Colorado Avalanche: Erik Johnson Should Return Soon

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson is skating before practices. Hopefully he’ll be back to playing soon.

The Colorado Avalanche’s cornerstone defenseman, Erik Johnson, is back to skating with the team.

Well, technically he’s skating before the team gets on the ice. And he’s very much in a red, no-contact jersey:

According to Avalanche insider Rick Sadowski, Johnson started skating on Monday. Last week he was working on a slide board

A hockey slide board is a training tool that helps players train their leg muscles. A slide board works lateral power, endurance and agility. Here’s an example of one in action:

You can see how that would help Johnson rebuild his skating muscles. He’s been out since December 3, with a broken fibula.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the loss of Johnson has exposed the Colorado Avalanche’s extreme thinness in defense. The team was struggling even with Erik in the lineup — without him. They’ve gone 2-17-1 in Johnson’s absence.

Erik Johnson catches a lot of flak for not being a “number one” defenseman. However, recently Jonathan Willis of Sports Network wrote an article largely about the Colorado Avalanche defense.

In the article Willis looks at all the Avs defensemen stats-wise. Johnson is the only player who has a positive Corsi differential (2.4) against both tough opponents (the NHL’s top 30 centers) and against the rest of the league (5.9). He logged the most minutes against the top lines.

As Willis pointed out, he was able to achieve these numbers while carrying a d-partner. He was often paired with Nikita Zadorov, who had a -13.1 Corsi differential against toughs and a -6.8 against the rest.

In case you’re wondering, Francois Beauchemin is the worst on the ice against toughs, -18.6, followed closely by Tyson Barrie at -17.8.

Eric Gelinas is the only other Avs defenseman with a positive number — 1.1 against toughs. He’s -4.7 against the rest, which is good for second-best on the team. (And yet the Avs have put him on waivers twice — so much for the team moving toward analytics.)

Anyway, the point is that Erik Johnson most certainly is the Colorado Avalanche’s best defenseman.

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Now, his skating on the ice before practice in a red no-contact jersey doesn’t mean he’s going to be in the lineup even in the next week. Indeed, Jared Bednar has given no timeline for his return. And with the Avalanche’s season completely lost, there’s certainly no reason to rush Johnson back.

It’s going to be so good to see Colorado Avalanche’s best defenseman, Erik Johnson, back on the ice again in games, though.

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