(E5) Sedins Have Been Contaminated with...

[phathead420]

Crosby takes more physical abuse in 2 weeks than Gretzky took in 20 years.

So very true !! If Crosby was playing in the 80's we would of dominated probably more so then the great one.

[phathead420]

How is it no other player (Halll of famers) could even come close to his points totals if it was so damn easy? I mean, come on now, there were tons of tough skilled strong guys, but they never scored that many points, year after year after year.

Because if anyone watched the coiler's in the 80's , they know Gretzky had special treatment.

[Brick Tamland]

This guy doesn't know the definition of soft.

I do, people who cant stand up for themselves in a fight. The Sedins are soft, but great players.

[William_Clarkson]

I don't know whether to like this post because I like the Sedins and agree that they are tough or hate it because of lines like: "Rumour has it that Hank and Danny caught the virus through sharing water bottles with the rest of the team. Guys like Burrows, Hansen and Bieksa are likely sources to have been contagious."

Nothing against those players, the sentence is just ridiculous.

[Kragar]

I like seeing them push back more like they have this year. Mixing it up between the whistles a bit, and dishing out a little punishment once in a while. It does bother me at times that Daniel falls over with minimal contact in open ice, but it's not a chronic problem.

Many people point out that they are declining, but I noticed recently that the twins are both in the top 25 scoring. Albeit on the lower end, but obviously there are teams without anyone in that group.

If Henrik could get back to winning faceoffs like last year, and the team had a decent power play (partially linked to faceoff performance), they could easily be in top 10 scoring. Even in their "washed-up" mid-30s.

Go Canucks Go!

[GTVic]

They've always been tough, standing up to cross checks and physical play from often larger opponents. If people haven't been convinced by now then they won't be convinced by this thread.

I disagree, this post is taking a new approach with multiple fonts, colors and sizes to empasize and convince people like never before.

[apollo]

I do, people who cant stand up for themselves in a fight. The Sedins are soft, but great players.

No they're not soft. They don't want to fight. It's for peasants beneath them.

I bet they could kick your ass too.

[CALGARY!]

Solid thread, the Sedins are tough cookies, Im pretty sure they didnt catch it from Burrows or Bieksa however. Glad to see Hank and Danny putting up points and playing with confidence again, this is the time of year when you NEED your best players to be your best players and the Sedins are really stepping up. There not as effortless as a few seasons ago but they are still dangerous. Now, they just need to hope that Lack/Markstrom can keep things together in goal, and that the call ups can keep the defense solid with alot of tough games coming down the stretch.

[Nino]

Theyre soft. Always have been always will be.

What? How could you call players that always go to the dirty areas and battle for pucks (in most cases win the battles) soft?

[ABNuck]

TOUGHNESS (DEF): the ability to absorb energy and deform without fracturing / measured as the amount of energy per unit volume that can be absorbed before rupturing / resistance to fracturing when stressed / toughness requires a balance of strength and ductility.

For all who point to the "Marchand Incident" as evidence as to the lack of toughness on the point of the Sedins...the definition is "resistance to fracturing when stressed". If you supposed hockey geniuses have ever actually coached or played you would understand the tactic of "winning the trade-off". Why was it Marchand who did what he did? Not Bergeron, not Krejci, not Seguin...but Marchand. Because Marchand is more expendable to Boston than the twins are to Vancouver.

"The Sedins are not tough because they don't fight argument" Players who rarely if ever fought: Red Kelly, Johnny Bucyk, Marty St. Louis, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mike Modano etc etc etc etc (the list goes on and on...I don't think these guys are/were soft).

A sign of softness would be to take punishment from other players and continually be injured (Peter Forsberg for example, yet nobody calls him soft - I think he missed more games than he played). Softness would be to take an elbow to the head (thanks Keith - jerk) and be afraid to go anywhere near the puck again. Softness would be to block a shot then be afraid to ever block shots again. So let's apply this to the Sedins: punishment? Ironman streak ('nuff said). Bounceback? Do you see either of the Sedins afraid to go in the corners to get pucks? Afraid to take passes in open ice? Nope...even after a cheapshot elbow to the head they still get the job done. Afraid to do the dirty stuff? Daniel (broken foot) and Henrik (amputated finger) still will block shots if needed. By the way, Henrik's amputated finger? His choice. It was either be amputate part of the finger so he could be back playing in 4 days, or surgery that would have kept him out 4 months. He chose to amputate...if that ain't tough I don't know what is.

Playoff ineffectiveness you say? In our 2011 run the Sedins were #2 and #4 in scoring...I guess if they were #1 and #2 THEN people would say they are effective in the playoffs.

Enough is enough people. Professional athletes or management rarely if ever back pedal on comments they've made. Don Cherry labelled the Sedins as soft way back in 1800 and something, and most everyone bought into that statement. Jim Benning was part of the Bruins in 2011, he also bought into it. He has been quoted as saying he was wrong, that in fact they are two of the tougher players in the league. So please folks, don't buy into the media BS...most times they have no clue what they're talking about. And the way the Sedins bounceback from injury, from tough shifts, from poor seasons statistically prove that fact.

If you want to compare toughness in hockey, then compare apples to apples. Don't compare the Sedins to Zdano Chara, compare them to the goal-scorers and playmakers and I think when you do you'll see that they're pretty dang tough. Are they the toughest players in the NHL? No, not by a longshot. Are they soft? No, not by a longshot.

[PhillipBlunt]

TOUGHNESS (DEF): the ability to absorb energy and deform without fracturing / measured as the amount of energy per unit volume that can be absorbed before rupturing / resistance to fracturing when stressed / toughness requires a balance of strength and ductility.

For all who point to the "Marchand Incident" as evidence as to the lack of toughness on the point of the Sedins...the definition is "resistance to fracturing when stressed". If you supposed hockey geniuses have ever actually coached or played you would understand the tactic of "winning the trade-off". Why was it Marchand who did what he did? Not Bergeron, not Krejci, not Seguin...but Marchand. Because Marchand is more expendable to Boston than the twins are to Vancouver.

"The Sedins are not tough because they don't fight argument" Players who rarely if ever fought: Red Kelly, Johnny Bucyk, Marty St. Louis, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mike Modano etc etc etc etc (the list goes on and on...I don't think these guys are/were soft).

A sign of softness would be to take punishment from other players and continually be injured (Peter Forsberg for example, yet nobody calls him soft - I think he missed more games than he played). Softness would be to take an elbow to the head (thanks Keith - jerk) and be afraid to go anywhere near the puck again. Softness would be to block a shot then be afraid to ever block shots again. So let's apply this to the Sedins: punishment? Ironman streak ('nuff said). Bounceback? Do you see either of the Sedins afraid to go in the corners to get pucks? Afraid to take passes in open ice? Nope...even after a cheapshot elbow to the head they still get the job done. Afraid to do the dirty stuff? Daniel (broken foot) and Henrik (amputated finger) still will block shots if needed. By the way, Henrik's amputated finger? His choice. It was either be amputate part of the finger so he could be back playing in 4 days, or surgery that would have kept him out 4 months. He chose to amputate...if that ain't tough I don't know what is.

Playoff ineffectiveness you say? In our 2011 run the Sedins were #2 and #4 in scoring...I guess if they were #1 and #2 THEN people would say they are effective in the playoffs.

Enough is enough people. Professional athletes or management rarely if ever back pedal on comments they've made. Don Cherry labelled the Sedins as soft way back in 1800 and something, and most everyone bought into that statement. Jim Benning was part of the Bruins in 2011, he also bought into it. He has been quoted as saying he was wrong, that in fact they are two of the tougher players in the league. So please folks, don't buy into the media BS...most times they have no clue what they're talking about. And the way the Sedins bounceback from injury, from tough shifts, from poor seasons statistically prove that fact.

If you want to compare toughness in hockey, then compare apples to apples. Don't compare the Sedins to Zdano Chara, compare them to the goal-scorers and playmakers and I think when you do you'll see that they're pretty dang tough. Are they the toughest players in the NHL? No, not by a longshot. Are they soft? No, not by a longshot.

Excellent post. Well thought out and written.

[TimberWolf]

What is not an example of toughness?

Yammering how tough you are on the internet or because you like to watch tough hockey and not figure skating.

[hockeyfan90]

Don't worry they always have that infection during the regular season and when the playoff comes around, that infection is gone. They get bullied and tossed around by the likes of Marchard and Bolland and doesn't do anything about it.

True story

[Hectic]

They’re soft. Always have been always will be.

If by soft you mean posting on the Canucks message board and calling NHL players soft then yeah I guess you're onto something here..

[Hectic]

Obviously you have not watched 80's hockey. That was a mans game back then. Crosby would have had his teeth handed to him. The clutching and grabbing and slashing was something to behold. Not like today's era where it's speed.

It's amazing to think how many goals Gretzky would have scored if he played by todays rules, without people holding his stick or grabbing his jersey or pulling him down.

Blows my mind when people make these wild stories up, without realizing HOW the game was played back then.

hahaha oh my goodness if Crosby played in Gretzky's era he would have 400 points what kind of garbage is this the goalies were brutal! Gretz would be a second line center in today's game

[-DLC-]

I disagree. Sedins have their dry spells and are not consistent as of late. I think he is referring to toughness as able to play with some aggression rather than take some hits and play on.

Dry spells are scoring, not toughness.

He is talking aggression toughness but when you're some of the league's leading scorers on any given year, then "your" game is seemingly working regardless of aggression. So you want them to focus on gooning it up instead of scoring? I don't. Skate circles around others instead.

And they have been showing more aggression lately...which usually lands them in the box, where they're of no use to us at all.

[-DLC-]

They're slow-learners then. Should have thought about fighting back when Marshmont was slapping them around in 2011.

Jack, I've come to agree with most of what you say lately and quite enjoy your posts, but consider this: as "leaders" there are two roads to take and, yes, there's something to be said about leaders that push back and assert themselves. But the flipside is that you expect your leaders to be disciplined and NOT hurt the team by retaliating if it could hurt the team. With the team's history with the refs, that's how it played out with our team with our often holding the short straw.

The refs should have intervened...that was post whistle crap that had NO business carrying on as it did. Yes, I'd have liked it too if he nailed that rat but he didn't because he was expecting the ref to do his job. Having a man advantage is better than being on the PK. That's what you need to remember in the grand scope of it all. Although it sends a message, it also buys into a game the Bruins were all about sucking others into.

Easy to just assign a label to the Sedins in that situation but the league was failing, miserably, in keeping the game in check. On the one hand, our guys got multiple game suspensions for hits during game play back then. On the other, this mockery of the game was allowed to go unchecked. Don't hate the players, hate the game applies, at least to some degree.

[Burnsey]

They’re soft. Always have been always will be.

Soft doesn't mean that players don't hit. Sedins have rarely been injured while being manhandled their whole careers...that is tough imo. Toughness is more than physicality.

[apollo]

Jack, I've come to agree with most of what you say lately and quite enjoy your posts, but consider this: as "leaders" there are two roads to take and, yes, there's something to be said about leaders that push back and assert themselves. But the flipside is that you expect your leaders to be disciplined and NOT hurt the team by retaliating if it could hurt the team. With the team's history with the refs, that's how it played out with our team with our often holding the short straw.

The refs should have intervened...that was post whistle crap that had NO business carrying on as it did. Yes, I'd have liked it too if he nailed that rat but he didn't because he was expecting the ref to do his job. Having a man advantage is better than being on the PK. That's what you need to remember in the grand scope of it all. Although it sends a message, it also buys into a game the Bruins were all about sucking others into.

Easy to just assign a label to the Sedins in that situation but the league was failing, miserably, in keeping the game in check. On the one hand, our guys got multiple game suspensions for hits during game play back then. On the other, this mockery of the game was allowed to go unchecked. Don't hate the players, hate the game applies, at least to some degree.

Well said. Not much else I can add to it.

Not in a 100 years will the sedins get fair treatment from the refs. They take abuse more than anyone and are tougher than anyone. Yet they somehow always end up not drawing a penalty and taking one instead.

Example the Calgary game... Daniel got 2 minutes for getting crosschecked

[alfstonker]

They've always been tough, standing up to cross checks and physical play from often larger opponents. If people haven't been convinced by now then they won't be convinced by this thread.

Well said Elvis.

It makes me sad to hear our own fans mock the Twins for being "soft"

Softness is not always about fighting. When you are elite players it's about taking all the battering and still maintaining your performance level. It's about saving energy from not fighting so that you can expend it on trying to win the game.

I don't want to see the Twins fight. It takes a special technique to not only fight but prevent yourself being seriously hurt in a fight. The Sedins have never learned these techniques so why risk fighting against those who have.

Most fights mean nothing and prove even less.

Given the Sedins are not going to step in to save a team mate by smacking an opponent senseless then what would be the point of them fighting at all.

Marchand looked cheap and a rat like like bully after the first punch on Daniel, I would not have been able to stand there and take it but I was glad Marchand was not given an opportunity to hurt one of our players and I respect Daniel for putting the team first.

"Why was it Marchand who did what he did? Not Bergeron, not Krejci, not Seguin...but Marchand. Because Marchand is more expendable to Boston than the twins are to Vancouver."

​And because even these tough guys have more class than to hit someone who they positively know won't hit back. They have too much respect for themselves than to look so cheap and classless, unlike Marchand who would try any dirty trick in the book to gain favour from the fans who are as classless as he is.