News Article: Canucks send struggling players out to "ruin [themselves] for the night" in-season(?)

[PM]

If anything, a Change-Up is when they DONT go out and get hammered with a bunch of women. Getting hammered with a bunch of women is just a regular Wednesday night for most of these guys.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Bet you Aquilini tries to sue this guy

 

[PM]

Dan Murphy said he's never heard on anything like this in regards to the Canucks. He said this is also the same organization that took chocolate off the plane and didn't allow them to eat pizza.

And you're trying to tell me the organization allows them to go get smashed, as a "change up". Yeah, not buying this at all.

There is a difference between what this is being described as, and a player just living his life (like we have all done in our teens). I highly doubt the team tells the playes, "Go get smashed and do whatever you want, we approve...no chocolate or pizza though..."

All beer must be gluten-free. All late night dance moves must be rhythmic jazzercise.

 

[xtr3m]

Here's the audition video that got Hodgson drafted by the Canucks:

 

[Ryp37]

Dan Murphy said he's never heard on anything like this in regards to the Canucks. He said this is also the same organization that took chocolate off the plane and didn't allow them to eat pizza.

And you're trying to tell me the organization allows them to go get smashed, as a "change up". Yeah, not buying this at all.

There is a difference between what this is being described as, and a player just living his life (like we have all done in our teens). I highly doubt the team tells the playes, "Go get smashed and do whatever you want, we approve...no chocolate or pizza though..."

No pizza? No wonder no one wants to sign here

 

[Zombotron]

Here's the audition video that got Hodgson drafted by the Canucks:

Holy 2009 flashback

 

[Bad Goalie]

my favourite hypothesis: he was sitting next to derek sanderson, who used all of his considerable charm to convince the irish guy that he was sven baertschi.

Sanderson played in my heyday. He descended so far into the depths of alcoholism that he literally became a a skid row bum drinking from the bottle in a paper bag and passed out on the park bench. His life story is in book form and here is an actual documentary on it that many of you might have seen.

Drinking in those days by players at any level was prevalent night before, day of, between periods, and after the game. I haven't met many hockey players who don't like their beer.

Hockey players are also some of the biggest BS artists on the planet. A good lot are not well educated particularly back in Sanderson's day and before. They were hockey players from an early age and their education was never completed. They drank, they smoked, they womanized, and they played hockey the way lived or vice versa, HARD.

It's changed, but alcohol, beer in particular, is still part of the culture. They do still party. Every year we hear about some major issue with some team and the alcohol problems or partying or both. The Flyers with Carter and Richards and then the surfacing of the same problems in LA with the two at the center of the controversy. Kassian in Vancouver. Evander Kane wherever he goes. Patrick Kane with two major incidents back in Buffalo. There are many more and no team has been spared their story.

Yet, with all of this said, I can't believe this story from the standpoint of management encouraging such a prescription for dealing with a schneid. I think you have a combination of guys having a pop or 2 and the alumni displaying their party behavior reminiscing about the good old days and a Irish writer falling for a ruse.

 

[PM]

He must have been one of those pre-whiskey irishmen (being half-Irish I feel this isn't too offensive):

 

[me2]

I could still see stuff like this happening around the league.

We know players drink and party in season. Hardly a surprise in a league that has a game roughly every two days. In a weekend based league, you can play Friday night, get drunk Saturday and Sunday and still have 4 or 5 days to get ready for the next game.

Going out and getting smashed as some sort of stress reliever/reset/bad luck breaking technique, I can believe that too. I doubt it is a common thing, but old school thinking/superstitions could all still be used. It's not hard to see a bunch of 20-something convincing their teammate to do it.

 

[Captain Bowie]

What a load of .....

If you read the actual interview from the Irish newspaper, the only thing he actually uses as "evidence" of such a crazy alcoholic culture is the fact that Gudbranson and another unnamed player has A beer during a team funciton on a day off. Everything else he says is unverified/unverifiable/vauge garbage.

 

[D0ctorCool]

I choose to take this article at face value and hereby demand the resignation of Jim 'The Change-Up' Benning.

 

[ChilliBilly]

What a load of .....

If you read the actual interview from the Irish newspaper, the only thing he actually uses as "evidence" of such a crazy alcoholic culture is the fact that Gudbranson and another unnamed player has A beer during a team funciton on a day off. Everything else he says is unverified/unverifiable/vauge garbage.

Glad to see one rational statement. Can't be bothered to read the rest of the BS on here.

And the 3 beer in 5 seconds was more like 7 seconds. I had a friend in university who could do that. (watched him win a bet where he drank 8 pub beer in 40 seconds ... he had like 15 seconds to drink the last one ...)

 

[y2kcanucks]

Glad to see one rational statement. Can't be bothered to read the rest of the BS on here.

And the 3 beer in 5 seconds was more like 7 seconds. I had a friend in university who could do that. (watched him win a bet where he drank 8 pub beer in 40 seconds ... he had like 15 seconds to drink the last one ...)

I'm proud of my ability to chug a beer but even I can't do that. That's just like pouring water down a drain...impressive.

After my training camp that I'm doing for the next couple months I could certainly use a change-up.

 

[thepuckmonster]

New slogan next year from the marketing department:

"Change Up is Coming"

 

[Ryp37]

New slogan next year from the marketing department:

"Change Up is Coming"

 

[The Stig]

I don't see the big deal. Used to have beers before the game all the time. Hell in Junior, guys would have chewing tobacco in during play.

 

[Horse McHindu]

Wasn't really sure if this fit into any existing thread, but felt it was interesting enough to warrant its own.

The Canucks apparently were involved in a sports-swap program, basically similar to an exchange student program but with sports, instead. A few interesting tidbits...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gae...els-of-drinking-and-fighting-in-nhl-1.3003990



Nothing too revelatory there. Players drink on off days, fighting is currently still a part of the sport.



Again, nothing overly revealing. Other sports pay a bit more attention to the effects of beer and alcohol on player performance, especially in-season, but I guess that's not a North American thing.

Here's where it gets interesting.



That... doesn't really sound particularly effective at all. That sounds like a 70s-80s mindset. If this is going on regularly, is it any wonder that players like Virtanen or Kassian have the fitness/partying issues they do or did? The "boys will be boys" mindset is a dangerous thing for a young player.

As for the "science" behind it... I think it's safe to say that that's never been a concern or entered the thought process of current management.

I can't see this being true.........and there's no way Linden would stand for something like that.

Smells like BS to me.

 

[DadBod]

I'm proud of my ability to chug a beer but even I can't do that. That's just like pouring water down a drain...impressive.

After my training camp that I'm doing for the next couple months I could certainly use a change-up.

What training are you doing?

 

[Horse McHindu]

Bet you Aquilini tries to sue this guy

He would be well within his right to.

 

[Rick Rocket]

this article sucks

 

[Hollywood Burrows]

Bet you Aquilini tries to sue this guy

Oh please. This is a bit of free PR for the Canucks brand overseas. It looks good for the TV show. Nobody is that upset. The statement from Linden is just playing along.

Mods should close this thread imo, this is a "nothingburger"

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Those guys just borrowed an old baseball story and sold it to a naïve guy from overseas. They pretty much gave away where they stole it from by calling it a "change-up".

Look up slumpbuster, or "jump on a grenade", or even just Mark Grace and it will be pretty obvious where it came from. Not that hockey doesn't have it's share of alcohol stories. This was just too specific, and obvious, not to be a put on.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

New slogan next year from the marketing department:

"Change Up is Coming"

TPM, if we were doing playoff avatars this year, I'd nominate this as our slogan.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I personally think it's hilarious. I've lived in Ireland, and if I were on the team I'd take it as a badge of macho honour that we stunned an Irishman with the amount we drank. Seriously, that entire island's like permawasted 24/7.

 

[nowhereman]

I have trouble seeing Jim Benning or Trevor Linden telling their young athletes to go get s***-faced and laid by multiple women, in an effort to bump a slump. Doesn't quite seem like their style, lol.