A few years ago, my husband and I went to Chris and Marie Hodgsons 25th anniversary at their cottage in Haliburton, Ontario, a place that deserves a pin on the middle-of-nowhere map.
A couple of days later I was driving along a country road and wondering how Id send them a CD of photos from the party, when I passed a lone bicyclist. I pulled over and flagged him down. It was Cody Hodgson, the second of Chris and Maries four children, and I gave him the CD to take home.
Cody was doing his twice-weekly 35 km bike ride from his cottage into the village where hed meet up with his childhood friend Matt Duchene (who now plays with the Colorado Avalanche) and work out at a fitness studio owned by former NHLer Ron Stackhouse. Stackhouse grew up in Haliburton, as did Bernie Nicholls (LA Kings, Edmonton Oilers). When Cody and Matt go for lunch at the Haliburton restaurant owned by retired NHLer Walt McKechnie and get their skates sharpened across the street by Glen Sharpley, whose eye injury cut short his NHL career. The Stanley Cup has been in Haliburton, once when the Avalanches Mike Ricci brought it to his cottage and several times for fundraisers courtesy of retired NHL referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison.
You can imagine how excited everyone was when Cody was the 10th NHL draft pick in 2008 and he proudly posed in his Canucks jersey. My colleague, Greg Hoekstra (who now works for the Vancouver Board of Trade) was in Ottawa that night to report on Codys success:
Of course, as [his father] Chris points out, being drafted isnt necessarily a free ticket to the NHL. Cody will have still have to train ardently to keep in top physical shape, and near the end of the summer he hopes to be called out to the Canucks training camp where hell have to battle against seasoned pros to impress the coaching staff and prove hes worth making the team.
Family and friends agree that what set Cody apart was his drive and dogged determination to always improve his game and one day make it to the NHL.
Jim Winn, who coached Cody as a Husky, remembers driving out to the Hodgson house on Saturday mornings to pick up the six-year-old for practice, only to find him outside shooting pucks through a tire hanging from a rope.
He always had the talent, but it really was his work ethic that brought him here. He just never lost his focus, says Winn.
One of the things that life in a small town teaches you is accountability. If you say something stupid, do something stupid, everyone will know about it. Theres no anonymity to hide behind, especially if youre a young hockey player whose every career move has been followed in the local paper. Youd be hard pressed to find anyone in Haliburton who would have anything bad to say about Cody.
Thats why, for those who know him, last weeks comments by Canucks general manager Mike Gillis were so disturbing. Gillis portrayed Cody as a needy complainer, echoes of coach Alain Vigneaults comments a couple of years earlier when he hinted that Cody was simply whining about a back injury Cody sustained in off-ice training. (It turns out the Canucks had misdiagnosed it.)
Cody, a complainer? Stoic, hard-working, Ill-accept-being-sent-back-to-the-Manitoba-Moose-if-its-for-the-good-of-the-team Cody? Cody not only loves the game but he knows its his job to play well and he takes that responsibility seriously.
Were Gillis and Vigneault so stung by criticisms of how they handled Cody, who until he was traded to the Sabres was being touted as a Rookie of the Year, that they tried to pin the blame on him? Cody has been nothing but a gentleman in all the interviews about his time with the Canucks, publicly accepting all the decisions that were made about him and defending Gillis and Vigneaults right to make them.
Leaping to his defence in a Buffalo newspaper is another NHL veteran Gary Roberts, whos worked alongside Cody in summer training sessions. If anybody knew this kid, this young man, to know what he went through mentally and physically for two summers trying to find out what the heck was wrong with him of course they dealt with his issues more than anybody else because he was injured and they couldnt figure out what was wrong with him, Roberts told Buffalo News. It almost was like they thought he didnt want to work. Well, I can tell you that this kid out of all the kids that I train, hes up there in the [Steven] Stamkos group as far as commitment and determination. What I tell him, he does, so I know hes coachable and I love working with him.
Its Gillis and Vigneault who appear as the complainers, trying to put the blame on an easy scapegoat. Theyve abused their position and done a disservice to fans, as well as Cody. Gillis and Vigneault wouldnt last a week in Haliburton. They dont pass the accountability test.
WE editor Martha Perkins is the former editor of the Haliburton County Echo.
