Clearly, the two brothers continue to crave competition post-NHL retirement. Not shockingly, the two finished with nearly identical career totals in points, and their alikeness is extending to the roads.
The Sedin brothers Daniel and Henrik continue to keep their competitive spirits alive well into retirement.
The pair of former Vancouver Canucks superstars have been all over Canada’s west coast running scene ever since they went into retirement. Following the 2017–18 NHL season, the duo traded in their hockey skates, sticks, and helmet for running shoes, a Garmin, and a race number from time to time.
This past weekend, the identical twin brothers finished six seconds apart at the Under Armour Eastside 10K, each clocking a low 37-minute time. Daniel finished in 37:04, while Henrik, the captain of the Canucks from 2010-2018, was a few steps behind in 37:10. In fact, the event was a family affair as Daniel’s wife Marinette also raced, stopping the clock at 52:54.
Running has always been part of the brothers’ regime, even while playing in the NHL. “I love running – that’s a big part of our training routine in the summertime and we’ll keep doing that,” Sedin said in 2018. Now, it seems, the Sedins are putting 100% focus into running, and it’s showing, as they’re putting up respectable times for someone who has run their entire life, let alone periodically in the off-season.
Since their retirements, the 38-year-old duo from Sweden has consistently popped up in results, and high up. Both competed in a 2018 trail race in Whistler hosted by Canadian ultrarunner Gary Robbins, a trail race in North Vancouver, and they even ticked off the marathon this past May. The two ran the BMO Vancouver Marathon finishing in 3:11:45 (Daniel) and 3:24:11 (Henrik), and their bibs were the same numbers as those they wore during their NHL careers.
Both seem to be on-trend with the latest in running too, having raced in the Nike Vaporfly 4% Flyknit, a racing flat known to shave valuable seconds off of your time, for the marathon. For the Eastside 10K, they again wore Nikes, with plain Dri-Fit tees and ball caps.
“Even though we’re not world-class marathon runners, it’s still a competition and it brings out a little bit of that competitor in both of us,” they said after their first marathon.
Their 10Ks this past weekend, in the rain no less, may well be their best result to date. To boot, they negative-split the race – meaning covering the second half of the race faster than the first – by about 20 seconds.
Saturday’s Eastside 10K is a Canada Running Series-hosted event, and their final west coast race before the circuit wraps up in Ontario with the Zoo Run and then the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Vancouver’s Evan Esselink (29:50) and Kelowna, B.C.’s Malinda Elmore (32:44) were the race winners with Elmore setting a new women’s course record.
In total, 2,900 participants raced through Vancouver’s eastside with a start/finish line in Gastown.
