KIRK
Registered User
- Aug 2, 2005
- 109,700
- 51,216
One of the most disturbing facts is that there's zero evidence that Sullivan sees Johnson as a problem. The average time on ice for Pens' D season-to-date:
Letang - 26:15
Dumoulin - 21:02
Johnson - 18:56
Maatta - 18:47
Riikola - 16:55
Petterson - 16:53
Oleksiak - 15:52
So yeah, JJ is getting top-4 minutes. There's no effort being made to shelter him at all.
Jack Johnson's impact on Geno and now Sid is the biggest issue.
As I noted in another thread, until Geno's injury, Sully has been running Letang with Sid for 60% of Sid's 5 on 5 shifts. From there, he's taken a 'protect as best I can' approach.
SO, Geno has played 38% of his 5 on 5 minutes with Jack Johnson (another 35% with Maatta), and Letang has been used more with the bottom six than with Geno. I think the idea is Geno protects against the Johnson weak link, and Letang protects against the bottom six's inability to move the puck.
The impact on Geno's game speaks for itself.
BUT, before some genius here says 'well, Geno has been playing badly all year', in the 4 games since the Ottawa game with Geno out, Sid has 1 ES assist and is a -5. Why? Because he's inherited a lot of Geno's 'you're stuck with Jack Johnson' minutes.
The guy is a team killer. He's the team's biggest problem and I'd argue clear cut primary cause of the team's other player issues.