Breaking Down Henrik Sedin’s Record-Setting Assist

 

Henrik Sedin, in fitting fasion, delivered his record-setting assist on a silver platter to Alex Burrows last night. I had the above graphic created to pay tribute to Sedin’s riduclously amazing saucer passes, and it is only fitting that he delivered the sauce while setting the Canucks all time record for points. Oh, and the Canucks lost the game, but let’s ignore that for the next little while.

Sedin had a great game last night (as did the rest of the Canucks top line). They had Dallas hemmed in their own zone on multiple occasions, especially at even strength. It was arguably the best game of the season for either Henrik or Daniel, and with Ryan Kesler now healthy (and he was launching one-timer bombs all night long), the Vancouver offense should really get rolling now.

Mr. Drance did a great job with the game recap, so I won’t dive into too many of the other details from last night’s action. Instead, I want to break down the Burrows goal frame by frame.

So far, so good. the Canucks are beginning a three-on-two rush, and Burrows instinctively cuts wide to draw Philip Larsen over. Daniel and Henrik begin to formulate a play. Alex Goligoski knows he is in trouble at this point.

At this point, Daniel has dropped the puck off to Henrik at the blueline – look how impeccible the timing of the pass is. Daniel literally could not have made a better zone-entry pass.

The Dallas backcheckers both key on Daniel and completely ignore Burrows, who is barely in the screen because he is still trying to draw Larsen out wide. Henrik has the puck on his forehand and is waiting for something to open up. The linesman needs some work on his Y-M-C-A, though….

Henrik waits for Goligoski to bite, and bite he does. Instead of sliding (to be fair, it would have been a very Bieksa-ian move and he would have ended up out of position), he opens his skates up in an attempt to block the pass. Henrik says, "Child please."

Daniel does a great job selling the pass, even though both of them know where it is going. And Burrows does too – he gets his stick on the ice, something Steve Bernier never figured out how to do during his time in Vancouver.

The pass slides through Goligoski’s legs, and Larsen makes a terrible attempt at breaking it up (look where his stick is). Right in Burrows’ wheelhouse. Larsen’s above positioning highlights why it is tough for defensemen to play on their off-side. If Larsen was a lefty shot, that puck is chipped up to Brenden Morrow (number 10 on the backcheck) and the Stars are fine.

History is made.

Another view of what Henrik is seeing. Again, Goligoski doesn’t necessarily play this poorly (his gap could be a bit tighter, but he has to worry about Daniel, too). In fact, I can’t really fault Goligoski at all. Henrik has led the league in assists for three straight years for a reason. Dude can dish.

The Dallas backcheckers make a mess of this one – three players go to key on Daniel, and Henrik is left with time and space to make a play.

About as lethal as Steve Stamkos loading up for a one-timer.

The puck is under Goligoski’s right skate at this point. The referee knows he needs to prepare for the hand raise. 

As I said above, it was a fitting assist for Henrik. A play he has made hundreds of times (and probably thousands through his hockey-playing career). Canuck fans still take these two for granted – they are going to be 1000-point Hall of Famers by the time their careers are over, and we won’t truly know the special talents that we have been lucky enough to watch blossom over the past 14 years until they are gone. Thankfully that won’t be for a while, as the Sedins are known for their gruelling off-season training programs.