“Well, I turned to those two,” Burke said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to hear a [gosh-darned] word from you two.’ They kept that promise for four years.” Burke pushed them to speak on Saturday. Now the president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee, Burke interviewed the Sedins at the PrimeTime Sports Management Conference in Toronto ahead of their induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. The most interesting parts of the 25-minute conversation covered the early parts of their careers, before they won Olympic gold for Sweden in 2006, Henrik won the NHL scoring title and MVP award in 2009-10, and Daniel won his NHL in 2010-11. [RELATED: Henrik Sedin proved Canucks right en route to Hall of Fame] Did you know that the always calm, kind twins grew up next to a factory that made tanks in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden? “Peaceful tanks,” Daniel said with a smile. Did you know they have two older brothers — Stefan, six years older, and Peter, four years older — who played hockey and soccer? “It really made us want to be able to play with them,” Henrik said. “I think that’s what made us push ourselves to be good.” Did you know — or remember, maybe — they faced tough times in their first few NHL seasons? “Yeah, it wasn’t easy,” Daniel said. “Obviously high expectations are high draft picks.” When they came to North America, the Sedins had no power. What they did have, however, was a football background and excellent cardiovascular conditioning. If they couldn’t outrun their opponents, they would try to outrun them. “If we were in the offensive zone for more than 20 seconds, we knew the other team was going to be tired and we were going to have a chance to score, and I think that’s how we survived as long as we did,” Henrik said. . “Our situation was better than most people.” What they also had was intelligence, not to mention an unusual chemistry as twins. The face-off games they became famous for first arose out of necessity. “I think that was something we had to do early on,” Daniel said. “We weren’t physically strong enough to play with the big guys and we had to find other things that we could use to our advantage. Henrik called Daniel “the hero who comes face to face.” He said Daniel would come into the locker room during the break and plan “a weird face game.” They were getting over it with their teammates and running it into the next period. “We scored a lot,” Henrik said. “He gave us a lot of extra goals.” “It always ended with me scoring,” Daniel added with a smile. The game cycles the Sedins became famous for mostly came later, after they spent the 2004-05 season in Sweden and returned to North America bigger and more physically developed. “Biking it down was something we always wanted to do, but early on, we couldn’t because of our power issue,” Daniel said. “I think that’s one thing after the lockout, when we came back stronger, we were able to do those things.” Burke said he credits Marc Crawford, the Canucks’ head coach from 1998-2006, with helping the Sedins through their first NHL seasons. So did the twins. “I think Marc saw something in us and believed in us,” Daniel said. “He pushed us all the time and I think he taught us what it meant to be a professional.” Henrik said Crawford taught them to play defense first. “We didn’t produce maybe the way people expected us to, but I think it taught us how to win games, and that’s with defense,” Henrik said. “From there, we were able to start producing and becoming more complete players.” Video: NHL stars reflect on Sedin Brothers’ HHOF induction The 2011 Stanley Cup Final loss to the Boston Bruins haunts the Sedins. The Canucks blew 2-0 and 3-2 series leads. They won each of their first three home games by a goal, but lost three away games by a combined score of 17-3. They eventually lost 4-0 in the 7th game at home. “I wish we had done something on the road that could have pushed us to win one of the road games,” Daniel said. Henrik said the Canucks should have ended the series in Game 6. “To not even have a chance on the road to steal a game, I think that’s what hurt us,” Henrik said. “Going into Game 7, it’s a twist. You fly out there after the game. You go home. You see all the fans walking down the street, just waiting for you to win. I won’t say it’s an advantage to play at home in Game 7, especially in a Canadian market.” Henrik said they would each trade the scoring title for a championship. But here they are now, 23 years after being inducted together, entering the Hockey Hall of Fame together. In Canucks history, Henrik ranks first in games (1,330), assists (830) and points (1,070) and seventh in goals (240). Daniel is first in goals (393) and second in games (1,306), assists (648) and points (1,041). “This is really special,” Burke said. “[It’s one thing] for any player to go into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but to go as identical twin brothers? Wow. Awesome.”
