The wonder Sedin twins power Canucks for the last decade

It's easy to differentiate between Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

While they sport the same reddish facial hair and utilize the same lefty Bauer stick and wear the same black boots on the ice, here's where it becomes obvious.

Daniel, born six minutes later than his identical twin, stands one inch shorter and weighs one pound less than Henrik.

Oh, and Henrik is the one who joins Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin on the list of 2010 Hart Trophy finalists.

The 29-year-old earned his place alongside those perennial greats after winning his first Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's scoring champ.

His 112 points broke Pavel Bure's long-standing Vancouver scoring record - and his 29 goals and 83 assists shattered his previous bests of 22 goals and 60 assists.

"Of course I'm better, I think," Henrik said. "I take another step. We do more out there on the ice. I think we're better defensively. We create a lot more chances from good defensive play."

Wait, what?

The long-standing perception of the Sedin twins - held since they hit the NHL together in 2000 - is that they're among the least physical players in the league.

"People have called them soft throughout their whole career, but I think it's one of those things where they're not at all," said Hawks forward Patrick Kane. "They pretty much battle every game. I've watched them go into corners and take hits to make plays and end up scoring goals in the same shift."

The Sedins did plenty of scoring in the Canucks' six-game first-round series against Los Angeles. Henrik produced 1 goal and 7 assists while Daniel stacked up 4 goals and 6 assists.

Here's the stat that's most relevant as the Hawks and Canucks embark on what ought to be a fabulous series: The Sedins combined for 16 points in Vancouver's 4 wins over the Kings, but just 2 points in the 2 losses.

"We're better off the rush," Henrik said. "I think before, we didn't score too many goals off the rush, but this year most of our goals have come from the rush.

"We're both stronger, which is going to make us tougher to defend. And I think we're more confident. We make plays that we didn't do before."

That seems mathematically and stylistically improbable, seeing as how the Sedins began skating together when they were 5 years old.

Actually, when they joined an organized league at the age of 8, they played on different lines because Daniel was a center as well.

When Daniel switched to left wing at age 13, the Sedins joined forces and have played on the same line since.

"Sometimes when they're making those plays they do," Kane said, "to me, I think and wonder, 'When were they talking about this in their career, what kind of play they made up here and why they wanted to do that.' "

The Sedins shrug at such thoughts.

"I don't think we do anything over the top," Henrik said. "We read off each other. We're good using each other. I don't think we're flashy 1-on-1."