“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”
-- C. S. Lewis
Perhaps “failure” is too strong a word to describe the 2013
season Marcus Johansson had for the Washington Capitals. After all, despite missing a quarter of the
season to the dreaded “upper-body injury,” Johansson did finish seventh on the
team in total points scored, he was fourth on the club in shooting percentage,
he finished tied for fourth in assists, and he was fifth in power play goals
scored.
That is the positive spin, though. The other side of the coin is that Johansson
put up these numbers having skated far more of his 450 minutes at 5-on-5 with
Alex Ovechkin (328) and Nicklas Backstrom (324) than he did with any other
forward. In fact, Johansson did not spend
as much as 75 minutes at 5-on-5 time with any other forward in his 34 games of
the season, and only with Troy Brouwer (73) did he skate more than 50 minutes.
Johansson skated the majority of his 5-on-5 ice time with most
talented linemates the Caps had to offer, and he scored one even strength goal
in the presence of Ovechkin and Backstrom on the ice all season (March 21st
in a 4-0 win over Winnipeg). He did have
more of a presence in a support role – ten of his 13 5-on-5 assists were
recorded with Ovechkin on the ice, eight of them with Backstrom centering him –
but Johansson did not state with authority that he was the long-term
solution at left wing on the top line.
And that leads us to today’s word… “context.” In 2011-2012 Johansson had a fine sophomore
season – 14-32-46 in 80 games. And in
fact, his 6-16-22 scoring line in 2013 would have been a bit of a bump up on an
similar 80-game basis – 14-38-52. He had
three power play goals this season compared to one in 2011-2012. His shooting percentage was little different
– 15.0 percent this year, 15.6 percent last season.
But here is the difference.
In 2011-2012 Johansson skated more 5-on-5 time with Alex Ovechkin than
with any other forward, but he skated almost as much 5-on-5 ice time with
Alexander Semin. Johansson being
primarily a center last season, he was shuttling more between lines. He spent more than 100 minutes of 5-on-5 ice
time with six different forwards, and it was rather impressive that the Caps
team goals scored at 5-on-5 per 20 minutes (GF20 at stats.hockeyanalysis.com)
were better for five of those forwards when skating with Johansson that when
they were apart, Semin being the exception.
One might have expected that with more regular linemates,
especially those being the top line center and top line right wing, the
continuity and the growth one might have anticipated in his game would have
resulted in more offensive production.
And let us face it. Johansson’s
contributions are going to come primarily at the offensive end of the ice. Although his goals scored against while on
ice were certainly acceptable (seventh lowest among the 14 Capital forwards
playing in at least 20 games), he did not spend much time killing penalties
(ninth most penalty killing minutes per game among forwards). Neither is he an especially demonstrative
player physically. He had only 14 hits
and four penalty minutes in 34 games this season and has only 22 penalty
minutes in his 183-game career with the Caps.
Odd Johansson Statistic… “Three.” There were 337 forwards who played in at
least 30 games in the NHL this season.
Only three – Philadelphia’s Matt Read, Detroit’s Drew Miller, and
Winnipeg’s Kyle Wellwood – recorded fewer penalty minutes than the four
recorded by Marcus Johansson. For the
record, it was Johansson tripping Read in a 5-4 overtime Flyer win on March 31st,
and he got caught up with a coincidental minor with Carolina’s Jeff Skinner in
a 3-2 Caps win on April 11th.
Game to Remember… April 2nd at Carolina. The Caps were at a precarious point of their
season. After a 2-8-1 start they made a
slow climb through the standings, but they still found themselves on the
outside looking up at the top-eight in the Eastern Conference, and the Caps
still had not reached the .500 mark on the season after 35 games. The Caps had their third chance in four games
to reach the .500 mark when they visited Carolina on April 2nd. It was a back-and-forth affair, the Hurricanes
scoring the first two goals of the contest before the Caps scored two to tie
it. Carolina took the lead again barely
a minute after the Caps tied it, 2-2, but Washington tied it again less than
three minutes later. The Caps finally
took the lead midway through the second period on a goal by Alex Ovechkin on
which Johansson recorded an assist.
Then, Carolina got caught on the wrong side of one of those
“high-risk, high-reward” situations. On
a power play the Hurricanes elected to put defensemen Marc-Andre Bergeron and
Joe Corvo on the ice at the same time, both of whom are talented offensive
players but who are, to put it delicately, adventures on the defensive side of
the puck. Bergeron made a ghastly play
at the Capitals’ blue line, trying to hit Eric Staal with a pass just as he
entered the Caps’ zone. The pass was off
target, rebounding off the side boards.
Johansson fought through Staal to get the puck and headed up ice with
Joel Ward, only Corvo back for Carolina.
Corvo could not decide whether to defend the shot or the pass or the
beer vendor in the stands, did none, and Johansson lofted a pretty saucer pass
that was right on the tape of Ward’s stick for the goal and a 5-3 Caps win.
Game to Forget… January 25th at New Jersey. In almost 17 minutes of ice time, Johansson
managed to attempt one shot on goal (a miss), did not have a hit, a takeaway,
or a blocked shot, lost six of nine faceoffs, and was on ice for both the
Devils’ first goal of the game and the last one, a blast from Ilya Kovalchuk,
just moments after Johansson was just a half second late getting in the way of
a shot that might have disrupted New Jersey’s ability to keep the puck in the
zone leading up to Kovalchuk’s game-winner.
Post-Season… Like so many of the Caps, Johansson’s
post-season was utterly forgettable.
Well, almost. At least he had the
game-winning goal in Game 1, the product of a gorgeous stretch pass from Steve
Oleksy that found Johansson behind the New York Ranger defense for a
breakaway. That would be the high point
of his series. In the other six games
Johansson was 0-1-1, minus-3, and was on ice for only one goal for the Caps in
those last six games. In other words,
Johansson did not have an especially bad series in the context of the
performance of most of his teammates.
In the end…
This was more a “sideways” kind of season for Johansson. His profile as a player is coming into
focus. He is primarily an offensive
player, although he is not a bad defensive performer. He is a superior skater with fine speed, but
he lacks a physical dimension to his game.
What was unsettling about this season --- what gave it its “sideways”
quality – was that he was too much the passenger on the line on which the team
depended for consistent and significant offense. It is sometimes useful to remember that
Johansson will not be 23 years old until just before the puck drops on the
2013-2014 season and that he has fewer than 200 games of NHL regular season
experience. It also helps to step back
and examine his production with a cool eye.
Doing so, one can see that he has in fact made progress.
On the other hand, he is entering a phase of his career in
which he can settle into being a 45-50 point player – productive to a point and
capable of making contributions from time to time. Or, he can take that next leap to being a
55-60 point player and a player of consequence on a scoring line. That will be the next finger post on
Johansson’s career road.
Grade: C+
Photo: Greg Fiume/Getty Images North America
