Daniel Sedin #22 (L) and Henrik Sedin #33 of the Vancouver Canucks confer during a stoppage in play against the Calgary Flames in Game Three of the Western Quarterfinals during the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Saddledome on April 19, 2015 in Calgary, Alberta.Derek Leung/Getty Images
When everything's on the line, one must employ a selective memory when considering the past.
Henrik Sedin, captain of the Vancouver Canucks, took questions for 15 minutes in the circular home-team locker room at Rogers Arena, as several waves of reporters and TV cameras washed at him and away.
Down three games to one against the Calgary Flames, the Canucks' backs are up against the wall. They've been here before, Sedin said, when asked about the value of veteran experience.
A dozen years ago, in the first round against the St. Louis Blues, the same thing happened, in the exact same way. Down 3-1, the Canucks won three in a row to win the series. Thereafter, the opposite. The Canucks were up 3-1 in the next series, Sedin said, against the Minnesota Wild. Vancouver lost in seven.
What happened a dozen years ago is somewhat abstract. It is more recent history that Sedin was much less interested to mull on Wednesday: the Canucks' long-standing inability to score in the playoffs. It stretches back to the start of June, 2011, the Stanley Cup final. In 20 postseason games, from then to today, the Canucks have won five games and lost 15 – and scored an average of 1.6 goals a game.
Against Boston, they scored eight, in seven games. Against Los Angeles in 2012, they scored eight, in five games. Against San Jose in 2013, they scored eight, in four games. Against Calgary in 2015, they have scored eight, in four games. The Canucks roster has changed, yes, but the core – nine players, led by the Sedin twins – has been part of the entire drought.
"This is three, four years ago," Sedin said. "I don't like talking about that long time ago. I look at this series: I think we've had enough chances to score more than we have. That maybe wasn't the case [in] those series, but that was a long time ago."
The words to lean on become: trust, belief. The Canucks are half-pinned by the upstart Flames, but the series isn't one where Calgary has dominated. Vancouver blew – Calgary seized – Game 1 in the last moment, which alone could have changed the tenor. The Canucks have had their shots to score – many blocked – and Calgary goaltender Jonas Hiller has been essential.
"Trust the things we're doing right," Sedin said in one instance. In another, "trust ourselves that we're going to score." Then, he specifically cited his team's, and especially his line's, superior puck possession.
"Corsi doesn't win you games, we know that," Sedin said, "but we also believe that if you play enough games well, you're going to score games sooner or later."
In a position from which teams do not often rally, belief was something of a mantra on Wednesday.
"Belief, at this time of year, is always the most important," coach Willie Desjardins said in his first answer to the question of how to rally a team in such a situation.
An essential decision has been made, with veteran Ryan Miller, still recovering from a knee injury, set to start Game 5. Miller replaced Eddie Lack in the Game 4 loss after the first period.
The Sedins are two Canucks who have rallied from a 3-1 series disadvantage – and another is Bo Horvat, though not in the NHL. Two years ago, Horvat's London Knights were favoured in the OHL finals against Barrie. Same situation as Vancouver: London lost Game 1 at home before winning Game 2. It then lost two on the road.
In the final three games, 18-year-old Horvat had five goals and two assists. He scored what became the game winner, short-handed, in Game 5. In Game 7, he opened the scoring and late in the third – the final shift – with the game tied at two, Horvat was a force and scored the winner with a fraction of a second left.
To overcome, the underpinning is belief.
"We knew we could beat that team," Horvat said Wednesday.
At the end of 15 minutes, Sedin was asked one last question, about will, facing a Calgary team that looks far more fiery than the veteran Canucks.
"The will is there," Sedin said. "There's a lot of questions about will – if we want it – but there's no question here about who wants it the most. We've got a great group here. We proved everyone wrong this year with making the playoffs and we want to show them that we can go deep. This is far from over."