That's not what they've done thus far in the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins. Last week, Brad Marchand was bothering Henrik with a flurry of slashes prior to a faceoff, and the Canucks' captain stood there and took it. Monday night in Game 6, Daniel was on the wrong end of a half-dozen left jabs from Marchand, and, like his brother, he did nothing. Well, unless you count yelling at the referee as doing something.
After the game, Henrik was asked about that kind of physical play, and the captain said, "We're gonna keep taking them to the face and we know [the referees] are going to call them sooner or later."
As evidenced by three games in Boston in which they've been outmuscled, that might not be a winning approach.
"At some point, as a man, you have to fight back," NESN.com's Michael Hurley said on The Andrew Krystal Show on Fan 590 in Toronto. "You have to push back, and it's almost like they've taken this Gandhi approach of peaceful resistance.
"That's not a winning attitude," he continued. "At some point, you have to make things happen, and you can't rely on the refs."
Daniel's decision to bark at the ref — not Marchand — was also a curious one.
"Instead of getting in Marchand's face, Daniel gets in the referee's face," Hurley said. "You don't see that much in the NHL where a guy isn't willing to stand his ground and fight back.
There's also no excuse for the Sedins to avoid being physical on account of their skill.
"When you put the 'C' on your sweater, it changes the rules. … Fighting back is part of being a captain," Hurley said. "It's matching the intensity, it's matching the aggressiveness that the other team is bringing. And when you have the 'C' on your chest, you have to do that. It's part of the responsibility. To just sort of wilt when pressured is not what you want out of your captain, no matter what."
You can listen to the entire interview on the Fan 590 website, or by right-clicking this link and saving the file.
