Very fair, candid assessment...
And rebuttal to Takeo's semi-troll.
@Jame - you were a strong advocate of Hodgson at time of trade, fostered in part by your rather deep exposure to a lot more NHL games & teams than some of us see / follow.
When did you sour on him / his abilities as likely asymptoted - e.g., the defensive positioning / awareness, limited ability to create offense off his own stick?
a few weeks into this season. and it really had nothing to do with skill, and everything to do with heart/work ethic/effort/etc.
i came into the season knowing this team would be horrible (it simply lacks the most important core ingredients), but I expected a Ted Nolan team (i know that's cliche. And I'm honestly not a Nolan fan), to exhibit a particular level of effort.
You can see how the culture change has happened. I haven't had to question the effort from the vast majority of this team. They lack talent, and possession drivers. But they show up. It looks ugly a lot of the time, but the effort is there.
Hodgson came out of the gate collecting a pay check. I could live with his warts while he was developing, the skills were evident. And if some of the weaknesses never got corrected, I could've lived with it. But to come out this year, in this situation, the way he did... just completely soured me for good.
for comparison... it's funny because I dislike almost everything about Ennis as a hockey player. but i've never had to question his heart/work. With players like Ennis the good is never going to outweigh the bad (imo). I've now reached that point with Hodgson as well.
I'll admit, Hodgson has actually looked better in the last week or so... from an effort standpoint.
