Erik Johnson’s Sexy Goal to Beat the Blackhawks
I promised the moments wouldn’t all come from this season. Here’s one of my favorite memorable moments from last season.
Erik Johnson didn’t score a lot of goals last season — just two, to be exact. However, his second goal of the year was the sexiest goal of the season.
Part of what I loved about that goal is that Johnson is a two-way defenseman. Sure, he’s expected to pot in some goals, but he’s mostly expected to shut down the top lines from scoring. What’s more, the Avs players did a lot of giving up last season. Johnson’s goal is an example of what can happen when an player doesn’t give up on a play.
Finally, the goal came against the Chicago Blackhawks, themselves a very skilled team. Yet once Johnson got going, it appeared that all they could do was stop and watch.
The goal came during three-on-three overtime. When you think of that kind of situation, you naturally think of your Nathan MacKinnons and Tyson Barrie’s. But in doing so, you’ll forget how much ice Erik Johnson’s smooth stride takes up — he glides down the ice as if it’s a mini-rink:
As I’ve said before, there’s nothing Avs-related that I love more than an Erik Johnson coast-to-coast goal — except maybe the game-winner in overtime to beat a Central Division rival.