and once all the injured players get back, i’m expecting a time of poor play while viggy is line-juggling again to fit the returning players into lines that work…..

Jiggy Viggy?

Although they certainly don’t tell the whole story, his +/- numbers are worrying. Ideally, your bottom six guys can play a responsible shutdown or checking role, and Pettinger might be shaky in his own end. That being said, when you’re down so many players, he’s a serviceable NHL forward for cheap.

Well, it beats making Raycroft play forward.

What? No Isbister?

Seems like a prudent decision. But I vote Ryan Walter laces up again. It’d be so… inspirational.

Walter was a fine d-man in his day. Mind you, a can opener move was allowed back then, and he wasn’t exactly shy about using it, either….

Hurray! Fresh meat.

I kind of made the call on Pettinger back in a Canucks uniform in the post of him joining the Moose.

It’s obviously just to fill the void until the regulars get healthy, and then he’ll be back down with the Moose. Decent signing to get a cheap experienced NHLer in the line-up, these Moose kids were only gonna be band-aids for so long (save for Grabner). His career +/- is obviously not pretty, but keep in mind he played for some weak Capitals/Lightning teams and will likely not be a long-term Canuck.

Also in the news:

MANITOBA MOOSE-Signed F Olivier Latendresse.
VICTORIA SALMON KINGS-Acquired the rights to D Neil Petruic from Elmira.

Ripples through the organization.

He was handled poorly by the organization. He was hurt, is still hurt, and might be ticked at management now. I hope efforts have been made behind the scenes to apologize. It certainly is warranted.

Remember the Bobby Orr story I mentioned at the time, where Orr went to Coach Cherry and asked, “Mr. Cherry, the next time you’re giving everyone heck, do you think you could give me some too, please?” Hodgson’s camp parallels that, I think.

All players in camp want to be subject to the same “rules,” which include a blunt assessment of their play. Other players in that camp, such as Grabner, were regularly “called out” – i.e. their poor play was matter-of-factly described as such, with the understanding that it had to be better if it were to rise to NHL standards – and so Hodgson had to be called out that way, too.

Had they not called him out:

1. He’d end up being cut anyway even after a lack of calling hm out implied he was doing just fine.

2. He’d have had no idea why he was cut; after all, if he needed to do something better or do something different, why didn’t they tell him?

3. The fans would have no idea why he was cut.

4. He’d be seen by the other players as “teacher’s pet,” a kiss of death to anyone. Soon enough, the fans would see him this way, too.

What were they to do at the time? Tell the world, “Yeah, Cody’s done nothing in camp to justify a position, but he’s hurting, so we’ll keep him anyway and just hope he does better during the year”…?

No one sniped at the kid; they simply told the truth. If Hodgson’s sore back was indeed the difference maker for him, that was horrible, rotten, no-good, very-bad-day luck.

But I’ll leave it at this: in hindsight, what public statements do you think the team should have made at the time, coupled with what final decision, and what do you guys think would have been the pros and the cons of doing so? And would Hodgson, in our 20-20 hindsight world, have ended up anywhere other than where he is now, doing what he’s doing now?

BTW, and change of topic, is it just me or does that pic of Pettinger at the top of this post make him look an awful lot like Sidney Crosby?

Casual you are so far wrong on this it’s hard to believe. You are saying it is OK for the management to call a guy out for his poor level of play when it turns out he was too injured to even be out on the ice? How does that even scan for you? He clearly was hurt to the point where he should have not even seen the ice in the preseason yet he was forced to go out there by a combination of bad medical advice and his own desire to prove he belonged here. You also say he isn’t a vet so the team wouldn’t wait for him. He has to earn his spot. But he wasn’t even given a chance to earn his spot. If they had waited for him to get healthy, let him practice for a week and then put him into 2 or 3 games then we would have seen if he was ready to play at this level. Seriously, you are saying “he wasn’t ready to play at this level” and basing that in part on what he did on the ice? Cause as I have already mentioned he was too hurt to be out there. So how on Earth can you make a judgment about what he was ready for?

I don’t understand how a top 10 pick, a guy with huge upside and a guy who is a potential elite guy with above average hands isn’t a guy you would wait for on an offensively challenged team? I keep reading this nonsense and I can’t take it anymore. He wasn’t good enough as an 18 year old so he got send down. No he was hurt and shouldn’t have been playing. There are several 18 year olds playing in the NHL right now and Hodgson is just as good as any of them.

He can’t go to the AHL cuz he’s too young, I believe. If he could, he’d be assigned to the Moose already.

And can a junior team even “loan” a player, mid-season, to an NHL squad and then take him back 9 games later? I’ve never seen that done, at least not that I can recall, so I really don’t know.

Plus you’d likely have get another player to clear waivers going down and then perhaps again on the way back up in order to make room for Cody and his mid-season tryout. Hansen? Raymond? Which player, good enough to stick to mid-season, is nonetheless wholly expendable?

But I digress: what specifically would you have done in place of that which was done?

I don’t wanna hit this one too hard because I think this issue has seen more action than a pornstar’s vagina, but…..

1. Canucks screwed the pooch a bit in the handling of Hodgson, but nothing that can’t or won’t be repaired.

2. I’d put money on Hodgson downplaying the injury as much as possible to try to squeak out that roster spot that everyone had expectations on him making. If not for the emergence of Shirokov in preseason he probably still would have held it.

3. The whole thing is essentially moot now because even if he was healthy tomorrow, his conditioning and timing are probably way off from where he needs to be to compete at this level. Usually takes about 5 to 7 games for regular roster players to get their game to the normal level. I don’t think parachuting him in now would help him or the team.

That’s my take on it. Hopefully I will have to speak no more of it.