Vancouver Canucks forwards Henrik and Daniel Sedin announced they will retire at the end of the season.
The 37-year-old twins disclosed their plans Monday in a letter on the team’s website before addressing media later.
The Sedins are in their 17th season in the NHL Kevin Zeitler Jersey , all with Vancouver. They led the Canucks to within one game of winning the 2011 Stanley Cup.
”There’s been a lot of talk,” Henrik Sedin said at Rogers Arena. ”We felt the longer the season went, it became clearer to us this was going to be our last year.”
”It’s a happy day for all of us,” Daniel Sedin added. ”We’re really comfortable where we’re at.”
They relived the tough early times when they were criticized for being too slow and soft, the high-flying glory days, the crushing defeats, and the last three seasons that have seen the Canucks lose more combined games than any other team in the league.
”It’s always tough losing,” said Daniel Sedin, who along with his brother will play just three more NHL games. ”But with the team we had, you have to stay positive, you have to keep playing the right way, and trying to teach the young guys.”
Heading into the final year of their contracts, the Sedins penned an open letter in the fall stating their desire to remain with the only franchise they’ve ever known – even if it meant forgoing the chance at a Stanley Cup elsewhere.
”We know we had the best jobs in the world,” Henrik Sedin said Monday. ”We tried to treat it that way. … We haven’t looked too far ahead or we haven’t looked back. I’m sure we will after this is done.”
The twins said in their letter Monday that they originally wanted to wait until after this season to make a decision, but they decided the time was right to make the call.
Selected second and third overall at the 1999 draft after the Canucks made a series of trades to grab both brothers, the Sedins have been the faces of the franchise for more than a decade. However, it wasn’t initially a smooth transition from Sweden to North America.
”There’s lot of people that believed in us early on that were part of this organization,” Henrik Sedin said. ”If they would have listened to a lot of voices out of this room, it would have been easy to trade us because we didn’t live up to the hype.”
The Sedins would eventually do so to become one of the most fearsome duos in the league, with what sometimes seemed like a telepathic ability to find each other with passes. Their vision and ability to find each other on the ice often left opponents shaking their heads.
”We’ll miss them as people and as players Eddie Yarbrough Jersey ,” said Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden, who played six seasons with the Sedins. ”Happy for them because I know this is a decision they’ve come to for the right reasons.”
Two likely Hall of Famers when their numbers are eventually called, Henrik Sedin has 1,068 points (240 goals, 828 assists) in 1,327 regular-season games, while Daniel Sedin has 1,038 points (391 goals, 647 assists) in 1,303 outings.
Henrik added 23 goals and 55 assists in 105 playoff games, with Daniel adding 25 goals and 46 assists in 102 games.
Henrik won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer in 2009-10 with 112 points. He also won the Hart Trophy as league MVP that year.
Daniel won the Art Ross in 2010-11 with 104 points. He also won the Ted Lindsay Award as the league MVP voted on by the players.
”When they dropped the puck, we wanted to be on the ice,” Henrik Sedin said. ”We wanted to be the go-to guys.”
The Sedins plan to stay in Vancouver for the time being and are looking forward to spending more time with family.
”Going on the road, leaving the kids home, family, that’s been the toughest part,” Daniel Sedin said. ”It will be fun to be around them a lot more.”
The core that got so close to a Stanley Cup title in 2011 has been slowly stripped away, with the Sedins among the only players left.
With players like Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat at the front of a new wave under the leadership of rookie coach Travis Green, the Sedins said they feel they’re leaving the franchise in good hands.
The Canucks also now have some holes to fill. Daniel Sedin has 21 goals and 31 assists in 78 games this season, while Henrik Sedin has three goals and 45 assists in 79 outings – a combined 100 points Vancouver will have to replace.
”It’s the right time for us to leave Le'Raven Clark Jersey ,” Henrik Sedin said. ”We’ve been part of a coaching staff and a group that we really enjoyed working with.”
The Canucks host the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday before the Sedins’ final home game Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes. The twins will then wrap up their careers Saturday at Edmonton.
”It’s a chance for us to thank the fans,” Daniel Sedin said. ”We told our teammates this morning they should be regular games. Treat us the same way.
”It should be no different this last week.”
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More NHL hockey: Before the NBA Finals began, Stephen Curry could only chuckle at how long it took for someone to inquire about how badly he wants to add a finals MVP to his decorated resume.
Maybe a minute passed.
Curry has earned two NBA MVPs, set the single-season 3-point record, captured a pair of championships and is on the cusp of a third. He doesn’t need the finals MVP, another title will do just fine.
It might come down to Curry and teammate Kevin Durant for series MVP with the Warriors up 3-0 on LeBron James and the Cavaliers going into Game 4 on Friday night with a chance to clinch at Cleveland.
”It took to the second question of my first media availability, so I’m pretty sure that narrative’s going to take life, as it has since 2015,” Curry said. ”But it doesn’t make or break my career or whatever you want to say looking back. If we win this championship and I don’t win finals MVP, I’m going to be smiling just as wide and just as big.”
Sure, if he could edge out KD, then Curry would join the big names of James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone and Tim Duncan as players with a pair of NBA MVPs and a finals MVP.
Not that Curry is thinking about any of that: He would gladly settle for a second straight victory parade.
”It’s part of my motivation to try to get back to this stage because I want more championships,” he said. ”But I’ve never really highlighted the individual type (honors) – even before my regular-season MVPs, I’ve never even really attacked it as if that was the goal Taylor Gabriel Jersey , per se.”
Still, the undersized point guard out of Davidson has defied the critics. Curry knows how much he has meant for the franchise during this special four-year stretch.
And this might have been the toughest one yet for Curry, even counting all those losing seasons early in his career, plagued by multiple injuries and so much missed time. He was even out for the entire first round of the playoffs.
Curry’s typically steady shot has been inconsistent, too.
As he always does regardless of whether they’re going in, Curry has kept firing 3-pointers.
He reached a mindboggling 0 for 9 Wednesday before finally making one from deep against the Cavs – just three days after knocking down a finals-record nine from beyond the arc.
That frustrating Game 3 performance epitomized Curry’s topsy-turvy season.
”I’m going to play aggressively, confidently, with that right energy and motivation to help my team win,” Curry said. ”And usually when I’m in that mindset, good things happen, whether that means it’s a finals MVP or not, who cares, but I’m going to be playing like it, for sure.”
As Curry walked off the court with only 11 points on 3-for-16 shooting in the 110-102 win that put Golden State one victory from a repeat title, Andre Iguodala draped his right arm around No. 30’s neck and whispered something in his left ear.
”He was telling me what he’s going to order at our team dinner tonight, and I agree with his choices,” Curry cracked.
He certainly isn’t taking himself too seriously on the big stage, appreciating how hard it is to get here with hopes of doing so for the long haul.
Even on a night his shot wasn’t falling and he got outshined by Durant, Curry connected when it mattered and the game was on the line. That’s just what he does as the Warriors’ dependable star.
The defining moment of Curry’s postseason might have come in Game 2 of the finals, when he scored 33 points and returned to being leading man for Golden State with the home crowd at Oracle Arena cheering his every move.
”Thank goodness I never had to play against him Mike Ditka Jersey ,” said B.J. Armstrong, who spent 11 seasons in the NBA, mostly with Chicago. ”He’s a very special player. Every time I see him, I played in Charlotte for like a year and a half, so I remember him when he was very little, to see him now I chuckle every time I see him. I just remember when he was little and his dad would be dragging him around. He’s phenomenal. I’m in awe of his ability to shoot the ball and what he’s been able to do, his leadership, the example he’s setting for all the young kids and what he’s been able to do in the game. It’s just incredible. I have such respect for him, especially because I know his parents, and he’s a point guard, so I just marvel at what he’s been able to do.”
Curry showed his unselfishness when he traveled to the Hamptons two summers ago to recruit Durant, willing to cede the spotlight as Golden State’s singular star.
After back-to-back MVP awards that made Curry the face of the Warriors and one of the league’s most dynamic and thrilling players, he has taken a backseat to let KD get comfortable.
Golden State has been complete again since Curry returned for Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Pelicans following nearly six weeks out with a sprained left knee.
Just having Curry back on the court provides a huge emotional lift, even if he’s not at his most dominant. There’s that noticeable joy coach Steve Kerr so loves with his star-studded bunch.
”I think Steph really sets the tone more than anybody in that regard,” Kerr said, ”for what our culture is about.”
Hilfe Engel - Forum
Thema drucken
03.09.2018 03:33
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