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Over the first 3 games Hodgson has either been our 4th or 5th best forward depending on who you ask.
If he maintains that level of play through the rest of the games leading up to Keslers return then the Canucks will be forced to make one of the more dificult and interesting decisions we have seen in a while.
This team was essentially built around a 2-way kesler led second line, and an ultra defensive and hard nosed 3rd line.
Codys defensive game is fine but he really doesn't fit into the third group and given we have 2 of the best players in the league locking down the top2 center spots there is obviously no room there.
The easy thing to do would be to send him down to the AHL and just use him as an injury reserv, but if things remain the same in terms of his play that would seem incredibly unfair.
I would be more than unfair, it would a stupid move in terms of his development. Look how quickly Crosby matured as a rooking playing with Lemieux. Granted the situation was vastly different (and I'm not saying CoHo is another Crosby) as the Pen's were planning to build around Sid, but all the same, Hodgson is a young player who thinks the game very well at both ends, putting him back in the AHL will put him in a position where he is playing top minutes, but he won't be garnering experience like he would if he was practicing with the big boys and playing beside one of, if not the best two-way centers in the NHL.
Moving to the wing from C is not as much of a transition as people seem to think, especially in the Canuck's system where coming back on defense the first forward back fills that center role to a degree until the rest of the team in back in the zone, and then they adjust. Moving from the wing to center is a bigger switch as you have added responsibility. The only adjustment for Hodgson would be crashing the corners. Moreover, it's not always our center bringing the puck into the zone, we often carry it in up the wing and go from there, and that is a role in which Hodgson would excel if he has two savvy skaters in Kesler and Higgins to hit with the puck in a scoring position.
Potatoe1 wrote:Over the first 3 games Hodgson has either been our 4th or 5th best forward depending on who you ask.
More of an indictment of the rest of our forwards than cudus to Cody.
Regardless of whether Silent G is better than most of our other forwards or most of our other forwards are worse than Silent G, it probably means he's going to be around for awhile.
Most of the guys he is outperforming now are not known for consistency, so he might well outperform them later in the season even if the current state of affairs does not last.