okay mega post for some important context for the 2010 season and hart trophy race—
yes, henrik's scoring when daniel was out helped, especially him almost tripling his usual goal scoring rate. in those 18 games without daniel, henrik actually only scored 18 points. for reference, that would have put him on pace for 15th in the league, in the ballpark of marleau, heatley, parise, and kopitar. but he scored 10 goals, 1/3 of his season total and on pace for 46 goals. in his other two peak seasons, henrik scored 19 and 22 goals, so i'd say that hovering around 20 is his normal ceiling. from the lockout to 2009, four straight years where he and daniel averaged basically a point/game, henrik averaged 16 goals a season.
but i digress. yes producing without daniel helped. henrik was in the top ten in goals by the time daniel returned to the lineup, higher than he even was in points. but how he really won the hart trophy was the last week of the season.
here's a rundown—
10/7/09: four games into the season, henrik and daniel combine for seven points and chase carey price in a 7-1 win. daniel breaks his foot early in the second period but finishes the game, getting two more assists before the game was over (henrik had three more points, two goals and an assist). as of daniel's last game in the lineup, henrik is tied for 4th in league scoring, behind only capitals (ovechkin, backstrom, and semin). but it's only four games in, this doesn't mean anything.
11/21/09: the day before daniel comes back into the lineup. henrik is 13th in scoring, one point behind ovechkin, who has missed six games with an upper body injury (25 points in 17 games, vs henrik's 24 in 22). crosby is 22nd, with 22 points in 23 games. scoring leaders are kopitar, followed by thornton, followed by heatley and gaborik tied for third. points/game leaders are kovalchuk, followed by ovechkin, followed by gaborik. it's still early, of course.
12/31/09: henrik is second in the scoring race, two points behind thornton in the same number of games.
| | games | goals | assists | points | p/g |
| 1 | thornton | 41 | 11 | 44 | 55 | 1.35 |
| 2 | henrik | 41 | 19 | 34 | 53 | 1.35 |
| 3 | gaborik | 38 | 26 | 25 | 51 | 1.30 |
| 4 | ovechkin | 32 | 26 | 24 | 50 | 1.47 |
| 5 | crosby | 40 | 23 | 25 | 48 | 1.14 |
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ovechkin was first in points/game, henrik was 4th, crosby was 8th. ovechkin had his two game suspension at the beginning of december.
1/05/10: henrik catches thornton for first. as far as i know, this is the first time a sedin has been at the top of the scoring race.
| | games | goals | assists | points | p/g |
| 1 | henrik | 43 | 20 | 38 | 58 | 1.34 |
| 1 | thornton | 43 | 11 | 47 | 58 | 1.29 |
| 3 | gaborik | 40 | 27 | 25 | 52 | 1.34 |
| 4 | ovechkin | 34 | 26 | 24 | 50 | 1.56 |
| 5 | crosby | 43 | 24 | 25 | 49 | 1.20 |
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at this point, henrik is also 2nd in points/game (tied with thornton, obviously).
1/31/10: from the day daniel came back to the end of january, the sedins had the mother of hot streaks. henrik led the league with 54 points, ovechkin was second with 51 (2 fewer games), daniel in third with 47, crosby directly behind him with 46... and burrows tied with malkin and thornton for 12th with 36 (in one fewer game than malkin, two more games than thornton). over that two months and change, henrik is one one-hundredth of a point behind ovechkin for first in points/game.
this is what it looks like by the end of the month:
| | games | goals | assists | points | p/g |
| 1 | henrik | 54 | 25 | 53 | 78 | 1.44 |
| 2 | ovechkin | 47 | 35 | 41 | 76 | 1.62 |
| 3 | crosby | 55 | 34 | 34 | 68 | 1.24 |
| 3 | thornton | 55 | 13 | 55 | 68 | 1.24 |
| 5 | gaborik | 54 | 33 | 32 | 65 | 1.20 |
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2/28/10: the sedins have a very quiet february and henrik lets ovechkin overtake the scoring race. henrik scores 2 points in the entire month. basically, they go quiet in the two weeks before the olympic break.
here's the leader board at the end of month, right before the season starts up again:
| | games | goals | assists | points | p/g |
| 1 | ovechkin | 54 | 42 | 47 | 89 | 1.44 |
| 2 | henrik | 61 | 25 | 55 | 80 | 1.62 |
| 3 | crosby | 61 | 42 | 36 | 78 | 1.24 |
| 3 | backstrom | 62 | 26 | 50 | 76 | 1.24 |
| 5 | thornton | 62 | 16 | 59 | 75 | 1.20 |
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3/31/10: henrik picks it back up again and regains the scoring lead from ovechkin. i still don't know that anybody really believed he could win it at this point though. end of march:
| | games | goals | assists | points | p/g |
| 1 | henrik | 76 | 29 | 75 | 104 | 1.37 |
| 2 | ovechkin | 66 | 46 | 55 | 101 | 1.53 |
| 3 | crosby | 76 | 47 | 47 | 94 | 1.24 |
| 3 | backstrom | 76 | 29 | 62 | 91 | 1.20 |
| 5 | st. louis | 77 | 27 | 63 | 90 | 1.17 |
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so this is the moment crosby pulls a mcdavid and says to himself, hey i have a scoring race to win. so here are their last weeks, with their running season point total on the far right column.
4/01/10: ovechkin gets an assist, but henrik matches that to keep his three point lead.
4/03/10: crosby scores three points to pull him to within less than ten. ovechkin and henrik both go scoreless.
4/06/10: then crosby puts up another three, ovechkin scores four in back-to-backs, and in two games henrik has just an assist in each. not looking good. henrik hanging on to a one point lead over ovechkin, seven points on crosby. as i recall, we still weren't worried about crosby yet, but ovechkin is looking like a good bet to take it back.
4/08/10: washington has three days between games, but crosby puts up four points. i guess he really wants this. henrik just gets one. really not looking good. henrik at 108 with one game left. ovechkin still at 106 with two games left. and now crosby at 104, also with two games left. well, it was nice while it lasted.
4/09/10: ovechkin plays his second last game and scores three points to pull ahead again. no games for crosby or henrik, but yeah i don't think i expected henrik to win anymore.
4/10/10: so this is where henrik won the hart trophy. crosby is scoreless while henrik goes off for four assists.
i mean, this was an incredible game. sedins each put up two points in the first, but go scoreless in the second.
then daniel gets two quick ones early in the third, including the goal of the year. the hats come down. both are assisted by henrik of course. not incidentally, he also tops pavel bure's franchise scoring record with the first assist.
then, with kipper pulled, they start really pressing for the rest of the game. daniel ends up with almost 23 minutes, henrik plays his season high, 25'24". at the end of the game, bieksa accidentally scores with henrik in front of the net. after the game, he apologizes in the interview and says he was trying to shoot for a rebound there. hilarious.
it's kind of touching that daniel had the second best game of his life (after game six against chicago the year before) to win his brother the scoring title. watch that first goal, where he catches the tiger-esque saucer then blows by freakin' bouwmeester to roof it on kiprusoff.
three more notes:
1. anyone who says the sedins benefited from offensive zone starts and couldn't score off the rush, well watch those highlights. vigneault lost his mind the next season and bumped the sedins from normal zone starts to what you all remember, which actually weakened their effectiveness and forced them to absorb so much more punishment, but the sedins with burrows in that magical 2010 season were unstoppable on the rush. henrik owned the neutral zone.
2. even in vancouver people forget but what a game by rick rypien too. he played some games in the playoffs and tuned up rich clune, but after that that was it for him. RIP
3. note the nice symmetry between henrik putting up four points and chasing price the game where daniel gets injured, setting up his goal run that establishes him as a credible threat, and them chasing kiprusoff in the last game to extend henrik's art ross lead to four.
4/11/10: ovechkin needs four points to take the art ross, and we're all worried af that he will, but he goes scoreless. as i recall, that was an early game. later in the day, crosby hangs five on roloson before the second period is up, taking the rocket from ovechkin. i admit, i honestly thought there was a chance crosby would go 8+ and gun for sittler's record while taking art ross with it. he would win on the tiebreaker if it came to that. but crosby goes scoreless in the third, the islanders tie it up, pittsburgh wins but crosby doesn't factor on the OT goal, not that it would have mattered anyway.
you had to remember the drama of the end of that season, especially ovechkin, henrik, and crosby going off for three, then four, then five points in consecutive days, to really understand why henrik won that hart. it's the mirror image of naslund losing the art ross to forsberg on the last day of the 2003 season.
EDIT: tiny math error
