This is Part 4 of a six-part feature that will run through the duration of the competition. Look for the next position tomorrow!
What is a “mancrush”? Glad you asked. For the uninitiated, a mancrush is a product of “bromance”, when a man possesses a feeling for another man whereby he strongly desires to BE that man. He may not necessarily WANT said man, but when watching the other man play sports, he is moved in some fashion.
When watching hockey and the Canucks in particular, you will no doubt cheer for every member of the team to succeed(except that one guy you just can’t stand, even if he is wearing your team’s colours), but there’s always those few guys that make you just that little bit more excited when they make a nice play, dole out a nice hit, or say that exact right thing in an interview to make you feel like, “hey...that guy could be my bro.”
The criteria for a hockey player, you ask? Well, the player must look dashing(note: ‘dashing’ is different than ‘good-looking) when skating up the ice, which means the equipment choices, from a straight-cut visor to a flashy stick, are incredibly important. Second, he must have excellent skills on the puck. I love me a sniper. Third, he must be unafraid to mix it up when necessary. There won’t be any sissies on my mancrush team. To sum, physical looks are not the most important characteristic, but I’m not going to have the ginger twins’ chinstraps or Todd Bertuzzi’s tobacco-stained mouth ruining my list, no matter how great they’ve been for the squad over time.
Each day, I will cover the first and second All-Time Canucks Mancrush Teams, featuring players from each position over the years. On this fine Sunday, we will be taking a look at the left wingers.
Second Team All-Time Canucks Mancrush Left Wing
Tony Tanti
Age: 48(Canuck for 8 years, 1982-1990)
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 185 lb.
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Tony Tanti was a pint-sized scoring machine for the Canucks in an era of pretty bad(no, wait, REALLY bad) Canucks squads, and is someone who is often brought up by those who sat through the Canucks dreadful play in the 80’s as a guy who could have done so much more with a better supporting cast.
Named the Canucks’ “Most Exciting Player” by the fans for 5 years in a row, Tanti racked up 3 40-goal seasons as a member of the Canucks(and two seasons of 39 goals in the same span), and in each of those seasons, had his goal totals outnumber his assist totals, because as everyone knows, assists are for the weak. The most glaring example of this is in the 1985-86 season, where Tanti had 19 more goals than assists(39 goals to 20 assists), the lone down year in the midst of 5 seasons where he had 72 points or more.
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| The best part about this shot? I found it at a website called "bangsalon.ca". True story. |
Oh, and there’s that whole matter of having sicker flow than the Fraser River. If you can’t appreciate that, well then, I can’t help you.
First Team All-Time Canucks Mancrush Left Wing
Markus Naslund
Age: 38(Canuck for 12 years, 1995-2007)
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 191 lb.
Hometown: Ornskoldsvik, Sweden
Markus Naslund is just a straight-up good-looking man. I can admit that. We all can. And when you combine his overt blond-haired, blue-eyed Swedishness with his ability to snipe goals, there was never a man more tailor-made for a mancrush list than Naslund.
Opinion on Naslund seemed divided when he was here: some felt he didn’t deserve the captaincy, many felt he didn’t deserve to have his number retired, and the few major injuries and subsequent spurts of poor play he had during his time here got many upset. But the reality is that Naslund is the all-time scoring leader for the team, he received the club’s MVP award 5 times and was the leading scorer on the team 7 times(both records), and it was hard not to love him when he was utilizing that gorgeous wristshot to make NHL goalies look pedestrian night-in and night-out. Let’s also not forget that Hart-worthy season in 2002-03, where he put up 104 points, narrowly missing out on the Art Ross to Peter Forsberg and Milan Hejduk, and the his part in the formation of probably the best line in Canucks history, the Westcoast Express, with Brendan Morrison and Todd Bertuzzi.
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| I'd like to see Bertuzzi pull this off... |
Oh, and he got to Vancouver in a one-for-one trade that is often regarded as one of the worst trades EVER for Alek Stojanov. Who? Yeah, exactly. He was also extremely classy off the ice, having a suite for kids at Canucks game, working with the NHL’s Goals and Dreams foundation, and just generally seeming like a nice chap. He was soft-spoken, which earned him some critics as he donned the “C” for the Canucks, but it's a tough job to be the captain in a city that demands so much from their team, and Roberto Luongo’s disastrous tenure as captain that followed made Naslund seem like Winston Churchill in comparison. Naslund also paved the way for the Sedins to take over the team, as the twins often cite Naslund as a mentor and mention how much he helped them adjust to NHL life from playing for MoDo in Sweden, the squad where all 3 played their hockey before coming across the pond.
As I say in the opening, I loves me a sniper, and Markus Naslund was one of the best of this generation at putting it where the goalie isn’t.
Coming up: I name the first and second team right wingers, posted on Tuesday! Have any suggestions for your ultimate Canucks mancrush? Leave them in the comments and they will be considered to crack the list!
These posts are well put together by someone who knows hockey, knows how to write and knows when to inject a little humour, Calder trophy material!