Once again, Adam Vingan has authored an excellent article, this time on Preds center Ryan Johansen, the bane of my existence as a fan the past 4 years… His article is here and if you’re not a subscriber to The Athletic, your mileage may vary, but it’s worth the money to read incredible sports coverage daily. Follow Adam on twitter (@AdamVingan) or follow me (@mdnathan) or follow us both 🙂 My comment on the article is posted below:
In the music business, an unsuccessful record is labeled “a stiff.” This guy has been a stiff most of his career.
Sure, the elements are there that make a great hockey player, but his unwillingness to turn it on when the team needs it the most is astoundingly exasperating. Advanced stats be damned. Just isolate the guy. Watch him on the ice. If he gets 25 shifts in a game, the majority are spent in weak areas of the ice, performing that Simon and Garfunkel song, “I Am A Rock.” …the line is “I touch no one and no one touches me…” The unwillingness to fight for a loose puck, preferring to do a 180 and turn away from play and head off on a line change appears to be his strongest skill!
I’ve been skewered by Preds fans for four years over my outspokenness on this guy…and he cost us SETH JONES for Chrissakes! That’s horrible!
He is pretty, and makes the girls swoon, and to some he appears to be funny, and makes the casual fan laugh, but I spend up to a hundred dollars a night at Bridgestone between ticket, concessions and merch, and this guy gets a reasonable fraction of it and disappoints virtually every game. If I thought he had no talent, it would just be a question of “why is he even on this team,” but he obviously has skill, size, vision to go along with his obscenely bloated salary, so… what gives?
(Blue Jackets GM) Jarmo Kekalainen was the smartest person in the room that day! (1/6/16)… Ugh!
mdnathan on the preds 