Getting to Know the Sedins

I dedicate a lot of my time to talking about hockey, and there’s a problem with talking about hockey that I have to work around every day. It doesn’t matter how many stats you look at or how many games you watch, you can’t watch every team every night. You will never know a team quite like you know your favorite team – the team you do watch every night. However, that comes with inherent biases and a half-glass-full outlook (half-glass-empty for some fans) that favors your team. It’s extremely difficult -almost impossible- to be 100% knowledgeable and 100% objective at the same time. That’s the problem with talking about hockey.

This year, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to gain a unique perspective. Through friends I’ve made in British Columbia, I’ve started following the Vancouver Canucks. Being out west, their games usually come on after the Rangers and I’ve gotten the opportunity to watch the large majority of their games this year, and I’ve learned a ton about the Canucks. Still, they’re not the team I started watching when I was a few months old, which comes with a lot of emotional baggage. This has afforded me the opportunity to gain knowledge from a relatively objective standpoint. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Canucks, and I’m sure emotional connections will form over time, but I came into the season with the opportunity to form first impressions of the team from an unbiased standpoint. Plus, I actually remember what it’s like to not be a Canucks fan (unlike the Rangers who like I said, I was watching when I was literally months old) so I have preconceived notions to compare with what I’ve learned. I know what people from an outside perspective think about the Canucks, and now I know what they’re right about, and I know what they’re wrong about. I’ve gotten a chance to get to know the Canucks objectively, and I’ve gotten a first-hand view while also being aware of outside perceptions. It’s been a unique experience and I’d like to share what I’ve learned.

Whenever you get to know the Canucks, you get to know the Sedins, the face of the franchise for the better part of a decade. And it’s the Sedins who really stick out to me because they’re the guys who really broke the perceptions I used to have. Like I said, I can recall the days when I didn’t follow the Canucks so I can tell you some of the perceptions of the Sedins from the outside.

Canucks fan or not, nobody disputes the talent that these two possess.

Here’s two guys who I always knew were incredibly talented. Scoring titles, Hart trophy, Lindsay award, nine 80-point seasons between them. You don’t have to watch any games to know how impressive they’ve been. And I know for a fact that the talent is respected by all 29 of the other fan-bases. As an outsider, I had always respected the skill of the Sedins. Now, watching the Sedins quite often, I know that these perceptions are correct.

However, there’s some negative perceptions about the Sedins. While extremely talented, they seem to come with a disclaimer that they’re a little on the soft side, they’re not complete players, and they’re not guys you can win with, or my favorite, not guys that you can “go into battle” with. A lot of people point to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, where the Canukcs, led by the Sedins, were “too soft” to handle the big, tough Bruins. Which is disingenuous because it leaves out a historic performance in net by Tim Thomas, which is the biggest reason Boston won, but I digress. Most famously, people bring up that one incident where Brad Marchand punches Daniel Sedin over and over again and Daniel doesn’t hit him back. It’s an image you see littering forum talk on the Sedins all the time and it has become the poster image for “the Sedins are soft.”

The famous “Marchand incident:” an isolated case which I feel has been taken too far when it comes to discussing the Sedins.

I must admit, as an outsider, I bought into it a little bit. As an outsider, that’s the image you see all the time. The “soft” narrative is the thing that gets perpetuated over and over again. When you keep hearing it, you start believing it. So if you’re a Canucks fan frustrated by the “soft” perception of the Sedins and by people continuing to post that image, don’t let it get to you. They just don’t know the Sedins. Which is what prompted me to write about them, because now I do know the Sedins, and I want to tell everyone who doesn’t know what I’ve seen.

The Sedins like to do what I call their “magic act.” They’ll get the puck below the goal-line or along the boards and skate around cycling back and forth with each other until a scoring chances opens up. They’ll continuously find each other without looking at each other, or without even speaking to each other. Each one just knows where the other one is. It’s unique; it’s smart; it’s skilled hockey, and it’s beautiful, frankly. Because of the grace and art the Sedins display on the ice, I don’t think they fit the narrative of tough, gritty hockey, and I think that’s where the narrative of the Sedins being soft started. And they sure aren’t playing any defense while they’re doing this -which is fine, because you don’t  need to when you have the puck, and the Sedins are excellent possession players- but it feeds that “not complete players; not playoff-type guys” narrative.

Henrik gets himself in another precarious position as he makes a play along the boards. The twins take hits to make plays maybe more than anyone else in the league. (Photo: USA Today)

But here’s what dawned on me: while they’re doing their magic act below the line and/or along the boards, they’re getting abused. There’s always a defenseman on them. They’re always getting pestered, hit, smacked, whacked, poked, and slammed as they shift the puck back and forth with each other along the boards. Because they’re such unbelievable players, the defenders have an awful time trying to get the puck away from them, which equals more abuse. The NHL tracks how many hits each player throws, and the guys near the top of that list are often considered some of the toughest players in the league, and with good reason. But think about this: the NHL does not track how many hits each player receives. Shouldn’t the players near the top of that list be considered some of the league’s toughest as well? I would bet good money, based on what I’ve watched, that the Sedins are near the top of that list.

Despite all of this, the Sedins never leave the ice. Daniel has only missed significant time in three of his 15 NHL seasons. Henrik has been even more impressive, producing a streak of 679 consecutive games played – the 6th longest such streak in NHL history. 679 straight games getting abused below the goal-line every single night. And it’s not like he’s never injured. Henrik Sedin plays banged up – I’ve seen him do it. And despite all they put up with, their production never suffers. We’ve gone over the accolades: Hart trophy, Art Ross, nine 80-point seasons. And to this day, they’re having close to a point-per-game season at 35 years old.

For some,  the Sedins will always be soft, not complete players, not playoff guys, and not players you can go into battle with. It’s just a misconception that started because of their style and spread like wildfire online. But I’ve gotten to know the Sedins this season -coming in for the first time from an objective standpoint and ready to be critical- and I’ve gotten to know two warriors, two complete hockey players, and two guys I’d go into battle with any day of the week.