In this off season where hockey news worth really discussing has been scarce and as such the rise of Bieksa rumours galore have taken up my Twitter feed, I ran across this post by Brad Zeimer which talks about stripping Luongo of his captaincy.
Gillis said he planned to talk to Luongo about it and then make a decision. I’m not sure whether that meeting has been held, but unless Luongo is adamant about remaining captain — and I don’t think he is — look for a change to be announced sometime around training camp.
I’d be willing to bet a few sheckles that Henrik Sedin, the team’s first Hart Trophy winner, will be the new Canuck captain.
Now I agree that perhaps Luongo can’t handle the captaincy. Frankly my thoughts on that situation are that Luongo needs to man up. What got me thinking though was his suggestion that the Canucks new Captain should be Henrik Sedin. I get thrown off at the thought of giving one Sedin something and not the other. I was thrown off when they gave Henrik an “A” and not Daniel and here’s why.
Yes, Daniel was injured for 18 games and thus Henrik was able to storm ahead in points and ultimately won not only the Art Ross but the Hart Trophy. Yes, Henrik has set new Canucks benchmarks and done things no Canucks player has done before. Yes, Henrik managed to continue his torrid points pace and in won the Art Ross trophy in the last game of the season. I understand why you’d want to have him as your captain, but to me the Sedins come as a package. You get one with the other and as such it would be strange to give one something you didn’t give the other.
You couldn’t have had “The Shift” if one of the Sedins wasn’t there. “The Goal” wouldn’t have happened if one of the Sedins hadn’t been on the ice. When Daniel returned from injury he continued to put up the same numbers that Henrik did and produced at the same rate his brother was yet because of the injury he wasn’t able to challenge for the same things that Henrik did. I am completely convinced that had Daniel stayed healthy the Sedins would have both been 110+ point getters, maybe more. That said for some reason I feel because Daniel didn’t reach the same plateaus as Henrik he’s portrayed as a lesser player. I’ve got this vibe from Canucks fans and Canucks writing in general that because Daniel didn’t accomplish what Henrik did he’s less deserving and frankly I think we’ll see that’s not the case this coming season.
Henrik and Daniel both have a lot to prove next year in as much as Henrik needs to prove he’s no one hit wonder and Daniel obviously has to challenge is brother’s benchmarks. On any given day the Sedins are equally talented, they put up the same numbers night in and night out, and they complement each other so well they are two parts of a whole. To me giving one Sedin something that you don’t give the other is like making them play on different lines for the entire game. When Henrik had an A and Daniel didn’t that looked odd to me.
I can understand why people see Henrik as the “leader” of the two, but I don’t buy that. Do I have a suggestion for who should be captain should Luongo give up the title, no, not really. The Canucks have done the multi-captain thing before. In ’91 they named Linden, Quinn and Smyl as their tri-captains. At times I really feel that there isn’t one person on this team that can truly lead and wear the ‘C’ for all 82 games and a playoff run. If you wanted to give the Sedins the C though, I think giving them co-captaincy would be the right thing to do.
