Henrik Sedin is the new National Hockey League scoring champion, the first in Vancouver Canuck franchise history.
Henrik finished his 2009-10 season Saturday night with 112 points and then had to wait until late Sunday afternoon to see if either Washington’s Alex Ovechkin or Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby could reel him in.
Ovechkin needed three points but was held without any by a Boston Bruins’ team resting its top defenceman Zdeno Chara, its top goalie Tuukka Rask and top forwards Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi. Ovechkin finished with 109.
Crosby, meanwhile, needed an improbably eight points to catch Henrik and he put some drama into the day when he had five after two periods against the New York Islanders. However, Crosby was blanked the rest of the way to finish with 109 points, tied with Ovechkin.
“It is a great honour to win this trophy,” Henrik said Sunday in a release from the Canucks. “The names of the past winner are many of the players we looked up to growing up in Sweden. Many of my teammates have had career seasons offensively and this trophy is a reflection of our hard work.”
Henrik had entered the weekend one point behind Ovechkin but regained the lead with a spectacular four-assist effort in Vancouver’s 7-3 finale against the Calgary Flames.
“I was just happy to be up there going into the final weekend of the season,” Henrik said following the game. “I felt that would have been good enough. Obviously I’m proud of what our team has done and what our line has done so from now on everything is a bonus.”
Henrik, modest to a fault, admitted he was almost embarrassed when he received a number of terrific ovations Saturday night from the sellout crowd at GM Place. Henrik also established a new club record for points in a season, surpassing Pavel Bure’s mark of 110 set 17 years ago.
“The crowd was great, I don’t know what to say,” Henrik commented. “I’m not someone who wants to stand up there or wants to have the attention on me but it was great to hear.”
With nothing else at stake for the Canucks on Satuday, head coach Alain Vigneault gave Henrik an extraordinary amount of ice time, playing him 25:24, which was six minutes above his season average.
“Obviously it was a very special night for him and his teammates,” Vigneault said. “The focus was on the scoring race more than anything else and it was fun to see.”
“Everyone was pulling for Henrik,” added captain Roberto Luongo. “He had a great year and he worked extremely hard. It was one of the best seasons I’ve ever seen from a teammate.”
The Art Ross capped off a banner weekend for Henrik, who captured three team awards announced Saturday night. He was selected Canuck MVP in a fan vote and added the scoring title and Molson Cup for most three star selections. Fittingly, Henrik was the first star on Saturday.
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