This just in for fans of the Penguins who hate Jack Johnson: He has no idea.
This also in: Neither his coaches nor his teammates can comprehend why anyone would.
Amid the 3-1 throttling of the Oilers on this wintry Wednesday night inside PPG Paints Arena, one in which Matt Murray sizzled again, Sidney Crosby upstaged Connor McDavid again, and Bryan Rust sprung another shorty, on some significantly lower tier, Johnson registered a plus-2 rating and a half-dozen hits ... and the latter was still exerting himself on the exercise bike just before emerging to the locker room at my request to talk about exactly that.
Funny, but for all the countless conversations I've had with the guy -- he's as approachable as the chipped ham slicer at Isaly's -- the one subject I'd never thought to raise was about all the criticism he relentlessly receives, especially from those basing that on advanced analytics.
This seemed like a swell time.
"Criticism?" Johnson came back with a look that suggested that his dog had just been kicked down the road. "Honestly, I'm not even sure what to say because I don't know what you mean. So I can't really comment on it."
No, he really can't. One thing I did know was that he doesn't read about himself. He doesn't check social media, he doesn't do talk shows, and here's betting he won't pick up one syllable of this, either. That's legit, and it's not all that uncommon among professional athletes, believe it or not.
I took it a different route, then, asking what makes him proud of his contributions to the Penguins. He didn't hesitate.
"Oh, it's the physical aspect, no question. It's a contact sport. It's why you train, why you do all the little things that pay off, because there are so many one-on-one battles throughout the game. I take a lot of pride in winning mine."
This was one of those Wednesday, during an Edmonton power play:
The dude wearing No. 8 for the Oilers, Ty Rattie, was in the immediate vicinity of a perilous rebound off Murray's left pad. And the reason Rattie never took a crack at it was that Johnson bulldozed him out of the crease, then back some more -- up high, no less, just to be extra mean -- then with yet another shove that had Rattie almost out to the side boards.
Watch the next 100 NHL games played anywhere, and you won't find a more convincing clearance of a crease than that.
"Just doing my job there, making sure Muzz can see the puck," Johnson explained to me with a shrug.
This was another, a period later:
Ha! Not much to explain on that one, huh?
That was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers' second-line center, pretty much meeting his maker after missing a shot on Murray.
"First thing you want to do is have the stick out to deter the shot," Johnson would say to this one. "But once it goes, all I'm thinking is I've got to finish that."
I'm an ardent supporter of advanced statistical analysis, and my work's illustrated that for years across all sports. Hockey's been by far the slowest of the three I cover to progress in that regard, primarily because of a lack of data. Meaning the actual information available, not how it's analyzed. That's changing, thankfully, and beginning next season, the NHL promises a whole new wave via high-tech player tracking.
But for now, Corsi and most other metrics are founded on simple shot attempts. Sure, they come with the same acronyms, symbols and codenames as their baseball brethren, but baseball's are backed by an armada of information, and these are still simple shot attempts.
I respect Corsi. I use it. But I don't consider it -- or any other metric -- to be a catch-all gospel. And neither should anyone else espousing true objectivity. Having an open mind means having an actual open mind.
So let's presume, with that open mind, that Jim Rutherford isn't some moron for signing Johnson. That seems fair, given all his jewelry. And let's presume that Mike Sullivan, Jacques Martin and Sergei Gonchar also aren't morons for fervently supporting -- and playing -- Johnson. And let's presume that Gonchar wasn't lying to me that night in Detroit last fall when he pulled me aside in the locker room and asked, with real curiosity, why so many people seemed so down on Johnson when Sarge's own view was "He brings so much to our team that we didn't have."
Still have that open mind?
OK, cool, now deposit these, too: Johnson's 169 hits lead the Penguins by a whopping margin of 54, making him their most physical presence by a mile. He's blocked 103 shots, second only to Olli Maatta's 111. And get this one: His 22 official giveaways are the fewest of anyone on the defense.
The reason for the latter, I think, is that, as other advanced metrics have illustrated over three years, he's been among the NHL's top five defensemen in executing a breakout pass with a success rate of close to 70 percent.
Again, that's throughout the whole league, not the Penguins.
So, why all the Corsi hate?
Well, the most prominent shortcoming of Johnson's game in Pittsburgh, in my eyes, is one I hardly ever see discussed: He doesn't help offensively. Bearing in mind that most advanced stats are rooted in shot attempts, scoring chances and the like -- at both ends -- consider that he's got one measly goal and 11 assists over 57 games. Worse, he's taken forever to get off his shot, which is why he's registered only 54 all season. Heck, he's only missed 27 shots, which means he barely even gets the thing through.
Here's more in digging deeper: He's created exactly one chance for himself on the rush all season. You read that right. Just one. And he's created a grand total of eight rebound chances for his teammates. Or one every couple weeks.
If anything, that's been my greatest disappointment in Johnson since his arrival. He hasn't contributed much of anything to the attack, including sustaining zone time.
Now, that's not to suggest he's been some stalwart defensively. He hasn't been good enough. And he particularly struggled early in the season, as well as when he's been switched to the right side, which has been a ton in Justin Schultz's absence. He stabilized for a good spell when Marcus Pettersson was acquired, but then that pairing started sputtering a couple weeks back.
I'm going to repeat this for emphasis: He hasn't been good enough defensively.
And I'll state this with the same emphasis: He didn't need to get five years for $14.5 million. That was far too long, far too much.
But he also isn't Pittsburgh's hockey antichrist, as he's been portrayed by far too many in a fan base that seemingly can't function without a singular scapegoat. If anything, in a bunch of ways beyond what's mentioned above, he's been exactly what the front office, coaches and teammates had hoped he'd be. He's been physical, he's blocked shots, he's killed penalties, he's been tape-to-tape on the breakouts, and he's been big with the intangibles, as well.
I asked Pettersson after this game what Johnson's meant to the team.
"The thing I think we respect the most is that he's physical, but he's also calm out there. He doesn't lose control," Pettersson said. "He's been out there doing a lot of different things, playing different sides, playing with two young guys now between me and Riiko tonight ..."
Juuso Riikola, of course.
" ... and that's not always easy, even for someone with his experience. But he never complained. He just kept trying to help us, to let us talk with him, learn from him. He's a great guy to have around."
I asked Sullivan, too, and the response was about as pointed as I'd expected:
That was the team's thought process in getting Johnson, the part where Sullivan referenced his physicality and added, "That's what we liked about how he could fit in with our defense corps, because we don't have a lot of that on our blue line."
They don't. And they sure didn't in 2017-18, when their most physical defenseman -- and this is no shot, just a fact -- was Kris Letang, whose skill set is more valuable in other endeavors. That bugged Rutherford, and it bugged the coaching staff more. So the plan was to have Letang and Brian Dumoulin be the shutdown pair, Schultz and Maatta round out a terrific top four, and have Johnson work the third pairing, the PK and other supporting roles with an aim toward a solid top six carved out for playoff purposes.
Then Schultz got hurt, and Johnson had to be elevated. Now, with Schultz on the eve of finally returning, Maatta's out. So yeah, we'll keep seeing more of Johnson and the kids in front-and-center roles and, no doubt, more of the finger-pointing squarely at Johnson that's become part of the Corsi-based chorus at this stage.
Oh, and since I asked Johnson about hearing the criticism, I also had to ask this: How much, if anything, did he know about Corsi, Fenwick or any of the advanced metrics?
"Nothing," he replied with a laugh. "I don't even know what they mean."
With that, he went back to the bike, blissfully unaware he'll be working under duress.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Oilers, PPG Paints Arena, Feb. 13, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS____________________
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