Wednesday, January 04, 2006
When Push Comes To Shove
This summer, I expressed some concern about the noticeable lack of veteran presence in the Vancouver Canucks' dressing room; Brad Ziemer briefly addressed the same concern in today's Vancouver Sun:
But when that doesn't happen, who will push the players?
As team captain, Naslund acknowledges feeling some extra pressure to turn things around.Naslund is right about one thing - when things are going tough, you need the joy and fun back in the game. Except there's little joy and fun when the team's not winning. And the team won't start winning until the players are able to push themselves.
"I think any time you are one of the leaders and things are going sour, you want to do what you can to help out," he said. "Also, you know you are being watched by your teammates, too, so I think it's important and that's something we have to be better at, is just being positive and keep working and trying to lead by example."
Naslund has never been the rah-rah, follow-the-leader type of captain and there doesn't seem to be a veteran on the Canuck roster who will, if necessary, get in the face of a teammate whose play hasn't been up to par.
"You can go about business in different ways and I don't believe in singling guys out and yelling and screaming," he said. "I think it's just going to make guys lose their confidence even more. So I think when things are going tough you need a push and you need the joy and the fun back in the game, because when that takes over it becomes natural."
But when that doesn't happen, who will push the players?
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