One thing Henrik does not yet have is the recognition factor a consistent point-a-game player would typically have in the NHL (especially after this year upping the ante to almost 1.5 points per game). Many would say he doesn't have the respect he deserves for a player of his talent and, more important, track record. Some would suggest he's the victim of an eastern bias that permeates through the NHL, propogated by the eastern media.
In my view, it's more a case of the television exposure, media and promotional weighting that comes from simply having most of the NHL's teams playing in the eastern time zone.
It is true that the NHL is the only league with a majority of its franchises based in one time zone; the eastern time zone. The breakdown in the NHL is 17 in the eastern time zone, five in central time, four in mountain time and four in pacific.
The NHL is not, however, the only league to be subject to such a so-called bias that comes from having so much action take place in the eastern time zone.
The NFL has 50% of its teams in ET (16); with 10 in CT, two in MT and four in PT. Major League Baseball has 14 in the eastern time zone and 16 in the other three (eight, two and six, respectively) while the NBA is the least "eastern" of the four major North American loops: 12 in ET, 10 in CT, three in MT and five in PT.
Complaining about such geographic skews is one of the oldest pastimes in North America, on both sides of the border, but especially in Canada.
Yet those of us who have been closest to the careers of Henrik -- and his equally-gifted twin brother Daniel -- should consider how long it has taken for the Sedins to be accepted as the remarkable talents they are even here in Vancouver. That goes not only for west coast hockey fans, but for the media who cover the Canucks game-in, game-out.
Appreciation for Henrik and Daniel -- now in their ninth season playing with the Canucks -- must start in Vancouver before it's possible in other NHL centres and media markets.
If this season has been a threshold campaign for the Sedins on the ice, it has also marked a breakthrough in the way the local media has embraced them. It's taken some time here in Vancouver for the twins to get the credit they're due. When Henrik skated off with this year's Cyclone Taylor Award as the Canucks MVP, it marked the first such honour either twin has received in Vancouver.
It might take some more time before that kind of recognition happens continentally, or even nationally.
The Art Ross Trophy is a big first step. A Hart Trophy nomination as league MVP should follow and would be another good step. A Hart win would of course be big in building the Sedin brand. But respect, like so many other things in life, must begin at home.
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