Some guys, for whatever reason, just don’t perform well in certain cities or buildings. To connect the dots here, Buffalo’s home arena, First Niagara Center, could burn to the ground today, and Boston goaltender Chad Johnson wouldn’t bat an eye. He may even add some gasoline to it.
In his third game at FNC this season, the 27-year-old B’s netminder turned in another dud, stopping just 21 of 26 shots thrown his way in a 5-4 overtime loss to the league-worst Buffalo Sabres.
An obvious plus for Johnson is that he’s not going to have to make another trek to Buffalo in 2013-14, but again, for whatever reason, it’s a building that’s given him fits this year. In. All. Three. Games. Johnson left the ice with a victory in spite of his tame 14-of-16 showing back on Oct. 23, his first start as a Bruin. He couldn’t survive a shoddy showing in his next start in Buffalo, surrendering four goals on just 23 shots in an ugly loss on Dec. 19. To recap, that’s one win in three starts against the Sabres this season, with 11 goals allowed on just 65 shots, giving Johnson a woeful .831 save percentage.
Against the rest of the league? Johnson has won 10 of 12, posting a .932 save percentage.
This all makes little to no sense, and I lean towards the latter really.
Facts are facts though, and Johnson looked more than dull tonight. His post-to-post movement was an obvious concern (once again), and his all around game looked like it had a thick coat of rust. Tonight clearly wasn’t his best, and while he shouldn’t take all the heat, he can’t be Teflon Chad. But backed up by the fans’ consensus pick for 2013-14’s backup (Niklas Svedberg) tonight with Tuukka Rask back home to rest up following his Bronze Medal showing in Sochi for Finland, it seems like No. 30 has become the Bruins’ wrongful scapegoat with each loss.
Y’know, all four (three in regulation and now one in overtime) of them this year.
At the end of the day, Johnson is a $600,000 backup goaltender. He’s won 11 of his 14 starts this year, posting a .917 save percentage and 2.31 goals against average. Johnson’s also posted a .926 save percentage at even-strength, matching him with the likes of Sergei Bobrovsky and above names like Steve Mason or Jimmy Howard. Is he as good or better than those guys? No, I don’t think so, but again, are things nearly as bad as they’re made out to be? Not. At. All. Especially when you consider Johnson’s role with the Black-and-Gold.
In the absolute worst case scenario, Johnson is a goaltender expected to start 20-25 games this season. Does his game inspire as much confidence as the days of a platoon featuring Rask and Tim Thomas and Anton Khudobin? No, but those tandems are rare. This is the appropriate gap you have from starter to backup when you pay your starter $7 million per year.
He could be worse. See: Enroth, Jhonas, the guy that has two wins in 19 starts this season, complete with a .903 save percentage, down another .002 points tonight after his 29-of-33 performance.
Johnson’s not going anywhere, and Svedberg, with his $1 million cap-hit this year, isn’t going to be with this club barring an injury to the 26-year-old Rask. The B’s have been quite vocal about the fact that they would prefer to see the Swedish-born Svedberg continue to hone his craft with the Providence Bruins in the AHL, where he’s an everyday player versus a spot-starter in the NHL. Barring a trade or summertime falling out, Svedberg is going to be here full-time soon. Patience.
Hey speaking of patience (or lack thereof), what else did we learn from Wednesday’s loss in Buffalo?
The Bruins need a defensemen. They needed one yesterday, too. The B’s front office has been quite adamant that they’re not going to force or rush a trade given the market’s prices, but with less than a week to go before the NHL trading deadline, the Bruins need to start zeroing in on potential second-pairing defenders (preferably ones with a left shot, too). The Islanders’ Andrew MacDonald is an obvious choice for Boston, but New York’s asking price (a first round pick and more) seems a bit much, even if the 6-foot-1 MacDonald’s leading the NHL in blocked shots (192).
To assess the Bruins’ needs, just look at the last-minute goal from the Sabres.
Defensemen Matt Bartkowski, a player that general manager Peter Chiarelli has given the vote of confidence for top-four playoff minutes, was out to lunch, and Johnny Boychuk didn’t look too much better. There’s little to worry about when it comes to Boychuk in the long run, especially when he’s paired with the 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara, but Bartkowski’s a different story. While I think he’s played better as of late (with more minutes), he’s still a player just settling into full-time NHL duty. Regardless of his recent play, you can’t forget that he began this year as the Bruins’ seventh defensemen, and I’ll even admit that I’ve been guilty of that.
Acquiring a cheaper asset like a Henrik Tallinder, Tom Gilbert, or (insert second-tier defender here) seems like a must at this point, really.
Also, the NBCSN crew really loved Steve Ott’s game. This had me cracking up, because those of us in New England (and beyond) that get the NESN broadcast feed only tend to hear about how awful of a person Ott is for whatever reason. There’s obvious carryover from Ott’s game against the Bruins back in Nov. 2008 (that game turns six years old later this year, by the way) during his tenure with the Dallas Stars (where he and Sean Avery ran amuck for a couple of months), but NBCSN’s analysis of Ott’s game was -- well -- spot on. Ott’s a pain in the ass for every team that goes against him, but he hits hard, goes to the dirty areas of the rink, and will be an asset to any team that trades for them if he’s moved prior to next Wednesday’s trade deadline. Given his style and history of getting under the skin of key Bruins like Chara and Milan Lucic, the Bruins are not a club that’d be overly excited to deal with him for at least four games any time this spring.
Even I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t take a guy like Ott on the Bruins’ bottom six.
But alas, there’s no need. You just have to hope that any possible B’s playoff opponents feel the same.
Oh, and did you know that with his goal tonight Brad Marchand became the club’s first 20-goal scorer this year? All things considered, that’s nuts. Marchand started this year absolutely plagued by inconsistencies, scoring just four goals in the first 27 games of the year. He’s since scored 16 goals in the last 31 games, and has done almost all of his scoring in 2013-14 at even strength.
In fact, Marchand’s not even on one of Boston’s power play units.
Like I said: Nuts.