	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 5, 2010

Henrik Sedin

DAVID KEON: We have with us Vancouver Canucks center Henrik Sedin. Thanks to Henrik for taking time to answer your questions and thanks to T.C. Carling of the Canucks public relations department for arranging this half of the call.
Henrik has appeared in all 79 games for Vancouver this season, not only leads the team, but is first overall in the NHL in points, having set single?season career highs so far this season with 29 goals, 77 assists, and 106 points.
Last night Vancouver clinched first place in the Northwest Division with a record of 48-27-4 for 100 points, assuring them of the third seed in the Western Conference and home ice in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which will begin on Wednesday of next week.
Again, we thank Henrik for taking the time to join us and answer your questions. We'll open it up now.

Q. Henrik, obviously you've been a top player for a long time, but this season seems like you've taken your game to another level. I wonder if you have any thoughts or there's on what's the difference this season for you? Is it everything coming together? How would you explain how you've taken your game to a higher level?
HENRIK SEDIN: Yeah, I can't really put a finger on it. It's one of the those things, like you said, there's a lot of different things that come together. Burrows is having a career year. Daniel's is playing better than ever, too.
We always try to get better every year. I think it's a process over a long period of time where we've worked harder every summer. It's just nice that the hard work has paid off this year.

Q. Obviously you and your brother, until this season for him, you have been very durable players. I wonder if you have any explanation for that. There are guys around the league that seem to get hurt a lot and there are guys that don't seem to get hurt. Any explanation for why you have such durability in your career?
HENRIK SEDIN: For long periods, it's tough luck, too. You can get a wrist or an ankle, you break your foot like Daniel did this year. A lot of times, it's tough luck.
But I think it starts in the summertime. That's when you prepare and that's when you build up your body to be able to play the games going into the playoffs. That's what we put a lot of focus on, is in the summer, to build up your strength. I think it helps you to be able to play a lot of games.

Q. Obviously the chase for the scoring championship, at what point this season did it occur to you you had a chance to be in the hunt?
HENRIK SEDIN: I hadn't really put a lot of focus on it. I think the first time I think I passed I think it was Ovechkin in January, I mean, I was up there. I knew I had a small chance.
But it's not all up to me. I can only go out and do my best, and then it's Ovechkin or someone else puts up 10, 12 points the last four games, then I still haven't won it.
But it's not all up to me, so it's not something I can walk around and think about it.

Q. For the majority of your careers, you and your brother Daniel have a reputation for taking your game to certain levels, not just scoring, but all the little things, from the regular season to the post season. Is that a realistic goal for you this season, to raise your games again to another level or are the expectations too high for that?
HENRIK SEDIN: No, I think it's something we look for, for sure. I don't know if we raised our level. But if you look back, there's one year where we look back and the full season personally has been disappointing, and that was the Dallas and Anaheim series a couple years back.
But I think you only get a few chances with a team like we have this year, maybe just one. You got to take the chance. I think maybe most of the younger guys, if you get into the playoffs early in your career, you think it's going to happen every year. It's tough to get into the playoffs and it's tough to do something there, too.
We feel we have a great chance this year. So you have to take it when you get it.

Q. Can you talk about the makeup of this team compared to teams previously that have gone into the playoffs in Vancouver.
HENRIK SEDIN: Yeah, I mean, like I think a lot of people see, we can score goals. That hasn't been the case maybe the years past. So I think we still have to focus on cutting down other teams chances because we know we can put up goals. We are up there with Washington and San Jose those teams. I don't think we're going to have a problem. Defensive side we have to cut down on the chances we're giving up.

Q. How has having that extra offense change things for you mentally going into the playoffs? It's not just you that other teams will be focusing on.
HENRIK SEDIN: Yeah, I mean, it changed a little bit because we know we're not going to score every game. Then hopefully other guys can step up. That way it's easier to know that we can win without having maybe an off night defensively. That's easy.
At the same time I don't think we've changed our mindset at all going into this year's playoffs. It's still the same. We're preparing the same. We want to be the guys that produce.

Q. What has Mikael Samuelsson meant to the dynamic of the team? How has he changed it?
HENRIK SEDIN: You know, he's coming from a winning team, so he knows what it's all about. He's been in Detroit, where they have a lot of veteran guys. He's been through it all with those guys.
So he's meant a lot to us this year, and it's going to mean a lot to us throughout the playoffs.

Q. Henrik, seems like ever since you and your brother came to hockey, you've been mentioned as an entity; you're never looked at as separate entities. Have you and your brother come to terms and accepted that? How different are you off the ice in terms of what you like to do, movies, reading, things like that?
HENRIK SEDIN: I mean, it's been like that. We've been the twins from when we were 10 years old playing hockey or soccer or whatever. We're used to that before we came over. It's nothing new over here, too.
It's something we knew was going to happen because, I mean, it's rare that you're able to play with your twin brother throughout your career, in a Canadian market, too, where hockey is big. We're used to it and we don't see it as a problem.
Personally, otherwise, I think we're pretty close. We have the same views on a lot of things. We like to do the same things. I mean, off the ice, we don't hang out every day. We both got families and different friends. But we usually like to do the same stuff. We like the same movies. So we're pretty close that way.

Q. What type of movies do you like?
HENRIK SEDIN: Everything but science fiction.

Q. People always talk about brothers having that sixth sense when they compete together. Do you find there's any truth to that? Do you find you have an understanding of where Daniel is going to be and vice versa?
HENRIK SEDIN: Well, I have an understanding where he's going to be, but I think it's mostly because we played together for such a long time. I think if you put any two guys together that played together for 20 years on the same line, I think they gonna read off each other and they gonna get used to where he's going to put the puck and where he wants you to be.
I don't think it's about being brothers; I think it's more about being linemates for that long.

Q. Could you ever imagine competing against each other?
HENRIK SEDIN: Well, before the draft, we did for sure. I mean, we knew it was going to be a longshot for us to play together over here. It was something we were prepared to do. We're extremely thankful to Brian Burke and Dave Nonis to get us on the same team. We know it took a lot of hard work for them to do it. I mean, we're thankful every year we come back to Vancouver.

Q. How closely are you watching the Western Conference standings? Mentally are there teams you'd almost rather play than not, a team that you think would give you trouble heading into the playoffs?
HENRIK SEDIN: I think every player has different teams that they would like to play before other teams. But, I mean, right now I think we can play four different teams in the first round. You can't really pay too close attention to the standings. I don't think it's going to be finalized before the last game. So it's not too much to think about.
But, of course, there's teams that you'd rather play than others.

Q. And how much do you think Roberto Luongo is going to benefit from that Olympic experience?
HENRIK SEDIN: It's tough to say. Him being part of a winning team like that, I think it's always going to help. But, I mean, there was guys from a lot of western teams on that team, too, so they're going to benefit. But I think it was good. Certainly played four games which were like a seventh game in a seven?game series, and he won all of them, so I think it was great for him.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297