It didn’t take the 2010-11 Vancouver Canucks long to miss castoffs Kyle Wellwood and Pavol Demitra. Sixty-five minutes, to be precise. After 60 minutes of regulation time and five minutes of overtime, the Canucks and Los Angeles Kings settled their October 9 season opener in a shootout. After the first two Kings scored and both Canuck shooters—Mason Raymond and Ryan Kesler—were thwarted, the game was over and a troubling trend continued for the Vancouver Canucks.

Since the inception of the shootout at the start of the 2005-06 National Hockey League season, the Canucks haven’t been very good in the tie-breaking competition. According to nhlshootouts.com/, the Canucks have won just 22 of the 51 shootouts they’ve been involved in. As a team, they have never really had a guy (or guys) they could count on to score with any kind of regularity when it gets down to player versus goalie. Trevor Linden had his moments, and, more recently, Alain Vigneault found himself turning to Wellwood and Demitra to find the back of the net—and more often than not, they did (Wellwood was four for seven last season, while Demitra was two for four), as those two combined for half of the Canucks shootout production last season.

But with Wellwood and Demitra now plying their trade in Russia, the Canucks coaching staff would be wise to rethink its shootout strategy and revisit its player selections.

And here’s an idea: maybe they should let the reigning league scoring champ and most valuable player take a crack.

“Look at their stats,” Vigneault said the day after his team’s season-opening loss, shaking his head as he explained to the Georgia Straight why Henrik and Daniel Sedin weren’t high on his shootout depth chart. “There’s no question they are great players on the ice when there are opponents in front of them. But when they are alone against a goaltender, it just seems to be a little bit more challenging.”

It’s true that Daniel has had his problems in shootouts. Despite being regarded as the goal scorer of the twins, Daniel has managed to score just three times on 16 attempts. So perhaps there is reason for pause there. But this is one of the few times the twins can’t be lumped together and considered a single entity.

Although there is no getting around the fact that Henrik—he of the 112-point season the past year—has never scored a shootout goal in the National Hockey League, the amazing thing is that he has only ever had two attempts. So it’s just not a large enough sample size to suggest that Henrik is a poor shootout performer. The guy hasn’t been given enough of an opportunity.

Add to that the fact that Henrik’s last chance at the shootout was almost two years ago. Since then, he has scored 60 goals and recorded almost 200 points. It’s pretty clear he knows where the net is, and now—as captain and leader of the Canucks—it’s probably time to let him have a shot at being a difference maker in another fashion: once games get past overtime.

“Well, I’ve got to start getting involved first,” Henrik told the Straight with a chuckle after a recent practice at Rogers Arena when asked if he’d like the chance to be part of the Canucks shootout squadron. “At first, I was more of a passer, so I think that’s where it came from [that he wasn’t fit for shootout duty]. We’ve got the guys in here who can do the job. Kes [Ryan Kesler] has a great shootout record, and Sammy [Mikael Samuelsson] is good, so I think we’ve got a good enough team. We can always improve, but I don’t think we have to worry about winning in shootouts.”

A year ago, the Canucks won four of the eight shootouts they took part in, so their record didn’t hurt the hockey club. But that was with the services of Wellwood and Demitra: aside from Kesler (who was three of five last year but was denied on his first try this time around), Samuelsson, Raymond, and Alex Burrows were the only other Canucks to score a shootout goal last season.

“Of the guys that we’ve got right now, the best ones, stats-wise, are Mason Raymond, Ryan Kesler, Mikael Samuelsson, and Alex Edler,” Vigneault declared, although the statistics don’t necessarily back up his claim (newcomer Jeff Tambellini, who wasn’t in the opening-night lineup, is six for nine in his career). “Are we going to try somebody else as the season goes on? Possibly.”

And might that somebody include one or both of the Sedins?

“Sometimes players like that in pressure situations find a way to get it done,” he added. “But their shootout stats–to this point, anyway—haven’t been very good.”

Again, that’s a fair assessment of Daniel but not of Henrik. And with no one else on the roster looking like a threat to score on a regular basis in a shootout, the Canucks ought to look to the guy who racked up more points than anyone else in the league last season.

There’s no guarantee that he’ll produce, but he’s earned the chance to try. And sounding very much like a player brimming with confidence, Henrik is ready for that tap on his shoulder.

“I think everyone would like a shot at it,” he says enthusiastically. “The coach is going to pick different guys every night, and we’ve got lots of guys who can step in. If we lose a couple, I might get the chance, but if we’re winning, then that’s good.”

But leaving the best player on the team on the bench with the game up for grabs makes no sense. It’s pretty clear that Henrik has earned his shot at the shootout.

Jeff Paterson is a talk-show host on Vancouver’s all-sports radio, Team 1040. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/patersonjeff/.