The Sedin Twins: The Epitome of Consistency

The near 19,000 in attendance have known exactly what they’re going to get from these two over the past 7 years.

Over at Leafs Nation, Cam Charron, as he’s one to do, rather eloquently dismantled the narrative that Phil Kessel is an inconsistent, streaky scorer. It got me thinking about the Sedins, who have been consistency personified since the (last) lockout. Even the biggest Sedin detractors – and there certainly have their fair share – can’t help but marvel at how reliable they have been over the course of their peak seasons.

Since 2005-06, they have been a virtual lock for 75-85 points each (with both of them having 1 remarkable outlier of a season jumbled in there), while lacing the skates up and being out there every single night. While they haven’t had the prolific 60-goal campaign of an Alex Ovechkin or Steven Stamkos, or even a miraculous run along the lines of Sidney Crosby in 2010, they have routinely found themselves atop the list of points leaders come the end of the season.

Consistency is a skill. It’s a skill which separates the transcendent players from the ones that are just good. It’s impressive seeing a player put together a memorable season which vaults him into the discussion for the best the game has to offer. What’s even more impressive, though, is seeing a player prove that it wasn’t an abberation by maintaining his place at the top.

What do the numbers, and trends, say about the Sedins’ consistency over the years?

Read Past the Jump for More.

I took the time to peruse through their individual game logs since the ’06-’07 season, compiling some of the more prevalent numbers. I looked at:

You’ll note that the ’05-’06 season is nowhere to be found in the above charts, even though that was technically the first season following the lockout. I blame the software, which would only allow me to include 6 years worth of data. The numbers for that season for Henrik are (28, 8, 4, 15), while Daniel’s are (31, 9, 3, 18).

For something to be considered a streak, it must occur consecutively. And what stood out to me from these numbers is just how few times we have been able to say that the Sedins have been on a pointless ‘streak’ over the last 7 years. If you’ve been working the prop bets that they’d register a point in games following ones where they were held off of the scoresheet, you’re probably doing well for yourself financially these days.

It’s no wonder that the Canucks as a team have been able to maintain regular season success over that time frame; their best players have managed to avoid any sort of prolonged slumps. I’m not sure if you were aware of this, but the best players playing their best hockey usually correlates positively with winning games. For those scoring at home, from ’06-’07 to ’11-’12, the longest pointless streaks for the Canucks have been 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, and 2. Avoiding extended dry spells is a good recipe for finishing in the 100’s in points. The Sedins have set the standard, and the other complimentary pieces have fallen into line.

Over the course of an 82-game season, sustaining the types of bumps and bruises that may not necessarily be enough to take you out of the game, but do just enough harm to limit your effectiveness is inevitable. Yet the Sedins have somehow – I suspect it has to do with some sort of twin magic – managed to avoid a lull in play despite that fact, at least up until this point of their careers. There’s immense value in this. The season is a marathon, not a sprint.

Consistency may not necessarily be sexy, but man, there’s something comforting about knowing exactly what you’re going to get on a nightly basis.