Something to remember about Johnston...
Although I was shockingly impressed with how he went about doing things other than fighting, I know some people will think this guy is NOT an NHL player and is only here for one reason. However, in stating that, I think folks forget that he was also a pure rookie. He's a young man who took his first shifts in the NHL and he showed all of us that he was very capable of following the KISS principle. This allowed him to often get in on the puck first in the forecheck and keep the play in the opponents' end. This allowed him to make simple passing and shooting decisions. This allowed him to go to the net and make use of his very big body.
These are things that go a LONG way in making lower line players effective.
Again, he did this as a pure rookie. Sure, after 50-80 games, maybe we can expect more from him, but we can't look at those first 25 and automatically think that's all there is here.
Players grow with experience. Players learn with experience. Players start to make wiser decisions with experience. Heck, I think he showed a lot of ability to learn on the fly and become more and more stable. And it was quite clear that he was picking up on how to win board battles at this level.
I for one am excited to see what he'll be able to do for this team and would be ecstatic to see both him and Martin along with knats like Clutterbuck and Komarov, and then a wily Mayfield on the blueline, out there banging some bodies and eventually punching a few guys into the next time zone. Not for the sake of violence, but for the sake of creating a safe zone for our young talents and establishing utter respect from opponents who would otherwise take liberties.
