Colorado Avalanche: Best Tweets about Erik Johnson

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson may be a little camera shy, but as a leader, he shows up on social media when necessary.

The Colorado Avalanche social media team was on point this season. They delivered a lot of high quality content.

One of the NHL’s greatest commodities is their talent — the players who comprise each team. These are the people fans get behind — and spend their money to go watch and to support via fan merchandise.

Well, I may be biased — ok, on this topic, I am biased — but the Colorado Avalanche is an exceptionally personable team. That said, their cornerstone defenseman and alternate captain, defenseman Erik Johnson, does his best to remain inscrutable.

Coverage of EJ started the same as with all the other players. The Avs social media team put together introductory videos that they released just before the season began.

Here is Erik Johnson’s:

t

What I like about this video — besides Erik’s trademark hockey smile — is captain Gabriel Landeskog’s description of Johnson’s unofficial nickname, The Condor. In fact, EJ got that nickname a couple years ago when Altitude TV analyist Kyle Keefe remarked that Johnson moved on the ice “Like a condor.” Asked later what he thought of that description, EJ admitted he didn’t know what a condor was.

FYI: It’s a predatory bird with a giant wingspan. You know, just like our cornerstone defenseman.

So, as I mentioned above, Johnson notoriously hates having the PR spotlight on him. It’s not that he won’t talk to the media — I’ve seen him field some of the deepest, darkest questions. It’s just that he doesn’t want to be featured in public relations media.

Here’s an example:

No, really, I’ve watched players shuffle by a camera en route to the dressing room. Johnson will actually leap past, trying to hide behind a teammate, which is funny since most of his teammates are smaller than he is.

As the Avs PR team noted, there was one time Erik didn’t shy away:

See, Erik, you’re a very engaging personality on social media. Also, a part of me thinks he effects this anti-media persona as a counter to his best bud’s media love. (I’m talking about the captain, Landeskog.)

Here’s another example of EJ being coy with the camera:

A player shooting the puck at the camera is a pretty classic shot.

When called upon, Johnson did plenty of PR videos for the Colorado Avalanche. In fact, he participated in the KeyBank Sweden Flyaway game show with Tyson Barrie… with hilarious results:

This laughing gif is the best ever:

He also hil

On a serious note, Johnson doesn’t shirk his responsibilities like he shirks video of himself. Just one year ago, Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston. Erik Johnson helped the Red Cross by making calls on behalf of the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts:

He was also hilariously bad at conducting interviews for the Avs Ice Breakers:

Maybe I see now why EJ sometimes shuns the camera.

You might not remember, but Erik Johnson is also an Olympian. He won silver with Team USA at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Well, recently, he and some other Olympians in Colorado visited patients at UCHealth:

Johnson is slowly developing into a veteran of the team. He recorded his 600th game this season:

And he played a lot in those games, especially this last season:

He also scored this beauty of an overtime goal:

Johnson has always been a leader on the team. This season he was finally awarded with the alternate captaincy — which is a role he’s long played:

He’s also known for being the prankster on the team — he’ll probably never grow out of that, no matter how “veteran” he gets:

Our Condor has come a long way from when he was the St. Louis Blues’ first-overall pick:

He also looks very dapper in his suit, all dressed up for the Kentucky Derby:

As much as Erik Johnson loves his racehorses — and he does love them — I know he’d much rather be playing hockey in early May. Hopefully he and the Colorado Avalanche will make that happen this season.