Henrik Sedin Keeps Canucks in Hunt

What to make of the Vancouver Canucks? Every time the defending Northwest Division champs start to make a little move, they do something like they did on Saturday, rolling over against the league's worst team, the Carolina Hurricanes.

"We've been a little up and down," Vancouver's top scorer, Henrik Sedin, told FanHouse by phone. "We've had a lot of injuries to key players and it's tough to get on a roll when that happens.

"The last couple of weeks, we'd been pretty good until losing to Carolina. That was a pretty bad game, but with a lot of our guys back, we should be overall a lot better."

Top among the recent returnees: Henrik identical twin, Daniel, who missed 18 games with a broken foot. The brothers are fixtures on a line, and while Henrik's game didn't drop off any during Daniel's absence (he didn't put in a goal during the first six games Daniel was out, but he had nine goals and 17 points in the 18 games), he is relieved to have his sibling back.

"It was my first time really playing without him," Henrik Sedin said. "It was tough. It was the first time we'd been apart that long, and I didn't know what to expect. A lot of players stepped up, but it's nice to have Daniel back. We know each other's tendencies on the ice. It's easier."

The Canucks have lost 130 man games to injuries this season, and Pavol Demitra remains out after shoulder surgery. (Demitra is also rumored to be on the trading block, though he isn't expected to be able to play until mid-January). One man who is a constant: Henrik Sedin, who has played in 363 consecutive games, the second longest current streak in the league behind Jay Bouwmeester's 370.

Vancouver hasn't yet its its stride, but the team has the same number of wins as at this same point last season, 16. Still, the team has fewer points, with no losses in overtime compared to three at this time in 2008. And right now, the Canucks are just out of playoff range with 32 points. That's good for 10th in the conference, just behind Detroit, which has 33.

And this year, Vancouver really needed to get into a strong position quickly, because the team has a major potential obstacle down the road: Because the city is hosting the Olympics, the Canucks have a 14-game road trip early next year, away all of February and the first two weeks of March. That's brutal. The compensation: Vancouver is home all but four games in January and plays seven of nine at home after the monster road trip.

The Canucks aren't giving the Olympics much thought yet, according to Sedin, who is expected to be one of the top players for Sweden, which is the defending gold medalist.

"We're in a race for the playoffs," Sedin said. "Every game is really important. A lot of things can happen between now and (the Olympics), injuries and things like that. You don't want to get to excited before that. There is still a lot of time before it starts."

And as for the city itself, Sedin said, the Olympics are a hot topic, but the Canucks remain the top focus. "Our team is always big there," he said. "The fans are excited about us, first."

Some things must happen for the Canucks to really rev up. First, the power play needs to get back to its usual strong state. The team remains fourth in the league on the power play at 22.7 percent, but the Canucks are 0 for 12 over the past four games. The penalty kill has been consistently in the bottom third of the league. Forward Ryan Kesler, usually a top producer, hasn't scored a goal in 14 games.

"That's just one of those things," Sedin said. "Once you've showed you're a scorer in this league, you're going to go up and down in the course of a season. It's going to happen. But he's a good player, he's going to come out of this soon."

Accentuating the positive, Sedin pointed to the Canucks' strengths: All-Star goaltender Roberto Luongo (who has rebounded from a slow start and then a rib injury) and a reliable bunch of defensemen. "We know if we can score two or three goals," Sedin said, "most nights we have a good chance."

The Canucks head into Nashville tonight for the first time this season; the Predators are just ahead of Vancouver with 34 points, but they followed up a seven-game winning streak in November by losing four of their past six.