Ex-Canucks player Weise explains how Sedins created incredible team culture in Vancouver
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The Sedin twins are legends in Vancouver for many reasons, aside from the fact that they were, you know, identical twins who dominated the NHL.
Their fitness levels are through the roof. They donated $1.5 million of their salaries to BC Children’s Hospital. And, they nearly led the Canucks to a Stanley Cup championship.
Former Canucks winger Dale Weise quickly became a fan of the Sedins after joining the Canucks. He shared some stories about them recently during an appearance on the Slangin’ the Bizkit Podcast.
“They were so good at creating a culture and making everyone feel a part of it,” Weise told hosts Travis Ridgen and Dave Wheeler.
“They made a guy like me who, when I was there my first year, I was on the fourth line playing five minutes a night. They made me feel like I was a superstar.”
Weise joined the Canucks at the beginning of the 2011-12 season, after he was claimed off waivers from the New York Rangers. He played 157 games for the Canucks across three seasons, registering 10 goals and 26 points, before being traded to the Montreal Canadiens in 2014.
“I just got so much respect for those two. They’re just the nicest people.”
Weise played for five teams during a 513-game NHL career, giving him great perspective on the culture in Vancouver. And he said the Sedins were the ones “leading the charge,” and that included off the ice.
“In Vancouver, we’d get on the road, and the Sedins would be leading the charge, telling guys, ‘Okay boys, go get changed, everybody in the bus in 15 minutes.’
“The whole team would go out together. Go have some drinks, we’d have some fun.”
The 37-year-old also had experience being in dysfunctional NHL locker rooms, citing the Philadelphia Flyers under Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek as players who weren’t great leaders.
“They were great players, but kind of the guys that… [you’re] winning 6-1, coach throws the fourth line out on the power play with two minutes left, and he’s looking at the coach like, ‘Come on.’
“You just create such a toxic environment when you do stuff like that. That would never have been the case in Chicago or Vancouver.”
“The most dominant guys I ever saw”
Weise played with a number of big stars during his career. But for him, nobody beats the Sedins.
“When I get asked who’s the best players you’ve played with, you know, there’s [Patrick] Kane, Giroux, Voracek, [Jonathan] Toews, all these guys.”
“The Sedin brothers, to me, were the most dominant guys I ever saw.
“There’s no surprise why they were so good for so long, and they worked their ass off. Off ice, they would kill everybody in the conditioning test. On ice in practice, work their ass off.
“They made it look rather effortless, too. Effortless. And they were not the greatest skaters. I was always surprised in practice how they could do these things and not be moving. I’m like, ‘I’m on you four times, but you put it through me four times.’ I’m like, ‘I keep catching you, and you’re still making plays.’
“They were incredible.”
Weise called it on Torts
John Tortorella’s lone season with the Vancouver Canucks was one of the most infamous periods in club history.
And Weise called it.
Weise recalled a story about being cut by Tortorella at Rangers training camp in 2011, despite having come off two strong AHL seasons, primarily because he didn’t fight during the preseason.
After being cut by Tortorella, Weise was claimed off waivers by the Canucks. Nearly two years later, Tortorella was hired by the Canucks, reuniting him with Weise.
“[Alain] Vigneault gets fired, and I’m getting calls from the media like, ‘John Tortorella is rumoured to be getting the job in Vancouver.’
“I literally said, ‘No way, he’s not a fit for this team.’ I said, you know, older team, kind of controls the locker room, and they just wouldn’t fly with a guy like that. I just knew it.
“I wish the GM would have asked me, like, I would have saved his job. [Mike] Gillis should have [come] up to me and said, ‘You had him, give me some feedback on him.’ But no, they brought him in, absolute disaster.”
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