Player Discussion: Tyler Johnson

[dbieon12]

Tyler Johnson interviewed by Scott Burnside for an ESPN Podcast. (00:00-10:45)

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=11827694

Discusses the 'Triplet Line' (Palat, Johnson, Kucherov)
Discusses relationship with Jon Cooper and impact on team
Discusses early success in his sophomore season

His voice sounds like Stamkos' voice at times.

 

[DFC]

Now tied with Tyler Seguin for most even strength points in the league (25).

Sick. We should probably find a way to get this kid more PP time.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Now tied with Tyler Seguin for most even strength points in the league (25).

Sick. We should probably find a way to get this kid more PP time.

Easy. Since the 1st unit hasn't scored since the Buffalo game let's start with TyJo and the 2nd unit on the PP.

 

[DFC]

Easy. Since the 1st unit hasn't scored since the Buffalo game let's start with TyJo and the 2nd unit on the PP.

Yeah, I think we should be doing a more even split between units. Coop did start one PP with TKO last game, and I'm pretty sure Stamkos hadn't just come off the ice (which is usually the case when TKO gets to start the PP).

Even if we have to play Stamkos for the full 2 minutes of the PP and then maybe cut down on his even strength time to compensate. Pretty sure Boucher would often play Stamkos on both units. Whatever Coop has to do to get Johnson on the ice with the man-advantage, I think we should be doing. He's earned the opportunity.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Yeah, I think we should be doing a more even split between units. Coop did start one PP with TKO last game, and I'm pretty sure Stamkos hadn't just come off the ice (which is usually the case when TKO gets to start the PP).

Even if we have to play Stamkos for the full 2 minutes of the PP and then maybe cut down on his even strength time to compensate. Pretty sure Boucher would often play Stamkos on both units. Whatever Coop has to do to get Johnson on the ice with the man-advantage, I think we should be doing. He's earned the opportunity.

I agree but on the other hand TyJo is one of our best even strength players. So, similarly to the Stamkos situation you're describing, giving TyJo more PP time means to have him less on the ice on ES or even the PK.

 

[DFC]

I agree but on the other hand TyJo is one of our best even strength players. So, similarly to the Stamkos situation you're describing, giving TyJo more PP time means to have him less on the ice on ES or even the PK.

I don't think so. It would bump his minutes up to around 20 per game, which he handled just fine last year.

Stamkos, if he were to play on both units (which I only mentioned because it seems like the reason why TKO doesn't get much PP time is because we don't want to take Stamkos off the ice), would be pushing 22 or 23 minutes per night. Which might be a bit much. ...Even though I think he was playing even more than that under Boucher at times. Then again, when I think of it, the first unit plays about 3/4 of every PP anyway, so it's probably not nearly the significant increase in icetime that I'm thinking it would be.

Or, just thinking outside of the box, what if we were to just put Stamkos on the point with TKO and call that the first unit? X - Flip - Callahan would then be the second unit. Depending on who fills that X, it would still be pretty potent.

 

[Leonardo87]

I agree but on the other hand TyJo is one of our best even strength players. So, similarly to the Stamkos situation you're describing, giving TyJo more PP time means to have him less on the ice on ES or even the PK.

I don't think the answer is giving TJ more PP time. PP and 5 on 5 are two different games. Just because someone is great 5 on 5 does not mean they are going to flourish on the PP *cough Rick Nash cough*

The issue is, we need another force on the top unit, move Palat up there, and put Drouin in his spot on the 2nd unit PP. Also the issue is, shooting on goal. Too much passing, and not enough shooting, think the plan needs to change more than the personnel on the PP.

 

[DFC]

I don't think the answer is giving TJ more PP time. PP and 5 on 5 are two different games. Just because someone is great 5 on 5 does not mean they are going to flourish on the PP *cough Rick Nash cough*

The issue is, we need another force on the top unit, move Palat up there, and put Drouin in his spot on the 2nd unit PP. Also the issue is, shooting on goal. Too much passing, and not enough shooting, think the plan needs to change more than the personnel on the PP.

Except Johnson does play well on the PP when given a chance. Just saying, when you've got a guy tied for the league lead in ES points, you might want to put that guy in the best offensive situations you can.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

I don't think the answer is giving TJ more PP time. PP and 5 on 5 are two different games. Just because someone is great 5 on 5 does not mean they are going to flourish on the PP *cough Rick Nash cough*

The issue is, we need another force on the top unit, move Palat up there, and put Drouin in his spot on the 2nd unit PP. Also the issue is, shooting on goal. Too much passing, and not enough shooting, think the plan needs to change more than the personnel on the PP.

Yeah, Tyler seems to be better at zipping through a few people who are crazy enough to try to take him in the neutral zone. If we have another team hemmed in their zone it doesn't give him quite as much space to take advantage of his speed and agility.

 

[Leonardo87]

Except Johnson does play well on the PP when given a chance. Just saying, when you've got a guy tied for the league lead in ES points, you might want to put that guy in the best offensive situations you can.

I agree some things need to change, but to make their unit the top one, I don't think is the answer. I believe it is more of the execution of both PP units that is the issue.

 

[DFC]

Yeah, Tyler seems to be better at zipping through a few people who are crazy enough to try to take him in the neutral zone. If we have another team hemmed in their zone it doesn't give him quite as much space to take advantage of his speed and agility.

The TKO line hems teams into their zone all the time and Johnson looks pretty great in that situation. I would bet a large portion of his points this year have come off the cycle.

 

[CanadienShark]

Absolutely love TJ. Quickly becoming one of my favourite players in the league. He's my 2nd favourite forward already, behind Couture.

Subban
Couture/Price
(Kovalchuk*)
Johnson
Semin
Backstrom
Vlasic

off the top of my head, in that order. Then they have my two favourite forward prospects (but now players) in the world for the past few years in Drouin and Kucherov. ****ing Lightning, can't help but love your team, with Hedman was my #3 favourite d-man in the league.

 

[DFC]

We're more than 1/3 of the way through the season and TyJo's been consistently our best player. There has to come a point where he gets rewarded for that with opportunity.

 

[Iceman]

We're more than 1/3 of the way through the season and TyJo's been consistently our best player. There has to come a point where he gets rewarded for that with opportunity.

Yeah, for sure.

 

[Sky04]

Don't think we need Palat on the 1st unit with Callahan there and Filppula on the wing, Palat isn't getting PP points cause he's doing Callahan's job on that unit, but I agree, should start the PP with a TKO, Stamkos's line takes way too long to set up.

 

[The Macho King]

Don't think we need Palat on the 1st unit with Callahan there and Filppula on the wing, Palat isn't getting PP points cause he's doing Callahan's job on that unit, but I agree, should start the PP with a TKO, Stamkos's line takes way too long to set up.

In every aspect, TKO should be our top line/top PP unit. Johnson, Flip, and Palat aren't afraid to shoot the damn puck, unlike Flip who's afraid he's going to hurt the goalie or something.

 

[DFC]

Back at the top of the league in ES points. The Little Engine That Could continues to chug along.

 

[Leonardo87]

Back at the top of the league in ES points. The Little Engine That Could continues to chug along.

Coming into this season he was expected to be our 3C, he has been playing better than our 1C.
Pretty crazy. Hope he can keep it up .

 

[zeykshade]

He's been playing better than our 1C. But if he were the 1C and there were no Stamkos, would he? It's not like you can ignore the Stamkos Line, you still have to devote considerable resources to stopping Stamkos. Which gives the Triplets a bit more space by virtue of them having to face lower level checking lines and D pairings.

There were a couple games awhile back where the opponents would put their top checking lines and top d pairings out against the Triplets, but it's not consistently done yet. I believe it'd probably be wise to devote more attention to the Triplets than Stamkos' Line. The difference now is, I think Drouin sticks on Stammer's wing and that could change things.

 

[DFC]

He's been playing better than our 1C. But if he were the 1C and there were no Stamkos, would he? It's not like you can ignore the Stamkos Line, you still have to devote considerable resources to stopping Stamkos. Which gives the Triplets a bit more space by virtue of them having to face lower level checking lines and D pairings.

There were a couple games awhile back where the opponents would put their top checking lines and top d pairings out against the Triplets, but it's not consistently done yet. I believe it'd probably be wise to devote more attention to the Triplets than Stamkos' Line. The difference now is, I think Drouin sticks on Stammer's wing and that could change things.

I think TKO is getting it's fair share of attention, or at least it was before Palat went down. It started in the Detroit/Chicago games. I noticed a few teams adjusting on the fly, as if realizing who the biggest threat was.

From a team perspective, if Drouin can get that top line into a top line's form, and the early evidence suggests he can, that might just open up more opportunities for TKO. We could very well be offering teams a "pick your poison" choice, which is probably somewhere in the definition of a classic hockey 1-2 punch.

Now if we could just figure out what's going on with Flip...

 

[The Macho King]

He's been playing better than our 1C. But if he were the 1C and there were no Stamkos, would he? It's not like you can ignore the Stamkos Line, you still have to devote considerable resources to stopping Stamkos. Which gives the Triplets a bit more space by virtue of them having to face lower level checking lines and D pairings.

There were a couple games awhile back where the opponents would put their top checking lines and top d pairings out against the Triplets, but it's not consistently done yet. I believe it'd probably be wise to devote more attention to the Triplets than Stamkos' Line. The difference now is, I think Drouin sticks on Stammer's wing and that could change things.

Johnson drew the toughest assignments plenty of times. He went up against Toews when we played the Blackhawks, and he was out there against Giroux and Voracek most of the night last night. The guy's just a hockey player.

 

[Glide5]

I absolutelty love this kid. He is a special player, and it amazes me just how good he is on a night by night basis. He has been our best player this year, even more so than Stamkos. The best part is that he gives us a 2nd #1 center, making it all the harder to protect against this team. If Drouin can click with Stammer and play Marty's role, we will have two top lines, both of which will be deadly and hard to defend. Im expecting an exciting future with TJ. Guess he's going to be the next jersey I buy when I replace Vinny's jersey.

 

[Leonardo87]

I think TKO is getting it's fair share of attention, or at least it was before Palat went down. It started in the Detroit/Chicago games. I noticed a few teams adjusting on the fly, as if realizing who the biggest threat was.

From a team perspective, if Drouin can get that top line into a top line's form, and the early evidence suggests he can, that might just open up more opportunities for TKO. We could very well be offering teams a "pick your poison" choice, which is probably somewhere in the definition of a classic hockey 1-2 punch.

Now if we could just figure out what's going on with Flip...

Flip has 24 points in 33 games, and there is concern. It just really shows how much this team has raised the bar and that's a good thing. But it's not really his production , the problem is he has the worst +/- on the team with a - 6, and even though +/- may be flawed, even if you throw out that stat, you can easily see some of the issues. He is just giving up the puck too easily, making bad drop passes, and taking stupid penalties like last night.

Not saying empty nets are not worth anything or should not be counted as the same as a regular goal, but that goal last night, he could of walked it over to the empty net and still score. He got the lucky bounce.

 

[DFC]

Flip has 24 points in 33 games, and there is concern. It just really shows how much this team has raised the bar and that's a good thing. But it's not really his production , the problem is he has the worst +/- on the team with a - 6, and even though +/- may be flawed, even if you throw out that stat, you can easily see some of the issues. He is just giving up the puck too easily, making bad drop passes, and taking stupid penalties like last night.

Not saying empty nets are not worth anything or should not be counted as the same as a regular goal, but that goal last night, he could of walked it over to the empty net and still score. He got the lucky bounce.

I don't think we should be all that concerned with Flip's production. But he's failing the eye test a lot, same as Stamkos. We have a lot of players who are significantly better than last year (Johnson, Kucherov, I would say Gudas), but Flip's not the same guy he was last year. Maybe it's because his role was a lot more defined last year, I don't know. Last year, just putting him on the ice had a soothing effect. Not so much this year. Yet, anyway.

I'm starting to land on the side of the injury theory though. There was a really awkward moment last night where he clearly should have shot the puck but instead he dropped it back about 5-7 feet so a defender could wrist it on goal. Flip's still making some great moves with the puck, but they're not amounting to anything because he's not a threat to shoot in the least right now. And half of his points have come on the PP.

I wouldn't mind seeing Killorn-Flip-Connolly as a 3rd line. If Connolly could find a way to look good when not on the 4th line (...so weird), it could give us incredible depth.

 

[The Macho King]

I don't think we should be all that concerned with Flip's production. But he's failing the eye test a lot, same as Stamkos. We have a lot of players who are significantly better than last year (Johnson, Kucherov, I would say Gudas), but Flip's not the same guy he was last year. Maybe it's because his role was a lot more defined last year, I don't know. Last year, just putting him on the ice had a soothing effect. Not so much this year. Yet, anyway.

I'm starting to land on the side of the injury theory though. There was a really awkward moment last night where he clearly should have shot the puck but instead he dropped it back about 5-7 feet so a defender could wrist it on goal. Flip's still making some great moves with the puck, but they're not amounting to anything because he's not a threat to shoot in the least right now. And half of his points have come on the PP.

I wouldn't mind seeing Killorn-Flip-Connolly as a 3rd line. If Connolly could find a way to look good when not on the 4th line (...so weird), it could give us incredible depth.

I think the third line is going to be Killorn-Flip-Paquette when Palat gets back, just because, for some odd reason - Connolly only looks good on the fourth line, but he makes the fourth line a threat which I can live with.

Coop was messing around with the PP units finally (had Drouin on the top unit for the only PP where we made the Flyers sweat - who saw that coming iknowright?), but I maintain the problem with the PP isn't the personnel, it's the system. Putting Stamkos on his strong-side is a waste - even when he's not banging home one-timers from the other side he's a threat.