Canuck twins say they won’t leave, won’t quit
Sedins’ open letter to fans raises questions about future of the club, Ben Kuzma writes. Last year, we weren’t good enough, and we’re not going to come back just for the sake of playing.
In a love letter to Vancouver and the Canucks organization, it’s what Daniel and Henrik Sedin didn’t say in their Players’ Tribune article released Monday that has the twins back in the speculative spotlight.
It read like a long goodbye, citing career highs and lows, gaffes and laughs, but without the microphone drop after announcing a career exit date.
Instead, the Sedins kept the door ajar as they head into the final season of their four-year, US$28-million contract extensions. They say they don’t want to play anywhere else, they won’t be dealt at the trade deadline and they’re more than comfortable with reduced roles and salaries as support players a year from now.
A lot could change. The Sedins could rebound statistically while the Canucks still struggle to win, and that would take a mental and physical toll on anyone, including the twins, who turn 37 on Sept. 26.
So what was that post really about? An early goodbye if everything goes off the rails? A pre-emptive post if management decides regardless of what transpires that it’s time to flip the switch into full rebuild mode?
“We want to end our careers here and I thought (the article) was a good way to do that before the season and kind of get it out of the way and focus on hockey,” Daniel said. “We’re going to have a good season, we’re going to work extremely hard and we’ll see what happens.”
A 29th-ranked power play will be bolstered by the return of assistant coach Newell Brown — the architect behind the Canucks power play when it was the National Hockey League’s best in 2011 — and the additions of right-hand options in free agent acquisitions Thomas Vanek and Sam Gagner will help. That alone should help Daniel and Henrik rebound from respective 44- and 50-point seasons in which they combined for 29 PP points and just seven extra-man goals.
“Last year, we weren’t good enough, and we’re not going to come back just for the sake of playing,” Daniel said. “We want to be good players and help these young players. If that means us being second- or third-line players, we feel we can do that.
“It’s up to how we feel this year and how the team feels about us — it has to go both ways. But our belief is that we can come back and be good players and hopefully we can force the Canucks that they want to re-sign us. There’s no timeline.”
The organization may eventually desire a different direction, but there’s no doubting the Sedins’ drive to play on.
“When you’ve been in this league a long time, it’s easier to focus year to year rather than two or three years,” said Daniel, who has 986 career points, including 370 goals, in 1,225 games. “It just makes it easier to focus mentally and physically.”
But what if the Sedins rebound and the Canucks are playing meaningless games in March again? What would that do to their optimism, and their resolve for another arduous off-season of training?
“A lot of different things need to happen for us to come back — if we can bounce back and our team can be good,” Daniel said. “It’s important we learn how to win here. You can’t go year after year losing — then (the younger Canucks) are going to learn to lose. Our goal is to make the playoffs.”
The Sedins may one day be destined for support roles, but they’re not about to yield anything. Maybe that’s why they have such longevity. Want to be top-line guys? Take the jobs from us — but don’t expect us to step aside. There’s simply too much pride.
“We never take for granted that we’re going to be top-line players, but we try to earn that,” Daniel said. “Back when Markus (Naslund), Bert (Todd Bertuzzi) and Mo (Brendan Morrison) were top-line players, we wanted to come in and take those spots from them, and it shouldn’t be any different now.”
Henrik sang a similar tune, and that wasn’t surprising. The twins are cut from the same cloth and while Daniel can be more outspoken because Henrik has to be the consummate captain, the centre found it easy to talk about prolonging his career Monday.
“There are a few factors — our personal (performance) level and our families — and how we feel about things are where the team is,” said the Canucks captain, who has 1,021 career points, with 237 goals, in 1,248 games.
“If we can see the team taking another step this year, that’s one part of it.”
The other part is improving production on special teams.
“We have guys now who have proved they can be a factor on the power play and on five-onfive,” Henrik said. “We’re much deeper and that’s what makes it exciting.”
How exciting? We’ll find out next summer.