Johnson is Trying to Show Blues He's the One
By Derrick Goold from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Online 1-16-02
There's be no public pronouncement, no grand coronation and there likely won't be for a while because Brent Johnson hasn't been dubbed the Blues' No. 1 goalie.
He's just playing like No. 1.
Johnson will make his seventh consecutive start Thursday night against Vancouver, extending a streak that already was a season and career high. He's won all six previous games and seen his goals-against average drop to 2.20 from 2.31.
"Johnny's a big part of our recent success," coach Joel Quenneville said. "He looks a little more comfortable. His progress this season has been on track with his career. He has the right ingredients to be The Guy."
The ingredient that has led to Johnson's ascension is patience.
Johnson and fellow goalie Fred Brathwaite have had to be patient this season. From the start of training camp, the goalies have been dueling for the chance to be No. 1. Until the Blues' winning streak, there had been a steady rotation between the two: win and keep going, lose and, most often, yield the crease.
That was the case on New Year's Day, the last time Brathwaite started. His saves - including two on point-blank shots from Patrik Elias - kept the game against New Jersey close. But the Blues lost. Johnson started the next game and every game since.
It's a fine line that Johnson recognizes.
"I feel like I'm contributing finally," he said. "There have been some games where I didn't have to do anything to win. The guys have played so unbelievable that they could have had any goaltender in there. ... I know it's a right place, right time kind of thing."
But by being in there, Johnson has developed a second kind of patience - in-game patience. Being a goalie for the Blues can be boring. The defense allows very few shots, giving up Tuesday to Edmonton more shots on net than the Blues have taken for the first time in 21 games. Johnson earlier this season faced nine shots in a shutout.
Staying in a game takes the unwavering focus of a diamond-cutter.
Johnson, 24, also has to have the patience in his game and wait "for the puck to come to him," Quenneville said. Many of Johnson's mistakes come when he over-pursues a play or gets itchy and lurches out of position. His eagerness - which adds to his already risk-taking style - sometimes results in goals and, in the rotation system, cost him starts.
This seven-game stretch has given him his first chance to establish "rhythm." That's what goaltending coach Keith Allain called it Wednesday.
Rhythm can come from getting pelted with dozens of shots in a game or getting the time to recognize what it takes to weather a game sprinkled with sporadic bursts of shots. Johnson has done that. Saving the Blues late - even after stretches as a spectator to the Blues' offense.
"Over this many games you get every type of situation and you get to see every different thing," Johnson said. "You get to know your defensemen. That's why goalies get hot."
Johnson, with help from the Blues defense, is hot. The Blues have not allowed an opponent more than two goals in nine of the most recent 10 games. During this seven-game stretch, six of the 11 goals Johnson has allowed have been on the power play.
Johnson said he doesn't want to get ahead of himself, doesn't want to feel like the No. 1 when no one has taken him aside and said, in his words, "You take it from here and go."
