Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks and Dave Bolland of the Chicago Blackhawks tussle prior to a face-off during the first period in Game 3 of the Western Conference semi-finals.Rich Lam
Daniel Sedin's first order of business on Friday, in Game 4 of a Western Conference semi-final against the Chicago Blackhawks, is to keep his cool.
The GM Place crowd might have roared its approval when the Canucks forward face-washed Chicago's Dave Bolland, and trash-talked him all the way to the sin bin in Game 3 on Wednesday, but there was one Vancouver fan who was upset with the Sedin's uncharacteristic frustration.
Ronja Sedin, Daniel's four-year-old daughter, was seated in the arena and disapproved of daddy's display.
"She doesn't like when I go to the box," Sedin said. "She wasn't too happy. I've been trying to explain that it's not a good thing to go to the box, then she saw me there. I had a few explanations I had to deal with.
"Maybe it was out of character, but once in awhile, you have to show that you're not going to take anything."
Sedin's second order of the business is to actually score.
The Sedin twins have just one point in the last two games, both losses, and serve on Vancouver's struggling power play, which is 2-for-14 in the series. At even strength, the Sedin line has been stifled by Bolland and wingers Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg.
Bolland has earned the nickname "Rat" from his teammates for his ability to annoy the opposition, and he was wearing Sedin's outburst as a badge of honour at morning skate on Friday. Teammate Adam Burish said Bolland deserves an A-minus for agitating, which the latter said was a true compliment coming from an "A-plus" agitator.
"I think [Sedin]just got fed up with me," Bolland said. "Getting those two out of the game is key for us."
There is speculation that Bolland's slash, which ignited this feud with Sedin, was intended to target an injured body part.
Sedin quickly said "I don't want to talk about it," when asked if his anger resulted from what he perceived to be an intent to injure, or inflict pain. The two had a heated conversation from the penalty boxes.
"I think we were both just yelling," Bolland said " Like 'screw this' and 'screw that.'"
Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault is going to his bag of tricks -- some might call them desperation tactice -- for Game 4, re-inserting Alex Burrows back onto the twins' line and using the 35-goal scorer on the power play. Burrows almost never received power-play duty this season, even during a January stretch of 13 goals.
Besides Burrows, Kevin Bieksa is also moving up to the top man-advantage unit, replacing Pavol Demitra, who may be out of the lineup altogether. Mikael Samuelsson was demoted to the second power-play team.
"Obviously, there are a few adjustments we have to make on our power play," Vigneault said.
Demitra and Rick Rypien are candidates to be healthy scratches, as rookie Michael Grabner and Tanner Glass inch closer to regaining spots in the lineup.
Head coach Joel Quenneville said the Blackhawks are "not likely" to make any changes.