In another life, Kent Johnson could have been quite the three-card monte dealer.
His brain is always a step ahead of the opposition. His sleight of hand assures that he always has the upper hand. And just when you think you have him right where you want him, he gets away unscathed.
Johnson may stand a slim – but not as slim as it used to be – 6-foot, 180-pound frame, but he’s one of the best players at protecting the puck in the NHL.
It’s a combination of a few factors, including hard work and detailed game study, an uncanny ability to know where pressure is coming from and what his options are to get away from it, and the confidence to make something happen with the puck on his stick.
Add it all up and Johnson is a one-man zone entry, someone who is already one of the best in the game at age 21 in carrying the puck through the neutral zone or into the offensive zone and then creating offense from there.
That’s one of the main reasons Johnson was just the second Blue Jacket ever to start a season with points in his first nine games, and why he’s currently producing at a point-per-game pace (6-6-12 in 12 games) so far. He has the skill set to score goals and set up teammates as well as just about anyone, but it starts with the ability to keep the puck away from the opposing team and put it in advantageous positions for the Blue Jackets.
“I think any skilled forward, you don’t want to dump it in,” Johnson said. “Sometimes you have to, but it’s something I’ve worked a lot on, and when I was younger it was something I did.
“It’s something that not a lot of guys can do, so it’s definitely a calling card for me. I have to keep getting better at it and keep doing it.”
Count Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason among his fans in that regard. Evason often refers to Johnson as a rink rat, someone who feels most at home on the ice, and Johnson describes himself as a hockey nerd.
But that detailed study of the game and relentless has allowed the Vancouver-area native to announce himself this season as a breakout player for the Blue Jackets.
Not only is he adept at keeping the puck on his stick through the bodies in the neutral zone, he’s able to keep possession once he gets in the zone and then find offensive options from there, something few players can master at the NHL level.
“He’s a great skater obviously, but his skill set, his hands are terrific,” Evason said. “And what he’s done is he hasn’t turned the puck over, right? You carry the puck in like that, like we see the analytic numbers, and you carry it in there, you’re bound to throw a couple away. And maybe he has, but you know, it’s not on a consistent basis. He protects it.
“We showed a clip (Tuesday) morning of him driving deep and hooking off down low as opposed to up high at the blue line so that he doesn’t turn the puck over. So that’s what we’ve really liked.
“We’ve talked to our entire group that it doesn’t matter how you get it in if you need to get it in. If that means dumping it and getting after it and forechecking, that’s wonderful. But if you can carry the thing in and not give it away and have to try to get it back, it’s even better.”
Johnson said he often studies skaters like his Blue Jackets teammate Johnny Gaudreau and Patrick Kane to see how they – two players also not known for their size – have been able to excel at the skill over the years. He also has coaches in Vancouver that put him through drills in the offseason that allow him to keep building his arsenal of moves.
“The big thing is skating at players early, getting them to where they can’t really get on angle on you,” Johnson said. “That’s a big thing that I think I’m good at. And then just adding the head fakes and stick fakes and your feet fakes. Sometimes it can look pretty easy when you get pretty good at it. It feels good, but you have to keep doing it.”
Blue Jackets defenseman Jake Christiansen considers himself a hockey nerd like Johnson, and as a fellow Vancouver-area native and friend of Johnson’s, they spend more than their fair share of time talking about, watching and playing the sport.
On the ice, they spend both offseasons and practices competing against one another. From experience, Christiansen can vouch for how hard it is to go up against Johnson when he has the puck on his stick.
“I think he protects the puck extremely well, and maybe you wouldn’t have thought that about him with his stature,” Christiansen said. “But it’s so hard to get the puck off him the way he protects it, his stick skills, keeping it away from you and stuff like that. He works a ton on it during the summer. We play a ton of small-area games, which is the best way to work on it.
“There’s times that 3x3 gets pretty heated. I think it’s more competitive than people think, and then there’s obviously times that you’re frustrated (with him). He’s really good at that side of the game for sure.”
And while Johnson has used that skill to his full advantage this year during his hot start, his confidence really started to bloom a season ago. While he was limited to 42 games and 16 points because of injuries and a stint in the AHL, Johnson looked at the numbers and realized he was one of the best in the league at zone entries.
“It’s funny, one of my coaches in the summer sent me the stats and it was like all the best players in the league and then me last year,” Johnson said. “It was basically like a funny thing for me, like, ‘I’ll be fine.’ But it was pretty funny seeing that. I was like a misfit toy last year, but now I think it makes sense.
“It’s something I have to keep doing and something that helps give me confidence. If you can do that stuff as a young player, you’ll be good probably.”
