There’s been a bit of a debate raging on in the last little while with hockey bloggers and the self-styled ‘mainstream media.’ It started off with some Toronto Maple Leafs bloggers taking issue with the Toronto Sun lifting material of their own wholesale and without attribution. This led to potshots being taken from both sides, mainstream journalists like Steve Simmons wading in on Twitter and Damien Cox (probably) blocking a bunch of people on Twitter in response.

Pretty typical as far as Internet slapfights go, although notable due to the fact that this was yet another instance of ‘bloggers’ getting another strike of credibility as the mainstream media continues to lavish attention on the greasy, unwashed blogger masses.

No one.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t a number of worthy candidates for the Canucks now-vacant captaincy slot, which was vacated Monday by Roberto Luongo. Ryan Kesler fits the bill of the gritty hardworking captain hasn’t been seen in Vancouver for quite some time, while Daniel and Henrik Sedin are the longest tenured Canucks and both could make strong cases for themselves as being quiet, lead by example types in the mold of fellow countrymen and former Canucks captain Markus Naslund. Henrik, admittedly, is the popular vote of the two Sedin twins, but don’t be fooled by the rocks that he’s got: either Sedin could fill the slot.

So the news came out today that Cody Hodgson will not be participating in the Young Stars tourney this weekend after a medical evaluation yesterday did not clear him to play. Unfortunate news, given that Hodgson has now been injured for over a year and has missed a lot of hockey in between then and now.

Compounding the issue is the fact that team doctors, as well as the doctors Hodgson consulted for a second opinion, completely missed the source of his injury: a muscle tear in his back, rather than the bulging disc that was originally thought to be the cause of his problems. I think it is important to note that both the Canucks medical personnel and Hodgson’s doctor misdiagnosed things. One, it allows the online contingent of Canucks fans to start calling for trainer Roger Takahashi’s head again and two, it unfortunately justifies Hodgson’s decision to seek further medical treatment for his injury. Something was going on and he had the foresight to try and do something about it.

At any rate, while it is disappointing that Hodgson won’t be playing soon, Canucks brass are still expecting him to show up at the main training camp, where he may be able to carve out a spot for himself on the main roster. With Alex Burrows out of the lineup and a potential third line spot available, there is a chance, however small, that Hodgson could make the team straight out of training camp.

That’s putting the cart before the horse, though. The first thing Hodgson needs is to get cleared to actually play. Once he’s reached that point, he needs to have a strong training camp to justify his spot on the team. I’m working on a longer blog post right now talking about the Canucks and the big thing that’s jumping out to me right now is that, outside of the very top players on the team (Sedins, Kesler, Luongo) things are wide open in terms of availability, especially since both Burrows and Salo are expected to miss the start of the season. Thus, simply being a talented and highly regarded prospect isn’t going to be enough for Hodgson, although I don’t think he’ll have problems putting forth the effort.

Hodgson has shown that he is willing to work hard: his decision to ‘work through’ his injury at last year’s training camp probably resulted in a major setback in his recovery, but shows that he’s willing to put in the work necessary to make the NHL.

I also have to wonder if the decision to not have Hodgson cleared to play was up to Mike Gillis. I will add a disclaimer right here and say that I am a fan of Cody Hodgson and am feverently hoping that he’s more or less healthy, so take the next bit here with a grain of salt. Anyway…

One word that could probably be used to describe Gillis, admittedly only based on what’s been presented in the media, is meticulous. He likes planning things out and constantly refers to plans or strategies in interviews, moreso than other NHL GMs who like to talk about the job they’re doing.

There was the Off-Season Plan, the Defense Plan, the Bottom Six Plan, the Road Trip From Hell Plan, the Planning Things Out Plan, the Flan Plan, etc. it’s a nice trait to have for an NHL GM (those who doubt me probably went to the Darryl Sutter ‘Seat of Your Pants’ School of Business) and I don’t mind it, even if he manages to ruffle a few feathers here and there (see: player’s opinions on the sleep experts.)

Gillis has shown that he likes to be very involved with running the Canucks, the introduction of the sleep experts being a team-wide example of such. He’s also shown a knack for micromanaging things: see the Kyle Wellwood Blowaway Diet for an example of what I’m talking about. Gillis clearly likes to remain in the loop when it comes to his players and isn’t above stepping in when he deems it necessary to do so, even if it may be contrary to the player in question’s wishes, such as Gillis’ decision to change goaltending coaches without first consulting Roberto Luongo, or the rumour that Luongo is going to have less of a say in when and how much he plays this coming season.

Hodgson was described as being ‘upbeat’ yesterday prior to his medical evaluation and said he felt ready to play. I’d imagine that if the choice were up to him, Hodgson would probably be suiting up this weekend. Unfortunately, the last time he made a judgment call like that it didn’t exactly work out for him and he missed most of last season due to an injury. Thus, it’s not a huge stretch to think that maybe, just maybe, Mike Gillis decided to intervene here. Take a few more days to fully go over everything and make sure Hodgson is 100% ready to go for training camp and go from there.

Go over every single test, check and re-check things and make sure everything is in order. Don’t leave anything to chance. Everything looks fine? Test and check again.

Yeah, it may sound a little too focused on the details, but it also fits Mike Gillis’ MO.

Hey! Long time no see. Sorry about the general lack of blog updates as of late…summer can be weird about taking oneself away from the computer. But I found myself with some downtime and thought I’d give my thoughts on what looks to be a fairly important day for the Canucks.

For those unaware, Mason Raymond’s arbitration ruling is set to be handed down later today. This is important for a number of reasons: first, there is a lot of anxiety over exactly how much Raymond will end up with in his arbitration award. Atlanta Thrashers forward Clarke MacArthur ended up with a $2.4M award last week, a rather substantial contract for someone who only notched 16 goals and 35 points last season. The Thrashers chose to walk away from the ruling, something which Mike Gillis could do if he were so inclined. So, whether or not Raymond stays with the club and how much he’d cost were he to stay will be known today.

Despite Canada Day being a national holiday, Mike Gillis was hard at work for the Canucks, with 4 players getting signed to deals. Interestingly enough, this wasn’t a disappointing July 1st in terms of fan expectations: Mike Gillis said he was going to go out and find another defenseman and upgrade the bottom six and that’s precisely what he did.

Dan Hamhuis is clearly the centerpiece in today’s free agent signings. Hamhuis turned down more lucrative contracts in order to sign with the Canucks. The $4.5M/6 year deal looks pretty good, too. Hamhuis is 27, so his deal would take him until he’s 33. He also has potential to put up points: his rookie season saw him tally 38 points total.

Wow. Huh.

So Mike Gillis and the Vancouver Canucks opted to make a deal with the Florida Panthers. Unlike the Indiana Jones franchise, it seems that making yet another trip to the well has paid off for the Canucks, as they obtained defenseman Keith Ballard and forward prospect Victor Oreskovich in exchange for Steve Bernier, Michael Grabner and the Canucks 1st round pick in this year’s draft.

Many folks are screaming bloody murder over the deal, believing that the Canucks were ripped off or overpaid. I will admit that I was initially one of those folks, although I will attribute that to my being a fan of Grabner and being a little irrational when hearing that the Austrian had been traded. Having given it some more thought, though, I actually really like the deal. Broken down, it makes a lot of sense and isn’t as bad as one would think.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Whao, hey! Yeah, I’m still here.  I recently found work in a rather stressful/time consuming job so there’s been less time for Tweeting and blogging.  I’ve also been working on some creative fiction, which has also eaten into my blogging time. Apologies all three of you (Mom, Dad and my pet) who frequent this blog.

So the NHL Awards were tonight and Henrik Sedin just won the Hart. I’d just like to take the time to say…

Check out what I wrote back in January if you don’t believe me!

I should have some stuff up on Friday for the NHL Entry Draft, as well. Til then, I think I’m just going to bask in the awesomeness of Hank’s Hart trophy.

So the Canucks season ended last night. Honestly, I want to say that it took me by surprise and bowled me over, but it wasn’t the case. Going into the series I was feeling strangely confident about the Canucks. Yes, they had been beaten by the Blackhawks last season, but this year was going to be different.

There was talk about the newfound purpose and focus the Canucks had and that they weren’t merely happy to have made it to the second round. Unfortunately, it didn’t do them a whole lot of good as Chicago slowly but surely took them over and curbstomped them.

Forewarning: Despite being a geek and a bit of a comic book nerd I’ve never really sunk myself into Iron Man all that much. I’m somewhat familiar with the character, most of it dealing with the 80s version of Tony Stark/Iron Man.  So if my understanding is fundamentally flawed, sorry. Also, I do have a Canucks post in the pipeline. I’d just like to take a little while to get away from the sting of having been eliminated. Probably a little later tonight, okay?

So I had caught Iron Man 2 the other day and it was an interesting flick. How interesting could a run of the mill summer action flick based on a comic book title actually be? Well, given that I am a gigantic fan of The Dark Knight and everything Christopher Nolan did with that particular film and the first Iron Man flick, I had to say that I was hoping for more good things.

The question for me, though, after watching Iron Man 2 was whether the film was a poorly constructed neoconservative’s wetdream or a clever satire on American foreign policy/militaristic attitudes that was limited due to the film’s subject matter.

There is a third option, of course: I’m fucking overanalyzing the hell out of the film, so keep that one in mind as I go through this review.

Tonight was a very interesting game, if you’re a fan or have been following the Canucks.

The talk going into this series is that the Canucks ‘wanted’ the Blackhawks, who ousted them last year in the playoffs. There was talk from the Canucks that they weren’t going to let Byfuglien bother them and they were going to take a measured, disciplined approach.