain Vigneault has also experimented with Ryan Kesler in that spot, hoping that Naslund will be invigorated by the speed and grit of the former US national junior team star.

The Naslund-Kesler combo came close several times but couldn’t generate any goals during the September 16 intrasquad game in Victoria. “I found it was tough to handle the puck, but Ryan looked great,” said Naslund. “He was flying around. I couldn’t maybe keep up to him [chuckles], but it’s good to see.”

Kesler’s appraisal was more upbeat: “I thought we had really good chances and seemed to click out there. I’m a guy who goes and gets the puck. My job is to find Markus, and his job is to put the puck in the net. If we’re both doing our jobs, we’ll make a good line.”

HockeyAdventure.com got some exclusive feedback from Naslund on the technical aspects of his recipe for an offensive revival.

On his likely shot selection this season: I think it’ll be mostly wrists. I think only two of my career goals were slappers, so I’m staying away from them. The key for me is to get my shot off quicker than I did last year, and hopefully not get it deflected as much. I want to get a lot of shots on the net because I know that creates traffic, and stuff will happen.

On whether he can have success again with his patented high wrist shot coming off the half-boards on the power play: Yeah, I think so. I think teams know that I like to shoot it from the half-boards, but if you can have someone screening the goalie, like Bert did, it makes it difficult for the goalie to see the puck. If I just pick a corner, then usually I have a good chance. But who knows? We’ll see what happens. I know that it’s a process, and if you do the right things, eventually it’ll go in.

On experimenting with different sticks: No. I’m sticking with the same [wooden] sticks as I’ve used for most of my career. And I know it’s not the stick.

On whether he talks shop about goal-scoring with the team’s other main triggerman, Daniel Sedin: No, not really. I think we’ve been around long enough that we know what works. You just have to not make it too complicated. Just try to shoot the puck when it’s there, and try to be patient when that’s needed.