Colorado Avalanche Missing Erik Johnson’s Hockey
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson has missed 26 games this season after having arthroscopic knee surgery. The Avalanche have gone 14-10-2 in that time. He’s expected to miss at least two more games.
Though the record is not bad for the Avalanche, the team misses Erik Johnson’s style of hockey. He could have made the difference in some of those games.
Erik Johnson’s Playing Style
Erik Johnson is a true two-way defenseman, meaning he’s good both on offense and defense. He is renowned for his skating ability — he’s strong on skates, and in the long haul, he’s even faster than Matt Duchene. (It’s the long stride.) He also has finesse in his skating — when he’s playing man-on-man defense, he’s impossible to escape.
Johnson is strong on the puck, too. He may not have the most accurate of shots, but he’s got a bomb from the point. He’s also capable of making routine tape-t0-tape passes.
Johnson is also big — 6-foot-4, around 230 pounds. His size and strength make him very difficult to knock down. Conversely, he can deliver big, bone-jarring hits. His size also allows him to barrel through opponents.
Lately, Erik Johnson has also been garnering praise for his hockey IQ. He’s been seeing the ice like he’s a chess master. In fact, head coach Patrick Roy praised him as the Avalanche’s best player before the injury took him out of the game.
Johnson is not perfect — he’s capable of being out of position or committing over costly giveaways. However, all players make mistakes. He’s a positive to the team far more often than he’s a negative.
Early Games
Erik Johnson contributed early and contributed often. Even when the rest of the team was in shambles, he played solid hockey. In 47 games, he recorded 12 goals and 11 assists and went a plus-2 — this was at a time when almost all the Avalanche players were in the minus category.
His 12 goals still leads all Avalanche defensemen, by the way.
Johnson was a force. He got thrown out of the home opener because of a check — that ultimately turned out to be legal — on Minnesota Wild forward Erik Haula. Not that getting ejected is a good thing, but it proved his intensity for the team.
In the midst of the Avalanche’s scoring troubles, Johnson even recorded his first-ever two-goal night against the St. Louis Blues. Unfortunately, he was the only Avalanche player to score, so the Avs lost.
Erik Johnson’s solid two-way game prompted head coach Patrick Roy to call him the team’s best player — bar none, and that includes goalie Semyon Varlamov. Johnson was also the only Avalanche player to be nominated for the All Star Weekend, though he had to miss because of the knee pain that led to arthroscopic surgery.
Which is where we are now — waiting for Johnson to return from his knee scoping procedure.
Recent Games
More from Avalanche News
- Could Colorado Avalanche move on from Pavel Francouz next offseason?
- 4 goalies to replace Pavel Francouz if he has to miss time
- Colorado Avalanche make sneaky signing with Tatar
- Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog could return in 2023-24 playoffs
- Colorado Avalanche rookie face-off tournament roster
The Colorado Avalanche are in a tough playoff race. It pains me to say they’re not making the playoffs. The way they’re playing now, they deserve a playoff spot. Unfortunately, they just dug themselves in too deep early on.
Johnson being in the line up may not have changed that outcome. After all, he played 47 of the first 48 games, missing one after a scary hit by Arizona Coyotes center Martin Hanzal.
Nonetheless, I have found at least two places in recent games where Erik Johnson would have made a defensive difference in the game — perhaps enough of a difference to change the outcome.
One of the plays was the Justin Fontaine shot that put the Minnesota Wild up 2-1 in the February 28 game. The Avalanche had just killed a penalty, but Fontaine received the puck from Minnesota that horrible Erik Haula in the slot. Johnson’s usual defensive partner, Jan Hejda, was on the ice but was unable to stop the two-on-one.
Johnson would have stopped the two-on-one. He would have been stuck to his player like super glue, and the play would never have developed. The Wild wouldn’t have taken the lead, and maybe the Avs would have gotten at least a point.
And Johnson would have stopped Anaheim Ducks forward Corey Perry in overtime.
The Colorado Avalanche faced the Anaheim Ducks in an all-important game on March 20. Though the Ducks’ playoff berth is pretty well cemented, the Avalanche needed to drop their conference rivals. Unfortunately, the Ducks are a playoff-ready machine, and they out-played the Avs for most of the game. Nonetheless, the Avalanche managed to take the game to overtime.
And then Corey Perry happened.
The Avalanche had started overtime strong, putting pressure on Anaheim goalie Frederik Andersen. Unfortunately, about 1:20 into the overtime, Corey Perry poke checked the puck away from defenseman Brad Stuart.
Now, with the likes of Perry on the ice, coach Roy would have likely had Johnson out there. Perry probably wouldn’t have been able to steal the puck from EJ — Johnson’s just too strong on the puck.
Even if Perry had managed to gain possession, Johnson would have overtaken him. He would have disrupted the play. He’s that fast. However, no one as fast as Johnson was on the ice, so Perry scored the game-winning goal in overtime.
In that game at least, Erik Johnson would have a made the difference between a loss and a win.
So, yes, the Colorado Avalanche miss Erik Johnson’s hockey in a big way.
More from Mile High Sticking
- Could Colorado Avalanche move on from Pavel Francouz next offseason?
- 4 goalies to replace Pavel Francouz if he has to miss time
- Colorado Avalanche make sneaky signing with Tatar
- Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog could return in 2023-24 playoffs
- Colorado Avalanche rookie face-off tournament roster
&More About Erik Johnson
Facts About Erik Johnson’s Type of Knee Surgery
Avs Players Need to Step Up in Johnson’s Absence
Johnson Necessary Aspect of Avs Defense