Near the end of a Vancouver Canucks practice last week, Markus

Naslund playfully shot a puck that struck Todd Bertuzzi on the

ankle, which meant that Bertuzzi had to shoot a puck at Naslund's

ankle, which led to some serious face-to-face jawing, which led

to Naslund's grazing Bertuzzi's chin with the butt end of his

stick, which led to...nothing. The minor contretemps was noted

in The Vancouver Sun, but it was as newsworthy as a forecast of

rain in the Pacific Northwest. For the NHL's No. 1 line of wings

Naslund and Bertuzzi and center Brendan Morrison, it was just

another day, another holler.

They operate in the dressing-room universe of verbal shots,

sarcasm and horseplay, tormenting each other with fervor and

affection. Nothing is sacred, including Morrison's prematurely

receding hairline and his can't-break-a-pane-of-glass slap

shot. No one has to offer a penny for their thoughts, although

Morrison said earlier in the season, on the Canucks' plane,

that Bertuzzi would take the coin because he's "so cheap his

wallet must be an onion--he weeps every time he takes it out."

Bertuzzi responded by putting Morrison in what he calls a

"death grip," but that didn't compare to a wrestling match

Bertuzzi had with Naslund on a plane. The three behave like the

brothers none of them has. Naslund, Morrison and Bertuzzi--in

the absence of a nickname, let's call them the

Brotherhood--have turned the NHL into their personal rec room.

The line's shifts are routinely entertaining, hardly a surprise

considering that in the calendar year 2002 Bertuzzi, a power

forward, led the NHL with 102 points; Naslund, a superb finisher,

was No. 1 in the league with 48 goals; and Morrison, the passer,

had 76 points, the 10th-best total. Their moments on the bench

are no less captivating. They sit together, heads bobbing,

tongues wagging, hands cutting the air in serpentine sweeps,

animatedly deconstructing their last 45 seconds on the ice. "They

bicker and bicker," says Canucks wing Trent Klatt. "'I want the

puck on my stick,' and 'Put it here,' and 'Why didn't you go

there?'" On occasion they are told to pipe down by coach Marc

Crawford.

Morrison bears the brunt of the abuse from linemates in his role

as the kid brother (at 27 he is six months younger than Bertuzzi

and two years Naslund's junior), the center and the trio's

newcomer. Most NHL lines start with a center and a complementary

winger, but the Brotherhood is an anomaly, built from the wings

in, like the Paul Kariya--Teemu Selanne line for the Anaheim

Mighty Ducks in the late 1990s. Naslund and Bertuzzi have been

together for more than two years; Morrison joined them on Jan. 9,

2002, which seems like a century ago in the NHL because lines are

routinely blown up weekly. Morrison had been languishing on the

wing, but with oft-injured No. 1 center Andrew Cassels a

free-agent-to-be, Vancouver needed a more permanent option.

Morrison is not as deft a passer as Cassels, but he's quicker and

a more dangerous shooter, a trait that does not always please his

puck-hungry wingers, who have combined for 404 points in the past

2 1/2 seasons, more than any other two linemates in the NHL.

"I give Mo a lot of credit," Naslund says. "It's not the easiest

job to play with me and Todd. He has to get us the puck and do

the defensive work down low that's expected of a centerman. He's

not afraid to shoot. He likes to use his slapper"--pause,

smile--"even if it doesn't break 75 miles per hour."

Naslund is the most unheralded star in the NHL, a slasher who

finds seams better than anyone but the Detroit Red Wings' Brett

Hull. From the start of the 2000--01 season through Sunday,

Naslund led all left wings with 109 goals--29 more than Kariya,

66 more than John LeClair of the Philadelphia Flyers, 24 more

than Keith Tkachuk of the St. Louis Blues--and had a better

all-around game than those highly touted players. Naslund and the

Dallas Stars' Bill Guerin were the only players with at least 40

goals in each of the last two seasons; Naslund, who led the NHL

with 28 at week's end, was on pace for 57 in '02-03.

"He's been the best player in the league the past couple of

years--by far," Bertuzzi says of Naslund. "We don't have a

payroll like Dallas or the New York Rangers. We can't surround

him with big-salary guys. We've had to work from the bottom up.

His accomplishment is bringing this team to where it is now."

(Despite a low $32 million payroll--the Brotherhood earns a

combined $9.4 million, only $670,000 more than Guerin

does--Vancouver led the Northwest Division with a 24-11-5-0

record.)

This insight into the Canucks' dynamics is hardly stunning,

except for the fact that it comes from Bertuzzi, a 6'3",

240-pound man-child with quick feet and soft hands who never has

been considered the brains of an outfit. He is the rambunctious

middle son, the one who punches his brothers on the shoulder a

little too hard. But the man in him dominates the child most

days. Bertuzzi did not awake one morning and decide to abandon

his rash, sometimes destructive ways, but the consensus of those

around him is that the automatic 10-game suspension he served

early in 2001-02, for leaving the bench during a brawl, helped

him refocus. The other defining moment in his maturation occurred

away from the headlines. Vancouver G.M. Brian Burke traded wing

Donald Brashear to Philadelphia in December 2001, and the card

games in the back of the Canucks' plane were no longer as much

fun for Bertuzzi. Soon after, he plopped himself next to Naslund

near the front of the plane. Now, when they're not smacking each

other with pillows, they're talking about cars or their young

children or, sometimes, their demanding hockey fathers. In

walking 30 feet forward, Bertuzzi traveled light-years.

"When I came into the league I said that I never wanted to be

here five or 10 years and not be acknowledged," Bertuzzi said

last Friday. "I didn't want to be the Average Joe who plays,

retires and then is forgotten. I'm in a situation in which I can

accomplish things--Markus has made me a more patient player.

Before, I'd want to get the puck off my stick as soon as

possible. Markus saw me differently, as a guy with skill. Now I'm

holding onto the puck, using the extra second to do something

creative."

Bertuzzi and Naslund are disparate men with different styles who

play opposite wings, but they are related through something more

powerful than blood: failure. "All three of us are castoffs,"

says Morrison, who was acquired from the New Jersey Devils in

March 2000 for two-time 50-plus-goal wing Alexander Mogilny,

which is not the same as being dealt for a bag of pucks.

Morrison's big brothers, however, were spectacular first-round

flameouts. Naslund grew up as the hockey equal of Peter Forsberg

in their hometown of Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, but he stumbled after

being picked 16th in the 1991 draft by Pittsburgh. In the worst

trade in NHL history, the Penguins swapped him in '96 for goon

Alek Stojanov, who finished his 107-game NHL career with two

goals, the same number that Naslund had in the second period last

Thursday in a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Bertuzzi,

whose inconsistent play frustrated the New York Islanders after

they made him the 23rd pick in '93, was banished to Vancouver in

February '98 with defenseman Bryan McCabe for center Trevor

Linden. Naslund and Bertuzzi started on a clean sheet of ice in

British Columbia, in the right place with the right partner.

The Brotherhood was stymied by Detroit in a first-round playoff

loss last April, which is why the loud voice they sometimes hear

is Crawford's. The coach blistered them following a 5-3 loss to

Toronto on New Year's Eve, when each was -3 for the game, but

they rebounded with five points against the Canadiens and another

six in a 3-2 win over the Panthers last Saturday. In that match

Bertuzzi scored a goal from the doorstep, moving the puck from

his backhand to his forehand and flipping it over goalie Roberto

Luongo.

Such moments of brilliance illuminate a unit that has set its

sights high. The Stanley Cup is a stretch for a one-line team,

but it is not an impossibility. That would make the Brotherhood

more like the Fellowship of the Rings, right?

FOUR COLOR PHOTOS: JEFF VINNICK/GETTY IMAGES/NHLI TRIPLE TROUBLE Bertuzzi (bottom photo, left, 44), Morrison(center, 7) and Naslund (19) had scored 49% of Vancouver's goalsthrough Sunday.

COLOR PHOTO: LYLE STAFFORD [See caption above]