FanPost

Jack Johnson has been disastrous, even by Jack Johnson standards

Upon reading the title, you’re probably thinking I’m going to take the dead horse, light it on fire, and throw it in a tub of acid. You’d sort of be right, kinda. JJ certainly hasn't been any better than we expected since signing a contract that will likely postdate Florida sinking into the ocean. If we were just getting standard fare JJ, we wouldn't be happy, but at least we'd be content, albeit solemnly, with knowing what we had. However, all evidence points to the harsh reality that he’s actually been even worse than predicted. Much worse, in fact.

Let's start with the offense. No one was expecting JJ to be Kris Letang. But, even with what little was expected of him, he's still found a way to underwhelm. He has just 2 primary points all season long. His 0.15 per 60 mark ranks 188th out of 208 dmen with >300 5v5 mins, a notch ahead of our good pal Ian Cole, and the worst of his 12-year career. With so many dynamic weapons around him you'd think he'd at least get one by accident every now and then. In a system where dmen are encouraged to join the rush, JJ might as well not even bother.

If you're going to be that much of a black hole at scoring, you'd better be Brian Dumoulin at driving play. Welp, JJ's also among the worst in the league there as well. His teammates' expected goal% is 4.91% worse with him than without, 180th out of our aforementioned sample of 208 and JJ's personal worst in 6 seasons. The next worst Penguin is Riikola at 111th, a nice 69 spots ahead. He's struggled in shot suppression, but his inability to generate quality shots has been particularly horrific; his teammates register 0.29 fewer expected goals per 60 with JJ on the ice, which would be the 2nd worst mark of his career. Safe to say JJ sucks the life outta the puck with the best of em.

So now we know JJ is utterly useless at 5v5. And he hasn't played significant power play time in 3 seasons. Even if he were proficient on the PP, they wouldn't need him there anyway with Letang and Schultz as elite options. But could he at least be serviceable as a PK specialist? Once again, data tell us probably not. Not only that, but he's had the worst season of his entire career by relative expected goals (-10.06%), 103rd out of 130 dmen who've killed at least 50 mins. I look at the Leafs with Ron Hainsey. He's clearly washed up, but he still merits a spot in the lineup with elite penalty killing (17th out of the 130). Meanwhile, JJ hasn't even provided mediocre penalty killing, let alone good.

When we think of a boat anchor dragging down an otherwise scintillating roster, the one who instantly comes to mind is Rob "The Piece" Scuderi. Well even Scuds was never this bad. Both his scoring and possession were better in each of his 3 seasons than Johnson's have been this year. That should tell you something that a man pretty much universally loathed by the fanbase still played at a higher level than the guy we're seeing now. Fortunately for the Pens the Hawks gave them a get-outta-jail-free card with the Trevor Daley swap, apropos of virtually nothing. They’d be hard-pressed to get that lucky twice. Even if they wanted to unload JJ this summer, he'd still have 4 years left on his deal, while Scuds only had a year and change when he was moved. A 4th/5th dman (which Johnson will be once Schultz returns) won't single-handedly sink your season. But it just makes everyone else have to work that much harder to overcome.

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