Shacks’ Sunday Canuck Take: All Things Cody

It must be tough love.

That’s the only reasonable explanation.  It’s as if Cody Hodgson is the coach’s son and the coach is proving to everyone he isn’t showing any favouritism by being hardest on his own flesh and blood. 

Or could it be that Coach V believes that Cody has led a charmed life and wants to find out if Hodgson has what it takes to go through the fire and come out stronger on the other side. 

Whatever Vigneault’s reasoning, his treatment of the best Canuck’s rookie since Pavel Bure might be the biggest Vancouver mystery since the where’s Lui caper at the start of overtime against Anaheim in 2007. 

In Cody Hodgson’s first full year as a Canuck, he has finally shown flashes of why Vancouver fans were so excited Mike Gillis drafted him with the 10^th pick of the 2008 NHL entry draft.  As anyone who follows the Canucks knows, Hodgson has already had to face more adversity to get to this point than any player on the roster except perhaps Alex Burrows and his well-documented tour of the minors. 

After almost making the team as an 18 year old, Cody suffered a back injury the summer before the second camp.  Cody tried to play through the pain but was ineffective and cut again despite the huge expectations that were placed on him.  Hodgson maintained that his back was still sore only to have his character questioned by Vigneault who famously said,  "I think Cody is a very young man who hasn't had a lot of disappointments throughout his life. He's probably having a tough time, personally, dealing with this one and trying to find a reason why it happened. We've all had times where we've encountered disappointment and tried to roll the (blame) in a different direction. We've all been through those things. Cody will learn from this."

Has there ever been a more condescending comment made about what appears to be a very high character player by a coach in the NHL?  Looking back at everything Hodgson had to endure after the comment proved AV to not just be wrong, but completely out of line. 

I’m guessing Coach V was just trying to get Hodgson used to the tough love that was to come. 

Fortunately for the Canucks, Hodgson didn’t hold those comments against the club, proving his character is solid by working even harder and becoming an NHL regular this season. Which, oddly enough is where this story actually gets more interesting. 

To this point in his rookie season, Hodgson has shown flashes of the brilliance he displayed when he led the World Junior tournament in scoring and won CHL player of the year.  He’s fourth in rookie scoring and seems to get more confident and competent with each game. 

Unfortunately, the better Hodgson seems to play from the fans perspective, the more Coach V wants to show his tough love. 

During the stretch of games from December 30^th through to February 4^th Hodgson was not only the leading scorer, he was by far their most consistent clutch performer.  It seemed during this period that whenever the Canucks’ scored a big goal Cody Hodgson was there, including scoring the game winning goals in huge match-ups versus Boston and San Jose. 

Cody’s reward for helping prop up a struggling hockey team; an extra 1o seconds per game of additional ice-time.   Hodgson, who currently ranks 4^th in rookie scoring, 7^th in rookie plus/minus, 6^th in Canuck team scoring and 8^th in team plus/minus, currently ranks 65^th in rookie ice-time and 19^th in team ice-time, despite clearly being the most consistent Canuck most nights. 

It was during this stretch, fans and media started publicly questioning AV’s usage of Hodgson. Vigneault responded by saying,  "Ryan plays an average of 20 minutes a game, how is that more than any of the other top players? I'm going to start taking minutes away from Ryan Kesler?" Vigneault asked rhetorically. "It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

"When some people in the past have been saying, I'm not playing the twins enough. Those are elite players. You complain when I don't play the twins enough. The twins don't get the 20, 21 minutes a game because they don't kill penalties. But they get the best offensive minutes we have available on this team.

"We have two great centremen right there, I'm going to use them."

Which makes perfect sense, if you discount two very important facts: The first is that Kesler has failed to make it through a playoff run healthy since becoming the workhorse of the team.  The second being this team isn’t in a desperate race to either make a playoff spot or get a better seeding, why not see what the kid is capable of doing with more ice-time?

During last year’s finals, one of the biggest obstacles the Canucks could not overcome was their lack of healthy bodies.  Kesler had a well publicized bum hip that prevented him from really contributing, and Henrik dealt with a back that seemed to hinder him from playing anywhere near his usual standards.  Kesler was also hobbled during the previous year’s cup chase. 

AV wants us to believe limiting his two prized centre ice-times during January and February when teams in the Canucks’ position are really just trying to come out healthy and fresh for the up coming playoffs is a bad thing?  Really? It’s more important to win a January game against Florida or a February game against Colorado than it is ensuring your best players are as fresh and healthy as possible for April and May? 

Honestly, I’m not blind, I’ve seen the bad soft passes in his own zone and the lack of foot speed creating chances for the other team, but what if Hodgson wasn’t benched every time he had a couple of bad shifts or made a big mistake?  What if AV actually let Cody think he trusted him on occasion? 

Now let’s take this one step further, let’s pretend Coach V starts giving Cody more responsibility every so often, not all the time but once in a while he gets put on the ice in those clutch moments.

In the long run wouldn’t this actually help the team?  If Kesler or Henrik Sedin get hurt, wouldn’t Hodgson be the natural guy to step in and take some of their minutes and responsibilities?  Wouldn’t it be great if Hodgson already felt confident and comfortable enough to handle the situation?  Personally I think it would be better to give Hodgson the opportunity to fill some of these minutes during meaningless games late in the season, than waiting to see if he can respond if the worst was to happen in the playoffs.

I’m guessing there must be a bonus in Vigneault’s contract for regular season performance because there is no other reason to stubbornly ride your studs when it’s not beneficial in the long term.  

Given Hodgson’s recent usage, it came as no surprise that once his scoring slowed, AV showed him a little more tough love and cut his ice-time further a few games ago.  In fact, to really show how much he cared, Vigneault demoted Hodgson to fourth line duty. This was despite the fact that for the first time in years the third line was producing points, and Many Malholtra, Hodgson’s replacement on the third line, was struggling mightily since returning from his eye injury.   

When pressed on this subject Coach V responded with the following comment, “If you look at our template from last year, which was pretty effective, we had two offensive lines with Hank Sedin and Ryan Kesler and a real strong line with Manny and whoever would play with him. Most of the time it was Jannik and Raffi and that enabled me to play them head-to-head against one of the other team's top lines, which freed up either Ryan or Hank to play against a third or fourth line. When we're capable of doing that, it can make it real challenging for the opposition.”

This statement more than any other makes me question his future with the organization.  It was bad enough for those that think Hodgson should be given more responsibility to hear Vigneault say Cody’s never getting more ice time from Kes and Hank, despite the fact there are four other top 6 forwards which Hodgson can replace. 

No, the scary part of that statement to those on Team Cody is Vigneault’s desire to get back to the two scoring lines with one checking line scenario that played out most of last year.  If it truly is Vigneault’s desire to use the third line as he did last year, Hodgson’s ice-time can only go down from here.  This year Sedin and Kesler are averaging almost identical ice-time totals as last year, about 19:30 for Sedin and 20:30 for Kesler.  The difference being Malholtra who was averaging 16:30 a game is now getting 12:30.  Where are his extra minutes going to come from? 

According to Vigneault, he’s not taking minutes from Hank or Kes so this leaves Hodgson.  When you consider 4^th liners on the Canucks averaged about 8-minutes a game last year and that the Coach wants to return to last year’s ice time distribution, it appears Cody’s ice-time can only shrink in the next couple of months.  

If this is true, doesn’t this make you wonder where exactly Hodgson fits in the Canuck’s future plans?  Hodgson appears destined to be a top 6 centre but Vancouver already has those positions covered and signed for years to come.  Hodgson does not fit AV’s idea of a third line centre and probably never will.  Coach V wants a fast-skating, relentless checker for this position, and despite there being many superlatives to describe Hodgson’s game, those two adjectives would not be among them. 

Hodgson looks like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole in Alan Vigneault’s grand plan for the Canuck’s and it can’t be easy on Hodgson knowing whenever he makes a mistake more tough love is coming. 

Most people think Schneider is the Canuck to be traded for the missing piece Vancouver needs for their cup run.  I’m starting to think that in order for the team to fit Vigneault’s vision, shipping Hodgson could be AV’s final act of tough love for Cody.