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Henrik Sedin: We need to be more Detroit-like

Vancouver Canucks v Boston Bruins

BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 07: Henrik Sedin #33 of the Vancouver Canucks celebrates a goal in the second period against the Boston Bruins on January 7, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

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If you haven’t been noticing the Vancouver Canucks this season for all the wrong reasons, that’s by design.

The Canucks are trying to do things a little bit differently this year in that a lot of the shenanigans that made them one of the most reviled teams in the league last year have gone away. Without the diving, chirping, and even biting the Canucks are winning games drama-free.

Mark Spector of Sportsnet talks to Canucks captain Henrik Sedin who says they’re drawing their inspiration from a certain Western Conference rival on how to win games without all the side show antics.

“I think it needs to (change),” Henrik said, for the first time in our recollection, anyhow. “I think we’ve grown as a team, and it needs to change. If I would be a referee, and I would see guys do that kind of stuff…

“I get back to Detroit,” Henrik concluded. “They’re a good team, they’re always there, and they don’t need to have players doing that kind of stuff.”

If the Canucks have turned over a new leaf and dumped the juvenile stuff, they become a more respectable and dangerous team in the playoffs. For a team that learned a lot of hard lessons losing in seven games in the Stanley Cup finals, that’s a huge development.

Just picture what the Canucks could’ve done last year without Alex Burrows’ biting and the diving from the Sedins. Actually, it’s probably for the best that Vancouver fans don’t go back and try to re-live that and just hope that this new way of doing things sticks around.