The last time Marcus Johansson matched up against the Carolina Hurricanes, he only logged two shifts and a whopping 59 seconds of ice time.
It wasn’t due to a lack of effort on the winger’s part, nor did Bruce Cassidy play any role by way of an absurdly quick hook. Rather, Johansson simply had the misfortune of skating into the steam train that is Canes’ winger Micheal Ferland.
Just four games into his tenure with Boston after getting dealt in the closing minutes of the trade deadline, Johansson was knocked out of commission in the opening minutes of Boston’s matchup against Carolina back on March 5 — with the 28-year-old forward taken to the hospital for further evaluation.
“It was one of the harder hits I’ve seen all year,” Chris Wagner recalled. “Just how square and solid it was. “
The diagnosis? A lung contusion, which forced Johansson to miss three weeks of game action. By the time he was finally given the green light to return, it was already March 27 — with just six games remaining on the regular-season docket.
Marcus Johansson collides with Micheal Ferland and he's hurting. pic.twitter.com/FMhrwiUKQJ
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) March 6, 2019
For those looking to sling mud at
Don Sweeney’s
deadline decisions, Johansson provided an easy target — although his situation was a perfect storm of poor timing and, well, just plain bad luck.
A man without a set line for most of his regular-season reps in Boston, Johansson spent of a majority of his minutes up on a second line with
David Krejci
and
Jake DeBrusk
(46 5v5 minutes). The second-most minutes for Johansson? Spent with
Charlie Coyle
— and
Zach Senyshyn
(17 min. of 5v5 TOI).
Entering the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Johansson only managed to score a single goal and add a pair of helpers through a sample size of 10 games.
Perhaps it was his extended absence due to injury — or the fact that he missed two playoff matchups against the Maple Leafs due to illness. Whatever the case may be, Johansson found himself in the crosshairs of NBC analyst
Mike Milbury.
“I don’t think Marcus Johansson is going to be the guy to be the netfront presence,” Milbury said of Johansson during Game 6 against Toronto. “Marshmallow soft, actually.”
?Marchand #NHLBruins ?
Milbury called Johansson marshmallow soft pic.twitter.com/qihtOJwcNX
— M I K E Y. P I C K S (@themikeypick) April 21, 2019
Fast-forward two weeks and … well, Milbury might have to eat his words when it comes to the Swedish winger.
Johansson looked anything but soft during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Thursday night — back in his regular spot as a netfront option on the power play. Battling down low with Hurricanes defenseman
Calvin de Haan
in the opening minutes of the third period, Johansson jumped into a fracas down the crease following a one-time feed from
Brad Marchand
on the power play. Amid the kerfuffle, Johansson managed to get the loose puck on his stick for a half-second — just enough time for him to snap an offering past
Petr Mrazek
for a game-tying strike on the man advantage.
mArCuS jOhaNsSon Is SoFt pic.twitter.com/byWmV7PSHV
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) May 10, 2019
“I think I’ve been there most of my career on the power play, around the net,” Johansson said. “So I’m pretty comfortable there and those greasy ones feel pretty good sometimes.”
Johansson’s goal — the first strike in what was a four-goal salvo in the third period for Boston
— stood as his seventh point in his last eight playoff games with the B’s, a run that started when he buried the eventual game-winning goal against the Maple Leafs in Game 7 back on April 23.
After knocking the puck away from Canes defenseman
Justin Faulk
at the blue line, Johansson corralled the puck and carried it over into Carolina’s zone. Hitting the breaks with a hefty amount of backchecking pressure behind him, Johansson waited for a trailing
Steven Kampfer
to barrel into the slot before hitting him in stride — with Kampfer doing the rest of the work with a quick shot past Mrazek.
Marcus Johansson was a monster on this sequence.
And Steven Kampfer lights the lamp in just his second career playoff game. pic.twitter.com/cvzr9Qit9R
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) May 10, 2019
“I mean, the plays he making right now, I don’t know how that would be considered soft,” Wagner said. “Last night, to pull up like that and you know they have they good back pressure, you could get hit and that’s a risk he’s willing to take and to have the poise like that to thread it through another guy’s skates like he did against Columbus, that’s certainly not soft. That’s a pretty crispy backhand pass right on Kampf’s tape. Doesn’t look too soft to me.”
For as short of a window that Johansson had to generate chemistry on a line next to Coyle, the two deadline pickups have made Sweeney look very, very smart over the past month.
So far in the postseason, Coyle and Johansson have been out on the ice together for 115:40 of 5v5 TOI, with the Bruins scoring six goals and holding a 56.16% of shot attempts during that stretch. Adding another defensive-minded like
Danton Heinen
into the mix has also paid dividends — with Boston’s new third line only knocked for one goal against in 48:18 of TOI together.
All things considered, Johansson is still considered a bit of an outsider in the B’s locker room. Even a mid-season rookie call-up like
Connor Clifton
has seen more reps this year (28 combined games played to Johansson’s 22).
But on Thursday night,
Torey Krug
was not only encouraged by Johansson’s on-ice production, but how he conducted himself in between periods. With 84 playoff games under his resume, Johansson is already shaping to be a valuable piece on this B’s roster — and, as evidenced by Thursday’s victory, is more than willing to pay the price when needed.
“It’s tough for him, when he went down early, to adjust to a new team and get as many games as possible,” Krug said. “But I thought what Jojo did last night was really important for good teams. It was almost like, after two periods, guys were looking around, wondering what’s going to happen.
“And Jojo had that look in his eye and he spoke up a little bit in the locker room. You get excited about that as a teammate when you see a guy that maybe isn’t as comfortable as other guys in the locker room, just because he hasn’t been here for awhile. But he stepped up and he came out right in that third period and scored that early goal and set the tone for us.”