Sedin Twins Call It a Career
Canadians often refer to Vancouver as Lotusland.
And why wouldn't they? Nestled on British Columbia's Pacific Coast, life there is idyllic, and the scenery is spectacular.
There's long been a notion in various hockey conversations that the atmosphere there is too cushy to host a team that has what it takes to win a Stanley Cup.
Frankly, with only a couple of exceptions since the Canucks came to life in 1970, that's been hard to argue.
Örnsköldsvik -- Swedish for Eagles' Nest Bay -- is where MoDo is based and where hometown heroes Peter Forsberg and former Canuck luminary Markus Näslund began their careers.
When word spread that a set of prolific twins were posting numbers there with telepathic precision, the lowly Canucks began visualizing Daniel and Henrik Sedin as future saviors. In 1999, GM Brian Burke pulled off a couple of minor miracles so he could draft them at Nos 2 and 3.
Näslund knew from the start what Vancouver had in the Sedins, and when the Canucks put the personnel around them, they were contenders.
Like in 2011, when hopes ran high:
Never would again, either. Because these are the Canucks, and not even the Sedins could overcome that.
Still, they were performing at highlight-reel levels, seemingly with a hefty dose of ESP:
The identical twins also gave officials problems on occasion:
Who knew refs needed to buy a program?
But after this weekend, not any more.
It's very Sedins of them to announce this in the final week of the season. They don't strike me as the type that would want the prolonged farewell tour around the league. Two all-timers, for sure.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) April 2, 2018
If you read only one thing about the Sedins today, let it be this great look at what it was like to play with them over the years. https://t.co/pTXoMKyiZS pic.twitter.com/7tXjVFOMGt
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) April 2, 2018
The NHL's really gonna miss them.
More than they know.