This Is Not a Story: Roberto Luongo Edition

On Wednesday night, the Canucks continued their stellar streak, winning their 7th game in a row. They are 16-1-2 in their last 19 games. Daniel Sedin scored the 10,000th goal in franchise history. Luongo put up 43 saves and was named the 1st star of the game. And, oh yeah, he didn't come out onto the ice after being named the 1st star like he normally does.

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong. One of these things is not a story.

And yet, the coverage immediately following the game from both the Vancouver Sun and Province hockey blogs would seem to indicate that the biggest story of the entire night was Luongo not skating out for the first star. And Jason Botchford for the Province devoted an entire article to this complete non-story.

This is Not a Story: Cody Hodgson Edition

Don't worry, Cody, not all Canucks fans are drama queens.

The latest Canucks "news" making waves throughout the media is the drama surrounding whether Cody Hodgson will appear in the Young Stars Tournament that starts this Sunday. The Team 1040 has reiterated every single "Sports Update" the news that Cody Hodgson will be undergoing a medical evaluation by the Canucks and may not participate in the tournament at all! What terrible news! But what if the news you're reporting isn't actually news?

The Province's Canucks blog, The White Towel, initially made a fuss about Cody Hodgson not being in Vancouver yet, an absurd complaint as he's finishing a training regimen with Gary Roberts, who's swiftly become one of the most respected NHL trainers after some impressive results from Steven Stamkos last season. But that's not where the problems started. The issue arose from this quote from Laurence Gilman:

“For any player, we want to make sure he's fit to play,” said Gilman. “We haven't had a chance to conduct a (recent) medical evaluation (on Hodgson).”

This rather innocent quote is what started it all. The Team 1040 has been "reporting" every hour the alarming "news" that Cody Hodgson may not participate in the Young Stars Tournament until he passes a medical evaluation. The Kurtenbloggers took the opportunity to rehash every twist and turn in the Hodgson story, because of this latest "news."

So why is this not a story? Because every single prospect will be undergoing a medical evaluation before participating in prospects camp. Cody Hodgson is not undergoing some out of the ordinary medical evaluation because of his back problems last season; it's the same medical evaluation that all of the Canucks prospects will be participating in. Here's a relevant quote from the prospect camp press release:

27 players are scheduled to report to Rogers Arena on Friday, September 10th for pre-training camp medicals and testing.

That's right: 27 players are scheduled for pre-training camp medicals and testing. Twenty-seven. Not just Hodgson. Clearly, Gilman was asked a question specifically about Hodgson and he responded with the truth, that he would be undergoing the standard medical evaluation before participating in training camp. He even specified that they would do the same "for any player."

This is not a story. Stop trying to make it one.