Challenge won, but game lost

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1 Challenge won, but game lost 5 Jan 2016 The Province BEN KUZMA Willie Desjardins mouth was wide open in disbelief and Daniel Sedin s mouth looked like a chipped picket fence from taking a puck in the face. Who knew they would combine to inject some needed life into the Vancouver Canucks when it mattered most Monday at Rogers Arena. The Canucks look dead and buried when Jacob Markstrom couldn t glove a Michael Stone shot for what appeared to be a 4-1 lead in the third period. Not quite. Desjardins challenged that the scoring play was offside and the Canucks coach finally got one right with his fifth challenge of the season. Six seconds later, Henrik Sedin put a saucer pass on Daniel Sedin s blade and the winger went stick side to turn it into a 3-2 nail-biter. But that was the final score and the loss raises concerns because the Canucks are now in onegoal games. Nobody was giving up more goals per game than the Coyotes at 3.18 per outing, so what better opponent to prop up an offence plunging like the Canadian dollar. However, on a night when 39- yearold Shane Doan scored twice, preventing goals has become as concerning as scoring them for Vancouver. Doan s easy second goal came after Chris Tanev fell and Tobias Rieder was left alone trying to deke Markstrom. He put his effort off the far post and an untouched Doan made a one-foot putt. It was the same story when Laurent Dauphin scored his first NHL goal to give the Coyotes a 2-1 lead. After Bo Horvat ended a prolonged scoring drought, the Arizona rookie easily deposited a loose puck just 19 seconds later. What this means Hurry back Sven Baertschi. For all the ink spilled about what the winger hasn t accomplished this season, goals in consecutive games last month at Detroit, Florida and Tampa were as impressive as his willingness to get to the net and maintain a defensive awareness. A hit from Jake Muzzin at the side of the net Dec. 28 saw his head snap back and sent him to the sidelines with neck and shoulder concerns. Baertschi took the morning skate Monday, but didn t play. Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden said Baertschi was feeling good and was put on injury reserve to open up a roster spot for the recalled Alex Grenier.

2 Linden added Baertschi is a possibility for Wednesday against Carolina. Chris Higgins had two first-period shots and Ronalds Kenins had more of a presence Monday, but there s a speed and creative element in Baertschi that s much more intriguing. In a word BLEEDING: Daniel Sedin left in the first period when Michael Stone swatted a puck out of his own zone and caught the winger in the mouth. Got stitched up. Returned. SCORING: Bo Horvat finally ended a 27-game goal drought by getting to the crease on the power play and jamming home a bouncing puck off a Coyotes defender. SEEKING: Ben Hutton nearly scored his first career NHL goal when he went hard to the net and nearly deposited a Derek Dorsett centring pass off the wall. Advanced stats 56: Percentage of faceoffs won by rookie Jared McCann through two periods 5-for-9. After going 0- for-10 against Los Angeles and with a 32 per cent efficiency this season, that s an improvement. 80: Percentage of positive Corsi for Derek Dorsett at even strength through 40 minutes. Had a Corsi For of 12 and a Corsi Against of 3 for a combined Corsi of 9. 33: Games rookie Ben Hutton has gone in search of his first NHL goal. But with six shot attempts through two periods, he s getting closer. 12: Distance in feet in which Bo Horvat was away from the net when he charged to take an attempted Henrik Sedin pass. The puck hit a Coyotes defenceman, who handed it to Horvat for an unassisted power play goal. What we learned Brandon Prust has strong opinions. He has called out players and questioned a $2,000 diving fine to Jannik Hansen. But the Canucks winger wasn t biting when asked if the leg-on-leg hit he took from Ryan Kesler on Friday Prust didn t practise Sunday, took the morning skate Monday, but didn t play was intentional. It was a weird play and it definitely took my leg out, he said. Whether it was intentional or not, I m not sure. I tried to make a play between my legs, which is weird enough on its own. Lack of finish finishes the Canucks on this night 5 Jan 2016 The Province ED WILLES

3 Depleted Vancouver lineup no match for Arizona Coyotes on Monday as hometown heroes have problems scoring again You wouldn t know it these days but, just over a month ago, the Vancouver Canucks were one of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL. OK, no one was confusing them with the Penguins but, after 24 games, the Canucks had scored 69 goals, which was the second highest total in the Western Conference. Ah yes, those were the days. We bring this up because watching the Canucks try to score now is like watching a silverback trying to cut a diamond. Monday night, they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Arizona Coyotes, which marked the fifth straight game in which they failed to score more than two goals. Remarkably, they d won three of those outings, but advanced analytics reveal you re not going to win the Presidents Trophy when you average less than two goals a game and, over their last 16 games the Canucks have scored, wait for it, 25 goals. So what s happened? Take a look at the lineup. Throw out the Sedins and Jannik Hansen and the Canucks other three lines looked like this: Higgins-Horvat- Vrbata; Kenins-McCann-Dorsett; and Burrows-Vey-Cracknell. Only a wild-eyed optimist could hope for goals out of that ensemble, so maybe the mystery isn t that the Canucks aren t scoring, it s that they re still in the playoff hunt. The locals, by their standards at least, had one of their more productive outings against the Yotes, but their inability to score was the difference in a game where they might have deserved better. The Canucks peppered goalie Louis Domingue with 37 shots. In the second period, they had three glittering chances Henrik Sedin on a redirect, Ben Hutton from the lip of the crease and Linden Vey on a one timer from the slot. And their only goal came when Mark Stone s clearing pass hit Bo Horvat in the chest and the snake-bitten sophomore scored his first goal since Nov. 2. Somewhere in there was the definitive word on the Canucks season to date. Are they resilient? One supposes. Head coach Willie Desjardins won a coach s challenge that nullified a fourth Arizona goal and created some hope when Daniel Sedin scored with 15 minutes left in the third period. But it seems to be a two-goal limit with this group. They had zone time in the final frame. They had traffic in front of Domingue. They had chances. What they didn t have, and what they don t have as they re currently constructed, is finish and that s likely going to finish their season. Canucks equipment manager Hall bound 5 Jan 2016 The Province STEVE EWEN Vancouver Canucks equipment manager Pat O Neill became a little less unheralded on Monday. O Neill, who joined the NHL club in 1988 and whose international experience has included working for Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, was part of the 2016 B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame induction class announced during a news conference at Rogers Arena. Also set to be honoured are former Canucks Brendan Morrison and Murray Baron, BCHL commissioner John Grisdale, longtime Merritt Centennials coach, general manager and executive Brian Barrett and the Vernon Vipers.

4 O Neill is from Victoria and started sharpening skates and repairing hockey gear at his family s sporting goods store there when he was a teenager. Those are the guys who are behind the scenes, but they mean a lot to the players, veteran Canucks winger Daniel Sedin said of O Neill. They help out all the guys, but especially the younger guys. Guys like that aren t mentioned nearly enough when a team has success. Usually, they re a big part of it. O Neill was with Canadian entries at the 1990 and 2004 world championships, as well as the 1996 World Cup. He took part in NHL all-star games in 1988 and He worked his 2,500th NHL game Nov. 14, Morrison, of Pitt Meadows, spent 14 seasons in the NHL, highlighted by eight with the Canucks, where he starred for much of that time on the West Coast Express line with Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi. Baron, a Prince George native, played 15 seasons in the NHL, including five with Vancouver. Ontario transplant Grisdale played six seasons in the NHL, including five with the Canucks. He s best known for his time running the BCHL, the now 17-team junior-a loop, which sends players on to NCAA programs. The Centennials are one of the BCHL s longer-standing teams, dating back to Barrett signed on initially as general manager and coach in He s held various titles with the club since then and is currently governor and director of hockey operations. The Vipers are considered one of the best teams in BCHL history and won the Royal Bank Cup. Linden to visit with students Vancouver Sun Jan. 5 th Vancouver Canucks president Trevor Linden will be using his inspiration skills Wednesday when he visits students at the John Volken Academy, a long-term, residential addiction treatment facility and life-skills training centre in Surrey. The Trevor Linden Foundation launched in 1997 with the goal of encouraging young people to discover their strengths and realize their potential. Dogged by miscues, bit by Coyotes The Vancouver Sun Iain MacIntyre Jan. 5 Doan in by ageless captain: Vancouver won coach s challenge, but lost most other battles to Arizona visitors. Bo Horvat scored a goal and Willie Desjardins won a coach s challenge. So there was that Monday for the Vancouver Canucks.

5 But this depleted and changing team, which has such a hard time winning with the National Hockey League s 26th-ranked offence, has almost no chance to win when it plays as badly defensively as it did in its 3-2 loss against the Arizona Coyotes. Desjardins first successful challenge of the season overturned an apparent Coyotes goal at 4:35 of the third period and when Daniel Sedin, still bleeding from a first-period puck to the teeth, scored on the restart, there was suddenly a two-goal swing in Vancouver s favour. A threegoal deficit became one. But the damage done in the defensive zone on the three Coyote goals that counted was too much to overcome for a Vancouver team that has scored seven times in five games and been shut out five times in five weeks. We got fortunate that there was an offside because if that s a 4-1 game, the game s over, Canuck winger Jannik Hansen said of Michael Stone s overturned goal. We still found a way to make it tight, but that s not good enough. We have to win these games. We re battling injuries, battling bounces, seems like we ve been on the road all season, Horvat said after his first goal in 28 games lifted the Canucks into a tie for all of 18 seconds in the middle period. The margin for error is so thin; we just have to be better. We ve got to be tighter defensively. Ageless warrior Shane Doan scored twice for the Coyotes and could have had five goals and rookie Laurent Dauphin had the other. On Doan s first goal, he stood unchecked between three Canucks and deflected in Connor Murphy s point shot several seconds after Radim Vrbata yielded possession of the puck. Dauphin scored into an unguarded net to break a 1-1 tie at 14:00 of the second period just 19 seconds after Horvat s opportunistic goal on a power play when Canuck Yannick Weber was caught up ice, fell on the backcheck, and teammate Chris Higgins did a flyby past Dauphin. Then Doan scored the 383rd goal of his NHL career, and possibly his easiest, by nudging the puck over the goal-line after a series of Canuck mistakes left Coyote Tobias Rieder alone with the puck in front of goalie Jacob Markstrom. Rieder beat Markstrom with a 13-move deke, but his shot hit the inside of the post and stalled on the goal-line for Doan, who skated away from Canuck Derek Dorsett for the gimme. The play began when Canuck Adam Cracknell failed to clear the puck short-handed, which preceded much curious prodding and poking at the bouncing puck by Vancouver players. Markstrom may have been bleeding from his eyes from what he was saw when Stone s point shot tumbled in off the webbing of the goalie s catching glove before Desjardins challenge led to a review that determined Coyote Max Domi had gone offside long before the goal. Their last two (goals) were our fault, plain and simple, Hansen said. On the penalty kill (before Doan scored), we had the puck and couldn t clear it and you end up getting hurt that way. The other one, I see it as three-onthree and one guy blows a tire and it s a back-door tap-in. Little individual slip-ups cost us the game today. Maybe not so little. There s a few things we can do better, defenceman Chris Tanev said. First goal was a bit of a broken play. We can definitely defend better in the home plate area. It s defence first that s how we re going to win games. We re not going to score five or six goals a game, so we can t give up more than one or two in a game. Everyone has to think defence first. They might also think about the Coyotes, with the worst defensive record in the NHL, leaving with both points in a key Pacific Division game and winning it with a rookie goalie, Louis Domingue, playing the eighth game of his career. The way the Canucks are configured, some teams right now are untouchable. The Los Angeles Kings, for example, simply overmatched and overwhelmed the Canucks when Vancouver lost 5-0 at home a week ago. The Coyotes are not one of those teams. But give anyone three goals, and it s difficult for the Canucks to win.

6 Baron proud to be included in B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame Brad Ziemer Vancouver Sun Jan. 5 Murray Baron has only one real regret about a National Hockey League playing career that lasted 15 seasons. He wishes he d squeezed another dozen games out of it. Baron retired in 2004 having played 988 NHL games and acknowledged Monday that in recent years the fact he didn t quite make it to 1,000 has bothered him. I should have tried to stick around a bit longer, Baron said after he was named as one of six 2016 inductees to the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame. That s a regret, but there s nothing you can do about it now. Baron, who was born in Prince George and raised in Kamloops, is proud of the career he did carve out in the NHL as a dependable, stay-at-home defenceman. Even making the league was an accomplishment, Baron said. I was an eighth-round draft pick and played house-league hockey up until midget, so I am definitely proud of the career I had. Baron had 35 goals, 129 points and 1,309 penalty minutes in his NHL career. I definitely wasn t a point-getter, you know that, said the man his teammates called Bear. Baron spent five seasons with the Canucks, from through He is entering the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame with three other new inductees who have Canuck connections. Former Vancouver teammate Brendan Morrison; longtime Canucks equipment manager Pat O Neill; and former Canucks defenceman and current B.C. Hockey League commissioner John Grisdale will also be inducted at a July 22 ceremony in Penticton, along with longtime Merritt hockey supporter Brian Barrett. The Vernon Vipers team, winners of RBC Cup-Canadian Junior A championship, is the other B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame indictee for When I got here we struggled, Baron said of his stint with the Canucks. But we improved each year and to be part of Nazzie (Markus Naslund), Bert (Todd Bertuzzi) and Mo (Morrison) when they were flying was nice. We had some good teams there toward the end. Now 48, Baron settled in Phoenix after retiring, but is back living in Kamloops with his wife and two sons. He called his induction into B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame something special. Your career goes by really fast, he said. To get some recognition like this 10 years later is definitely something to be proud of.

7 Five takeaways: Vancouver Canucks' Daniel, Henrik Sedin once again prove their toughness Cam Tucker Jan. 4 Metro News Defensive mistakes cost Canucks in 3-2 loss to Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Arena. Vancouver Canucks forward Daniel Sedin is tended to on the bench after taking a puck to the face during the first period of Monday's NHL game versus the Arizona Coyotes. The Vancouver Canucks couldn t complete the comeback, losing to the Arizona Coyotes by a final of 3-2 at Rogers Arena on Monday. They re now three points back of the Coyotes for second place in the Pacific Division. Here are the five takeaways: THE SEDINS ARE TOUGH This doesn t really need to be repeated, but we re going to say it anyway. The Sedin twins are not soft as hockey players. In fact, they are quite the opposite. Yes, they are Vancouver s two best players far and away the primary offensive threat for a team that right now struggles to score. They have the skill. But they also have a determination and tolerance for pain that many of the doubters and haters were adamant the Sedin twins did not have. Case No. 483 why they are not soft: Daniel Sedin took a puck to the face on what appeared to be an innocuous play in the first period that cost him some teeth. As the television cameras zoomed in on Daniel at the bench, it was apparent there was damage. The blood leaking from his mouth left a trail from the Coyotes defensive zone to the Vancouver bench. Henrik says Daniel lost about three or four teeth. But just over 10 minutes of game time later, there was Daniel, No. 22, back on the bench and ready for another shift. He later scored to bring the Canucks back to within a goal in the third period. The Sedins, both 35 years old, have been mocked in the past because they re from Sweden, and they re not abrasive or pugnacious. They do score goals. They can make teams pay that way. And with scoring woes surrounding the Canucks, this team needs the Sedin twins. It would otherwise be a dire, if not hopeless situation. The reputation of them being soft should be dead. But here s a little reminder in case you ever want to revive it: Losing a few teeth is not a big deal, said Henrik of his brother.

8 That shouldn t stop you from playing. But he played well tonight. I thought our line (including Jannik Hansen) played maybe the best game after Christmas. DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWNS PROVE COSTLY Bo Horvat barely finished his celebration. His first goal since Nov. 2, a span of 27 games, got the Canucks into a tie game with the Coyotes during the second period before the hosts promptly surrendered the league back to the desert dogs. It took all of 19 seconds for the Coyotes to re-take the lead after the Horvat equalizer. And the Canucks just couldn t get the game back from there. It s tough when we score (and) then we give that one up right away, said head coach Willie Desjardins. Twice, actually, the Canucks were guilty of defensive miscues compounded by some fortuitous bounces favouring the Coyotes and of course it proved costly. On Arizona s second goal, defenceman Yannick Weber went sliding to the ice on the back check, opening up enough space in front of the net for Laurent Dauphin to collect a loose puck and bury his first career NHL goal. In the third period, Shane Doan scored from a tap-in to increase Arizona s lead after the Canucks couldn t corral the puck in the slot. From his knees, Antoine Vermette swatted the puck to a wideopen Tobias Rieder, who beat Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom but not the post, leaving Doan with a gimme. That was (the) kind of day it was for us and kind of day it was for them, said Markstrom. BO SNAPS THE DROUGHT BUT GOALS HARD TO COME BY The jubilation after Bo Horvat s first goal since the start of November was short-lived, but perhaps this will help open the door for him offensively. He had only two goals coming into this game but you could argue he should have at least a few more than that. For a variety of reasons, he doesn t, and it took until Jan. 4 of 2016 before he finally bumped his slump. The Canucks, as a team and outside of the Sedin line, aren t an offensively gifted team. Far from it. It's not on Horvat. He's 20 years old, a sophomore centre. He had also been on a line with Sven Baertschi and Radim Vrbata, which had shown promise and results prior to the holiday break and Baertschi getting injured. Baertschi is now listed on injured reserve, despite taking the morning skate. Stats.hockeyanalysis.com had them ranked 23 rd in the league with 1.94 goals-for per 60 minutes at five-on-five play, and their power play had been held off the score sheet for almost a full month. On a night when they needed three goals to tie, they fired 37 shots at Arizona goalie Louis Domingue but couldn t finish enough for a single point. WILLIE WITH A REAL GOOD CHALLENGE Canucks bench boss Willie Desjardins issued a coach s challenge and was successful in his attempt to get Arizona s fourth goal overturned after officials determined the zone entry prior to the goal was offside.

9 That kept the score at 3-1 for Arizona early in the third period. Shortly after, Daniel Sedin missing teeth and all scored to close the gap to just one goal. In the end, the Canucks couldn t complete the comeback. Because they have difficulty scoring. But it made things interesting. RONALDS KENINS SHOWS UP Ronalds Kenins turned a lot of heads last year with his robust physical play. He s failed to do so in this current call-up stint with the Canucks. He did, however, revert back to his original form Monday. He registered four hits and had two scoring chances, drawing praise from the coach. Earlier in the day, the Canucks recalled forward Alexandre Grenier from Utica, and at six-foot-fiveinches tall with some good hands around the net, he s an interesting prospect knocking on the door for an opportunity in Vancouver. Perhaps Kenins took this as motivation to find another level to his game, a sign that if he doesn t bring his best, he could be watching from the press box or from Utica. We re not going to just be happy if we re close. That s not what we want to be, said Desjardins. We want guys that are pushing to get a spot. If we re not winning with the group we have, then we ll probably look at trying other guys. Doan nets two, Coyotes edge Canucks The Canadian Press Jan. 5 TSN.net VANCOUVER - Shane Doan has turned back the clocks lately to give his Arizona Coyotes a boost. The 39-year-old Coyotes captain scored twice on Monday night as Arizona defeated the division rival Vancouver Canucks 3-2. Doan, playing in his 20th season in the NHL, leads his team in goals (15), and has nine in his last seven games. He was the NHL's second star this past week, and now has four multi-goal games in Arizona's last seven contests. "One thing I have learned is when it's going well you have to keep riding it as long as you can," said Doan of his current hot streak. Laurent Dauphin also scored for the Coyotes ( ), while Louis Domingue, taking over for the injured Mike Smith, made 35 saves in his third straight start. Daniel Sedin and Bo Horvat scored Vancouver ( ), which is in the midst of a season-long, seven-game homestand. Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves in his fifth straight start in place of Ryan Miller (groin). Sedin's goal in the third period showed a lot of grit after the star Canuck took a puck in mouth early in the first period. Arizona's Michael Stone swatted at the puck and it hit Sedin in the face, knocking out some of his teeth and causing blood to gush from his mouth. He had to leave for medical treatment but returned later. There was no penalty called on the play.

10 "Those guys always play hard," said Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins about the Sedin brothers. "They do what it takes to win, always and every night." "I think he lost three or four (teeth)," added Henrik Sedin. "It's just an accident that happens. Losing a few teeth is not a big deal. That shouldn't stop you from playing." Daniel Sedin's goal came just six seconds after Arizona had a goal called back at 15:25 on a successful coach's challenge that the Coyotes were offside. That quickly changed momentum, and instead of a 4-1 deficit that Canucks were only down a goal. "It was huge to make it 3-2 instead of 4-1," said Markstrom. "I thought we really woke up after that and we really pushed hard and came close at the end. It was a tough loss." Doan scored his first of the night when he redirected Connor Murphy's shot from the top of the faceoff circle to open the scoring at 13:05 of the second. His second made it 3-1 on the power play early in the third as Tobias Rieder, standing alone in front of Markstrom, beat the Vancouver goalie and hit the post before Doan swooped in to deposit the rebound. "They are doing everything," said Doan. "I am literally just standing there poking pucks in. It's pretty special." The Canucks, desperate for a power-play goal after going nine games (0-for-20) without one, finally took advantage of the extra attacker when Horvat put back his own rebound for his first goal since Nov. 2. "I've been waiting for one of those for a long time," said Horvat. "It was nice to see one go in for once. To finally get one tonight after 27 games feel great. It's definitely a boost of confidence, but it would be nice if we got the win." But the Coyotes silenced the Vancouver cheers just seconds later when Dauphin fired home a loose puck to make it 2-1. The win keeps Arizona second in the Pacific Division with 42 points, while Vancouver now trials the Coyotes by three points in the tight Pacific standings. The Coyotes have dominated in their division this season. Arizona is versus the Pacific so far. Canucks recall F Grenier from Utica The Canadian Press Jan. 4 TSN.net VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Canucks have recalled right-wing Alexandre Grenier from the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League. The 24-year-old Grenier has appeared in 33 games with Utica this season, ranking second on the team in scoring with 19 points (six goal, 13 assists). He made his NHL debut on Nov. 18 at Winnipeg. Vancouver drafted the Laval, Que., native in the third round, 90th overall, of the 2011 NHL draft.

11 Sedin twins have moved past the soft label Thomas Drance January 5, 2016 Sportsnet.ca Daniel and Henrik Sedin are loath to miss a shift, much less a game. They play through pain, and along the walls, and against the toughest defensive players the NHL has to offer. If Henrik s hip and leg seize up, as it did on Boxing Day during an overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers, he ll stand on the bench and still take his regular shift. If Daniel gets struck in the mouth by a puck and loses three or four teeth, as he did on Monday night in a 3-2 regulation loss to the Arizona Coyotes, he ll be back before the end of the period. The twins, unfairly labeled soft throughout their NHL careers by myriad commentators and fans, wouldn t have it any other way. Playing through pain is part of their job. It s a rote expectation. I think he lost three or four (teeth), Henrik said of the incident on Monday night that bloodied Daniel s mouth and visor. Just an accident that happened Losing a few teeth is not a big deal, that shouldn t stop you from playing, continued Vancouver s captain. Daniel was unavailable to talk with the media postgame. He was receiving medical treatment, obviously. A lot better than me, was Henrik s joking response on Monday, when asked how his brother looked after losing most of his front teeth. After returning from his gruesome-looking dental emergency the Canucks 35-year-old star winger scored his 17th goal of the season. He beat Coyotes goaltender Louis Dominque one of the rare NHL goaltenders who catches with his right hand with a perfectly placed third-period slapshot. It was precisely the sort of cerebral goal that has been the Sedin twins calling card for more than a decade. The twins game isn t just skill and geometric excellence though. There s a fire there too. Henrik and Daniel are incredibly competitive and their professionalism shows through in their preparedness, in the way they treat the media, the fans and their teammates, and in their willingness and ability to play through pain. And to play effectively when they re in pain. In Vancouver this season the twins have done more with less. More times than not they ve been the only worthwhile reason to watch a frequently overmatched club. While battling father time and a small handful of injuries, the Sedins have carried a shallow team with no business being even remotely competitive. They have almost singlehandedly kept the Canucks in the thick of a playoff race. Those guys always play hard. They do, they fight through. They do what it takes to win, always and every night they do that, Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said on Monday. You can say a lot about them but we got to help them and give them more. That the Sedin brothers are fierce, tough competitors shouldn t even be a topic of discussion. They shouldn t need defending. And it s time for the hockey world to take notice.

12 Stop the madness and let s just agree that applying the soft label to Henrik and Daniel is tired, lazy and inaccurate. So what if the twins both sport blank hockeyfights.com pages? Granted they don t throw many big hits, but because they almost always have the puck, they don t often have to. The lack of fights, the lack of big hits, none of that makes the Sedin twins soft. Anyone who believes it does needs to look closer. They re not soft at all, Canucks forward Derek Dorsett, currently tied for the second most fights in the NHL this season, told Sportsnet on Monday. That s not true. Dorsett has made his living by standing up for teammates and doing the sort of yeoman s work that the hockey commentariat has long romanticized. Where the twins are found wanting on the traditional hockey toughness scale, Dorsett checks all the boxes willing fighter, big hitter, from a prairie town. Before coming in to Vancouver, I knew they had that (soft) label, Dorsett said. Playing against them I never thought they were soft though. They go to those hard areas. They usually get those heavy (defencemen), back in the day those Chris Pronger-types, the mean shutdown guys who are going to lay a licking on guys when they cross the blue-line. They don t retaliate, Dorsett continued, because they know when they get on the power play what they can do. That s a good toughness to have. The lesson here, perhaps, has nothing to do with the twins and everything to do with those who d label them soft in the first place. Because those off-base comments always seem to come from afar. If you ask anyone who has coached or played with the twins, who have ever really had an opportunity to watch the Sedins conduct themselves on a day-to-day basis, you re not going to hear the word soft in the response. It s been an eye opener to play with them, Dorsett told Sportsnet on Monday. They re hard working guys, they re stars in a huge market. They re just humble, approachable guys who treat everyone the same. Canucks Post Game: No net presence, no big deal for dinged Daniel, Horvat finally bumps slump Ben Kuzma Jan. 4 The White Towel NET RESULT IS NO NET PRESENCE: It s hard enough to beat the Arizona Coyotes without making it harder on them. It doesn t matter the cast of characters, a Dave Tippett coached club is going clog up the neutral zone like Highway 1 at rush hour and if you don t get to the net, you re not going to score and you re certainly not going to get on the power play. It took 27:30 to draw the first penalty and that s when Max Domi interfered with Jacob Markstrom. Bo Horvat went to the net and ended a 27-game scoring drought. Ben Hutton did the same and almost scored his first NHL goal in 33 games. There was a Ronalds Kenins sighting, too, and a Chris Higgins chance, but not nearly enough presence.

13 It s a fine line getting too excited in a game like this and trying to beat them the wrong way, said Henrik Sedin. We stayed patient, but we should have done a much better job in front of their net. It s one of those teams that boxes you out and it s tough to get there and we didn t have enough Grade A scoring chances that we should be happy. Added Willie Desjardins on the lack of net presence: I don t think we were there quite and enough and put pucks there quite enough. The 37 shots were misleading because too many came from long range or the perimeter. Kenins and Alex Burrows had four apiece, but it was Daniel Sedin s goal to cut the deficit in the third period just six seconds after a successful challenge on an offside to negate a Michael Stone goal that should have ignited at least getting the game to overtime, not another one-goal loss. After all, Daniel lost teeth in the first period when Stone tried to clear the puck out of his zone by swatting it. It caught the Canucks winger in the face and he left to get stitched up and carry on. Henrik wasn t surprised he returned. I think he lost three or four teeth but it s an accident that happens, said the Canucks captain. Losing a few teeth is not a big deal that shouldn t stop you from playing but he played well and I thought our line had our best game since Christmas. DEFENCE RESTS ON CRUCIAL GOALS: Nobody was giving up more goals per game than the Coyotes at 3.18 per outing and what better way to prop up an offence that is plunging like the Canadian dollar. However, on a night when the 39-year-old Shane Doan would score twice once on a re-direct in the slot and another on a comedy of errors in front of the Canucks net preventing goals has become as concerning as scoring them. Doan s easy second goal came after Chris Tanev had fallen and Tobias Reider was left alone trying to deke Markstrom before he put his effort off the far post. An untouched Doan made a one-foot putt for his 15th goal of the season to make it 3-1. It was the same story when Laurent Dauphin scored his first NHL goal to give the Coyotes a 2-1 lead. After Horvat ended his drought, the Arizona rookie easily deposited a loose puck just 19 seconds later after Yannick Weber went swimming by in trying to defend. The last two goals were our fault completely we gave up two that we didn t have to and that s the game, said winger Jannik Hansen. There are too many things wrong with the penalty kill (Doan s second goal) and it would take a long time to break that down. Make the clears or eat the puck. And to rely on luck (coach s challenge) to win a game is not enough. We haven t had enough of a net presence for a long time and that s why we re not scoring. It s tough to score the pretty goals. EFFORT PAYS OFF FOR HORVAT: He has just 58 shots in 40 games but a 27-game goal drought didn t seem to make sense for a guy who plays as hard as Bo Horvat and willingly plays in traffic. On Monday, he was finally rewarded when he went hard to the net on a second-period power play. I just went to the net and Hank made a great play putting it out front and it kind of went off my chest (on a Stone clearing attempt) and it kind of was laying in the crease and I ve been waiting for one of those for a long time and nice got see one go in, Horvat said of his third goal that erased a twomonth slump with his last effort coming Nov. 2 against Philadelphia. It definitely boosts the confidence. You can t let it (slump) weigh on you or your season or you re going to go for a dive. I thought we did a great job getting pucks to the net, but I didn t think we had enough traffic out front. We need to get in the goalie s eyes more and it seemed like he saw everything tonight.

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