Music: {allcanada} Sedins scoreless in Game 1, but not silenced

Thursday, June 2, 2011

{allcanada} Sedins scoreless in Game 1, but not silenced

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VANCOUVER -- No goals or points of any kind. It wasn't a productive Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final for Henrik Sedin or Daniel Sedin, but it was a win for the Vancouver Canucks and the twins always say that is all that matters.

What also matters is they weren't intimidated by Boston's behemoth defenseman Zdeno Chara, and they weren't held totally in check despite being kept off the score sheet.

On a personal level for the Sedins, that's big news.

"He's not a monster," Henrik said of Chara following Vancouver's 1-0 win Wednesday night. "Well, he is and he's good, but you can work with him and make plays against him. We didn't shy away from the tough areas and we didn't stop making plays."

Daniel finished with a game-high eight shots on goal and 13 attempts at the net. Henrik didn't have a shot on goal, but he set Daniel up for most of his.

"We had eight together," Henrik said jokingly.

"This series it's a lot about being able to beat Thomas, and he played unbelievable," added Daniel. "We did have some Grade A scoring chances. There easily could have been a few more goals."

Thomas got the best of them, but the twins are confident that Chara and Dennis Seidenberg did not.

"We felt good," Henrik said. "We're not going to score every game, but we looked better than we did in a lot of games where we haven't scored. A game like this, with a lot of power plays, we know if the power play scores a goal we're going to win this game maybe sooner than we did. Our power play wasn't good enough, but I thought our 5-on-5 was good."

But the power play is where Henrik and Daniel need to make their mark in this series, and they failed to do that in Game 1.

Boston gave Vancouver six power plays, but the Canucks managed only seven shots on goal, including two from Daniel Sedin and four from defensemen standing at the point. Had they not given away their 5-on-3 after just seven seconds (Alex Burrows was called for tripping Thomas) maybe the result would have been different, but Vancouver's power play woes were just as bad as Boston's.

It was a far cry from the Western Conference Finals, when the twins dominated the Sharks by scoring 11 of their combined 18 points on the power play.

"That was the issue (Wednesday)," Daniel said of the power play. "We weren't very good. We're going to look at that and adjust to a few things they did. If we got a goal there it would have been a different game."

Daniel said the power-play problems were a mix of nerves and their unfamiliarity with what Boston does on the penalty kill.

"We are the best when we are unpredictable, and (in Game 1) we were predictable," he added. "We were standing still a lot, didn't move our feet. When we're at our best we're moving. We didn't have that. I think maybe it was a little more of see what they do, but we have to do what we do best."