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spottoEvery Trade Deadline I hardly follow, nothing too major happens anyways. Last time something significant occurred in my eyes was way back when we traded Matt Cooke. Sure he was only a third-liner but he'd been a Canuck his whole career before he was traded, so it was major enough in my eyes.
Certainly did not expect something like this.
You'd think, being first in the West, no, first overall, we wouldn't be doing much, NEED to do much during the deadline...and yet we made the biggest splash. And it wasn't for a rental either! It was a trade that could've happened at any point during the season, most likely during the off-season yet we decided to do it now. I strongly believe the purpose and the only reason the Trade Deadline should be a prime time for trading itself is for poor teams to trade off rentals for picks in the future, or perhaps struggling players traded for others that require a change of scenery to fix up their careers, but certainly not this. Even if it was a team that required defense and therefore traded an unneeded center to a team lacking in depth in the middle for a defensemen would've made sense, but this was NOTHING of the sort!
I remember the comments the TSN analyst had very well when we drafted Cody Hodgson. He was a steal. He was a perfect pick because Linden had just retired. It wasn't just for his skills, the fact that he led Team Canada in points during the World Juniors! He was a smart hockey player, compared to Stamkos without the exploding speed. He was intelligent, could make the players around him better and he was a classy, classy player. He shined with charisma and leadership in his interviews and despite the rough patches he went through due to injuries and the media hounding him so much about it, he endured it through. Many people have said that he would be our future captain...he has character. But he is no longer on the Canucks, the Canucks who I think need this player a lot more than most people believe. This year our top two lines are scoring less...and we've had so many one-goal games this year. Think of all the times in the last month or so when we went to overtime or the shootout...so often, and Hodgson was the one who provided so much of that depth scoring required to go above that hurdle. If it were last year and Hodgson was in this same situation with the same amount of points, then I would have minded less because we were so dominant last year. We blew games open, we very much had offense. This year? I think its our defense and goaltenders bailing us out more often than usual...and that means offensive prowess is down.
Oh but we have too many centers you say. Henrik and Kesler are above him in the depth chart, he'd never have opportunity to succeed here.
Good god man, Henrik and Kesler are only two people. If there were more centers, yes he'd have nowhere to go, but third-line center is an ideal place to develop a young player slowly, not to throw him against the dogs that is the more offensive forwards of the opposition and their high-caliber shut-down defensemen. Remember the playoffs? Kesler carried the entire team pass Nashville but disappeared afterwards due to injury, still played but wasn't the same. He couldn't even start this season in time due to surgery...it happened the year before as well! We always have some injury to some player somewhere, and our offense is down...that's why we need insurance like Hodgson. Not only that, but we always have this silly philosophy that we can't have too many defensemen...well we can't have too many centers either. They have a lot of responsibility in their position, and should either of our top two drop out...I fear for our chances for the cup.
It's not like we obtained Hodgson recently. We picked him in 2008, were so patient with him through the years...cheered for him in the World Juniors, watched him play in the Moose...followed him through his back problems, cheered for him to make the team every year out of camp. He finally gets to play on the team but is regulated to fourth-line minutes. I remember his first goal, cheered so hard for a young kid like him. It felt nice to have such a stellar rookie inside a deep team, when was the last time we had such an awesome rookie? We've had players developed into franchise players, but during their first years they merely had marginal points and minutes, and we weren't super excited like we were for Hodgson...their development, like Kesler or Burrows...were all a surprise. Even the Sedins, thought to only ever been second-line players, surprised us, but we never seemed all that excited about them in their first years.
And it isn't even the off-season...this is his first full year. He took so long to make the lineup and gain a respectable permanent spot on the roster, getting to know our players and learning his game only to suddenly and shockingly be traded in the middle of the season. Being first in the league, no doubt he was excited about having a large role in our playoffs, potentially returning to the finals just like last year with the teammates he's meshed well with lovely chemistry for many months...it feels so cruel to ship him off to a team in the East, a team not nearly as good and not even in a playoff spot. Sure he'll get more minutes, but there goes everything he's done here besides the points he's picked up, no wonder he sounded so heartbroken when he heard the news. (From a teammate no less, our GM couldn't even be bothered to tell him first)
Maybe I'd be less bothered if we actually landed someone who would help us right away. Yes we landed Zack Kassian, I actually like him, and while he may be younger...that's the problem, he's younger. He isn't going to step into our lineup and make an impact when he wasn't even on the main Buffalo roster in the East. Also he's nothing like Hodgson, which I suppose is the point, but when I say nothing I mean nothing. He wasn't on the team in Buffalo probably due to his lack of confidence crippling his play, and his frustrations with the team itself. He's a big guy who can hit and fight, a power forward with a lot of punch, but there goes that respectable aura of hockey sense we had in #9...and will he make the players around him better? Can he playmake as well or is he another shooter? The last thing we need are shooters, just look at our second line. I also thought we had powerforwards in Higgins, Kesler, and Booth...sure not necessarily pure powerfowards, but I really doubt the Canucks probably at the moment requires grit and toughness. I am extremely disappointed in our GM in reasoning that this trade was meant to improve grit and toughness, which is a mindset I am completely against.
We did not lose to Boston because we were soft. We had a long, tough playoff run to get there, and by that point Kesler was injured and probably one of the Sedins. As a result we could not score on their goaltender who was lights out. Oh, perhaps toughness would keep our players from being injured earlier in the playoffs you say? Yes, because being knocked out by a massive hit and having some tough guy come in and respond is going to magically heal our injured player. It's not going to stop others from hitting or fighting, and frankly fighting was always something I saw very rarely in the playoffs...the playoffs is about skill, not bullying others around until they succumb to your immature antics after you've made sure the referees weren't looking! I do not want our team to stoop to that level...we were trying to be like Detroit remember? The team with many cups obtained through sheer skill and character? Not Boston, who bullied their way to the cup? (Though with excellent goaltending)
If we needed grit and toughness, land a fourth-liner like Parros or something, obtain Ott...without giving up such a valuable asset. We have picks do not we not? Did no other team really not want Raymond? It's not like either of these players are ridiculously expensive like Nash...we didn't have to minus such a large part of our depth scoring for someone who may take a while before he starts clicking with the others, scoring and the like.
I am just highly disappointed at this turn of events...while I will still watch the games obviously, I sadly do not see another prospect like Hodgson entering our franchise anytime soon. It's not like he was playing bad, he was playing amazingly...and if this trade has anything to do with the coach...welp, that'll be a big addition to my reasons of disliking the coach. I've wanted him fired when we got rid of Nonis, wondering why in bloody hell we kept the coach...we obviously can't fire him now, not with the team doing so well...but I mean, we obviously don't need to trade such big pieces of our team...what with the team doing so well...or so I thought. His tendencies to pick favourites and not give certain players a chance will always annoy me, and he was outcoached each time we lost to Chicago...
This isn't some disappointment that will fade as time goes by, it's not an immediate thing. You see a player get picked, you follow his status for many years, he is finally succeeded at the level he wants to be and this happens...it feels very disheartening at the very least. I will see the team from this day forth with a big hole down that center, no longer will we have three lines of scoring...sure we got that center from Columbus, but he isn't a scorer...he's just a guy to help shutdown the other team. Perhaps with more defensive people like him we wouldn't need as much scoring? I don't know. I really, really don't know. I have confidence in this team to go deep into the playoffs and perhaps even bring home that elusive cup, but today I feel the chances have diminished.
I wonder where my hat went. Every player who's signed it is no longer on the team...my cursed, cursed hat, including the autographs of Bernier, Ehrhoff, and Hodgson...
Certainly did not expect something like this.
You'd think, being first in the West, no, first overall, we wouldn't be doing much, NEED to do much during the deadline...and yet we made the biggest splash. And it wasn't for a rental either! It was a trade that could've happened at any point during the season, most likely during the off-season yet we decided to do it now. I strongly believe the purpose and the only reason the Trade Deadline should be a prime time for trading itself is for poor teams to trade off rentals for picks in the future, or perhaps struggling players traded for others that require a change of scenery to fix up their careers, but certainly not this. Even if it was a team that required defense and therefore traded an unneeded center to a team lacking in depth in the middle for a defensemen would've made sense, but this was NOTHING of the sort!
I remember the comments the TSN analyst had very well when we drafted Cody Hodgson. He was a steal. He was a perfect pick because Linden had just retired. It wasn't just for his skills, the fact that he led Team Canada in points during the World Juniors! He was a smart hockey player, compared to Stamkos without the exploding speed. He was intelligent, could make the players around him better and he was a classy, classy player. He shined with charisma and leadership in his interviews and despite the rough patches he went through due to injuries and the media hounding him so much about it, he endured it through. Many people have said that he would be our future captain...he has character. But he is no longer on the Canucks, the Canucks who I think need this player a lot more than most people believe. This year our top two lines are scoring less...and we've had so many one-goal games this year. Think of all the times in the last month or so when we went to overtime or the shootout...so often, and Hodgson was the one who provided so much of that depth scoring required to go above that hurdle. If it were last year and Hodgson was in this same situation with the same amount of points, then I would have minded less because we were so dominant last year. We blew games open, we very much had offense. This year? I think its our defense and goaltenders bailing us out more often than usual...and that means offensive prowess is down.
Oh but we have too many centers you say. Henrik and Kesler are above him in the depth chart, he'd never have opportunity to succeed here.
Good god man, Henrik and Kesler are only two people. If there were more centers, yes he'd have nowhere to go, but third-line center is an ideal place to develop a young player slowly, not to throw him against the dogs that is the more offensive forwards of the opposition and their high-caliber shut-down defensemen. Remember the playoffs? Kesler carried the entire team pass Nashville but disappeared afterwards due to injury, still played but wasn't the same. He couldn't even start this season in time due to surgery...it happened the year before as well! We always have some injury to some player somewhere, and our offense is down...that's why we need insurance like Hodgson. Not only that, but we always have this silly philosophy that we can't have too many defensemen...well we can't have too many centers either. They have a lot of responsibility in their position, and should either of our top two drop out...I fear for our chances for the cup.
It's not like we obtained Hodgson recently. We picked him in 2008, were so patient with him through the years...cheered for him in the World Juniors, watched him play in the Moose...followed him through his back problems, cheered for him to make the team every year out of camp. He finally gets to play on the team but is regulated to fourth-line minutes. I remember his first goal, cheered so hard for a young kid like him. It felt nice to have such a stellar rookie inside a deep team, when was the last time we had such an awesome rookie? We've had players developed into franchise players, but during their first years they merely had marginal points and minutes, and we weren't super excited like we were for Hodgson...their development, like Kesler or Burrows...were all a surprise. Even the Sedins, thought to only ever been second-line players, surprised us, but we never seemed all that excited about them in their first years.
And it isn't even the off-season...this is his first full year. He took so long to make the lineup and gain a respectable permanent spot on the roster, getting to know our players and learning his game only to suddenly and shockingly be traded in the middle of the season. Being first in the league, no doubt he was excited about having a large role in our playoffs, potentially returning to the finals just like last year with the teammates he's meshed well with lovely chemistry for many months...it feels so cruel to ship him off to a team in the East, a team not nearly as good and not even in a playoff spot. Sure he'll get more minutes, but there goes everything he's done here besides the points he's picked up, no wonder he sounded so heartbroken when he heard the news. (From a teammate no less, our GM couldn't even be bothered to tell him first)
Maybe I'd be less bothered if we actually landed someone who would help us right away. Yes we landed Zack Kassian, I actually like him, and while he may be younger...that's the problem, he's younger. He isn't going to step into our lineup and make an impact when he wasn't even on the main Buffalo roster in the East. Also he's nothing like Hodgson, which I suppose is the point, but when I say nothing I mean nothing. He wasn't on the team in Buffalo probably due to his lack of confidence crippling his play, and his frustrations with the team itself. He's a big guy who can hit and fight, a power forward with a lot of punch, but there goes that respectable aura of hockey sense we had in #9...and will he make the players around him better? Can he playmake as well or is he another shooter? The last thing we need are shooters, just look at our second line. I also thought we had powerforwards in Higgins, Kesler, and Booth...sure not necessarily pure powerfowards, but I really doubt the Canucks probably at the moment requires grit and toughness. I am extremely disappointed in our GM in reasoning that this trade was meant to improve grit and toughness, which is a mindset I am completely against.
We did not lose to Boston because we were soft. We had a long, tough playoff run to get there, and by that point Kesler was injured and probably one of the Sedins. As a result we could not score on their goaltender who was lights out. Oh, perhaps toughness would keep our players from being injured earlier in the playoffs you say? Yes, because being knocked out by a massive hit and having some tough guy come in and respond is going to magically heal our injured player. It's not going to stop others from hitting or fighting, and frankly fighting was always something I saw very rarely in the playoffs...the playoffs is about skill, not bullying others around until they succumb to your immature antics after you've made sure the referees weren't looking! I do not want our team to stoop to that level...we were trying to be like Detroit remember? The team with many cups obtained through sheer skill and character? Not Boston, who bullied their way to the cup? (Though with excellent goaltending)
If we needed grit and toughness, land a fourth-liner like Parros or something, obtain Ott...without giving up such a valuable asset. We have picks do not we not? Did no other team really not want Raymond? It's not like either of these players are ridiculously expensive like Nash...we didn't have to minus such a large part of our depth scoring for someone who may take a while before he starts clicking with the others, scoring and the like.
I am just highly disappointed at this turn of events...while I will still watch the games obviously, I sadly do not see another prospect like Hodgson entering our franchise anytime soon. It's not like he was playing bad, he was playing amazingly...and if this trade has anything to do with the coach...welp, that'll be a big addition to my reasons of disliking the coach. I've wanted him fired when we got rid of Nonis, wondering why in bloody hell we kept the coach...we obviously can't fire him now, not with the team doing so well...but I mean, we obviously don't need to trade such big pieces of our team...what with the team doing so well...or so I thought. His tendencies to pick favourites and not give certain players a chance will always annoy me, and he was outcoached each time we lost to Chicago...
This isn't some disappointment that will fade as time goes by, it's not an immediate thing. You see a player get picked, you follow his status for many years, he is finally succeeded at the level he wants to be and this happens...it feels very disheartening at the very least. I will see the team from this day forth with a big hole down that center, no longer will we have three lines of scoring...sure we got that center from Columbus, but he isn't a scorer...he's just a guy to help shutdown the other team. Perhaps with more defensive people like him we wouldn't need as much scoring? I don't know. I really, really don't know. I have confidence in this team to go deep into the playoffs and perhaps even bring home that elusive cup, but today I feel the chances have diminished.
I wonder where my hat went. Every player who's signed it is no longer on the team...my cursed, cursed hat, including the autographs of Bernier, Ehrhoff, and Hodgson...
