Colorado Avalanche: Erik Johnson Disproves the Scratching him for Nemeth Idea

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson has occasionally played badly — but overall his play is very beneficial to the team. No one should call for his being scratched.

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson had a bad game in Game 3 against the San Jose Sharks. According to Jared Bednar, about half the team did, but Johnson’t poor play was highlighted because he passed the puck straight to Sharks right wing Timo Meier then failed to stop the ensuing goal.

That’s the thing with Johnson — you usually don’t notice him until he does something spectacularly bad. He’ll be good for large portions of the game, then do that one really bad thing that makes everyone start crying for his head.

Because that’s what happened after Game 3. Avs fans weren’t calling for Johnson to be literally beheaded, but there was a faction on Twitter and in the comments sections of BSN Avalanche and The Athletic who seriously proposed sitting Johnson for Patrick Nemeth.

Since when did Nemeth stop being everyone’s favorite whipping boy?

I don’t know if readers on this site spend a lot of time also reading Avs insider Adrian Dater’s work, especially since it’s behind a paywall. I do, and a theme that comes out consistently in his observations is that players must function within their roles.

A lot of the previous criticism of Nemeth stems from an expectation of the defenseman to step outside of the third-pairing role he plays. He’s never going to be a speedy, puck-moving defenseman. He’s never even going to be a brilliant shut-down defenseman. And he’s certainly not going to be a cornerstone two-way defenseman who only makes the occasional, flashy mistake.

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That’s EJ. Everyone saying he’s having a “brutal” playoffs doesn’t get that’s he’s actually having a good playoffs with the occasional boneheaded mistake.

For example, Johnson is second only to Tyson Barrie in the amount of shots he’s taken as a defenseman — 15 to Barrie’s 22. You almost halve EJ’s shot total to get to the next two d-men — Nikita Zadorov and Ian Cole, both with 8. Yet he’s been cool-headed about taking penalties — two to Cole’s and Zadorov’s five apiece.

I’m not going to lie — Johnson leads all defensemen in giveaways with nine. However, he’s second only to Zadorov’s ridiculous 41 for number of hits given — 18. And he and Barrie are tied for second in hits taken, 22. (Cole leads the group with 31, and who can blame opponents?)

Johnson is a two-way d-man, not an offensive defenceman, so his offense totals aren’t going to be as high as a Barrie’s. However, he’s second to the rover in shot attempts (27 to Barrie’s 45), unblocked shot attempts (19 to 26), scoring chances (20 to 10) and high-danger scoring chances (2 to 3).

In other words, no, eye test notwithstanding, Johnson is not having a brutal playoffs. Like I said, you just don’t notice him until he does the bad, like with Meier.

What’s more, EJ owns his mistakes. After Game 4, Johnson told BSN Avalanche that he fully acknowledged he played like “sh*t” in Game 3. He continued, “Me and Colesy didn’t play very good last game.”

He detailed how he used that as fuel for their terrific Game 4:

"“It’s all about the response, right? It’s nice to have a little bit of a bounce-back game. We knew we needed to have a good one tonight, and if we’re going to have a chance in this series we have to play well. We knew we had to be better, and we were.”"

Yes, you were, EJ.

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Erik Johnson has that next level. Patrick Nemeth does not. Nemo had a good series against Calgary, but no matter what EJ does, Patrick shouldn’t be inserted in the lineup in place of our cornerstone defenseman.

Johnson is the longest-tenured member of this Colorado Avalanche team, a true leader in every sense of the word. He’s earned the right to skate every night with this team — and I think he should have earned a little leeway with fans, too.

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