Welcome back, Jack

By Rich Hammond on March 16, 2009 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) |

Jack Johnson became a topic of discussion a couple weeks ago, when Terry Murray removed him from all special-teams duty and talked about the need for players to ``earn'' roles on the team. The implicit suggestion was that Johnson wasn't earning those roles. Well, Murray had high praise for Johnson after Saturday's loss to San Jose. Johnson played 19 minutes, 30 seconds, and was credited with three hits and four blocked shots. And even though we've debated the merits (or lack thereof) of the plus-minus stat, it's at least worth noting in passing that Johnson is plus-2 in his last two games, after being a cumulative minus-15 in his previous 16 games.

Question: Seemed to be a strong game for Jack Johnson (against the Sharks)...

MURRAY: ``That's where he was when he first came back after his injury. He was hard, he was heavy and playing with a lot of authority. He seemed to get away from that. I had a meeting with him about it and (Saturday) night he was very strong and assertive. There was a real purpose to what he was doing on his man-on-man coverage. That makes a big difference.''

3 Comments

AK47

said:

RE-SIGN HIM!!!!!

March 16, 2009 12:16 PM

Dominic Lavoie

said:

Welcome back Rich! I kept refreshing the blog yesterday thinking there were going to be more postings. With everything happening in the newspaper industry I was getting concerned....

March 16, 2009 12:29 PM

KQ949 said:

It was VERY apparent that Jack was on a mission against SJ. Not sure if it was to show his "previous landlord" that he's got what it takes to be BETTER than him, of if someone re-lit the fire underneath him.

This phrase always makes me chuckle, but he was "battling" out there every shift and it was very noticible! Keep going JJ!!

March 16, 2009 2:30 PM

J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey. E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra
@inlandnewspapers.com.

Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.