The rest of us are kind of tired of the constant hate on a guy who's played decently all season.
Is he a bit over paid for a 3LD, yeah sure he is. But how many 3LD do you know that can move up and play 2nd and 1st pair minutes for an extended period of time and it not be a complete disaster.

He's fine. He's playing out his role and has been for some time. It's not his fault he's there.

He is overpaid for what is, you are right. Fun fact, Jusso Riikola has significantly better results when used on the third pairing. You can ignore all of Jacks bad play on the Letang pairing and just look at that. He also does not fit well with Sullivan's system at all due to his poor passing and skating in transition.

And regardless of where he is used, the issues are still there. Huge negative offensively. Poor at protecting his own net due to bad awareness. This is why lots of pucks bounce off of him an into the net. He also screens his goalies.



See that giant red dot in front of the goal on the defensive end? That's where opponents are shooting when he's on the ice. These numbers all better than last year but are still abysmal. He's a negative to his own team on offense. A positive to the other team on offense.

Not be a complete disaster? lmao hes scored more goals for the other team this year than scored for pittsburgh. Hes a disaster no matter who he gets paired with. Its not a coincidence everyones numbers are down when they have to play with him

I remember when everyone said all the same things about Rob scuderi in 2007.

Guys we won back to back cups with Olli Maatta, I think we can manage with Johnson on the bottom pairing with either Schultz or Marino

Olli Maatta is/was a better player than JJ. He's also gone, which is good because the team has other players to replace him that are cheaper and better. The team currently has players that are better and cheaper than JJ.

Riikola is not better than Jack Johnson. Offensively sure but I don't see Riikola going on the penalty kill any time soon. There's a reason why Sullivan only plays him 13 minutes a night. Also the team is WINNING with JJ playing almost 20 minutes a night so why are we getting rid of him now while our defense is 7th best in the league in expected goals for.

The team is winning despite having JJ play those minutes. They have a good defense despite him. They did all of this despite missing Crosby for most of the year.

Riikola's defensive results are better, but yes he doesn't play the PK. Play Pettersson and Dumoulin (when he comes back) there.

That is such poor reasoning. The pens have the best record in the league over the past 2 months with Johnson on the top line and you say it is despite of him. That is just totally ignoring results and playing to a false narrative. Do you think that maybe Jim Rutherford and Mike Sullivan know what they are doing?

As a defender having pucks go off of you and I to your own net is a sign of bad luck, not poor positioning. It's actually a sign of good positioning because you are in the shooting lanes and will end up blocking more shots than not.

Okay but here's the problem with that. Dumoulin has been out for a month and a half and I don't think anyone would argue that he's not our best defensive defenseman. Ever since he got hurt Johnson's played 21 minutes a night and our goals against average is 2.63 so I definitely don't think the team will get worse once Dumoulin gets back. Once they limit his minutes again and put him back in the role he was in at the start of the season his stats will go up. At the very least he's an average defenseman with a good locker room presence who we shouldn't waste a draft pick or two to get rid of. Last year I was all for them getting rid of him but this year he's fine.

Thats a horrible take. There are ways to deflect the puck away from the net, not into it. If it happens once or twice, then you can say its bad luck, but Johnson has scored in his net as well as deflected the puck into the goalie a handful of times. Thats not bad luck

Lots of issues here.

Yes, they have a great record this year. And mostly without Crosby. Would you argue the team is better off without him? You can win despite having a bad player or despite your team being injured.

I'm actually talking about the results. Teams generate more chances near the net when he's on the ice. Those are the results. They aren't good.

And then an appeal-to-authority argument instead of actually making an evaluation. GMs and Coaches aren't infallible. This is the same GM that traded for Galchenyuk this summer.

How many times exactly?

More times to call something like that unlucky.

No I wouldn't say the team was better without Crosby. I would say they were good without him and are now better with him.

The most important result is wins and loses. And with Johnson as a top pairing dman who plays 20+ minutes a night the team wins.

I guess Sullivan, who is most people's pick for coach of the year, is an idiot. When Rutherford made that trade 99% of people thought it was a great trade.

Thing is you don't know.

Thing is, neither do you....

No, a lot of us thought that Galchenyuk was just a worse version of Kessel. Don't re-write history. Sullivan makes mistakes. Rutherford makes mistakes. Overall, they do a good job. Why is this difficult to understand?

Yes, wins and losses are the most important thing. Guess what? Good players that generate goals/scoring chances and prevent the other team from getting those help your win loss total. Crosby helps those. Johnson does not. Teams have good players and bad players. You can still win or lose when you have them. This is really basic stuff that I shouldn't have to explain to you twice.

Hes just your typical troll. Does nothing but make himself look stupid

you are way to hard on a guy that's meant to get 3rd pairing minutes but has to play on the 1st pairing.

You won't find a single team in the league who has a 3rd pairing guy who can do that even remotely effectively.
Truth is he's played fairly well. As much as you knock him, you over look the fact he's playing 20+ minutes a game and they are winning them.

No, hes not playing fairly well. Compared to last year he is better, but he is still horrible. Hes out of position, screens his own goalies, and gets burned. Look at everyone when they are paired to Johnson, their play drops drastically. Just because they're winning, doesn't mean hes part of the reason

You can look at stats like that all day. But there are realities that the numbers don't show.
Like he's playing a ton of minutes in a role he shouldn't be in, for the second year in a row.
Don't act like he isn't left out to dry there too. We all know he shouldn't be on the 1st pairing. Who the hell wants to argue that. So you take all your fancy stats and then ask yourself, how many of those numbers are coming from him being in a position he's forced to be in that he has no business being in. And what are the effects on those numbers.

His numbers before he was forced into 1st and 2nd pairing roles were some of the best on the team as far as GAoi, He was a + player on the bottom pairing. How many teams have defense man where their 3rd pairing is actually making a positive impact on the ice.
You take a guy, you throw him into a task well over his head, and then expect the world.
You're nuts.
He's been playing much harder minutes than any 3rd pairing player should ever be playing. And he hasn't totally sunk while doing it. He's stayed afloat.
No it's not perfect, clearly he shouldn't be there. But how would other teams look with their 3rd pairing guy playing 1st pairing minutes?
The truth is he was a team low for goals against on the ice when the team was healthy and he was a 3rd pairing guy.
Which is where he should be.
And while I would love to rid the team of that cap hit because it's way to much for a 3rd pairing guy. I also realize they could have much much much worse back there.
And someone like you doesn't really seem to get that. Lord knows how bad it would be if we had to have Ben Hutton or some other pickup in that position.
Could you have imagined Hunwick having to fill that role.
A 1st pairing with Hunwick would have been like playing 5v4 on the ice.
So as much as you hate on JJ, he's done ok for himself. He is not the problem you think he is.

that is simply not true. When he was at 3rd pairing where he belongs his numbers and play were really solid for a 3rd pairing guy.
They shove him in 1st pairing and you think you are going to get the world. Go name one team who's 3rd pairing guy doesn't get smoked playing 1st pairing minutes.
I'll wait on that.

Think im going to get the world? lmao it shouldn't be the world for a defender not to constantly screen a goalie and score on his own goalie. TVR, Sergachev, grzelcyk, Larson, McCabe, hague, Engelland just to name a few