The All Purpose "Jack Johnson Sucks" Thread

[Empoleon8771]

No. You don’t ****ing send him out because he’s such a negative. Carrying Johnson should not influence decisions; making Johnson work should not be a top priority. Anything that involves playing him is wrong. Playing him is just varying degrees of wrong and in different ways. They’ve tried and failed to make him work. Now the only answer is to sit his ass in the press box and hope someone will take him.

The discussion is playing him with Malkin or playing him with the bottom-6, not playing him or not. Sullivan isn't in a position to not play him, so I'm not going to criticize him for playing him. This has nothing to do with making "Johnson work", it's minimizing the damage he's doing with using him the best you can.

If he's going to be playing, I want it to be limited minutes on the bottom pair with the bottom-6 to allow Malkin more free range offensively. That's what I criticize Sullivan for doing, playing Johnson with Malkin. He doesn't have to do that.

 

[Speaking Moistly]

The discussion is playing him with Malkin or playing him with the bottom-6, not playing him or not. Sullivan isn't in a position to not play him, so I'm not going to criticize him for playing him. This has nothing to do with making "Johnson work", it's minimizing the damage he's doing with using him the best you can.

If he's going to be playing, I want it to be limited minutes on the bottom pair with the bottom-6 to allow Malkin more free range offensively. That's what I criticize Sullivan for doing, playing Johnson with Malkin. He doesn't have to do that.

And both are terrible options. You drag Malkin down or you create a colossal black hole. Both will kill you. It’s like picking which leg you want to be shot in. You’re still getting shot in the damn leg. You want the likely but kind of lazy statistical answer to minimizing the damage?

Guentzel-Crosby-Hornqvist would give you the highest corsi
Pearson-Malkin-Hornqvist would be the least hurt by Johnson by corsi

Johnson-Letang would drag him along the best.

Load them up with OZs and the weakest QoC you can find. That’s how you minimize the damage. It isn’t Johnson in the defensive zone with the bottom 6 and whichever defenseman is his victim. It’s whichever of the best players can tread water the best with him. Play him that spot for a low number of ES minutes a night and let Dumoulin take the other shifts with Letang. Maybe you let Crosby and Malkin split the honour. Of course there’s only one Hornqvist so Simon would sub in for one of the lines.

If he must play. Screw it, play 7 D and they can pretend he’s a PK beast because that’s less ridiculous than what I proposed. I’m not giving Sullivan a pass on this. JR has his hands all over it but Sullivan isn’t innocent. There is no viable answer that has Johnson playing. One of them needs to realize that and force the issue.

 

[Crosbyfan]

Lead the Team in icetime yesterday with 31:08 after Letang and Dumoulin went down.
Given that, one of his better efforts.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Every now and then I just like to click on this thread, hangout and sob uncontrollably. 5 minutes (1 for every year of the contract) seems to do the trick.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

 

[MeinerEiner]

This is very interesting...​

 

[Peat]

He's also had a +5 in the 13 games of Feb, in which time he had an ATOI of 20:35.

I no longer understand the world but if this can continue, that'd be really sweet.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I think Johnson may be one of those weird players that is more effective the more you play him. Letang is in the same boat, where limiting his minutes and easing his competition actually hurts his performance. I think you see it with a lot of athletic and low IQ players, those guys get hurt when they're thinking instead of just playing and you're doing a lot more thinking against easier competition. You have a lot less time when going against guys like Crosby vs guys like Bjugstad, which is better for the low IQ players who make bad decisions with more time.

 

[Pancakes]

His possession numbers haven't changed in a noticeable way in the past two but he has gone two games without being on the ice for a goal and I think that's an accurate representation of how well he has played. He's not dominating possession, but he is defending well.

 

[CrosbyMalkin]

His possession numbers haven't changed in a noticeable way in the past two but he has gone two games without being on the ice for a goal and I think that's an accurate representation of how well he has played. He's not dominating possession, but he is defending well.

He looks much better playing LD. Although he was fairly decent playing his off side with Pettersson for many games until that started falling apart. Bottom line is he has been a +10 player since his first 25 games while playing top 4 minutes in most of those games and even top 3, 2, and 1 minutes for some of those games. I have really liked what I have seen from the Johnson-Schultz pairing. I really have been surprised they have done this well considering Schultz is still in preseason territory in games played since coming back from a long layoff. I thought it would take him 10 plus games to get up to speed but that was obviously not needed. Since that pairing has been formed I have seen many more mistakes from other defenseman including Dumoulin before the injury than I have for Johnson. He has played pretty sound game with Schultz and on his correct side.

 

[The Greatest 101]

I think Johnson may be one of those weird players that is more effective the more you play him. Letang is in the same boat, where limiting his minutes and easing his competition actually hurts his performance. I think you see it with a lot of athletic and low IQ players, those guys get hurt when they're thinking instead of just playing and you're doing a lot more thinking against easier competition. You have a lot less time when going against guys like Crosby vs guys like Bjugstad, which is better for the low IQ players who make bad decisions with more time.

Right. I hope Sully plays him with Crosby as much as possible.

 

[pokey10]

I think Johnson may be one of those weird players that is more effective the more you play him. Letang is in the same boat, where limiting his minutes and easing his competition actually hurts his performance. I think you see it with a lot of athletic and low IQ players, those guys get hurt when they're thinking instead of just playing and you're doing a lot more thinking against easier competition. You have a lot less time when going against guys like Crosby vs guys like Bjugstad, which is better for the low IQ players who make bad decisions with more time.

This sounds like what Brassard was eluding to. This may hold weight.

 

[pokey10]

His possession numbers haven't changed in a noticeable way in the past two but he has gone two games without being on the ice for a goal and I think that's an accurate representation of how well he has played. He's not dominating possession, but he is defending well.

He isnt a possession guy. He's a crease clearing, stay-at-home.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

His possession numbers haven't changed in a noticeable way in the past two but he has gone two games without being on the ice for a goal and I think that's an accurate representation of how well he has played. He's not dominating possession, but he is defending well.

I think he has played better, but he was on the ice for Philly's last two regulation goals. Not sure how you missed that.

 

[Turin]

He isnt a possession guy. He's a crease clearing, stay-at-home.

Don’t need to clear the crease if the other team ain’t in your zone.

 

[Pancakes]

I think he has played better, but he was on the ice for Philly's last two regulation goals. Not sure how you missed that.

I was looking at his game logs. I believe he hasn't been on the ice for a 5v5 goal in his past two games, but I could be wrong. Both of Philly's goals came on the PP or 6v5.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

He hasn't been that bad in the past few weeks to be honest
We want to point at what's going on with the team this year and it seems like the finger was pointed at him since signing the contract.
The bottom line is we have been playing crippled all year with the injury to Schultz early in the season and it seems like we just never caught a break.
I think we are a little overreacting on him, let's see how he does down the stretch

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I was looking at his game logs. I believe he hasn't been on the ice for a 5v5 goal in his past two games, but I could be wrong. Both of Philly's goals came on the PP or 6v5.

He’s a + 10 since the new year, and was a -13 until that point. So he’s getting better in that respect.

I always take +/- with a big grain of salt, but when I see a huge swing like that, it’s hard to convince myself a guy is playing poorly.

He also seems more comfortable on his natural side, like Daley was.

 

[Fatty McLardy]

f*** it give him 23+ a night...

 

[Peat]

He’s a + 10 since the new year, and was a -13 until that point. So he’s getting better in that respect.

I always take +/- with a big grain of salt, but when I see a huge swing like that, it’s hard to convince myself a guy is playing poorly.

He also seems more comfortable on his natural side, like Daley was.

His possession stats are virtually identical though; its just the goaltending behind him is radically improved. I'm happy to say some of that's Johnson... but how much?

 

[UnderratedBrooks44]

Anything to get people to stop saying he is worse than Hunwick was.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

His possession stats are virtually identical though; its just the goaltending behind him is radically improved. I'm happy to say some of that's Johnson... but how much?

Pens goaltending has been a roller coaster all season though hasn’t it?

I have no idea, I’m just trying to light a lone flickering candle in the darkness.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

To be honest of late most games I do not notice him out there anymore, unless I am looking for him. Which is a good thing. Vanilla in his case is very very good.

 

[Peat]

To be honest of late most games I do not notice him out there anymore, unless I am looking for him. Which is a good thing. Vanilla in his case is very very good.

A guy who can give you 20 minutes of vanilla a night if needed for 3.25m isn't the worst thing in the world to have on the 3rd pairing when everyone's fit.

I am hesitant to give further praise as the hockey gods are fickle and since we're being nice about him he'll now be an absolute drain the rest of the season.

 

[pokey10]

Don’t need to clear the crease if the other team ain’t in your zone.

Oh im not disagreeing with you. But I dont remember JJ ever being a transition guy.