"I really regret not winning": Hall-of-Fame Sedins still hungry to win Stanley Cup with Canucks
Everyone in the Vancouver Canucks universe remembers where they were on June 15, 2011.
In the era of great Canucks teams, it was the quintessential Vancouver loss — close, but not quite close enough — a 4-0 home defeat to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final taking place at Rogers Arena.
And it’s one that’s clearly stuck with former Canucks winger Daniel Sedin, even as he and his twin brother Henrik are getting the official nod to the Hockey Hall of Fame later today.
“This is a great honour. I don’t want to [minimize it],” Daniel said Friday in a media scrum at Hockey Hall of Fame weekend about the induction. “But I rather would’ve won the Stanley Cup, if you know what I mean? That’s a team win. I think we are all about the team. This is more individual. I mean, yeah, this is the probably the ultimate individual award to win, but I think we all are all about the team.”
Sedin’s career — much like his brother Henrik, or fellow 2022 inductee Roberto Luongo — isn’t merely defined by their time in Vancouver.
After being taken with the second and third pick in the 1999 draft and spending their entire careers with the Canucks, both twins became international icons, a two-of-a-kind talent, and in 2006, Olympic gold medallists along with Sweden.
They’re the only two players in franchise history to score more than a thousand points, the only Canucks to win NHL scoring titles, and they each have their numbers hanging from the rafters at Rogers Arena.
“You play hockey to win championships, to get medals,” Daniel added. “The journey to get [to the Olympics] is a special one and that’s one I’m going to remember… but in the end you are what you have won. That’s why I really regret not winning the Stanley Cup, because I think that’s the toughest thing to win in hockey.”
In the 2011 Final, Vancouver carried a 3-2 into Game 6 in Boston, needing just one win in either of the last two games to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
But seemingly everything that could go wrong for the Canucks did: Luongo was chased after just eight shots (and three goals) in Game 6, as Vancouver was outscored 9-2 over the final 120 minutes of the Final.
In seven games, the Canucks scored just eight goals, including just one each from both Sedins. Media criticism was high, a post-game riot swallowed up much of the international coverage, and many wondered if the Canucks would ever recover from such a loss.
And while the Canucks finished the next season with 111 points to win the Presidents’ Trophy, the Sedins never won another playoff series in their NHL careers after the 2011 run.
“When you’re one game away from from winning the whole thing…” Daniel said, suddenly at a loss for words. “I don’t regret how we did things. I think now, we lost against a very good team [in Boston].”
While the chance to win the Stanley Cup as players is now gone, the twins still find themselves chasing that elusive Stanley Cup title in Canucks management, in player development roles.
“It’s been really good,” Daniel said of working in the Vancouver front office. “I think it’s a good organization and everyone wants the same thing and it’s easy coming to work. We’re all looking for the same for the same results and the same goals… After a few years away I think we realize how much we missed the organization, we missed being around hockey people, we missed being a part of our team. I think we’ve got all that right now.”
Right now, though, the Canucks seem as far away as they’ve ever been from contention, sitting seventh in the Pacific Division and 29th in the entire NHL. But for the notoriously-hardworking Sedins, that’s no reason to stop giving it their best.
“I think [Henrik and I] always looked at it as a process. You got to gotta put in the work, every day. It’s it’s not gonna happen overnight,” Daniel added. “If you do the right things, I think you’re gonna have a lot of fun with your teammates, and you’re going to win some games and you’re going to have a shot [at winning the Stanley Cup.]”
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