Thornton’s hands would find Sedin’s nose on Wednesday night, as the Sharks’ captain continued to poke Sedin’s face in a rather obnoxious manner while the two players had a discussion with the referee between whistles.

And in case you were wondering, Joe’s hands would also help him find the back of the net during the game.  But his power-play goal in the second period wouldn’t be enough, as the Canucks escaped with the 3-2 overtime victory at the Shark Tank.

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.

Henrik didn’t score a goal, but he did recorded an assist on each of the Canucks’ four goals during their 4-2 victory over the Sharks.  His first three assists all came during 5-on-3 powerplays in the second period, while his fourth came off a beautiful 2-on-1 play with linemate Alex Burrows, which gave the Canucks a 4-0 lead.  They would allow the Sharks to score two goals, but would eventually hold on for the win and a 3-1 series lead.

Sedin’s four-point performance not only put his team one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, but it also moved him into the league lead for most points in the playoffs, with 19.  He has done most of his damage against the Sharks, as he now has 10 points in four games this series.  And with four of them coming yesterday afternoon, he was an easy choice for our “Stat Line of the Night” for Sunday, May 22, 2011.

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.

The streets of Los Angeles can be a tough place to survive.  The same can now be said for the ice in La La Land as well.  Canucks forward Henrik Sedin found that out the hard way last night, but whatever beating he took from the five surrounding Kings was well worth it as Vancouver was able to hold onto their 5-4 lead in the dying moments of game four.  They would add an empty-net goal en route to a 6-4 victory, tying their best-of-seven series at 2-2.

The series will now shift back to Vancouver, where the Canucks have a gang of their own waiting for the Kings players.  We’ll call their gang the gang-green.  They may not be as vicious, but they sure do get the job done.  Just ask David Scatchard.

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.

In Week 7′s edition of the 2009 NHL Power Rankings we don’t have as much movement as last week but there were some big jumps, both positive and negative, and have the Sharks in a very familiar place. (Hint: they dominated it last season)

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the New York Rangers falling 6 spots to land at #12. The Rangers started off the season strong but have fallen on hard times due to their defensive play, or lack there of.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils and Atlanta Thrashers all moving up 4 spots to end up at #5, #6 and #17. After a sluggish start considering they made it to game 7 in the Eastern Semi-Finals the Capitals are playing better thanks to the improved play of Jose Theodore and the Devils are establishing themselves as one of the top teams in the East yet again. Ilya Kovalchuk‘s return has seemed to spark the Thrashers as they’ve now won 4 games in a row.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 7.

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		14-4-4	2	Rookie defenceman Jason Demers scored his first career NHL goal in the Sharks 4-3 OT loss to the Blackhawks Sunday night.
2		14-7-0	-	Injuries just keep piling up with young defenceman Alex Goligoski now gone for 2-3 weeks with a “lower body” injury.
3		12-4-2	2	Great start to the month of November for the Flames as they’ve gone 5-0-1 collecting 11 out of a possible 12 points.
4		12-5-3	3	Have started to struggle losing their last 3 games in a row.
5		12-4-4	4	Saw their 4 game winning streak come to an end with a 5-2 loss to the Devils. However the good news is it looks like Alexander Ovechkin will return to the lineup this week.
6		14-5-0	4	Have won all 6 of their games so far in the month of November.
7		11-5-1	-	Goaltender Ray Emery has had a solid start to the season with a 2.22 GAA, .923 SAV% and 11 wins in 16 games.
8		11-6-2	4	Were blown out in an embarrassing 9-1 loss to the Red Wings on Wednesday night.
9		12-5-2	2	Have now won 4 games in a row but face the dreaded Western Canadian road trip to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver this week.
10		12-4-1	2	Are riding a 3 game winning streak heading into this week were they face the Panthers, Bruins and Senators.
11		13-7-2	3	So-so start to the month of November going 3-3 in their first 6 games.
12		11-8-1	6	Have lost 3 of their last 5 games and face a tough machup against the Capitals on Tuesday night.
13		10-5-3	1	Have finally started to get things going, mostly thanks to Henrik Zetterberg who piled up 9 points last week.
14		11-8-0	1	After a good October the ‘Yotes haven’t enjoyed the same success in November winning just 2 games so far.
15		7-4-6	-	Super sophomore Steven Stamkos is enjoying his second season in the league after a disappointing rookie season as he now has 21 points in 18 games.
16		11-10-0	1	Henrik Sedin seems to be playing just fine without his twin brother Daniel as Henrik now has 23 points in 21 games.
17		10-6-1	4	After slipping a little bit the Thrashers are getting hot again mostly thanks to the play of their most talented player Ilya Kovalchuk who had 8 points last week.
18		8-6-3	-	Will need to get some better goaltending from Pascal Leclaire if they want to have some success against the Leafs, Penguins and Sabres this week.
19		8-10-3	3	Been struggling lately winning just one of their last 6 games.
20		8-5-6	-	Are looking for their offence to come back to life as they have yet to score 4 or more goals so far in the month of November.
21		8-8-4	2	Saw their mini two game winning streak come to an end with a 1-0 shootout loss to the Panthers on Thursday.
22		9-8-1	1	Won two of their three games last week with Steve Sullivan scoring both goals in their 2-0 win over the Canadiens on Saturday.
23		8-6-7	2	Have been playing a lot better recently, mostly due to the solid play of Dwayne Roloson and John Tavares.
24		9-11-0	-	Different month, same result for the Habs as they continue to struggle with just two wins so far in the month of November.
25		7-9-2	2	Have been playing better as of late with back-to-back shootout wins over the Bruins and Islanders.
26		6-8-4	-	Picked up a nice 6-1 win over the Canucks and played well despite their two losses to the Predators and Sharks.
27		6-10-3	5	Find themselves on a three game losing streak after losses to the Devils, Blue Jackets and Red Wings.
28		7-11-2	1	Saw their mini two game winning streak come to an end with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Lightning.
29		3-10-5	1	Lost all three of their games to the Wild, Blackhawks and Flames.
30		3-12-4	-	Finally saw their 14 game losing streak come to an end with a 5-4 shootout win over the Wild.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 8.

Total Pro Sports – In week 3 we’ve seen the top 2 teams in the league remain atop the NHL, some of the surprising teams start to slide a bit and teams who got off to a bad start show signs of turning things around. Oh, and the Leafs and Islanders still suck.

The biggest loser in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Los Angeles Kings. After an impressive first two weeks the Kings appear to be coming back down to earth. Los Angeles is a young team with some talented players though so expect them to be up and down all season.

The biggest gainer in our NHL Power Rankings this week were the Colorado Avalanche. Most people expected the Avs to take a bit of a hit this week like the Kings but they just keep on rolling. A big reason for that is due to the play of goaltender Craig Anderson who’s collected 6 wins with a 2.09 GAA, .935 SAV% and one shutout.

Lets take a look at the rest of the league: NHL POWER RANKINGS for week 3.

Rank	Team	Record	PRV	Comment
1		7-1-0	-	Nothing new here as the Rangers keep on rolling thanks to the play of rookie defenceman Michael Del Zotto and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
2		7-1-0	-	Just like the Rangers the Penguins continued their solid play thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury who has a 2.09 GAA and .922 SAV% in his first 7 games.
3		5-1-0	2	Off to a great start but are facing a tough 4-game road trip this week that will give us a glimpse of how good this team really is.
4		6-1-1	4	3rd overall pick Matt Duchene scored his first career NHL goal in the Avs surprising shootout victory over the Wings Saturday evening.
5		5-2-1	1	Lost a close one to Columbus and then almost blew a 5-0 lead in the 3rd period beating Vancouver 5-3.
6		5-2-1	1	Saw their 4-game winning streak come to an end with their 4-3 loss to the Stars on Saturday night.
7		3-2-1	1	Lost their only game of the week 4-2 to the Panthers.
8		4-4-0	5	Have comeback down to earth and find themselves on a 3-game losing streak.
9		4-2-1	-	Nikolai Khabibulin has played well so far giving the Oilers a chance to win every time he’s been in net and Dustin Penner is off to a great start with 9 points in his first 7 games.
10		4-3-1	-	Are 1-1 so far after two games on their current 6-game eastern road trip.
11		5-2-0	2	Ilya Bryzgalov won the NHL 1st Star of the Week honours after winning all 3 of the Coyotes games last week including a 1-0 shutout win over the Sharks.
12		5-2-0	2	Alex Kovalev shined against his former team with a goal and an assist in the Sens 3-1 win over the Habs Saturday night.
13		4-1-1	2	The Sabres broke out with back-to-back 6 goal games but weren’t as successful putting the puck in the net in their 4-2 loss to the Thrashers.
14		4-3-0	2	Saw their 3-game winning streak come to an end with their 4-2 loss to the Thrashers.
15		4-1-0	2	Atlanta’s strong start continues winning both of their games against the Devils and Sabres.
16		4-2-2	-	Nice win over the Sharks but had a tough time with the struggling Predators.
17		3-3-1	1	Will have to get their power play going if they want to start climbing up the standings.
18		3-3-1	1	The Wings have to tighten up their D and get some better goaltending from Chris Osgood if they want to get, and stay above, .500.
19		2-3-2	4	Lost 2 out of their 3 games while only scoring a combined 4 goals.
20		3-2-1	-	Managed to pick up 3 out of a possible 4 points losing to Phoenix in overtime 3-2 and beating Anaheim 5-0.
21		3-4-0	1	Henrik Sedin is playing well in his brother’s absence picking up 3 assists in the Canucks two games last week.
22		3-4-0	1	Will be interesting to see how the team plays with Milan Lucic out 4-6 weeks after breaking his finger against Dallas.
23		3-1-3	3	Solid week for the Stars shutting out the Predators 6-0 and beating the Blackhawks 4-3.
24		2-4-1	3	Rough start for Nashville as they find themselves on a 5-game winless streak.
25		2-4-0	3	Nice 4-2 win over the Flyers with Stephen Weiss scoring a goal and adding an assist for 2 points.
26		2-4-1	2	Not the best of weeks losing both of their games to the Penguins and Devils.
27		2-5-0	2	Lost both of their games to the Avalanche and Senators while only scoring a combined 3 goals in those losses.
28		1-6-0	1	The Wild are glad their 5-game road trip is over as they lost all 5 games. Big reason for the bad trip, only 10 combined goals in their 5 games.
29		0-3-3	-	Still looking for their first win after losing to the Kings, Sabres and Sharks.
30		0-6-1	-	They can’t score, can’t keep the puck out of their net, are using their 3rd and 4th string goaltenders and have yet to win a game, things can’t get any worse for the Leafs right now.

Be sure to check back next week with our NHL Power Rankings for Week 4

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.