Ex-Canucks star Ryan Kesler back

For the first four seasons of his National Hockey League career, Bo Horvat watched Henrik Sedin conduct a master class in imaging and branding.

Henrik, like his brother Daniel, wouldn’t phrase it that way and that was never the intent of the message he conveyed. But from the moment he was named Vancouver Canucks captain, Henrik stood up on a daily basis and answered questions simply and honestly, usually in a way that reflected well on the organization and his teammates.

This exercise usually took about five minutes. On Wednesday, the night the Sedins jerseys were retired, Horvat stood up for just under five minutes in the Canucks’ dressing room and answered questions simply and honestly, which reflected well on the Canucks and his teammates.

Horvat, age 24 and in his first season as the team’s captain, was asked about what he learned from Henrik over those four years.

“His positivity was the biggest thing,” Horvat said. “Win or lose, he was always ready to face the media. I think that’s the thing I respect about him most. He never came to the rink and had a bad day.”

Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to our topic du jour: Ryan Kesler.

Kesler, the estranged former Canucks’ star, took part in the ceremony on Wednesday at the invitation of the twins and was warmly received by the sellout crowd. His appearance at the Sedins’ big night also followed a concerted effort on Kesler’s part to rehabilitate his relationship with the faithful, a relationship that was fractured when he was traded away nearly six years ago at his request.

All seems forgiven now.

Look, we all love the story of a reformed sinner and, as part of his penance, Kesler conducted a series of interviews in which he was honest, introspective and, in the end, very human. Those interviews weren’t exactly consistent with the popular image of Kesler, who seemed to make surliness a point of pride during his years with the Canucks, but he isn’t the first athlete to wake up one morning and realize he should have handled his business differently.

You just wonder why it takes some of them so long.

As Horvat learned from Henrik — and as we learned from watching figures like Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby over the years — an image can be built on five minutes and a few well-chosen bromides. None of these stars is especially quotable. They certainly aren’t controversial. But they became venerated figures in the game largely because they’re so damned pleasant.

Kesler, sadly, never learned that lesson until it was too late. Now he’s trying to make up for lost time and you hope the goodwill tour has the desired effect because Kesler, the player, should be celebrated in this town and honoured by the franchise.

Here’s a reminder. In their 50-year history, the Canucks have never had a player like the 2009 to 2011 version of Kesler: A size-and-skill centre with a physical edge who played Selke-calibre defence while scoring 41 goals in his best season. Come to think of it, few teams have ever had a player like that.

It is one of the great misfortunes in Canucks history, in fact, that we only saw that player for two seasons. At the absolute peak of his powers, Kesler got tangled up with San Jose defenceman Dan Boyle during Game 5 of the 2011 Western Conference final and tore the labrum in his hip.

He actually returned and scored the tying goal with 13 seconds left in the win that sent the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Final — did we mention he tore his labrum? Kesler then gutted it out in the final with the aid of cortisone shots, but he was a shadow of the player who had dominated the playoffs.

There’s no doubt in my mind that injury cost the Canucks the Stanley Cup and Kesler the Conn Smythe Trophy. You can also make the case it cost him a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He came back and played three more seasons in Vancouver before asking out prior to the 2014 trade deadline. There was a lot of background noise at the time and it was another situation Kesler could have handled better. But it was allowed to fester and when he was dealt to Anaheim in the off-season, the well was poisoned in Vancouver.

Kesler, of course, didn’t help things in subsequent visits with the Ducks and seemed to thrive on his image as a heel. But somewhere along the line, all that animosity just becomes wearying for all concerned.

That seemed to be the point at which Kesler arrived on Wednesday night. He was tired of wearing black. He wanted to be remembered, not as a bad guy, but a player who bled for this franchise, who was an indispensable part of the best Canucks team ever.

Yes, he could have made things easier on himself and everyone else if he’d seen the light before this week. But that doesn’t seem terribly relevant now. It’s time to remember what Kesler meant to this franchise. After all those years, that other stuff seems easy to forget.

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