He was sheltered?
61% of his starts were in the DZone, You know the area of the ice that the best offensive players get their starts.
Come on, please watch games before talking.

And those playoff series against teams like washington is exactly why the brought players like that in. They can't have star players getting smacked in the head with sticks and knocked out with concussions.
Any penguins fan knows that.

Have they? They just got bounced out the league by a team that clearly had inferior hockey skills.

I'll tell you what "hockey pro" you let me know when you want to come lace up skates with me and we'll see all about your hockey knowledge.

You have not a clue what you are talking about. Clearly defensemen retrieve pucks that are dumped it. But they don't generate an offense. That is not and never will be what their main job is.
And as much as you think not getting the puck out of their zone is on defense men, 90% of the time it's usually because a forward didn't do his job.

You literally did when you said "Hence why guys like Dumoulin, JJ, Gudbranson, etc don’t really do too much in the offensive zone".

First of all, Dumoulin does his job in the offensive zone. He keeps pucks in, makes good passes to the forwards. Helps the team keep possession. He's not going to rack up points doing this, but it's helping the team. He also makes passes to get them in the offensive zone and out of the defensive zone. This is one major way good defensemen prevent the other team from scoring. If you can't do this, the other team gets to stay in your defensive zone and are more likely to score.

"He is a defensive defenseman so it’s not really his job to."

Johnson's job to have a positive impact on the team. Preventing goals from being scored on his own team is one of those jobs. He doesn't do it. Can't get the puck out of his own zone. The other team scores more than his team when he is on the ice. If you think his job is to prevent goals, he's clearly failing at it.

Just because he can't score, doesn't mean he is sound defensively. Quit it with this "offensive defenseman" and "defensive defensemen stuff". He's a defenseman who happens to be bad at everything.

As I pointed out earlier, you are getting caught up with one or two big mistakes and ignoring the fact that other players can impact the game in negative ways literally every time they are on the ice. It's really not a hard concept to understand.



Zero understanding of how defensemen impact the game.

They are the defensive defensemen on the team. So they don’t score. No one ever compared their skill level...well except maybe you.
Dumo, Gudbranson, and JJ are never really noticeable in the offensive zone like Letang and Schultz are. They don’t do much to generate offense. Sure they try to keep the puck in the offensive zone, but what player doesn’t? That doesn’t exactly mean that’s their main job or that they do that.

Johnson failed at preventing goals? So it was just him on the ice getting scored on? A guy that was only a -4. A guy that was a -13 playing in his off-side went all the way up to a -4 when being switched to his natural side and he did that by allowing goals and playing horrendous defense? And by the team never scoring while he was on the ice. And by the team NEVER generating offense while he was on the ice. Ok. Clearly you don’t watch or understand the game. ?‍♂️

LEARN TO READ AND COMPREHEND!!! Just as I predicted. You couldn't understand what I was typing. EVERY reply to you gets butchered and misinterpreted because your reading level isn't on par with adults. I suggest you slowly reread what I typed or get someone to help you. I don't have time to teach the fundamentals of both hockey and elementary English.

How you gonna tell me to lace the skates up when you still wear velcro ones?

If you can't comprehend what I type then don't reply or comment. Why must I break down everything and simplify it for you? More time in the books and less time on the forums would be greatly beneficial for you. Your reply makes zero sense and I'm actually losing brain cells debating with you.

We can take a poll after you take an IQ test and post the results. As usual, you can't comprehend what was clearly typed. Next time I respond, I'll have a 9 year old type what I'm trying to say just so you can hopefully understand it.

@Chigurrhh

This is for both of you and I'm not taking sides.

It's unfair to say that because they play primarily defensively that can't contribute offensively and vice versa. The whole classification of defensemen is dumb. Karlsson for example is noted as an offensive defenseman but he is more than a capable defender. Suter is known as a defensive defenseman and he contributes offensively at a pretty consistent rate. Then you have players who don't contribute much, if anything at all either ofensively or defensively. I think that's where Johnson fits. Personally, imo, I believe that a quality NHL defenseman is sound in his own end first, doesn't chase, doesn't go out of his way to hit, can clear the front of the net, makes a good first pass, can keep the puck in the zone and puts quality shots on net.

That being said, if the forwards don't get themselves into good positions to receive passes or provide support in the 3 zones, it hems the dmen up with options. LeTang, when he makes mistakes, are very noticeable and it's because he has rare ability of a dman to skate with the puck. No other Penguins dman has that ability.

The Penguins still have it in their minds they are a speed team and wan't to transition with speed. If you watched how the Islanders forechecked, the Penguins did not play deep and the dmen were pressured so fast, they had 2 options. Either go D to D or dump the puck off the glass/boards. Maatta is horrendous under pressure and Pettersson showed to be as well. The problem with Johnson is he is just too slow and doesn't fit our system. Only issue I have with Gudbranson is his mobility. He has decent straight line speed, especially for his size and he is competent with the puck. His agility is just not the greatest and he gets beat to the outside and gets caught when players cut.

Everyone is looking for someone to blame and some players stood out more than others but the entire team played terrible from top to bottom. The Islanders came to play and deserved to win. Rutherford is a hack and Botteril was the true architect of those championship seasons. After he left, the trades and signings went into the crapper for the most part with lots of deals happening just to correct previous mistakes. Why would a team who won with speed and skill change their identity based on an adversaries player or a team they beat on the regular? Every other team copied the Penguins model of success and the Penguins regressed to get "tougher" and older.

He tried recapturing with Cullen (fail). He essentially traded Sheary for Johnson (Hunwick for the 4th is fair value) and not that Sheary is anything spectacular, he would have been more of a difference maker than Johnson (fail). Hagelin for Pearson (fail). Again, Hagelin isn't gonna set the world on fire but his speed was missed. Brassard (fail). Reaves (fail).

He should have kept going after players that fit the mold of the team. Maybe he needs to watch Moneyball. "You know what they do? They get on base!" and apply it to hockey.

what is your jibberish? bye troll

you just type random troll crap. That's pretty obvious. Your comment makes no sense at all. Bye troll

No. Not at all. I comment or respond to posts I disagree with and am open to a discussion or to hear the other persons opinion.

You rape my words, twist them around to fit your agenda or totally disregard and/or dissect what I say. You shouldn't be on a public forum if aren't willing to fully listen to other people and take the time to grasp what they are trying to say. It's always a one sided argument with you.

Hmm. So since you are incapable of behaving like an adult and incapable of engaging in a conversation, you revert to false accusations. Calling somebody a troll when they get the upper hand in a debate is like admitting defeat and it really makes you look bad.

How about we both make AGM Penguins teams and let the people decide??? We must keep the $83m salary cap and not have more than $3m in cap relief from other teams traded with. No burying players in the minors and no placing players on injured reserve of any kind. Let me know.

yeah, i'm sure the players felt differently when they were getting concussed after being hit in the head and watching their team mates leave the ice with a broken jaw.
But hey, I'm sure you know everything.