Naked Eye and the Nerdy Guy are back, this time to discuss and debate every Vancouver Canucks fan’s favourite identical Swedish twins – the Sedins.
Do you believe in the Sedins again?
Drance: The Sedin twins are currently in the top 20 of the NHL’s scoring race after an abysmal 2013-14 campaign, but it’s been an odd bounce back.
Though the twins are producing offence again and have been carrying the club rather impressively – particularly during a crucial February stretch when the Canucks were without most of their regulars on defence – Henrik and Daniel’s even-strength scoring rates haven’t really recovered.
Daniel is currently producing 1.9 points rated per 60 minutes of even-strength ice time, which ranks 80th in the NHL among forwards who’ve logged at least 500 minutes at 5-on-5. So he’s scoring at a low-end first-line rate at even-strength this season.
Daniel is actually producing even-strength offence at the same rate as former Canucks checker Dale Weise. Let that sink in for a moment.
Henrik, meanwhile, is producing offence at the 111th-best rate at 5-on-5 – a solid second-line pace (based on the idea that there are 90 first-line forwards in the NHL at any given moment).
If the twins have bounced back offensively, and most of us would accept they have, it certainly hasn’t happened at even-strength. So where is the offence coming from?
Though Vancouver’s team-level power play efficiency has been below average this season, the twins – and new signee Radim Vrbata – have been excellent in 5-on-4 situations. With the first unit on the ice, the Canucks are generating shots at a top-10 rate, and both the Sedins and Vrbata rank in the top 20 in 5-on-4 scoring rate among NHL forwards who’ve logged at least 150 power play minutes.
Another part of the story: empty net points. With the opposing net empty, both Henrik and Daniel have managed seven points this season – which ties them with Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec for the second-most points in empty net situations this season, according to data found at war-on-ice.com.
In the four seasons prior – from 2010-11 through to 2013-14 – the twins combined for just five points in empty net situations.
More than anything, those empty net point totals reflect that this current iteration of the Canucks have relied more on the twins to close out games than they have in the past – and the pair has been up to the task.
While the Sedins’ even-strength scoring rates have continued to sag as they enter their mid-30s, they’ve managed to remain extraordinarily productive first-line players by retrieving their power play effectiveness and their inner Mariano Rivera.
Murphy: OK Thomas. I like numbers. I find fancy stats very interesting. And then you have to go and put Daniel Sedin and Dale Weise in the same sentence. Why do you have to do these things?
I’ve mentioned this before, but I always chuckle when people say the Sedins have lost a step. Those two never had a step to lose in the first place. Their style of game is not age-proof by any means, but they should still be able to put up decent numbers over the next couple of years.
At the beginning of this season, Canuck Nation was freaking out because the twins were starting identical (of course) four-year, $28-million deals fresh off their worst seasons in a decade. And you know what? I can’t say the fretting was too over the top. Daniel had 16 goals last season (the same amount as this season but we’ll get to that in a minute). Henrik put up just 39 assists in 70 games. Those are ugly numbers that can’t be swept under the rug just because of a coach, can they? There had to be reason for concern. The best offensive years for the Canucks’ best offensive players were in the rear view mirror. And any replacement plan was years away from completion.
Anyhow, Daniel and Henrik have bounced back quite nicely under Willie Desjardins. Sure their totals are inflated because of the power play and some empty net love, but I’m not sure anyone would have predicted they would both be within 15 points of the NHL’s scoring leader at this point.
Remember the theory that the twins were finally breaking down because of age? Well, both have played every game this season and their durability doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore. Daniel and Henrik are both top-five in scoring for players 30 years and older – above the likes of Henrik Zetterberg, Jason Spezza and Zach Parise.
However, the one big concern I have is that they are both essentially distributors of the puck now. Daniel isn’t a finisher anymore. He doesn’t shoot the puck nearly as much as he used to and his shooting percentage has fallen off the map the last couple of seasons. That’s not a good combination. Henrik and Daniel didn’t used to need a scorer on their line and now they do. Good thing they both still have the ability to really help a guy score. And I don’t see that changing for a while.
Should Desjardins earn Jack Adams consideration?
Drance: Willie Desjardins’ rookie year as an NHL bench boss has been real good.
The unassuming Canucks coach has shepherded an impressive turnaround in Vancouver, and his club is poised to finish with the biggest season-over-season improvement in points in the entire league.
Desjardins’ stellar work can’t be ignored, but I’m not buying him as a deserving Jack Adams candidate.
In terms of Vancouver’s play in all situations, it’s tough to ignore the club’s underlying performance has actually atrophied in all areas. On the power play, the Canucks are generating shots at a lower rate than they managed a year ago, they’re giving up shots at a higher rate on the penalty kill than they permitted a year ago, and their shot attempt differential at 5-on-5 has been worse.
The Canucks’ success in close games and shooting percentage normalization has driven the club’s improved record, but those are ephemeral improvements in areas that I’m generally reluctant to credit a head coach for.
Desjardins’ no-drama approach has surely been a welcome relief in the locker room, but the intangible impact his personality and demeanor has had for on-ice performance of Canucks players is impossible to quantify and difficult to discern.
In contrast, it would seem coaches such as Peter Laviolette in Nashville, Bob Hartley in Calgary, Mike Yeo in Minnesota, and Mike Babcock in Detroit have been more measurably impactful. In my view, they’re more deserving of the award as a result.
Murphy: John Tortorella was better for the media than Willie Desjardins. There’s no doubt about it. Torts had what he liked to call “bite.” Anyone who starts multiple press conferences with an apology or an explanation is great for people like me. I mean how many times did Torts begin an answer with, “I don’t want to get into that, but…” You knew some gold was coming. And to be honest I had a solid relationship with Tortorella.
I enjoyed my brief time working with him. But, and this is a big but, I’m not a player.
Coaches aren’t stupid or naïve, they know that not all of their players are going to like them. Where things get dicey, however, is when players don’t respect the coach. And I get the feeling this current group of Canucks respect Willie D a great deal primarily because he treats them with respect.
Desjardins has done a masterful job this season of allowing the players to believe in themselves. You can tell he really tries to make everyone feel like they are an important part of the team. The way he rolls lines and spreads out the minutes is further proof. For the most part, guys like coming to the rink because they feel they are truly needed to help the Canucks win. And that’s not something you could say last season.
Torts had a much different approach and now it’s plain to see that it wasn’t the right one for the players he had. I don’t think Desjardins should win coach of the year, but I’m hoping he’ll at least get in the conversation. One strike that some will use against him is the belief the Canucks shouldn’t have been as bad as they were last season and so he merely righted the ship (Harrison Mooney has a good take on that here).
I hope people aren’t that short sighted. We shouldn’t forget the fact that a first-time NHL head coach took over a team that finished 25th in the standings, turned over a third of its roster and lost arguably its best player and goalie (at the deadline). I don’t believe the Canucks were just a quick fixer-upper and now here they are with a shot at a 100-point season.
Watching Desjardins behind the bench can be a painful experience. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a coach that is such a bundle of nervous energy. He’s constantly moving, twitching and switching feet. It looks like he could explode at any moment and yet I’m not sure I’ve seen him lose it once yet. Yes, there have been some heated conversations with officials and some eye daggers here and there, but that’s about it.
It’s easy to see Desjardins cares about his players. Who can forget him sliding over to offer some words to Jacob Markstrom after he pulled the shell-shocked goalie on March 4?
Desjardins openly admits he hates having to make lineup decisions because he doesn’t feel like anyone deserves to sit. And when he says it, you actually believe it.
I’ll end it with this. Desjardins closed his press conference with an interesting answer Tuesday night in Nashville. Jason Botchford was asking the head coach why he stuck so long with a second unit power play that really hadn’t given him anything until recently.
“I probably should have changed things at times, but I’m pretty loyal. Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad. Sometimes it’s one of my strengths, and sometimes it’s a weakness. For now, it’s turned out to be a strength. Maybe for a while it was a weakness.”
While I agree with the coach in the sense that loyalty can sometimes be a weakness, you can bet his players will always love him for being loyal.
