Johnson Big Part of Team's Surge
By Alan Adams from stlouisblues.com 1-17-01
The great goalie debate seems to be over.
While there have been no whiffs of white smoke coming from the Blues' executives suites announcing the ascension of Brent Johnson to the position of No. 1 goalie, there is no doubt he's the man and will continue to be the main guy between the pipes until further notice.
Johnson was to make his seventh straight start against Vancouver on Thursday, and if you check out the statistics, you'll see the link between his success and the improved fortunes of the Blues.
St. Louis took a six-game winning streak into the game against Vancouver, and during that stretch Johnson posted a 1.83 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage for his best and the team's best run of the season.
Coach Joel Quenneville is hesitant to come right out and say Johnson is his guy in net, but it does not take much to connect the dots when you read between the lines.
"We assume one day he will be the No. 1 and this year is probably as good a chance for him (to show he has the right stuff) and we think he will be able to handle that responsibility," says Quenneville. "He is playing the bulk of the games and I can't see that changing."
While Johnson is a big part why the Blues are showing signs of life after slipping out of the gate to start the season, he's only part of the surge that's vaulted St. Louis back into the thick of things in the Western Conference standings.
The Blues have started to win on the road and, with an 8-10-5 record away from the Savvis Center, they were closing in on being .500 while living out of a suitcase. Taking all three games on a swing through San Jose, Anaheim and Pittsburgh boosted the Blues' confidence.
"Our overall game has been much improved. We had several players playing well below expectations in the first part of the season and several players are now a lot more comfortable with the puck," says Quenneville. "It seems like a total reversal. Our puck possession game, which is one of our trademarks, was non-existent earlier on and now we have the puck more and more to direct plays. We are playing more offensive defense, which we like to do."
When you make as many changes as the Blue did in the off-season, there is always an adjustment period as players familiarize themselves with new linemates and new systems of play. That's a given.
But what the Blues didn't anticipate happening was the adjustment period stretching to a point where there were questions being asked whether this team would ever get its act together. That, in turn, led to all types of unfounded speculation about management searching desperately to make a deal to shake things up.
When players take time to adjust to new linemates, they tend to hesitate when they make a play, and again that is only natural. But there comes a point in time when instincts have to take over, and the more players play instinctively, the quicker a team with a $57 million payroll like the Blues come together
"We liked our team going into the season but we did not like how we started the year," says Quenneville. "We were very unpredictable and we did not know how good we could be and we were kind of a work in progress. We knew we had to come out of this and eventually we did but it took a lot longer than we would have anticipated."
The Blues, however, have little time to rest on their laurels.
After the Canucks, St. Louis has back-to-back games (Saturday and Monday) with the much-improved Boston Bruins and rising star Joe Thornton on Saturday and Monday. These games will be as stiff a test as any of the games the Blues have played so far this season.
But the measuring stick everyone will be watching comes next weekend when the Blues play consecutive games against the two teams ahead of them in the Central Division standings. St. Louis is in Chicago on Friday night, and the Blackhawks beat the Blues 3-1 at the Savvis Center on Dec. 26. The next night, St. Louis plays host to Detroit.
"Back to back with Chicago and Detroit will be an even sterner test and hopefully we are going into those games with a lot of momentum and hopefully the streak we are on now will become even bigger," says Quenneville.
Momentum is funny thing and once you lose it, it is hard to get back.
The Blues want to head into the All-Star Game break on a high and then ride that wave until the Olympic break. The trick will then be to recapture that feeling and that momentum quickly for the stretch drive into the playoffs.
The Blues have six players heading to the Salt Lake Games and Quenneville knows they could return to his team dog-tired after competing in a pressure-packed event like the Olympics.
Rest will be a strategy.
"Look at our schedule after the Olympic break. We play a game every other night and those games are all against Western Conference foes and it will be quite a race where everybody is fighting for playoff positioning. It will be quite a test run. I know we will have to monitor the guys coming back from the Olympics and see how they are feeling. We will look to give those guys a little bit of a break."
But until this, it's full steam ahead, and Johnson can look forward to carrying the load in net.
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