Daniel Sedin entered last night with a goal in each of his last three games.  He would add another three goals to his total, as he scored one in the first period and tacked on another two in the third to complete his fifth career hat-trick.  His three goals would account for half of the Canucks scoring, as they cruised to the easy 6-0 victory.  In addition to the win, Sedin also earns our “Stat Line of the Night” for Tuesday, December 6, 2011.

I’m going to have to call this one a draw.

Hey Sedin!  Why don’t you stick up for yourself next time?  Deliver some lumber to the back of that rookie’s legs!  Make him know that he can’t get away with shit like that!

And Marchand! Why don’t you try picking on someone who isn’t Swedish for a change?  Let’s see you try that stunt on Raffi Torres or Kevin Bieksa!

Once a pussy, always a pussy.  I guess somethings just can’t be changed.

The Bruins appeared to be fired up following Rome’s hit, as they scored four unanswered goals to take a commanding 4-0 lead.  And with the win seemingly in the bag at that point, Boston goaltender Tim Thomas decided to take the opportunity to send a message to the Canucks players, via this stiff check on, Henrik Sedin.

According to our count, Tim Thomas now has more hits than Tomas Kaberle in these playoffs.

Many hockey fans believe that Daniel and Henrik Sedin have an advantage on the ice because of a special sense they both share as twins.  To justify their argument, some have pointed to this unbelievable goal that they manufactured together at the end of last season.  It is hard to argue that there is not some sort of similar mindset going on between these two after seeing that goal, but if you needed any more proof, here it is in GIF form.

Although they did not have much to play for as a team, Canucks’ forward Henrik Sedin was very much in the hunt for the Art Ross trophy as the league’s top point producer during the regular season.  Sitting one point behind Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals going into Saturday night’s game, Henrik would record four assists, none of which were sweeter than this one, his fourth of the night, and brother Daniel’s third goal of the game.

Henrik Sedin would jump ahead of Ovechkin in the points standings, and survived a five point scare from Sidney Crosby on Sunday to hold on for his first NHL scoring title of his career.  Some may look at Henrik’s totals as less impressive than the two men under him (Ovechkin and Crosby) because of the number of assists, as opposed to goals, but when your helpers look this good, how can anyone complain?  I certainly will not.  Now let’s see if these brothers can do it in the playoffs as well.

That’s right!  There is a third Sedin, and he was in attendance at GM Place to watch his twin brothers in action.  At least that was what it looked like.

The resemblance may not be as close as Devin Harris to himself, but it was close enough to make us wonder whether the man they call B. Sedin (that was the name on the back of his jersey) is really the missing link to what could possibly become the All-Sedin line, or just another ginger kid.

This weeks honorable mention goes to (G)-Ilya Bryzgalov of the Phoenix Coyotes. Last week Bryzgalov collected two wins while posting a 1.44 GAA, .956 SAV%, making 65 saves and one shutout. Ilya has been one of, if not the, top fantasy sleeper this year. He’s always had the talent but was stuck behind Giguere, and then Hiller, in Anaheim and was forced to play behind some weak teams in Phoenix the last two seasons. However, the young Coyotes look like they’re heading in the right direction and this could just be the beginning of something big for the man known as Bryz.

Lets take a look at the NHL Fantasy 3 Stars for Week 21.

3rd Star – Henrik Sedin (C), Vancouver Canucks

Just like Ilya Bryzgalov, Henrik Sedin has been a pleasant surprise this year as he currently sits 2nd overall for points with 93, just 3 points behind Alexander Ovechkin, heading into Monday night’s games. Last week Henrik scored two goals and had 6 assists for 8 points with two of those points coming on the power play. He also had 4 penalty minutes, a plus/minus rating of plus-5, 10 shots on goal and won 35 faceoffs. Right now they call New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist “King Henrik” but if Sedin keeps this up they’ll have to crown him as the new “King Henrik”.

2nd Star – Daniel Sedin (LW), Vancouver Canucks

Despite missing 18 games with a broken foot/ankle Daniel Sedin is still filling the net as he’s on pace to tie his career high in points with 84 and has 8 points in his last 4 games. Last week Daniel potted 3 goals and added 5 assists for 8 points with two of those points coming while on the power play. He also had 4 minutes in penalties, a plus/minus rating of plus-5 and 18 shots on goal. Ignoring the fact that they’re the creepiest brother combination in NHL history, the Sedin Bros. compliment each other very well and at the prime of their careers should be putting up 80+ a piece for the next 2-3 years.

1st Star – Mikael Samuelsson (RW), Vancouver Canucks

Ever since he was left off Team Sweden’s roster for the 2010 Olympics inVancouver Mikael Samuelsson has been on a tear and last week was no exception. Last week Samuelsson scored 6 goals and had 4 assists for 10 points with two of those points coming on the power play. He also had 4 penalty minutes, a plus/minus rating of plus-6 and 19 shots on goal. Although Mikael is on pace for 35 goals and 60+ points this season, don’t expect the same out of the 33-year old Swede next season as he’s been a fairly consistent 10-20 goal and 40-45 point forward in his NHL career.

Remember to check back in next week to see who the NHL Fantasy 3 Stars will be for Week 22.

Total Pro Sports – With the start of the 2009-10 NHL Season upon us it’s time to take a look and see how each team stacks up. As per the norm, each preview will be broken down by division in order of how we think the team will finish.

Lets take a look at the Northwest Division for the 2009-10 NHL Preview.

1. Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks surprised most people last season by winning the Northwest division. Unfortunately they ran into a younger and hungrier team in Chicago and were eliminated in the 2nd round.

Bringing back Daniel and Henrik Sedin was a great move as they’ve established themselves as true 1st line players in the NHL. Another great move was the signing of another Swede…Mikael Samuelsson. Samuelsson will provide the Canucks with a solid 2nd line winger who’s also capable of playing on the 1st line with the Sedin Twins. Ryan Kesler and Alexandre Burrows will look to build off of career seasons and once healthy Pavol Demitra will look to start where he left off last season. Rookie Sergei Shirokov will be an interesting player to watch as he’s had a great camp and will be starting off on the 1st line with Daniel and Henrik.

Despite the loss of Mattias Ohlund, Vancouver is still pretty solid on defence. Kevin Bieksa will be looking for another 40+ point and 80+ penalty minute season and Alexander Edler will look to build off of a successful sophomore season. Willie Mitchell and Shane O’Brien will use their toughness to help keep the puck out of the net and Sami Salo provides both solid defence and a booming shot from the point. Although he’s currently injured, Mathieu Schneider was a solid addition and will really help the power play.

Roberto Luongo, who would have reached his 2nd career 40+ win season if it weren’t for being injured, should have another great season, especially in the first half as he’ll want to show Hockey Canada that he’s worthy of being the starter for the Olympics which are in Vancouver. Andrew Raycroft has looked solid in preseason but time will tell how long that lasts.

2. Calgary Flames

2008-09 was a disappointing season for Calgary as they weren’t able to win the division and had an early exit from the playoffs.

Not filling the spot of the departed Mike Cammalleri will really come back to haunt the Flames this year. Jarome Iginla is a great player and Olli Jokinen is an underrated centre and has had a solid preseason. However, the offence dips off from there. Daymond Langkow is a decent 2nd line centre, but he unfortunately doesn’t have any real 2nd line wingers to play with. Unless players like Nigel Dawes, David Moss and Fredrik Sjostrom vastly overachieve this season Calgary will have real difficulty scoring this year.

Defence is Calgary’s bright spot and what a bright spot it is. Acquiring Jay Bouwmeester was a great move and should really help their power play. Dion Phaneuf will look to rebound after a so-so 2008-09 season and Robyn Regehr will keep players honest when coming into the Flames’ zone. Both Cory Sarich and Mark Giordano are tough defencemen capable of putting up 20 or so points.

Miikka Kiprusoff will probably see less work this season as he had his 3rd career 40+ win season last year while playing in a staggering 76 games. Curtis McElhinney on the other hand had a terrible 2008-09 season posting just one win in 14 games played with a .889 SAV% and 3.59 GAA.

3. Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers made an impressive late run for the playoffs last season but fell a few points short. The positive is that this is still a young team and should improve for the 2009-10 season.

Up front Edmonton has a fair amount of speed and skill. Shawn Horcoff will look to up his point total from last year and prove that he’s a #1 centre. Ales Hemsky is in the same boat as the still fairly young winger looks to improve on his 66 points from last season. Mike Comrie was a solid signing as he’ll look good centering the 2nd line and Dustin Penner should have a career year with a potential increase in ice time. Some of the young core players like Andrew Cogliano, Robert Nilsson and Sam Gagner will look to have rebound seasons and play a big part in the team’s secondary scoring.

On defence the Oilers look pretty solid. Sheldon Souray will look to duplicate his terrific 2008-09 season totals and Lubomir Visnovsky should total 40+ points if he stays healthy. Steve Staios is as solid as a rock and Tom Gilbert should be able to put up 40+ points again. Denis Grebeshkov finally showed why the Kings took him 18th overall in the 2002 draft and Ladislav Smid will continue to progress as he learns how to use his large 6’3 frame to his advantage.

Despite the loss of Dwayne Roloson, the Oilers are still solid in net as they brought in 2004 Cup winner Nikolai Khabibulin. Jeff Deslauriers had a solid 2008-09 season and is a very capable backup.

4. Minnesota Wild

Well, the Minnesota Wild sure made me look stupid last year. Not only did they finish 3rd in the division, I said they’d win it, but they failed to make the playoffs.

Now that the Jacques Lemaire chains have been freed, look for this forward group to surprise some people and put a few pucks in the net. Have always been a Pierre-Marc Bouchard fan and expect a rebound season out of him. Both Martin Havlat and Petr Sykora are great fits for the newly designed Wild as they’re fast skilled wingers capable of 60+ points. Mikko Koivu should have another great season and I look for him to crack the 70+ point mark.

On defence the Wild have a solid top 3, after that it gets a bit dicey. Marek Zidlicky continued his offensive ways and will be good for another 40+ point season. Brent Burns will rebound after a disappointing 2008-09 season that saw him play in 59 games. Nick Schultz is the last of the trio and will be looked upon to play solid in his own end like usual and chip in the odd point here and there. Out of the bottom 6 guys, Jaime Sifers is intriguing. He played well when called upon in Toronto last season and is a real hard-nosed no none-sense type of defender.

In net Minny is rock solid with Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding, quite possibly the best tandem in the NHL this year.

5. Colorado Avalanche

No real surprise obtaining a top 3 pick last year. They do have some nice pieces in place but still have a long way to go.

One of the big reasons why the Avs faired poorly last season was because of Paul Stastny. Stastny managed just 36 points in an injury plagued season that saw him play in just 45 games. Wojtek Wolski, another young skilled forward the Avs are dependent on, also had a disappointing season scoring just 14 goals and 28 assists for 41 points. 3rd overall pick Matt Duchene will be a great NHL player but how much impact he has in his first year is questionable as he doesn’t have a lot to work with.

On defence Colorado looks alright. They don’t have a true #1 defenceman yet, but as a group they should be able to do a decent job. Despite his age, Adam Foote is still fairly effective in his own end and Ruslan Salei is an underrated physical defender. John-Michael Liles leads the offensive attack from the blue line and will be getting some help this year from Kyle Quincey. Tom Preissing is another solid addition and Scott Hannan will continue his punishing ways in defending the Avs territory.

Colorado still remains weak between the pipes. Craig Anderson is an upgrade over what we saw from Andrew Raycroft last year but if you’re pushing for the playoffs he isn’t your #1. Peter Budaj is a reliable backup, but like Anderson, not great option as a starter.

Total Pro Sports – With the 12:00pm EST July 1st deadline just hours away it’s time to take a look at some of the big fishes that will be available in this year’s UFA pond. With the salary cap speculated to decrease for the 2010-11 season it’ll be interesting to see what kind of contracts these players end up getting.

LW & C – Daniel & Henrik Sedin: Possibly the creepiest brothers in the NHL, they’re also two of the younger, highly skilled players available this summer. They’ll be signing as a package deal, but within that package you get two talented forwards who are in the prime of their careers and will average in the 70-80 points each per season range. Update: Re-signed w/Vancouver for 5 years @ 6.1 mil per

RW – Marian Gaborik: My personal favourite in this year’s free agent class. Gaborik has been bothered with injuries during his young career as he’s only been able to play a total of 207 games the past 4 seasons. However, despite this he still has a tremendous amount of talent and Martin Havlat showed this past season that it is possible to shake the injury bug. Update: Signed w/N.Y. Rangers for 5 years @ 7.5 mil per

RW – Marian Hossa: Poor, poor Marian. Loses in the Cup final with Pittsburgh, decides to sign a one-year deal with the Red Wings thinking they have a better shot at the Cup and then he ends up losing in the Cup final again against his former team in the Penguins. One of Hossa’s best traits is that he produces in both the regular season and playoffs. In 775 career regular season games he has 719 points and in 98 career playoff games he has 76 points. Update: Signed w/Chicago for 12 years @ 5.2 mil per

RW – Martin Havlat: The man made of glass was finally able to break whatever curse it was he had and showed just how much talent he has last season. Playing in 81 games for the Blackhawks last season, the most since the 2000-01 season with Ottawa, Havlat racked up 77 points. If Martin can make a habit of staying healthy he’d be a great addition for any team looking for a skilled winger. Update: Signed w/Minnesota for 6 years @ 5 mil per

LW/C – Mike Cammalleri: Mike enjoyed a great bounce back season with the Flames last year and will look to use that as leverage when signing his new contract this summer. Cammalleri scored the most goals out of the available UFAs this year with 39. Take that with the fact that he just turned 27 on June 8 and Mike shouldn’t have a shortage of teams willing to sign him to a big contract this week. Update: Signed w/Montreal for 5 years @ 6 mil per

LW – Alex Tanguay: Only played 50 games due to injury but was still able to put up 41 points with the Canadiens this past season. Thankfully for Alex he doesn’t have a big history of injuries like a Havlat or Gaborik and is in the prime of his career at the age of 29. Update: Signed w/Tampa Bay for 1 year @ 2.5 mil

D – Scott Niedermayer: Would be surprised if he signed with anyone but Anaheim. However, stranger things have happened. Scott brings great leadership, offence, solid defense and can still skate with the best of them at the age of 35 (will be turning 36 on August 31). Niedermayer would be a great short-term signing for any contending team looking for blueline help. Update: Re-signed w/Anaheim for 1 year @ 6 mil (including bonuses)

D – Mike Komisarek: Is mostly a one dimensional player but is great at that dimension. Komisarek is as hard-nosed as they come and is entering the prime of his career at the age of 27. Despite those positives I can’t help but see a team giving him a Jeff Finger-like overpayment which could end up handcuffing the team that signs him. Update: Signed w/Toronto for 5 years @ 4.5 mil per

RW – Alexei Kovalev: Possibly the most frustrating player available this summer. Is arguably the most talented UFA available and in the entire league, but is known for only playing when he wants to. If a coach out there thinks he can get the best out of Alexei and does, Kovalev could end up being the best signing out of the 2009 UFA group. Update: Signed w/Ottawa for 2 years @ 5 mil per

G – Nikolai Khabibulin: The best goaltender available this year, but at the age of 36, how much is left in the tank? If this past year’s playoffs were any indication, then his tank’s pretty full. He played great for Chicago in the playoffs and would be a terrific signing for a team that’s looking to contend and needs to shore up their goaltending…*cough*…Washington. Update: Signed w/Edmonton for 4 years @ 3.75 mil per

This week’s honorable mention goes to Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Last week Rick netted 2 goals and had 5 helpers for 7 points with 3 of those points coming while on the power play. He also registered 18 shots on goal and a plus/minus rating of plus-3. Nash is a top 10 fantasy LW and at the young age of 24 could easily become a top 5 in the next 2-3 years.

Lets take a look at the NHL Fantasy 3 Stars for Week 25.

3rd Star – Henrik Sedin (C), Vancouver Canucks

Since the lockout the Sedin twins have proven that they are true 1st line forwards and Henrik Sedin has become a great setup man and playmaker. Last week Henrik netted 3 goals and added 6 assists for 9 points with 2 of those points coming on the power play. He also registered 9 shots on goal, 2 penalty minutes, a plus/minus rating of plus-7 and one game winning goal.

2nd Star – Daniel Sedin (LW), Vancouver Canucks

As mentioned above Henrik Sedin has become a great playmaker and the player who’s benefited the most…surprise surprise, his brother Daniel Sedin. Last week Daniel posted 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points with 3 of those points coming while on the power play. He also registered 12 shots on goal, 4 penalty minutes, a plus/minus rating of plus-5 and two game winning goals. The Sedins have had a great season and should continue that trend next season no matter where they end up signing in the summer.

1st Star – Chris Mason (G), St.Louis Blues

Even though he wont get any consideration for the Hart Trophy, Chris Mason has definitely been the Blues’ MVP this season and is the main reason why they’re right in the middle of the playoff race in the West. Last week Chris recorded 4 wins while posting a 1.72 GAA, .930 SAV%, and 1 shutout. Mason has been a pleasant surprise this year and should get some serious consideration come fantasy draft time for the 2009-10 season. Be careful and don’t take him too high however as he was beaten out by Dan Ellis in Nashville, who is now the backup for the Predators, and was only handed the #1 job in St.Louis because of Manny Legace‘s poor play.

Remember to check back in next week to see who the NHL Fantasy 3 Stars will be for Week 26.