Daniel Sedin stoked to stop slump
Veteran won’t blame Father Time for his lessened ability to light up lamp as often this season
You can cut him some slack, but Daniel Sedin won’t take it. Keep your pity, too. Sedin is 36 years of age and feels strong physically and mentally. So he doesn’t care how many points others think a player “at his age” should generate late in his National Hockey League career.
He won a scoring title a longtime ago, back in 2011 when the Vancouver Canucks were the best team in hockey, but even in the last two seasons averaged 69 points.
So don’t talk to him about age and lowering expectations. Don’t suggest that 20 goals and 50 points would still be commendable achievements for Danny and his brother, Hank.
Daniel Sedin still figures he should make a difference, still wants to be on the scoresheet every game so he can help the Canucks win. Which tells you how desperate he must be to help these days because Sedin has only one goal — scored on a five-on-three power play on Jan. 12 — in his last 20 games and the Canucks are just trying to keep their season alive as they open a difficult six-game road trip tonight in Nashville.
“I know people say we’re too old, we’re done,” Sedin said Monday before travelling to Tennessee. “But I don’t look at it that way. We’d like to be good each and every night, but this year that hasn’t been there. But we still feel like we can produce a lot more than we have.
“The past few years, we’ve been going pretty good — 60 to 70 points. But this ... we want to help out the team. We help out the team by scoring goals and getting points. We have other lines that can score, so we don’t have to score each and every night. But we need to score more than we have.”
What Sedin meant by “this” was his current scoring rate. With 11 goals and 28 points through 52 games, he is on pace for 17 goals and 44 points, which would be his poorest season since 2003, when the Sedins were floundering thirdyear NHLers contemplating quitting North America and spending their careers back home in Sweden.
As has been written in this space before, the Sedins’ greatest fault is aging like the rest of us — and before the Canucks had adequately planned for a first-line succession.
Bo Horvat leads the team in scoring as a 21-year-old, and Sven Baertschi, 24, and Markus Granlund, 23, continue to show promise. Brandon Sutter, who turns 28 next week, could break his career highs of 21 goals and 40 points.
University of North Dakota winger Brock Boeser, who may be the best shooter in the organization, should be on the Canucks next season.
These players aren’t enough to achieve a championship, but are enough to remove much of the scoring burden from the Sedins.
This is the fourth straight season the Canucks’ share of even-strength shot attempts has declined when the Sedins are on the ice. Daniel’s shots for percentage has dropped from a peak of 61 in 2012-13 to 48 this season. And the Sedins are minus-players for the first time since they were rookies.
But all of this is natural. Nobody’s best seasons are at the end of his career. It’s OK if the Sedins are second-line calibre players who may get you 50 points instead of 70 or 80.
“But it’s not OK for us,” Daniel said. “That’s the way I look at it. We’re playing in the NHL, we make a certain amount of money, we’re supposed to help this team out and make the playoffs. Honestly, I don’t care if I score 30 points or 50 points if we make the playoffs. But I know 30 points aren’t enough.”
The Canucks, swept by the superior San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild in a pair of home games last week, are 1-4 in their last five and have fallen five points adrift of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference after charging back into the fight by going 9-2-3 after Christmas.
It didn’t matter that the Sedins weren’t scoring when the Canucks were winning, but it sure matters now.
Daniel has six assists to go with his lone goal the last 20 games. Henrik has 12 points in that span. Their current linemate, Loui Eriksson, is having the worst season of the three and has contributed just two goals and an assist in the last 15 games.
Canucks coach Willie Desjardins continues to rely on them because “they’re ready every shift” and still capable of delivering goals at any moment.
In assessing his own team, Desjardins was heartened by quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ 34-28 Super Bowl win Sunday over the Atlanta Falcons, who led by 25 points in the third quarter.
“The Falcons had the game, for sure,” Desjardins said. “But the thing you like is New England didn’t take themselves out of it. They stayed around long enough to finally win. And that’s a little bit how we play. We hang around and find ways to win games, and that’s how we have to go from here.”
But should the Sedins modify their expectations?
“I don’t think anybody modified their expectations of Brady,” Desjardins said. “He’s 39. Nobody was going in and saying, ‘Hey, he can’t do it.’ Those guys (the Sedins), I expect their best from here on in. I honestly expect that.”
So do they.