Edited Jan. 18, 2020 at 12:28 p.m.
Quoting: pharrow
the only simplistic thinking here is you.
And he has indeed played 2nd pairing for a lot of the time Dumo has been out. Because they paired Marino and Letang for a LONG time.
Now JJ bounces between both Marino and Letang in pairings in the 1st and 2nd pairings.
You keep wanting to knock the guy. Oh it can't be him that's good.
While the only thing you do is want to look at a year where he played his off side practically the whole year and say....oh look he sucks...he sucks....
Meanwhile there is the reality of the fact, where JJ is quietly having a really good year on all measures. But sure, it can't be him. It has to be everyone else.
Or maybe, big surprise here, a year working with Gonchar and playing on his natural side has helped his game.
And as far as worse play since not being on the bottom pairing...that's laughable. The team has played great all that time with him playing that role while Crosby was out.
But hey, I get it. You wanted Maatta instead.
Maatta is a better player than Johnson but ideally both would be gone. Both flawed players. Kahun is a great addition though and they weren't going to get anything for Johnson without packaging him with Kessel in the Minnesota trade.
" quietly having a really good year on all measures". So far, the only measure you have talked about is wins. That's the depth of your analysis? C'mon man.
Here's the thing. There's a couple hints here that you have zero clue what you are talking about and just make things up as you go.
"start as a 2nd LHD".
That sounds like you are talking about football, not hockey. A 2nd pairing or second line guy generally doesn't "start" and people don't talk about them that way.
" Because they paired Marino and Letang for a LONG time."
Yeah, no. Dumoulin got surgery on December 1st. Schultz's last game was the 17th. That's a total of 7 games. That's not a "long time" by any stretch.
"Now JJ bounces between both Marino and Letang in pairings"
Factually incorrect. They have hardly been on the ice at the same time since the Schultz injury. Marino has been with Pettersson almost that entire time. Johnson has been with Letang almost exclusively (Riikola swapped a few times).
In the 14 games since Schultz was injured, Johnson and Marino have spent exactly 4:37 playing together. There is no "bouncing". Stop it.
https://imgur.com/PB4TwC9
Marino has actually been paired with Pettersson more this season despite spending a lot of the first two months of the season with Johnson.
Marino-Pettersson. 248:52 TOI
Marino-Johnson. 177:18 TOI.
Stop making things up. Or at least stop pretending that you know anything.