The Canucks went up against the top line in hockey on Sunday night -- San Jose's top trio of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley all were in the top seven in the NHL in scoring.

Vancouver has missed that type of dominating top unit for most of this season but appears to be getting one back since the return of No. 1 left winger Daniel Sedin after missing 18 games and more than six weeks because of a broken foot. Getting Daniel back from injury was arguably like getting 2 1/2 top players back in the lineup.

Identical twin brother Henrik Sedin kept up a point-a-game pace without his lifelong linemate, but is unquestionably a more dominant presence when Daniel is on his wing, controlling the puck and the play for prolonged periods deep in the offensive zone, wearing out opponents and generating power plays with their innate cycling game.

The Canucks also got the old Alex Burrows back. After scoring three goals in his first five games on the top line, Burrows managed just one empty net goal over the next 18 without Daniel in the lineup before scoring in consecutive games shortly after his return. In three games since the top line was re-united, Burrows had 17 shots on goal.

"We're really comfortable," said Henrik. "They're two really good players. We read off each other really good. It's a lot of fun playing with those guys."

The superstitious Burrows, who scored 18 of his career-best 28 goals while playing with Daniel and twin brother Henrik Sedin on the top line for the final 36 games of last season, had resorted to trying to find new routes to the rink to bust his slump, no easy task when you live only a few blocks away. Turns out all he needed was to get healthy -- he played through a nagging groin injury during his prolonged slump -- Daniel to come back, and head coach Alain Vigneault to put him back on the top line.

The move also frees up Ryan Kesler to move from top-line wing to second-line center, further balancing out an attack that suffered at times without Daniel.

"He's such a good player," Burrows said of Daniel, who also has six assists for seven points in seven games. "He's a point-a-game guy, one of the top players in the league. He doesn't only make a difference line to line, but for the other team to match up, now they're putting their top (defense) pairing against Danny and Hank and it opens (Ryan Kesler's) line for more room on the ice. Same with Kyle's line. It has a huge impact having Danny in the lineup. ... Hopefully it's a full circle and we'll be able to get going. With Danny back, I can just focus on getting them the puck, getting on the forecheck and going to the net. And trying to get some greasy goals."

Burrows thinks the line will only get better as they play more and Daniel gets up to speed. Daniel scored his first of the season in Saturday's 7-3 romp over Edmonton, while Henrik added two assists, giving him 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in his last 10 games before the trio was blanked Sunday in a 4-2 loss to San Jose. They'll try to get back on track when the Canucks kick off a four-game, seven-day road trip with back-to-back games in New Jersey on Wednesday and in Philadelphia on Thursday.

SHARKS 4, CANUCKS 2: The Canucks went 4-for-5 on the power play in Saturday's 7-3 romp over Edmonton to move up to second in the NHL with the man advantage. But they couldn't even muster a shot on goal in four chances against San Jose's league-leading penalty kill, failing miserably on two chances in the first period to set the tone for just their second loss in the last six games. Making matters worse, the Canucks' 22nd-ranked penalty kill gave up the go-ahead goal to Dan Boyle on a power play rebound as the Sharks' third-ranked man advantage went 1-for-5, converting the chance that mattered. Manny Malhotra scored on a breakaway with 2:35 left and Jamie McGinn banged in a loose puck in a scramble in front 13 seconds later to break open a close game decided long before by special teams. Kyle Wellwood, whose only other goal this season came into an empty net two games earlier, opened the scoring two minutes in for the Canucks and set up Jannik Hansen's meaningless goal with 6.3 seconds left. But between then the Canucks managed little offensively, were dominated and outshot 15-4 in the second period, and even allowed minor-league tough guy Frazer McLaren to score his first NHL goal to tie it 1-1.

With all that in mind, Canucks coach Alain Vigneault took little solace in limiting the Sharks' top line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau, who had combined for nine goals and 23 points in their previous four games and were all in the top seven in NHL scoring, to just one Thornton assist on Boyle's key goal.

"Obviously, that line is probably the best in the NHL, and you combine that with Boyle and you probably got four guys that are going to start for Team Canada," Vigneault said of the Sharks' stars. "But that said, yeah, we did do a good job against their top line, but their other lines beat our guys and at the end of the day I thought in one-on-one situations along the wall and in front of the net they were grittier then our guys were and that's why we lost this game."

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