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The Sore Thumb: Vancouver Canucks

Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin

Vancouver Canucks’ Daniel Sedin, right, celebrates his goal against the Calgary Flames with his teammate and twin brother, Henrik Sedin, both of Sweden, during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday January 5, 2011. The goal is the 10,000th in the history of the Vancouver franchise. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

AP

With the Western Conference finals primed to kick off on Sunday night (8 p.m. ET on Versus, to be exact), we have a little more time to explore the two matchups. The NHL’s final four teams have plenty of strengths, but even these squads have a weakness or two. With that notion in mind, we asked: what flaw sticks out like a sore thumb?

To best answer that question, we provided our own hypothesis and also polled a blogger from each team.

Let’s take a look at the Vancouver Canucks.

Our choice: The Sedin twins’ health and productivity.

For a team that finds itself in the Western Conference finals, Canucks players have faced their fair share of criticism during the last month. In the first round, most of the critiques were lobbed at Roberto Luongo. The team’s goalie took a backseat to the Sedin twins against the Nashville Predators, however, as Ryan Kesler was forced to save the day.

While the typical sportswriter instinct would be to question their toughness or ability to handle playoff pressure, the bigger concern is about the Sedin twins’ health. Henrik Sedin, in particular, seems like he might be dealing with some kind of injury.

The team was able to survive against the Predators despite the Sedins’ struggles, but the San Jose Sharks present a bigger challenge. San Jose’s high-powered offense will likely force Vancouver to light up the scoreboard at least a couple times, so the Sedin twins will need to be their typically productive selves.

A near-week of rest might not heal up injuries that might require surgery, but at least Henrik and Daniel received some time to nurse their wounds. If you ask me, though, those two sore siblings might just be Vancouver’s sore thumb.

Now that you’ve read the PHT hypothesis, here’s Yankee Canuck from the SBN blog Nucks Misconduct.

The lone concern is goal scoring (having been outscored 33-30 so far) and that means the blame falls to the Sedins twins and, more specifically, Henrik. His struggles haven’t eluded anyone as he’s not been as strong on the puck as we’re accustomed to, which limits the opportunities for Daniel and Alex Burrows to fire some high percentage shots on net. With a beast like Murray potentially hounding him, it could get a lot worse and increase the pressure on Kesler’s line to carry the offensive burden.

A few days off to heal the wounds might do wonders for Henrik and the twins will remain huge threats on the PP, but even strength goal production has to be better. The same can be said for offensive support from the defense, which chipped in some crucial goals against Nashville.

All in if Vancouver can collectively flex their scoring muscle on pace with their regular season results, they’ll get their four wins.
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So Yankee Canuck and I focused on the Sedin twins, particularly Henrik. It’s not a revolutionary observation to make, but their outputs will likely make or break Vancouver’s series against San Jose. This is their chance to show that they are genuine stars in the NHL. It’ll be fascinating to find out if they can pull it off.