It didn’t take long for Dustin Donaghy to realize his Spokane Chiefs teammate Tyler Johnson was just one of those guys.
You know, one of those guys.
The type of person imbued with so much swagger and subtle confidence that winning just seemed easy.
Whether it was 3-on-3 games, shinny hockey, or games of Halo, Donaghy found out quickly during both of their rookie seasons in the Western Hockey League that Johnson was that type of slightly trusting, but mostly awe-inspiring person.
“He was just clutch, just with everything,” said Donaghy, who is now entering his second year on the Chiefs bench as an assistant coach. “… Tyler, in my mind, he always had his hand in something in a positive manner.”
Winning has been a constant for Johnson, a Spokane, Washington native, in all levels of hockey.
Johnson and the Chiefs won the Memorial Cup, one of the two most coveted championships in junior hockey, and won a Gold Medal with Team USA at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan, the second most coveted.
He won a Calder Cup Trophy with the Norfolk Admirals in his first season in the American Hockey League. Johnson was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team and a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy in 2014.
And for the second time, Johnson and the Lightning are on the verge of the most prodigious accomplishment in hockey: the Stanley Cup.
The Journey
In the WHL, teams are allowed a 50-player protected list. It includes active players, bantam draft picks and other prospects.
Yes, that same player valuable enough to sign a seven-year, $35 million contract for a Stanley Cup Finalist wasn’t even deemed worthy of being one of the 1,100 players protected by the WHL.
Some of that may have been because of his size — he’s listed at only 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds, but the Spokane native proved to be somewhat of a late bloomer, too.
After failing to make the Chiefs team as a 16-year-old rookie, he erupted with a 120-point season for the Coeur d’Alene Lakers, a Junior ‘B’ team, and helped junior hockey decision-makers notice him.
It didn’t take long for his Chiefs teammates to notice him, either.
“Just looking at him, he kind of had his boyband haircut. You’d look at him and you’d think, is he really a hockey player?” Donaghy said of his first impressions of Johnson in 2007, their rookie seasons. “Then we’d get on the ice, and we’d say, ‘Wow, he’s way more than what he looks like on the outside.”
Of course, Johnson made his way back on to the Chiefs’ list and not only cracked the Chiefs’ Memorial Cup-winning roster as a 17-year-old rookie but was named playoff MVP after totaling five goals and eight points in 23 games.
“He fit in right from the get-go,” Donaghy said.
Johnson had his doubters because he was so unassuming, but it only took a couple of skates for his teammates to buy-in to Johnson being an influential player.
His impact in Junior Hockey was gradual, and while the undersized forward was one of the league’s top scorers as a 19-year-old, no draft buzz followed that production.
Johnson was even looking at playing USports hockey in Canada — or even just attending college in the U.S., where he wasn’t able to play varsity hockey due to the NCAA’s ridiculous amateurism rules, he told The Spokesman-Review, before his 20-year-old season, where he exploded for 53 goals and 115 points as an overage player.
Johnson ended his tenure in Spokane is a hell-of-a-lot of points, a gold medal with Team USA at the 2010 World Junior Championships and, of course, a Memorial Cup run that started it all.
Still, Johnson never attracted much, if any, draft buzz, likely due to his diminutive size.
But Tampa Bay was eventually convinced and inked him as an undrafted free agent.
That’s paid off big time for Tampa Bay, especially early on.
Johnson was a key cog in the Lightning’s 2015 Playoff run, forming ‘The Triplets’ line with Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat. Johnson led the postseason with 13 goals and tied Patrick Kane for first with 23 points as the Lightning finished as Stanley Cup Finalists.
The Lightning fell to Chicago in six games in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, the franchise’s second appearance.
Currently tied 1-1 with the Stars entering Wednesday’s Game 3, Johnson and the Lightning are presented with another bite at the apple.
A Spokane Kid
Johnson was born into a hockey family of sorts.
His parents, Ken and Debbie Johnson, met playing a rec-league hockey game at Spokane’s Eagle’s Ice-A-Rena. Debbie was a skating coach, who not only taught Tyler how to skate, but the Yamamoto brothers, Kailer and Keanu, as well.
Johnson is a cornerstone, along with Derek Ryan and Kailer Yamamoto, of an underground hockey community in Spokane and Northern Idaho that’s never been confused as a hockey hotbed, but has a burgeoning player pool and a passionate, underground fanbase.
A yearbook photo of Tyler Johnson from Central Valley High School
It’s been a tradition for all three to attend high school in the Spokane area — Johnson attended Central Valley in Spokane Valley — and, of course, play for the Chiefs as a hometown kid, an enriching experience that also comes with the burdens of unrealistic expectations.
Johnson cut through any concerns from the jump.
“He was the one that had to decide of enjoying the fame of being a hometown kid or really pursuing a career,” Donaghy said. “Obviously, that’s what he’s done and he’s a huge impact in Tampa’s lineup right now in the Stanley Cup Final.”
Not only is this one of the longest episodes Sound Of Hockey has ever done, it also features one of the biggest-named guests the guys have ever welcomed in ESPN’s Linda Cohn. With Linda, the guys discuss everything from her upbringing as a goalie to her favorite TV commercial from the NHL playoffs. Tons of fun to be had in this interview. You will NOT want to miss this one.
Also in this episode, John, Andy, and Darren break down the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final, give a couple of Seattle/Palm Springs updates, and discuss some other random NHL topics like the league’s very uncertain plans for the 2020-2021 season.
Segments this week include You Don’t See That Every Day, Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
Well, it looks like we have ourselves a series. The Tampa Bay Lightning bounced back in the Stanley Cup Final’s second game with a trio of first period goals to build a lead. The three scores would end up being enough as they held of a Dallas Stars push to win the game 3- 2 and even the series at 1-1.
“We wanted to come out with some speed and our feet moving, trying to get on the forecheck,” Brayden Point said after the game. “They did a good job last game of eliminating our forecheck and eliminating speed. I thought we came out skating and we had some chances right off the bat.”
Game 3 will take place Wednesday as both teams look to force their style on the other and try to build a lead in the series.
Lightning strike on power play
The Tampa Bay power play should be one of the best. They throw offensively gifted players like Nikita Kucherov, Point, and Victor Hedman on the ice and it’s a unit that’s tough to handle.
But they had been struggling,
They had been held scoreless on 15 straight attempts and were in a 1-for-21 slump heading onto their second look in the first period Monday night. That’s when the power play came to life.
Point cashed in first, with a quick shot in the slot, after Kucherov fed him with a great pass.
Goal No. 10 for Brayden Point was an easy candidate for Shot of the Night. #StanleyCup
It would be another Kucherov pass later in the period that found Ondrej Palat in front of the net with all kinds of twine to shoot at. He didn’t miss and picked up his ninth of the playoffs as the Lightning were off and running.
“We just stuck to what we had,” Kucherov said about the power play. “We had some good looks in the first game we just couldn’t score. We stuck to what we had to do, keep it simple, shoot the puck at the net, and get the rebounds.”
Dallas is a physical team with little to no fear in throwing a hit. If the Tampa power play starts to click again, the Stars might want to play a bit more cautiously.
Kucherov’s battle level
Before he was firing pinpoint passes to his mates on the power play, Kucherov had to fight through some tough spots in Game 2.
He took a big hit from Dallas’ Jamie Benn, slammed into the boards later, and had to leave the ice briefly. As one of the top players in the NHL, he garners a lot of attention, but fought through it all to end the night with two points, tying Martin St. Louis for the franchise record in points during a playoff run with 28.
“He’s elevated his game in many different ways,” the Lightning’s Kevin Shattenkirk said. “We obviously know how dangerous he is on the power play and that’s something he uses to get himself going.”
There have been times in the past where Kucherov has let his emotions get the best of him. He’d show frustration and let it take over – see last year’s playoff suspension against Columbus.
But, this time around he’s fighting through it.
“It’s his battle level,” Tampa head coach Jon Cooper said Monday night. “Everybody is going to look at the wonderful skill plays he makes but you look at his battle level, you look when he goes into a 50-50 or 40-60 (puck battle) and he still comes out with the puck, that’s impressive to me…when you’ve got the skill he does and he still does that, it’s pretty impressive.”
Game of momentum swings
During the third period of Game 1, the Lightning dominated. They out shot the Stars 22-2 but were turned away over and over by Dallas goaltender Anton Khudobin.
Tampa Bay carried the momentum from that period into Monday’s Game 2.
The Lightning scored the three goals and out shot the Stars 14-6 over the opening 20 minutes. The three power-play chances helped but Tampa Bay also held a 9-3 five-on-five shot advantage.
Dallas didn’t cave and got its game going in the second period. The Stars controlled the pace and out shot the Lightning 18-5 to snatch the momentum back. Joe Pavelski scored on the power play to cut the lead to 3-1 heading into the final period.
The Stars kept pushing and would get to within one when Mattias Janmark scored his first of the playoffs thanks to a pretty pass off of John Klingberg’s stick. Dallas had all the momentum with plenty of time left and the Lightning appeared to be on the doorstep of blowing a 3-0 lead.
“For us, we had to fight off a couple penalties in the second period and that got us out of our rhythm a little bit,” Tampa Bay’s Kevin Shattenkirk said. “They’re obviously going to make a push when you get up by three. You have to make sure you just play the same game. You don’t want to sit on a lead. I thought after that the guys banded together to make plays, get pucks in and hemming them in.”
The Lightning did exactly that.
After the Janmark goal cut the lead, the Lightning took over the play.
Over the final 14-plus minutes, Tampa Bay out shot Dallas 11-1 to close out the game and even the series.
“We just never put ourselves in panic mode,” Cooper said of his team. “Instead of trying to protect the lead we went out there and took it to them…we were really engaged and a great attitude on the bench.”
Pavelski ties Mike Modano
Pavelski’s goal in the second period was his 58th career playoff score and tied him with former Dallas Star Mike Modano for the most postseason goals in the NHL by an American born player. What’s impressive is that Pavelski reached the mark in 19 fewer games than Modano did and both guys are looking up at Joe Mullen who scored 60 times in the postseason. Can Pavelski reach him this year?
The goal was a typical, ho-hum deflection from in front of the net. It would be an incredible skill play if anyone else had done it. But this is what we are used to now from Pavelski who is hand’s down the best puck deflector in the NHL.
Pavelski climbed another scoring list. The goal was the 10th the former San Jose Shark has scored during this playoff run which ranks him one behind the great Maurice Richard for most goals in the playoffs by a player over 36-years-old.
Richard had 11 in 1958 and Pavelski has at least three more games to tie the record.
In May the Stanley Cup Final being played felt like the longest of long shots. But NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the league found a safe way to restart the season and finally, Game 1 of the finals happened Saturday with the Dallas Stars taking Game 1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-1 win.
Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin continued his stellar playoff run by kicking away 35 shots and the only goal he allowed came off of Yanni Gourde’s skate in the first period.
“(My teammates) they cleaned up really well whenever I had rebounds,” Khudobin said after the game. “I try to do my part and they tried to do their part. It’s great when you see the guys blocking shots and cleaning the front of the net.”
Game 2 will be Monday evening.
The Stanley Cup made an appearance
Normally, we have to wait til a clinching game to get our first glimpse of the Cup. Perhaps to help build the suspense in a Rogers Place that had no fans, the Cup was front and center during the pregame introductions and anthems prior to Game 1.
Placed above the rink, at center ice, the Cup was illuminated by lights and was an in-person reminder of what was at stake. It was a nice touch and helped build some suspense. A hit with fans, it may not have had the same effect on the players.
“I didn’t see it,” Dallas forward Blake Comeau said. “But obviously when you walk into the rink, they’ve got some banners up and signs are around. Other than that, it felt like another game and that’s how we wanted to approach it.”
That attitude worked for the Stars, who enter a series as the perceived underdog for the third straight round. Dallas has its eyes on the prize, even if the Stars didn’t actually see the prize before the game.
“Didn’t see it, doesn’t matter,” head coach Rick Bowness said. “Only thing that matters is the next game…you can’t afford to think about those things.”
Khudobin stars again for the Stars
The playoffs are known for creating stars out of previously overlooked players and Khudobin has burst on the scene this year.
He was at his best Saturday night in the third period when Tampa Bay out-shot the Stars 22-2. His mates had scored their way to giving the veteran net-minder a two-goal lead and the Lightning started pressing. Khudobin made a huge toe save on Anthony Cirelly to start the period and never looked back as he held the Lightning at bay.
It is hard to describe the style Khubobin plays. It’s not traditional and it reminds of the frantic and athletic style that made Dominik Hasek one of the game’s best.
“He’s just a great competitor,” Bowness said. “Don’t get wrapped up in styles, just get wrapped up in job description, to stop pucks…He’ll do whatever he can to stop the puck.”
He was supposed to be the back up in the postseason, playing behind Ben Bishop but injury forced him to the net, and he has his club three wins away from winning the Cup.
In 20 playoff games, Khudobin’s posted a goals-against of 2.54 with the league’s second best save percentage of .923.
Tampa Bay lights up the shot clock
After Dallas controlled the play during the first period – with a Corsi-For of 70 percent – the Lightning got going over the last two periods.
Thanks to a dominating third period, Tampa Bay ended up leading the Stars in shots (36-20), shot attempts (55-35), and scoring chances (21-19). This is not new to Dallas as they won games against the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Finals where the stats said they should have lost.
The numbers are lopsided but the Stars did a good job of forcing Tampa to take a lot of less dangerous shots from the outside.
The Dallas Stars did a good job of forcing shots from the outside (Natural Stat Trick)
“We try to keep them to the outside,” Bownes said of the shots. “We’ll give them the outside shot…when we’re playing our game, we’re keeping shots to the outside. It’s not just your five-man unit, it’s your six-man unit. Your goalie has to know what shots you’re willing to give up.”
It would be an understatement to say that Khudobin is aware.
No points for Brayden Point
Tampa’s Brayden Point has been a force for the Lightning throughout the playoffs with 25 points in 18 games. The 24-year-old missed two games against the Islanders in the Conference Finals due to injury and Tampa Bay lost both contests.
He was in the lineup Saturday, but the Stars did a masterful job of containing, and silencing the young star.
Point was on the ice for over 20 minutes Saturday but was held to no points, no shots, no scoring chances, and was on the ice for three goals against. Despite not having last change, Bowness was able to get defensemen Esa Lindell and John Klingberg out against Point the most Saturday and the pair shut things down nicely.
It’s hard to imagine Point being shutout two games in a row and he will be a key player to watch going forward.
Dallas Defense looking offensive
Two of the Dallas goals Saturday came from their blue line and the defense scoring goals has become a theme of the Stars playoff run. The two scores give the Dallas defense 15 goals this postseason.
Leading the way is budding superstar Miro Heiskanen with five – along with his 23 points – but it wasn’t the usual suspects in Game 1.
Dallas opened the scoring in the first period with a high-slot goal from Joel Hanley. Not only was it the first of the playoffs for the 29-year old defenseman, but it was the first goal in his NHL career.
“Obviously it’s something you dream about when you’re young,” Hanley said. “It’s just cool to be able to contribute with a goal like that.”
Goal No. 1 of the 2020 #StanleyCup Final goes to Joel Hanley!
Jamie Oleksiak would get in on the blue line scoring with a nice put back of his own rebound in the second period. The score ties him with Heiskanan with five and would turn out to be the game-winning goal.
“We went into training camp in July, we put the first three days focusing on our defense getting a lot more involved,” Bowness said. “Not only in the rush but in the offensive zone…in this day you need your D to be more involved in your offense, you just have to.”
The Tampa Bay Lightning represent “Team A” in the Stanley Cup Final as the Eastern Conference Champions that everyone expected.
If you look back at the last… oh… let’s say six Stanley Cup Finals, the matchups have tended to be of the following format – Team A, the one that everyone expected to be the last team standing, versus Team B, the team that nobody thought had a shot at the title entering the playoffs.
For example, in 2014, the Los Angeles Kings – Team A – defeated the New York Rangers – Team B – in five games. Everybody expected the Kings, who were one year removed from a 2012 championship, to be there, while the Rangers shocked the world with their qualification for the Final. Similarly, the St. Louis Blues (Team B) surprised the hockey world last season by going from last in the league when the calendar year turned to finding the sport’s holy grail in June. The final boss of last year’s video game of a season in St. Louis was the Boston Bruins (Team A), a team that the hockey world perennially expects to be among the last remaining combatants.
The 2015 Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and these Tampa Bay Lightning fit this mold nicely too. Chicago had won in 2010 and 2013, so no surprise there, while the Lightning, packed with young and raw talent, had risen quickly to prominence under Jon Cooper in his second full season behind the bench.
SHIFTING FROM “TEAM B” TO “TEAM A”
The Lightning were not expected to make that deep of a run at that stage, but once they had, they established themselves as long-term contenders in the NHL. They lived up to this billing twice in the subsequent years, making it back to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016 and 2018. But they also endured missing the playoffs completely in 2017 and getting embarrassed with an opening round sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets last season, which had the rumor mills churning out plenty of “Fire Jon Cooper” content.
It’s been Stanley Cup or bust for this team for six years now, so knowing that Cooper’s emotions after Anthony Cirelli’s Game 6 overtime winner on Thursday were “Exuberance and relief,” makes all the sense in the world.
This team has fallen short so many times, and has been favored so frequently in the last few years, that at some point it risked falling into a Team B category. So why now? What’s different for these 2019-2020 Tampa Bay Lightning that has made them Eastern Conference Champions for the first time since that remarkable run in 2015?
CORE IMPROVEMENT
It’s no secret that this roster is absolutely loaded with superstar talent. From Vezina-nominated Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, to Norris-nominated Victor Hedman on the blueline, to two-time 100-point scoring Nikita Kucherov up front, there is elite talent everywhere you look.
There’s a saying among NHL coaches that you need your best players to be your best players to win, and these guys have been Tampa Bay’s best players in these playoffs. You may recall that in last season’s CBJ debacle, Kucherov did not score, and was actually suspended one game for a downright reckless hit that nearly took the head off of Markus Nutivaara. Kucherov has redeemed himself by doing absolutely everything this postseason, with 26 (!!) points in 19 games, leading all playoff participants.
Meanwhile, Vasilevskiy has been outstanding with a .931 save percentage and 1.82 goals against average after an abysmal .856/3.82 line in a small four-game sample size in 2019. And Hedman… whoa… with 15 points from the blueline and some clutch goals along the way, Hedman is making a real case to finish the season as your Conn Smythe AND Norris Trophy winner.
But other guys have taken huge steps to get this team over the hump this year, most notably Brayden Point. Point emerged as a true superstar during the Lightning’s dream regular season in ’18-’19 with 41 goals and 51 assists, but then (like everyone else on the team) went quiet in the playoffs, contributing just one goal in the team’s four games. Conversely, he’s been a force this postseason, with nine goals and 16 assists. Point’s health is a question mark for the Final, as he missed two games of the last series before obviously being rushed back for Game 6, but indications are that he’ll gut it out.
The Lightning and their Final opponent from Dallas have few similarities in make-up, but one thing that sticks out as a parallel between the two organizations is the shrewd veteran additions recently made by both to bolster their respective rosters. Like Jim Nill in Dallas, BriseBois made a few moves that on paper probably should have had minimal impact, but in the end, they’re paying huge dividends collectively.
Fresh off a Stanley Cup in his hometown, Patrick Maroon signed for one year with the Lightning, bringing some needed grit to a team that
Patrick Maroon has been the perfect fit for Tampa Bay’s fourth line.
previously had none. Maroon is the quintessential fourth-liner for a playoff squad, and has shown he’s worth every penny of the bargain $900K contract that he finally signed just days before training camp. For a time, it looked like nobody wanted him, which was a bit puzzling considering his recent success.
Speaking of bargain players that seemingly nobody wanted, Kevin Shattenkirk was bought out by the New York Rangers, then signed a one-year “prove it” contract with Tampa Bay for just $1.75 million. Talk about worth every penny, Shattenkirk has again emerged as a top-pairing defenseman that plays 17 minutes per night and has chipped in offensively with nine playoff points. He’s been a perfect complement to Hedman, and will certainly get paid more than $1.75 million next season, wherever that may be.
And let’s not forget the pre-deadline trades for Barclay Goodrow – which had people scratching their heads at the time, as it cost the Lightning a first-round draft pick – and Blake Coleman, who play together with Yanni Gourde on the third line. You’ll hear about the team’s change in style in the next section, and Goodrow and Coleman have been huge contributors to the team’s successful commitment to detail in its own zone.
MENTALITY
The biggest difference for the Lightning this postseason has been the approach they brought into the NHL’s return-to-play bubble. If you recall the historic 128-point campaign that the Lightning breezed through in 2018-2019, they encountered zero adversity. They were winning almost every night and winning big, with a +98 goal differential in total.
But their style of play – scoring their opponents to death – doesn’t always translate to playoff hockey, and that’s exactly what we saw when John Tortorella’s Blue Jackets flipped the script and defended Tampa Bay to a swift death. Coop’s Troops learned from that embarrassing ousting, and came into the bubble knowing that this could be their coach’s last stand if the team made another early exit.
This season, the Lightning faced some adversity, immediately getting punched in the mouth with a lackluster opening to the season, and hovering at an unimpressive 17-13-4 record as the Christmas holiday approached. But they endured and overcame, and it was at that point in the season when they turned it on, rattling off ten straight wins between December 23rd and January 11th. They followed that up with another eleven-game win streak starting on January 29th, but then limped into the NHL’s COVID-related pause, winning just three of their last ten.
But when the league re-started within its bubbly confines in August, there had been an obvious change in Tampa Bay’s style. They’re now visibly more committed defensively (again, Coleman and Goodrow have been a big part of this), and playing with more grit and determination than they were last year. They seem to be more interested in keeping their opponents to low numbers on the scoreboard than they are about running it up offensively –which they still do on occasion – as we saw in the closing games of the Eastern Conference Final against the Islanders.
The result, with the help of some stellar play from Vasilevskiy, has been a remarkably low team goals against average of just 1.42 per game in the playoffs, while still managing to rack up 2.25 per game themselves. Meanwhile, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, Tampa Bay has had 57.3% of the expected goals for, indicating that they’ve certainly had the better of the chances throughout the postseason, while Final opponent Dallas has managed just 49.2%.
Per NaturalStatTrick.com, the Lightning have 57.3% of expected goals for, while Dallas has just 49.2%.
Tampa Bay is a team that – after years of falling short – seems to finally understand how to win a Stanley Cup. Now all that’s left to do is actually win it.
The Dallas Stars are your Western Conference champions, because… well… it’s 2020, and of course they are! Meanwhile, the Islanders kept themselves alive with a double-overtime victory over the Lightning on Tuesday, and Sound of Hockey is here to give you the full rundown of everything that’s happening in the playoff bubble.
Lots of fun chatter on this week’s episode, as John, Andy, and Darren discuss some of the storylines associated with the Stars’ impressive run and do a postmortem on the recently departed Vegas Golden Knights. Also, more discussion about the impending goalie carousel that should start spinning in the NHL very soon.
Next, the guys discuss trades, signings, and NHL awards, before moving into Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
