The one man to go where no Swede had boldly gone before, or has since, has almost put himself in charge of waving the gold-and-blue pompons.

"Oh, of course I'm rooting for him to do it," says Hakan Loob, from his home in Stockholm. "Everyone over here is behind him. We've been counting down the goals, and if Markus does reach 50, it'll be big, big headlines.

	Vancouver's Markus Naslund has scored 40 goals in three straight seasons.

"I guess some guys might let their ego get in the way and hope to hang on to a record like that. But that's not me. I believe records should be broken. It's good for the game. And this one would be good for Swedish hockey.

"It's been a long while since a Swede scored 50 -- 14 years -- and all I can say is it's about time.

"The papers here are full of NHL stories. Pages of them. The kids here grow up knowing it's the best league of all and dreaming of playing there. And now on Channel Plus, they get to watch two or three games a week.

"So for them to see a Swedish player score 50 goals, or maybe win the MVP, would be an unbelievable thing."

Don Cherry devotees to the contrary, this could wind up being an unprecedented year for Swedes in the NHL, a real Jackie Gleason "How Sweeeeede it is!" send-off at the black-tie awards in Toronto come June.

Markus Naslund's bucking to be the first from his country since Loob to gain admittance into the once-again prestigous 50-goal club (although he needs to bag five in the Canucks' final four games to do it), while both he and Peter Forsberg of the Avalanche -- with Naslund's Vancouver sidekick and linemate Todd Bertuzzi sandwiched in the middle -- are frontrunners for the Hart Trophy as league Most Valuable Player.

Naslund, second to Bertuzzi in goals as the season winds down, has already been named The Hockey News MVP. And now that he has already reached the 100-point plateau, he has to be considered the frontrunner among Professional Hockey Writers Association voters.

No Swede has ever finished atop the scoring derby, the closest being none other than Naslund, last season, when he edged to within six points of Art Ross Trophy winner Jarome Iginla. In the late, late stages of the 2002-2003 derby, the Vancouver sniper has a three-point gap on his countryman Forsberg, with Boston's Joe Thornton and Bertuzzi still very, very much in the mix.

Swedes have won Norris trophies before (Nicklas Lidstrom, 2001, 2002) and Calder trophies (Daniel Alfredsson, '96; Forsberg, '95). But the big baubles always seem to elude them. Part of the reason for that, of course, is Forsberg's history of injury trouble.

"Does it surprise me (that a Swede's never won the Hart)? No," replies Loob, who retired following the Calgary Flames' 1989 Stanley Cup win so his children could grow up in their homeland and has spent many years as general manager of Farjestads of the Swedish Elite League.

"Because the competition is so great now. All the best players in the world are trying to win the scoring title. Not just Swedes. But Czechs, Russians, Finns, as well as Canadians and Americans. It's a feather in the cap of anyone, for any country.

"It's incredibly difficult to do these days. For a while there, (Wayne) Gretzky and Mario (Lemieux) dominated that. They didn't give anybody else a chance."

In '87-88, the year he hit for 50, Loob, an elfin, tough, shifty player with great intuitive instincts for the game, spent most of the season manning the left side of the line that also included a rookie centerman by the name of Joe Nieuwendyk and a gritty, heart-on-his-sleeve right winger, Gary Roberts. Nieuwendyk scored 51 en route to the Calder Trophy that year.

"I was very fortunate that we hit it off early in the season and just went from there," says Loob. "And Nieuwy, well, he was unbelievable. You could see then that he had a fantastic career in front of him. Such great hands and anticipation.

	Hart candidates
	Player	GP	G-A-Pts
	Markus Naslund, Vancouver	78	45-55-100
	Peter Forsberg, Colorado	70	27-70-97
	Joe Thornton, Boston	72	34-61-95
	Todd Bertuzzi, Vancouver	78	46-48-94
	Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh	65	28-61-89

"I don't care who you are -- to reach 50 goals you need to be on a big line. Naslund, Bertuzzi and (Brendan) Morrison are the best line in the NHL right now. You need help. Even the best players need help.

"It's tougher now to score 50 than when I did, no doubt about that. That year, we were winning games 6-3, 5-2, 6-2. ... Then in the mid-'90s, when Jersey won the Cup, teams began going to that Swedish style, the 1-3-1, and the goals started to drop. The game tightened up. To the point where last year there was only one 50-goal scorer and nobody reached 100 points."

So who's the favorite to claim the Hart?

Bertuzzi has come on like gangbusters the last month, just as Naslund's goal splurge stalled. Forsberg is credited with firing the Avalanche resurgence, while Joe Thornton's season with the playoff-bound Bruins makes him an authentic candidate.

And there is a very real concern on Canada's West Coast that Bertuzzi and Naslund could ironically do as much damage to each other at the ballot as they do good on the ice -- split the vote, as it were.

Still, THN citation is a bit like winning the Screen Actors Guild Award -- it sets you up for the Oscars. There's no question it's going to be a close call, but Naslund must still be considered the favorite.

Loob knows who he'd vote for if given the chance.

"Without question, Forsberg. In my opinion, he's a better player than Markus. The only thing that's taken away a bit of shine over the years are the injuries. He's a complete player, the best in the world right now. At least I think so. He isn't the pure goal scorer Markus is -- he's never scored 50, and I doubt he ever will. He's just not that sort of player. But he's tough, a fantastic playmaker, scores big goals and plays defense, too.

"But I don't have a vote, and Markus has had a great, great season. So have a few others guys, too.

"Let's put it this way: If one of them doesn't win, it'd be nice if the other one did."

George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.