To the extent that we can tell from outside the locker room, the Sedins provided tremendous leadership to the Canucks this season, but you can’t deny that they struggled down the stretch. It wasn’t Daniel or Henrik who led the team in scoring in the back half of the season; it was Bo Horvat.
We excused the Sedins for their struggles as it seemed clear that, at the very least, Henrik was playing through an injury, heroically battling the pain despite the hopelessness of the Canucks’ cause, providing an example of perseverance and dedication to the team’s youth.
The image of Henrik standing at the bench for an entire game, unable to even sit down for fear of his back seizing up, will remain a powerful illustration of his captaincy despite the disappointing finish.
Henrik himself called this narrative into question, however, when he insisted during the Canucks’ post-season press conference that he was healthy after the All-Star break.
“After the All-Star break, nothing’s really bother me,” he said, which raises the question of why he still struggled offensively. Henrik had just 18 points in 30 games after the All-Star break and, while that tied with Horvat in leading the team in scoring in that time, that’s a disappointing total. Part of the reason may be that teams were able to focus their defensive efforts on the Sedins with no one else producing, but the Sedins have been focussed on for years.
At most, Henrik would admit to playing with one particular upper-body injury: a broken heart. He admitted to the difficulty of giving his best effort every night after it became clear the Canucks weren’t going to make the playoffs.
“We tried to hang on to a playoff spot and tried to be in the fight for a long time,” he said, “but when that didn’t happen it was more of an emotional thing. The last 10 or 15 games have been tough and you can look at our point production and it’s not where it should be. It’s tough to get up for games and do all the things 110% when the playoffs aren’t in the picture.”
But was it just emotions and the disappointment of a dismal season?
On Tuesday, Trevor Linden specified a few of Henrik’s injuries, confirming his hip and back issues through Christmas and shoulder injury suffered against the Islanders. Then he added one more injury to the list: a broken finger.
Trevor Linden says "The day we get to where the Sedins are our second line - that would be a great thing" https://t.co/aQ4jIgpde7
— TSN Radio Vancouver (@TSN1040) April 12, 2016
While he was unsure exactly when the injury occurred, it was clearly late in the season as he says he saw Henrik “last night” with his finger straightened and wrapped. That doesn’t jibe with Henrik saying, “Right now I’m healthy,” on Monday. And, at the press conference, Henrik didn’t have a wrap on his finger. Was he hiding it from the media?
“They suffer in silence, but they’re warriors,” added Linden, in a rare poetic moment. Such silence that even with the season over, Henrik refused to use a broken finger as an excuse.
