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Vancouver Canucks winger Daniel Sedin, centre, tallied 12 total shots against the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 21, with eight of them on target.Rich Lam/Getty Images

It was nearly a century ago when Foster Hewitt first uttered four words that became part of the psyche of the Canada winter: He shoots, he scores. There are many ways to score in hockey. The best are beautiful. These days, in this new dead-puck era, goals are too often found in the goalmouth fray – hacking, whacking, hoping.

And so it is that, at the quarter pole of the National Hockey League season, watchers of this cold game should raise a salute to the unexpected revival of Daniel Sedin.

A half-decade past his apex – in the 2010-11 season, when he was the most potent scorer around and his Vancouver Canucks nearly won the Stanley Cup – Sedin, at 35, is back. After a bad concussion, after his Cup-contender team became an afterthought, after a scoring slump that lasted not weeks or months but several years, he is now among the league's top scorers.

The how and why are largely captured in two facts: Hewitt's time-tested adage, and, maybe, a new stick.

Last Saturday, Sedin notched his first hat trick in four years in the classic style for which he and his brother Henrik are renowned. The prettiest was the last goal, late in a 6-3 win against the Chicago Blackhawks. Sedin helped dig the puck out of his own zone and then, getting the puck back as he rushed the offensive zone, he dropped it to his brother. On the give-and-go, his brother flipped him a perfect saucer pass, and before the puck landed, Sedin deflected it into the net. Hat trick.

Through his slump, Sedin's shot became ineffectual. He didn't believe in it. In the worst moments, he'd choked on gimmes.

But not on Saturday night. He recorded 12 shot attempts against Chicago; eight of those were on goal. And as of midday Monday, Sedin had 89 shots on goal so far this season, the fourth-highest total in the league. That's more than four a game, more than he produced at his best and way more than of late.

He shoots, he scores.

In the years since Sedin's concussion, sustained in March, 2012, he saw his shooting-percentage slump by about half. And worse, he pulled back from shooting, worried and hesitant.

Sedin is not an adherent to outside forces, the grace of god or such. Work hard – results, hopefully, follow. This is his maxim. But there is, when it works, a lightness of being.

"I know it sounds silly, but the game slows down and you feel faster," Sedin said on Tuesday. He laughed. It might have been relief. The past three seasons were not good at all, and this season started badly, too – in his first six games, he had his worst start in a decade.

If the 2012 concussion was one demarcation point, then Feb. 1, 2015, was a second. Sedin's problem of getting pucks on net was ever worsening. Then, in a game against Minnesota, he had 10 shots on goal. One went in. From there Sedin kept shooting. More went in, and he kept shooting.

Around the same time Sedin picked up a new Bauer stick. It had added flex. He tested several and chose one. His brother went with it too. On sticks, Daniel is boss: "Hank always follows me," Daniel said. "I make the decisions."

"I'm not a big stick guy," Daniel Sedin said. On greater flex – his stick looks like a bow these days – "I don't know if that's a big thing."

Sedin knows most of all his breakthrough might be temporary. Among the 196 players in the NHL who will be 30 or older by midseason, Daniel Sedin is the No. 1 scorer. Henrik is No. 3. The Sedins may not be ageless, but they begin to defy their age. Swedish magic.

Asked if he'd keep playing in the style of 43-year-old Jaromir Jagr, the only 40-plus NHLer around – with 17 points in 19 games – Sedin demurred.

"I've been taking it day by day for a long time," he said, smiling again.

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