Colorado Avalanche D-Man Erik Johnson to Return Soon
The Colorado Avalanche are set to see the return of one of their best players very soon — defenseman Erik Johnson. His Team USA has been eliminated from the World Cup.
Team USA’s loss — literal loss, in this case — is the Colorado Avalanche’s gain. On Tuesday night, Team USA lost a stinker of a game to Team Canada. Though they have one more game, against the Czech Republic, their loss to Team Europe on Saturday means they are ineligible to advance beyond the preliminary round of the World Cup of Hockey.
Yes, that’s a blow to American patriotism — everyone had such high hopes that this team would match the 2010 success Team USA had at the Olympics, winning silver. However, the literal loss means that the Colorado Avalanche will soon get their cornerstone defenseman back.
Erik Johnson is one of six Avalanche players representing his country at the World Cup of Hockey, and the lone American. (Of course, he’s pretty much the only American on the Avs roster minus Rocco Grimaldi. Well, the Avs website has Americans Jim O’Brien and Mike Sislo on the roster for some odd reason, but I don’t know what’s going on there.)
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Team USA concludes its World Cup efforts on Thursday against the Czech Republic, who are also not long for this tourney. That means technically Johnson could be back for the entire training camp, or at least the Burgundy and White game on Sunday.
This is good news for the Colorado Avalanche. Johnson is their best defenseman, and the defensive corps has been designed largely around him. He’s speedy and gritty, which is what the former regime favored. As for the new coach, he likes speedy puck movers — check for Johnson, too.
During World Cup play, Erik Johnson mostly played on a pairing with Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson, which was awkward and thrilling at the same time. The Johnson and Johnson pairing did very well. (Since assistant GM Chris MacFarland, himself formerly from the Columbus organization, favors his BJs so much, it would be great if he engineered some sort of trade.)
The hockey world is still reeling by Team USA’s utter collapse. As both US players Patrick Kane and David Backes observed, the players didn’t seem ready for the start of the tournament. It could have been that they were looking past Team Europe to the Canada game, or that most of them are still in training camp mode.
Erik Johnson was pretty much the same as the rest of the Team USA defensemen — middle of the road in shots with three. He was a -2, but all the d-men who were in both games were either -1 or -2. He got two penalty minutes, against Canada.
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I know he won’t — EJ is too stand-up for such a thing — but I kind of wish he’d “pull a hamstring” and return to Colorado that much sooner. He can do nothing for the already-eliminated Team USA. The Avalanche have such a young blueline and that new coach — his leadership and experience would be very useful for training camp.
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