Business as usual for Henrik Sedin as he accepts new role as Vancouver Canucks’ captain
The 2010-11 National Hockey League season is the year of the new captain. Several teams have begun the season with a new captain, and three of the six Canadian teams were among them.
The most recently-named new captain was Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks, who donned a jersey adorned with the captain’s ‘C’ for the first time during a pre-game ceremony on October
9 that celebrated the Canucks’ 40 years in the NHL. Sedin is the 13th player in the history of the franchise to serve as captain, succeeding goaltender Roberto Luongo.
Sedin admits that being handed the captaincy hasn’t changed his daily actions very much, although he has accepted his new role graciously.
“It’s the same as before,” Sedin said. “The last couple of years we have been looked at to produce and we are still trying to do that. With the media, it’s the same type of thing. You
have to deal with it after every practice and after every game, so it hasn't changed much.”
According to Sedin, the role of team captain in the NHL has changed significantly over the years. The captain used to be one of the more vocal players in the dressing room, but these days,
teams require more than one voice to lead them.
"Captains from before, you heard a lot of stories about them giving speeches and stuff like that,” Sedin said. “I don’t think it’s that way anymore. You need more than one guy to be part
of the leadership group.”
Henrik won’t be the only Sedin in the Canucks’ dressing room with a letter on his jersey. Twin brother Daniel was named as one of the team’s three alternate captains, along with defenceman
Kevin Bieksa and centre Ryan Kesler. The fact that he was named captain and his brother was named an alternate captain did not surprise Sedin at all.
“I think Dan is used to it,” Sedin said of his brother. “He has been assistant captain to me all of our lives and our careers. Outside hockey, too.”
Sedin added that former Canucks forward Trevor Linden was instrumental in helping him and his brother to emerge as leaders for their team. Linden, himself a former Canucks captain, provided
the Canucks with many years of leadership, and was one of many veteran voices in the dressing room.
“We had a tough couple of years here where we tried to change the way that we played, and he just told us to play our game,” Sedin said of Linden’s tutelage.
“I think that we realized that if we were going to fail over here, we would rather do it our way then trying to change the way that we played.”
Linden and Sedin are two vastly different players who have different views towards team leadership. However, Sedin believes that every team needs a variety of players in order to achieve
a desired level of success in the game.
“You can’t be 23 guys that are all the same,” said Sedin. “They’re all great guys. You've got to treat everyone the way that you want to be treated yourself. You can’t be friends with
everyone, but you have to respect everyone.”
Last season, Sedin scored a career-high 112 points (29 goals, 83 assists), and also won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player. He was the first member of the Canucks to receive
this honour.
The Canucks are heavily favoured to win the Stanley Cup this year, and if successful, they will be the first Canadian team to win it since 1993, when the Montreal Canadiens hoisted their
24th Cup. With a dressing room full of talented players and great leaders to guide them, the Canucks hope to make their 40th season in the NHL a memorable one.
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