There have been great brother scoring combos in the NHL like Cy and Corbett Denneny - Cy won the scoring title in 1923, Cobett finished his career with a then-considerable sum of 99 goals - along with Henri and Maurice Richard, Bobby and Dennis Hull - Bobby won the scoring title twice - and Frank and Peter Mahovolich. The Stasnys, Marcel and Gilbert Dionne, the Turgeons, the Sutters, and more.
But the best may be Vancouver Canucks Henrik and Daniel Sedin, and they took a step toward cementing that on Sunday April 10, 2011 when the NHL regular season ended. It naturally marked the end of the NHL point scoring race and the winner was Daniel Sedin with 104 points. Last year Henrik won with 112, so they become the first brothers to win it in successive years and only the second brothers to each win a crown (Doug and Max Bentley did it in the '40s).
Daniel Sedin Outlasts Perry, St. Louis
The biggest rivals to the crown that Daniel had over the final month of the season were Tampa Bay Lightning stars Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis, Anaheim's Corey Perry and brother Henrik. But Stamkos faltered heading into the stretch and though teammate St. Louis hung in longer, he too dropped off. Meanwhile Corey Perry roared into the top challenger position with a four-point night on Friday.
But heading into the final day of play for all of those players, Saturday the 10th, Perry was the only one with a chance to catch Daniel, although it was a long shot as started the final game five points back and was coming off of that four-point night – following that up with five-would have been an unlikely feat. He wound up with one point against L.A. and although St. Louis got three against Carolina it wasn't enough and Daniel, who got two points in his final regular season game, had a comfortable win.
Plus Minus of the Canucks Sedins
The top five ended up as Daniel with 104 points, St. Louis with 99, Perry 98 (Perry had the most goals with 50), Henrik 94 and Stamkos with 91. In sixth place was Jarome Iginla with 86. It's interesting to note that all top-six players played all 82 of their team's games. To find extra value in the Sedins, note that the plus/minus of the four non-Sedin players in that top-six of the scoring race was plus-12; the plus/minus of the two Sedins was plus-56.
Sidney Crosby Injury Leaves Top Scoring Category Open
Partly responsible for Daniel and Henrik's feat is Dave Steckel, who plays for the New Jersey Devils after a trade from Washington. Steckel was a Capital when he got enough of Sidney Crosby's head while skating past him in the Winter Classic to create concussion issues for Sid the Kid and knock him out of the rest of the regular season.
Crosby was then leading the NHL point scoring race with 66 points in exactly half the season, 41 games played, so extrapolated to a full season he may have finished with 132 points. Of course injuries are part of the NHL and last season were it not for Daniel missing 19 games with a broken foot his 85 points in 63 games might have grown to a scoring title had he played the full schedule.
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