An own goal cost the Canucks' Daniel Sedin the Hart Trophy

A complete fluke may have been the deciding factor in Daniel Sedin losing the 2011 Hart Trophy vote to Corey Perry.

As befitting their status as identical twins, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin had nearly identical careers. 

The two brothers both won a single Art Ross Trophy — in back-to-back seasons, natch — and finished their careers with an identical 0.80 points per game. They’re the only brothers in NHL history to both reach the 1,000 point milestone in their careers.

Their careers weren’t perfectly identical, of course. Thanks to injuries, Daniel played 24 fewer games than Henrik and thus finished his career with 29 fewer points. Henrik was a two-time First-Team All-Star, while Daniel was a one-time First-Team All-Star and a one-time Second-Team All-Star, finished behind Alex Ovechkin at left wing in 2010.

The biggest difference of all is that when Henrik won the Art Ross Trophy in 2010, he also took home the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player. In 2011, when Daniel won the Art Ross, he won the Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL’s most outstanding player as voted on by the players, which is inexplicably seen as the lesser award.

Daniel came just short of winning the Hart Trophy that season, finishing second in voting. The Sedins were already the first siblings to win the Art Ross Trophy but they came just short of also being the first siblings to win the Hart Trophy.

And it’s all Ryan Suter’s fault.

Corey Perry's 19 goals in 16 games

As the 2010-11 season was in its final month, Daniel Sedin was the odds-on favourite to win the Hart as he led the NHL in scoring and was the best player on the league’s best team.

But then Corey Perry went on a goal-scoring tear to end the season. Then with the Anaheim Ducks, Perry racked up 19 goals in the Ducks’ final 16 games to reach a nice, round 50 goals — the only player to reach that milestone, giving him the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Perry may have finished six points behind Daniel in the scoring race, but those 50 goals loomed large in the minds of awards voters — the Professional Hockey Writers Association — and Perry won the Hart, with 67 first-place votes to Daniel’s 51.

Awards voters love their milestones and 50 goals is one of the biggest. It’s a signature achievement and part of the legend of players like Mike Bossy, Alex Ovechkin, and Maurice “Rocket” Richard, whose name adorns the goal-scoring trophy. 

Let’s just say that Perry finished with 49 goals instead of 50. Even if it’s just a one-goal difference, that one goal takes some of the shine off Perry’s admittedly excellent season. That one goal might have been enough to shift some of those first-place Hart votes over to Daniel Sedin instead.

And Perry had Suter to thank for reaching the 50-goal plateau.

Suter's boot blooper

It was March 24 and the Ducks were in Nashville to face Suter and the Predators. The Predators had been up 5-1 at one point in the third period, but a pair of power play goals by Teemu Selanne gave the Ducks a fighting chance.

In the final minute of the third, Perry jumped up off a faceoff and gained the offensive zone down the left wing. He then threw a hopeful, floating pass towards the backdoor, hoping Selanne could get onto the end of it.

That’s when Suter inexplicably kicked at the puck, sending it off the crossbar and into his own net.

That goal came right in the middle of Perry’s goal-scoring streak. If Suter doesn’t boot Perry’s pass, Perry finishes the season with 49 goals.

It’s Ryan Suter’s fault that Daniel Sedin didn’t win the 2011 Hart Trophy.

Perry had a case beyond the 50 goals

Okay, okay, maybe it's going a little too far to fully blame Suter. Perhaps some Hart Trophy voters were swayed by Perry hitting the 50-goal mark but he had other factors in his favour.

The criteria for the Hart Trophy isn’t actually “most valuable player” but instead the player “adjudged to be most valuable to his team.” Daniel led Henrik in team scoring by ten points, but Perry led Selanne by 18 points to lead the Ducks in scoring. 

Perry was also second among all NHL forwards in ice time, averaging 22:19 per game, while Daniel, thanks to not playing on the penalty kill, averaged 18:33.

Before his hot streak, the Ducks were in 10th place in the Western Conference. Thanks to Perry’s 19 goals in the last month of the season, the Ducks went 12-4-0 in their final 16 games, carrying them all the way up to fourth to give them home-ice advantage for the playoffs.

Home-ice advantage ultimately didn’t mean much, as Suter and the Predators knocked out the Ducks in six games in the first round.

But just as Perry had a case for the Hart, Daniel's was even stronger. He won the scoring race by five points and had 41 goals himself as part of his 104 points. He led the NHL in opening goals and had ten game-winning goals, providing clutch scoring for the Canucks. For those who value plus/minus, Daniel was plus-30 and Perry was plus-9.

Most importantly, Daniel led the Canucks to one of the most statistically-dominant seasons in NHL history.

Daniel Sedin was robbed of the 2011 Hart.