Topper wrote:Cody was no where near traffic or the front of the net on his goal. Did someone mention Jason King in another thread? That goal was the result of hard work by Lappy and the strong net presence of Volpatti.
Oh, the Edler goal, the one where Cody cruised uncontested with Flame' defenders, Kesler did the same if you look, but man was he tough when he got flattened after the goal. As I said, incompetent coverage, not hard offence, and you already mentioned his defensive gaffs.
Could you please give us your definition of "near the front of the net"? Hodgson was 2-3 feet outside the blue ice when he scored. It was a very smart play to back door a defense that had shown poor coverage and was not paying attention to him. We have been missing chances like that on a routine basis, going back a few seasons.
On Edler's goal, the Calgary defender was in his face at the edge of the faceoff circle and on him like glue until he buried him at the top of the crease. There were also a few replays, shown on canucks.com, of close chances the team had in the first period and low and behold, right there at the edge of the crease in Hodgson with a defender in front of him or two on his back. Don't give us this BS that he's useless in traffic or not going into it.
There have been plenty of times where we have faced incompetent coverage and weak defense and come up short. How many times has Henrik gone the chicken-shit route and been given accolades for his play. Hank's goal against the Capital's is a perfect example, he hung back out of traffic then put the loose puck in the net when it came to him. A smart play. You are blasting Hodgson for not being the type of player you want him to be. Instead you should consider that he has 5 points (3G-2A) in 12 games and is an even +/-, those stats are already better than he has put up in his limited experience in previous years, and he hasn't even had a string of 4 games with the same linemates yet. Hodgson was not drafted to drive the net through traffic, he was drafted because he thinks the game well, has good hands, good passing ability, and would be a contributing
piece of a line.