By: John Sparenberg
It was anything but the "Battle of the Century on Friday night in Providence as the Hershey Bears and Providence Bruins battled at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, but it id turn out to be quite an interesting battle, one that saw the Bears and their all-star netminder, Vitek Vanacek, who reached the century mark by appearing in his 100th AHL game, fall to the Bruins in a shootout by a 3-2 score.
The Bears started the game firing on all cylinders and had numerous scoring chances thwarted by the Bruins' outstanding netminder Zane McIntyre. However the Bears eventually found pay dirt late in the frame when Riley Barber dented the twine. Barber's goal elevated his total for the season to 27 and eclipsing his previous career high of 26 set in the 2015-2016 season, which was his first in the American Hockey League.
Barber's goal was not a solo effort, but a true team one that took the collective effort of the entire on-ice unit, and actually started in the defensive zone where Tyler Lewington won a battle behind his own net before the puck eventually found it's way to the Bears goal crease where Lewington emerged from a scramble to lug it into the Providence zone, leading an odd man rush. That rush was stalled along the boards, but Lewington won another board battle, this one against former Bears teammate Paul Carey. From there, Barber found defenseman Aaron Ness at the point, and Ness circumvented the Bruins defense, finding his way behind their net before dishing a nifty backhand pass to Barber. Not to be overlooked on the play was Hershey forward Mike Sgarbossa, who never touched the puck in the sequence, but played a pivotal role by covering the point for Lewington, allowing him to continue his mission.
After failing on two power plays in the first frame, the third time proved to be the charm for the hometown Bruins, when their captain Jordan Szwarz seized a rebound, and from a prone position, pushed the disc into the cage to tie the game at 1-1 with Connor Hobbs watching helplessly from the penalty box serving a very questionable interference infraction.
Later in the stanza, a miscalculation by Bears defenseman Ryan Sproul, who inadvertently shot the puck into the Bears bench area, where it struck the skates of his partner Lucas Johansen gave the Bruins another power play and they capitalized on the gift with another extra man strike, with Carey lighting the lamp to give them a 2-1 lead at 17:17.
Seconds before his goal, Carey himself did the Bears a favor, inadvertently clearing the zone himself sending an errant pass out of the zone. However, defenseman Connor Clifton corralled it and led the charge into the Bears zone. Upon gaining the zone, Clifton dance around Lewington, and put a shot on net that was stopped, and Lewington gathered the puck and attempted to backhand it out of the zone, but it was intercepted Karson Kuhlman, who quickly passed to Clifton, who then feathered a pass through the five hole of Lewington and right onto the stick of Carey who stashed it home.
"Our first period was excellent, one of the best periods we've played in the last little bit", said Bears bench boss, Spencer Carbery. "The second was different though. We got away from that and started getting a little careless with pucks, and the momentum changed, and then obviously they got those two power play goals. But we kept pressing in the third and found the equalizer to get the game into overtime. Certainly we would have liked the extra point, but we'll take it and move on to tomorrow."
The Bruins maintained their lead until the 15th minute of the third period, when Johansen brewed up the game-tying goal by backhanding a shot from the left faceoff circle and right on the Dunkin' Donuts logo.
Vanacek finished the evening with 29 saves, and also stopped the first five shootout attempts he faced before Anton Blidh beat him to the blocker side for the decisive goal.
"Our special teams are in a bad spot right now, both the PK and the power play, and we just gotta get it sorted out", said Carbery. "Sometimes, you go through these stretches where nothing will go right on the PK, and the power play, maybe a little bit of urgency is lacking at times and maybe we are a bit too casual, but we have to get those right. You look at the gamesheet tonight, they get two on the power play and we get zero and it's a 2-2 game, that's why the game went to overtime."
Friday, March 8, 2019
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Bears Put Down Wolfpack
By John Sparenberg:
The Hershey Bears, rebounding from their lone setup in the month of February on Sunday in Bridgeport, returned to their winning ways on Wednesday night in Hartford, pouncing upon the Atlantic Division cellar dwelling Wolf Pack, 4-1.
With the victory, the Bears finished out February with a glowing 11-1 record, with the loss to Bridgeport being the only blemish of the month.
The Wolfpack outshot and also out-chanced the Bears through two periods, carrying a 19-14 shot advantage and a 1-0 lead into the third into the period, a lead that would have certainly been wider had it not been for the outstanding play of Bears netminder Ilya Samsonov, who carried a streak of 11 straight starts without a regulation loss (10-0-0-1) into the contest.
Samsonov's counterpart in net, Brandon Halverson, held the Bears off the board for 52 minutes, before a power play tally by Riley Barber began a Bears barrage of four straight goals.
Defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler quickly broke the tie less than a minute later when his point shot through a chorus line of players somehow eluded Halverson. Siegenthaler's strike was his second of the year, and ultimately turned out to be his first career game-winning goal.
Halverson later contributed to his own demise, turning the puck over to Barber in the trapezoid area, with Barber happily accepting the gift and turning it into an easy unassisted goal. Barber's multi-goal output increased his season total to 26, matching his career high set in his rookie campaign with the Bears in the 2015-2016 season.
Nathan Walker, netting his 13th goal of the season and first of the calendar year on the road, closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal at 18:41.
The Hershey Bears, rebounding from their lone setup in the month of February on Sunday in Bridgeport, returned to their winning ways on Wednesday night in Hartford, pouncing upon the Atlantic Division cellar dwelling Wolf Pack, 4-1.
With the victory, the Bears finished out February with a glowing 11-1 record, with the loss to Bridgeport being the only blemish of the month.
The Wolfpack outshot and also out-chanced the Bears through two periods, carrying a 19-14 shot advantage and a 1-0 lead into the third into the period, a lead that would have certainly been wider had it not been for the outstanding play of Bears netminder Ilya Samsonov, who carried a streak of 11 straight starts without a regulation loss (10-0-0-1) into the contest.
Samsonov's counterpart in net, Brandon Halverson, held the Bears off the board for 52 minutes, before a power play tally by Riley Barber began a Bears barrage of four straight goals.
Defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler quickly broke the tie less than a minute later when his point shot through a chorus line of players somehow eluded Halverson. Siegenthaler's strike was his second of the year, and ultimately turned out to be his first career game-winning goal.
Halverson later contributed to his own demise, turning the puck over to Barber in the trapezoid area, with Barber happily accepting the gift and turning it into an easy unassisted goal. Barber's multi-goal output increased his season total to 26, matching his career high set in his rookie campaign with the Bears in the 2015-2016 season.
Nathan Walker, netting his 13th goal of the season and first of the calendar year on the road, closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal at 18:41.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
By: John Sparenberg
Coiner Calls It Quits As A Champ
With the puck having already been dropped on another hockey season in Europe and about to drop for another one in North America, the 2018-2019 season will mark the first one is nearly 20 years that Keith Aucoin is not on a professional opening night roster.
The Washington Capitals came calling for Aucoin's services in the summer of 2008, and after failing to make the Caps opening night roster and being assigned to Hershey, he made an immediate impact on their fortunes by netting the club’s first goal of the season less than two minutes into his debut and bookended the Bears’ capturing of the Calder Cup by sealing the championship with an empty net goal in their Cup clinching game.
Coiner Calls It Quits As A Champ
With the puck having already been dropped on another hockey season in Europe and about to drop for another one in North America, the 2018-2019 season will mark the first one is nearly 20 years that Keith Aucoin is not on a professional opening night roster.
Aucoin, 39, who always battled the “too small” label and had more of a reputation as a table setter due to his amazing pinpoint precision passing abilities to setup his linemates, proved the label makers wrong. The numbers show he was very much a finisher, as well, throughout his spectacular 17-year career, which he finished in fine fashion last season in Germany, going out a champion.
"My body feels good now, but it wouldn’t feel too good after a day or two of training camp,” said Aucoin via phone on the day NHL training camps opened. "I’ve been keeping pretty busy though. I took a new coaching job with my son’s hockey team, so I really haven’t had too much time to think about it, but I’m sure after the games kick in I’ll miss it a bunch, that’s for sure."
Peering deeply into the North American portion of Aucoin's career, beginning with his college days at Norwich University, some things are as crystal clear, such as his penchant for putting up a plethora of points as he did in both college and the minors. He proved himself when given true opportunities and abundant ice time, and the numbers added up to tell a story of an amazing talent and champion. Unfortunately, there are other numbers that simply do not add up to tell the true story of Aucoin.
At Norwich, he was a dominant player who led the Maroon & Gold to their first ever national title in his junior season in 2000, all the while accumulating exactly one goal per game, 116 tallies in 116 encounters. In addition, he added a helping hand in 124 tallies of his teammates.
Yet the number that the scouts focused on, Aucoin's small-by-hockey-standards 5’8” frame, led to him being overlooked and undrafted. However, throughout his career, he used being passed by to his utmost advantage by showing that heart and determination-qualities that cannot be measured but were abundantly ingrained in his hockey DNA- forced those who once overlooked him to take notice.
After bouncing around the minors in his first four campaigns as a pro, playing in four different leagues including the American Hockey League where he skated with the Lowell Lock Monsters, the Providence Bruins, and the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, the first NHL call of Aucoin's career came from Carolina Hurricanes during the 2005-2006 season. By joining the NHL ranks, Aucoin became one of the less than twenty Division III players to ever reach "the show", and joined, among others, his fellow Norwich and Hershey Bears alum, Frank Simonetti. He appeared in seven regular season outings with Canes and registered an assist in his first game against the Montreal Canadiens. Carolina captured the Stanley Cup that season with Aucoin along for the playoff ride, and although he did not appear in any playoff games or have his name inscribed on the hardware, he was presented a Stanley Cup ring.
Right around that time, with the word growing around hockey circles of Aucoin's exploits, something else started to grow and grow and grow, and it wasn't his collection of championship rings which would also continue to grow a few years later. It was his hockey stick, which by the latter stages of his career was a sight that could elicit a chuckle when viewed in proportion to his frame.
"When I became full-time in the AHL, I was having a tough time getting around defensemen, so I figured I’d try the longer stick. It helped me with my reach, and when I went wide on the defenseman, it would help me get around their long reach. So I started extending my stick in the summertime and it slowly kind of got longer and longer, and it got to the point where it couldn’t get any longer, or shorter, because if it got shorter, I wouldn’t be able to play (effectively). It worked out for me, as it made me like 6’2” instead of 5’8”. The only drawback that I really had playing with the long stick was that I didn’t have a very good one-timer, because by the stick being so long I didn’t have any torque.” Aucoin, who netted in excess of twenty goals six times in his career, chuckled and then continued, "But I was ok with that, because I didn’t shoot much, as you know.”
The Washington Capitals came calling for Aucoin's services in the summer of 2008, and after failing to make the Caps opening night roster and being assigned to Hershey, he made an immediate impact on their fortunes by netting the club’s first goal of the season less than two minutes into his debut and bookended the Bears’ capturing of the Calder Cup by sealing the championship with an empty net goal in their Cup clinching game.
Aucoin spent four years in the Capitals' organization and appeared in their colors in at least one contest in each campaign, including the 2011-2012. He actually made the club out of training camp, but was soon sent back to Hershey. However, his fine work in Hershey, 70 points in only 43 games, was too much for the Caps to ignore, and they eventually recalled him. He suited up for the Caps beginning with their first game in February, and never returned to Hershey because the Caps thought he was valuable enough to them to keep him on their roster the rest of the season. The brass in Washington wanted to avoid the risk of losing him to another club via waivers, which was a distinct possibility if they would have tried to send him down after he spent ten games on their roster.
All totaled, the craft centerman appeared in 27 games for the Caps after the recall, his longest tenure up top during his four years in the organization, and also appeared in all 14 of their post-season battles. He accomplished that despite the obvious, though happy and exciting ,distraction of his wife Maureen being in latter stages of her pregnancy, and eventually saw his son Brayden come into the world as a leap year baby on February 29, 2012.
And although he was not physically in Hershey and had a lot on his mind, not only adjusting to the NHL grind on a nightly basis as well as the obvious adjustment to Brayden, Aucoin's true character still shone through just a few days after Brayden’s birth. The boys down on the farm were about to head to Newfoundland on a road trip, one that is notoriously noted for being quite an ordeal, involving various forms of transportation and long hours of travel. However, the Bears, sans Aucoin, departed on their journey with full stomachs, because Aucoin had a catered lunch sent to his Hershey teammates in Central Pennsylvania before the club departed.
One name that became synonymous with Aucoin's during their two seasons with the Bears was Alexandre Giroux, his linemate. The dynamic duo terrorized the AHL with their scoring exploits, and while their physical makeup couldn't be more different, with the 6’3” 200-pound Giroux, that’s seven inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Aucoin, their numbers together in their two seasons together in Chocolatetown couldn't be much closer.
Aucoin's point totals in those seasons totaled 202 compared to Giroux's 200, Aucoin appeared in 138 outings with Bears compared to Giroux's 142, and they both saw twenty-one games of action with the Capitals. They also each took turns in leading the loop in scoring and winning the league MVP, in addition to appearing in both all-star games. So with that amount of success attained, it would safe to surmise that these two scoring machines had a history of playing together before meeting in Hershey.
"Going into my first season playing with Alex, we had never really played against each other and didn’t know each other, but I knew what type of player he was, and I thought we’d have good chemistry. I knew he could score from any part of the ice, and he was probably the best player I ever played with as far as knowing how to get open,” said Aucoin. "Every shot he took seemed like it went in. Alex didn’t have the hardest shot, but he always had an accurate shot, and he always got it off even in tight areas. That type of chemistry you don’t always find with linemates, and we were lucky enough to play together for two years, and we actually played another year together in Europe, are we’re still good friends and talk all of the time."
Giroux, when questioned in 2011 about the duos amazing run in Hershey, paused for a while and then finally found the words to explain the formula for their amazing chemistry.
"I don't really know, but it all started from that first game together. We just gelled from the start,” said Giroux, who along with Aucoin and their other linemate, Graham Mink, combined for 13 points in that game. "Keith's a very smart player and he finds guys when they get open, and that made it easy for me because all I had to do was find that open spot, and he would surely get the puck to me. It seemed every game we played together, he'd put the puck on my stick for at least a shot or two when I had a pretty easy shot to score. So, I could have a bad night and still have a goal at the end of the game."
Also, you can't forget Graham Mink and Andrew Gordon's part in our success. “They are both hard working guys who could get the puck to Keith and he would get it me and I was the finisher. It turned out to be a good system. Keith and I knew what to do, and the coaches (Bob Woods and Mark French), knew what to expect from us."
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| Potting a playoff goal against the baby Pens. Photo by JustSports Photography |
As "good" as Aucoin was in putting up stellar offensive numbers in his professional career, 1,160 points in exactly 1,160 games, it kind of boggles the mind to think of how many more points would have been added to his offensive numbers if he hadn't been "bad" enough to serve 871 minutes in the "sin bin" during his career.
"I was unable to get to Division One coming out of high school; I kind of developed a chip on my shoulder and decided to prove people wrong. So, I always played with an edge. Then when I got to the minors in my first couple of years, I wanted to make a name for myself. I wanted to somehow stick out and for people to know that I could not only score, but play on the edge. Though I never really bothered with it too much, the physical side of hockey was never something I shied away from. I was undrafted, and I wanted to prove wrong the scouts and coaches who never gave me a chance growing up, that’s what it all stemmed from,” Aucoin said, before sheepishly adding, “I’m sure there’s a lot of 10’s (misconducts) in there from yelling at the referees; I had a few too many of them."
The Toronto Maple Leafs were the next team to ink Aucoin after the Caps passed on him, but his time in T.O. was spent entirely with their AHL affiliate, the Marlies, where he posted better than a point per game numbers (10g, 27a, in 34 games), before being claimed on waivers by the New York Islanders in mid-season. Aucoin spent the rest of the season with the Islanders, and potted six goals, including his first at the Leafs' expense. He also appeared in all six of their post-season showdowns, but once again history repeated itself, and the Isles opted not to re-sign him, despite their showing enough confidence in him to have him in their lineup on a regular basis.
"I thought that was probably going to be the year (that proved he could be an NHL regular)," said Aucoin. "Going into that free agency period, I thought I was going to sign with a team, and I’d be up there for a (whole) season, as I thought I proved that. I played mostly on the third line with the Islanders that year, and I was good at my job, doing what we were supposed to do as a line. I figured that type of role was a spot that I could fill and going into that summer, I thought I could sign in the NHL that next year and for the next couple of years, that’s what I was hoping for. It was very disappointing, as that was the year that I was looking forward to the most just being up there (for a whole season), battling for a spot. It was frustrating, and that’s why after the following year, (and only the two meaningless regular season final games with the St. Louis Blues) I went to Europe. I was done with all the crap."
Taking the trip across the pond meant obviously meant a drastic change of scenery and culture. In addition to those changes, he was entrusted to still be the catalyst for his club’s offense and also had the added responsibility of being the team captain of his Munich, Germany club in his last two seasons in the DEL. He shouldered the added load and responded to the challenge like the true champ he proved to be throughout his career, and led his club to the league title both seasons.
Being a five-time champion, answering the question of which one was the most special would seem to be a tough one, and it was for Aucoin when asked, but he eventually divulged it was the first one, the one that essentially said "stick it" to all his critics.
"It’s hard to pick out one, but the first Calder Cup was pretty big for me. I had been in the AHL for so long, and that was the trophy that I wanted. That team we had that year, we were such a close bunch. It was just a group of guys who to this day are still close. You talk to anybody on that team and they’ll say that. That’s the one that really stands out for me because of the closeness of that team. You could tell by the way we played that year, how much fun we had as a team. To get that off my shoulders was huge, but to win back-to-back was pretty sweet, as well."
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| Another foe conquered. Photo by JustSportsPhotography |
With the last chapter having been written in his brilliant career, the final reviews are in. The Keith Aucoin story: He was short in stature and long on talent, spoke softly with a distinctive New England accent, played with a big stick and succeeded at every level, and is a true success story, no matter how you size it up.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Conner, Lyon, Tame Bears In Outdoor Classic
By: John Sparenberg
The Hershey Bears and Lehigh Valley Phantoms went outdoors last night at Hersheypark Stadium in the Capital Blue Cross Outdoor Classic, and in front of an announced crowd of 13,091, Phantoms' netminder Alex Lyon put on a classic performance, stopping 41 shots to backstop his club to a 5-2 win.
The Phantoms struck first 2:59 into the contest when their captain, Colin McDonald captured a rebound and lit the lamp for the second time this season.
The visitors closed out the first period scoring at 8:28 of the opening stanza when Alex Krushelnyski banked in a shot off the body of Bears netminder Pheonix Copley to make it 2-0 Lehigh Valley.
With a little more than three minutes left in the second period, Hershey's Nathan Walker, who beat Lyon last season in overtime in Lehigh Valley in the opening game of the playoff series between the Keystone State, beat him again with a rebound from the high slot to make it 2-1.
The Beard looked poised to take a one-goal deficit and the momentum from Walker's goal into the third period, but a defensive zone turnover by John Albert turned into an unassisted goal by Chris Conner at 19:53 halted that thought.
The 3-1 score held up late in the third period, and with his club still facing the two-goal deficit, Hershey head coach gambled and pulled Copley for an extra attacker, and his gamble paid off when Travis Boyd, on an assist from Walker, blasted a laser by Lyon at 17:04.
However, Lehigh Valley veterans T.J. Brennan and Conner each made sure that Mann's gambled did not pay further dividends, when they each added a goal into Copley's vacated cage to seal the win for the Phantoms.
The Hershey Bears and Lehigh Valley Phantoms went outdoors last night at Hersheypark Stadium in the Capital Blue Cross Outdoor Classic, and in front of an announced crowd of 13,091, Phantoms' netminder Alex Lyon put on a classic performance, stopping 41 shots to backstop his club to a 5-2 win.
The Phantoms struck first 2:59 into the contest when their captain, Colin McDonald captured a rebound and lit the lamp for the second time this season.
The visitors closed out the first period scoring at 8:28 of the opening stanza when Alex Krushelnyski banked in a shot off the body of Bears netminder Pheonix Copley to make it 2-0 Lehigh Valley.
With a little more than three minutes left in the second period, Hershey's Nathan Walker, who beat Lyon last season in overtime in Lehigh Valley in the opening game of the playoff series between the Keystone State, beat him again with a rebound from the high slot to make it 2-1.
The Beard looked poised to take a one-goal deficit and the momentum from Walker's goal into the third period, but a defensive zone turnover by John Albert turned into an unassisted goal by Chris Conner at 19:53 halted that thought.
The 3-1 score held up late in the third period, and with his club still facing the two-goal deficit, Hershey head coach gambled and pulled Copley for an extra attacker, and his gamble paid off when Travis Boyd, on an assist from Walker, blasted a laser by Lyon at 17:04.
However, Lehigh Valley veterans T.J. Brennan and Conner each made sure that Mann's gambled did not pay further dividends, when they each added a goal into Copley's vacated cage to seal the win for the Phantoms.
Monday, January 15, 2018
Capturing a Classic...Again
By: John Sparenberg
A successful hockey club consists of a group of battle tested players from various locales, backgrounds, and experiences, making adjustments and ultimately coming together on the ice, utilizing their individual strengths to help the club succeed.
And when it's your job to capture an event both on and off the ice in photographic form, especially one that doesn't happen every day and promises to be a spectacle like the upcoming Capital Blue Cross Outdoor Classic game at Hersheypark Stadium, like Bill Duh is, you follow the same philosophy in assembling your crew.
Duh, who has photographed three previous AHL outdoor games, knows first hand from covering those events just how much a factor the weather can be. In the first one in Syracuse, New York in 2010, the game was played under snowy conditions, and the snow was accompanied by 30-degree temperatures and wind gusts. In the Bears' initial outdoor adventure against the then Adirondack Phantoms, in Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa., in 2012, the game was contested under unseasonably warm temperatures, and the Bears' previous outdoor outing against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in January of 2013, was also contested in somewhat windy and very cold conditions, that didn't detract from the game, but only added to the atmosphere and aura of the event.
Early forecasts showed some precipitation possible for this year's game, and although Duh was a little reluctant to talk about it when I interviewed him, obviously he has talked it over with his crew and has a contingency plan should mother nature come calling in the form of the wet stuff.
"”I don’t want to look to far ahead and jinx it, no bad weather! If it’s…,’ Duh hesitated,’ rain, and I don’t want to bring up that word. We’d still shoot pretty much the same; we’d just have to put into effect our plan to cover up our gear. They make a ballistic nylon wrap that you put around camera gear that we all have or an Op/Tech weather bag, and with those you put your hands up in the bag, but you can still shoot the photos. But, if it snows and it’s just flurries, we probably won’t really have to change anything.’
In addition to the Saturday evening marquee match-up featuring the Hershey Bears and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, there are an assortment of events scheduled for the weekend, including the Pepsi Fan Fest, which will feature various musical acts, and oh yes, there are also various scheduled appearances by Bears' alumni, and, a Friday evening game on the Hersheypark stadium ice, featuring the Bears' alumni facing off against the Philadelphia Flyers' alumni team.
All of that activity promises to make for a busy weekend for the JustSports Photography "all-star" team that Duh has assembled for this special occasion. In addition to JustSports' full-time team that includes Bill, Nancy Attrill, and Bruce Tyson, there will be a strong supporting cast including; Pat Jacoby, Athletics Multimedia Coordinator/Assistant Sports Information Director at DeSales University, JJ Horvath, team photographer for the National Arena (Football) League's Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, Scott Thomas, team photographer for the American Hockey League's Syracuse Crunch, and Jeff Pittenger, photographer for USA Today Sports Images.
"We were spread out a little thin and were ran ragged last game and that’s not a bad thing, that’s in the fun of doing stuff, but that’s not going to happen this time, said Duh, who along with Attrill, Tyson, Pittenger, and John Whitehead, former Patriot-News photographer, shot the 2103 game in Hershey. "For this game, We’re reassembling the same bunch who did last year’s AHL all-star game in Allentown. There’s so much hustle that goes on to get the job done on an event of this magnitude, and I wanted to bring these guys into this again, because they are familiar with how much hustle goes into shooting an event like this."
Not only will hustle be required to document the Outdoor Classic, but endurance will also come into play for the JustSports crew. The first event that they are scheduled to shoot will be around 9:00 on Friday morning, and the schedule for the rest of that day and Saturday is virtually non-stop, and to make the challenge even greater for the group who will be lugging their gear from location to location, multiple events are scheduled simultaneously throughout the vast area of the stadium, but thanks to knowledge gained from the last outdoor game at the same venue, the gang will be well equipped and strategically positioned to tackle the task.
"You don’t realize how spread out things are from a stadium event, and when you look back, you say, wow, how did we do it"!, said Duh, who resides in the Allentown area, and who "rested up" for the Outdoor Classic by shooting games for all three teams that JustSports are the primary photographers for; the Bears, the Phantoms, and the Binghamton Devils. "The stadium covers like a block and a half area, and multiple things are happening at the exact same time, and that’s a lot of area to cover. Having the extra crew will allow us to have for example, someone out in the stadium covering an autograph signing or something else at the fan fest, while someone else is uploading some photos."
Although he was highly satisfied with the finished product provided by his team five years ago, there were a few other things that Duh, who has been photographing professional hockey for thirty years, saw that came into focus when he reflected back upon the event.
"Again, you learn from the way you’ve done it before. Last game we really didn’t have an idea on a lot of things. They can tell you the players are going to enter the field from here or there, and you can take up a position where you can only hope it’s the best angle. This time I know we will definitely ask more questions this time, such as when they say the players are going to enter from here, we will ask in what manner. That way we can get an idea as to what the background is going to look like behind them."
He continued, "Something we also didn’t do the last time was leave at least one person dedicated to shooting crowd shots, such as going inside the stadium to the different types of concession stands are, and this time we are definitely going to do that, dedicating at least one person to doing that. We all concentrated on being at ice level and close to the action, this time we are going to keep at least one person set way back and up from ice level to capture that angle. We took some early shots last game from that perspective last game, but that was only before they dropped the puck, but this time we will have someone shooting from up high throughout the event."
After the final horn has sounded on Saturday night signifying the game is over for the players, their work for the evening will be completed, but that same signal for the JustSports crew only means that they are moving on to the next phase of their job for this outdoor spectacle.
The next phase in their labor involves downloading, editing, and then finally burning to DVD the images from the game, a process that normally concludes about two hours after the final horn has sounded on a normal night shooting indoors.
However, on this special occasion where there will undoubtedly be thousands of images to process, with the star-studded JustSports crew capturing all of the action on the ice and the atmosphere in the stands, the same task is expected to take a minimum of three hours to complete.
After all, you can't rush a classic...it takes time to put it into perfect focus, a job that the JustSports team is well equipped to handle.
A successful hockey club consists of a group of battle tested players from various locales, backgrounds, and experiences, making adjustments and ultimately coming together on the ice, utilizing their individual strengths to help the club succeed.
And when it's your job to capture an event both on and off the ice in photographic form, especially one that doesn't happen every day and promises to be a spectacle like the upcoming Capital Blue Cross Outdoor Classic game at Hersheypark Stadium, like Bill Duh is, you follow the same philosophy in assembling your crew.
Duh, who has photographed three previous AHL outdoor games, knows first hand from covering those events just how much a factor the weather can be. In the first one in Syracuse, New York in 2010, the game was played under snowy conditions, and the snow was accompanied by 30-degree temperatures and wind gusts. In the Bears' initial outdoor adventure against the then Adirondack Phantoms, in Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa., in 2012, the game was contested under unseasonably warm temperatures, and the Bears' previous outdoor outing against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in January of 2013, was also contested in somewhat windy and very cold conditions, that didn't detract from the game, but only added to the atmosphere and aura of the event.
Early forecasts showed some precipitation possible for this year's game, and although Duh was a little reluctant to talk about it when I interviewed him, obviously he has talked it over with his crew and has a contingency plan should mother nature come calling in the form of the wet stuff.
"”I don’t want to look to far ahead and jinx it, no bad weather! If it’s…,’ Duh hesitated,’ rain, and I don’t want to bring up that word. We’d still shoot pretty much the same; we’d just have to put into effect our plan to cover up our gear. They make a ballistic nylon wrap that you put around camera gear that we all have or an Op/Tech weather bag, and with those you put your hands up in the bag, but you can still shoot the photos. But, if it snows and it’s just flurries, we probably won’t really have to change anything.’
In addition to the Saturday evening marquee match-up featuring the Hershey Bears and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, there are an assortment of events scheduled for the weekend, including the Pepsi Fan Fest, which will feature various musical acts, and oh yes, there are also various scheduled appearances by Bears' alumni, and, a Friday evening game on the Hersheypark stadium ice, featuring the Bears' alumni facing off against the Philadelphia Flyers' alumni team.
All of that activity promises to make for a busy weekend for the JustSports Photography "all-star" team that Duh has assembled for this special occasion. In addition to JustSports' full-time team that includes Bill, Nancy Attrill, and Bruce Tyson, there will be a strong supporting cast including; Pat Jacoby, Athletics Multimedia Coordinator/Assistant Sports Information Director at DeSales University, JJ Horvath, team photographer for the National Arena (Football) League's Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, Scott Thomas, team photographer for the American Hockey League's Syracuse Crunch, and Jeff Pittenger, photographer for USA Today Sports Images.
"We were spread out a little thin and were ran ragged last game and that’s not a bad thing, that’s in the fun of doing stuff, but that’s not going to happen this time, said Duh, who along with Attrill, Tyson, Pittenger, and John Whitehead, former Patriot-News photographer, shot the 2103 game in Hershey. "For this game, We’re reassembling the same bunch who did last year’s AHL all-star game in Allentown. There’s so much hustle that goes on to get the job done on an event of this magnitude, and I wanted to bring these guys into this again, because they are familiar with how much hustle goes into shooting an event like this."
Not only will hustle be required to document the Outdoor Classic, but endurance will also come into play for the JustSports crew. The first event that they are scheduled to shoot will be around 9:00 on Friday morning, and the schedule for the rest of that day and Saturday is virtually non-stop, and to make the challenge even greater for the group who will be lugging their gear from location to location, multiple events are scheduled simultaneously throughout the vast area of the stadium, but thanks to knowledge gained from the last outdoor game at the same venue, the gang will be well equipped and strategically positioned to tackle the task.
"You don’t realize how spread out things are from a stadium event, and when you look back, you say, wow, how did we do it"!, said Duh, who resides in the Allentown area, and who "rested up" for the Outdoor Classic by shooting games for all three teams that JustSports are the primary photographers for; the Bears, the Phantoms, and the Binghamton Devils. "The stadium covers like a block and a half area, and multiple things are happening at the exact same time, and that’s a lot of area to cover. Having the extra crew will allow us to have for example, someone out in the stadium covering an autograph signing or something else at the fan fest, while someone else is uploading some photos."
Although he was highly satisfied with the finished product provided by his team five years ago, there were a few other things that Duh, who has been photographing professional hockey for thirty years, saw that came into focus when he reflected back upon the event.
"Again, you learn from the way you’ve done it before. Last game we really didn’t have an idea on a lot of things. They can tell you the players are going to enter the field from here or there, and you can take up a position where you can only hope it’s the best angle. This time I know we will definitely ask more questions this time, such as when they say the players are going to enter from here, we will ask in what manner. That way we can get an idea as to what the background is going to look like behind them."
He continued, "Something we also didn’t do the last time was leave at least one person dedicated to shooting crowd shots, such as going inside the stadium to the different types of concession stands are, and this time we are definitely going to do that, dedicating at least one person to doing that. We all concentrated on being at ice level and close to the action, this time we are going to keep at least one person set way back and up from ice level to capture that angle. We took some early shots last game from that perspective last game, but that was only before they dropped the puck, but this time we will have someone shooting from up high throughout the event."
After the final horn has sounded on Saturday night signifying the game is over for the players, their work for the evening will be completed, but that same signal for the JustSports crew only means that they are moving on to the next phase of their job for this outdoor spectacle.
The next phase in their labor involves downloading, editing, and then finally burning to DVD the images from the game, a process that normally concludes about two hours after the final horn has sounded on a normal night shooting indoors.
However, on this special occasion where there will undoubtedly be thousands of images to process, with the star-studded JustSports crew capturing all of the action on the ice and the atmosphere in the stands, the same task is expected to take a minimum of three hours to complete.
After all, you can't rush a classic...it takes time to put it into perfect focus, a job that the JustSports team is well equipped to handle.
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Bears Down Binghamton Devils
The Hershey Bears finished out the pre-Christmas portion of their season tonight at Giant Center on Saturday night in festive fashion, downing the Binghamton Devils, 5-2.
Travis Boyd book ended the Bears’ attack scoring their opening goal of the game at 6:54 of the first period, and finishing his multi-goal effort with their final goal at 12:12 of the final frame.
Riley Barber also contributed a multi-point effort, collecting a helper on a goal by Dustin Gazley, and then later registering his 100th AHL point by netting the game-winning goal.
Zach Sill struck for the Chocolate and White’s other goal, potting his second goal of the season, and his first at Giant Center since January 14, 2017.
Vitek Vanecek won his second straight start in net for the Bears, stopping 31-of-33 shots.
Travis Boyd book ended the Bears’ attack scoring their opening goal of the game at 6:54 of the first period, and finishing his multi-goal effort with their final goal at 12:12 of the final frame.
Riley Barber also contributed a multi-point effort, collecting a helper on a goal by Dustin Gazley, and then later registering his 100th AHL point by netting the game-winning goal.
Zach Sill struck for the Chocolate and White’s other goal, potting his second goal of the season, and his first at Giant Center since January 14, 2017.
Vitek Vanecek won his second straight start in net for the Bears, stopping 31-of-33 shots.
Monday, December 18, 2017
Johansen Adjusting Just Fine...Again
Adversity can come in many forms for a professional hockey player, and the challenge is to come out of the other side of those trying times stronger, and former Kelowna Rockets defenseman Lucas Johansen, for whom the sky is the limit as far as how high he can soar in his professional hockey career, taking them in stride, facing them down and coming out better on the other side has been a way of life throughout his career, and has continued this season in his first season in the pro ranks with the Hershey Bears.
Being the younger brother of NHL star Ryan Johansen, currently a member of the Nashville Predators, and a former 2010 first round draft pick, 4th overall, of the Columbus Blue Jackets via the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, means that Lucas always has, and always will be, compared to his older brother.
"Growing up, he set a pretty high standard for me, which was tough adversity at first, but I learned how to deal with it and learned that him playing in the NHL had a lot of benefits for me," said Lucas, a first round draft pick himself, selected 28th overall by the Washington Capitals in the 2016 NHL Draft.
Lucas continued, "I took it in stride and did the best I could with the situation and hopefully one day we will eventually get to compete against each other at the top level and that’s exciting. He definitely taught me a lot over the years, and if we were compared it didn’t matter, he was all for me, and I was happy that he was there."
Johansen's Rockets career got off to a flaming start in the 2104-15 WHL season, when the "Kids from Kelowna", aided by Lucas' eight points and plus-20 rating, captured the WHL title, but ultimately fell just short of capturing the Memorial Cup, falling to the Oshawa Generals, coached by former Bears defenseman D.J. Smith in heartbreaking, overtime fashion.
A second season in Kelowna resulted in a second head coach for Johansen, former Bear Brad Ralph, but despite the coaching change he posted career highs in goals (10), assists (39), and points (49), and the Capitals took note and selected him later that summer in Buffalo in his first year of draft eligibility, with Ryan on hand for the festivities.
So, after solidifying himself as a standout WHL defenseman in his sophomore season by posting outstanding numbers, having been selected by the Caps, therefor knowing where his NHL future was going to be spent, one would think that maybe season three in the Orchard City would be a smooth, peachy ride, but a third coach in as many season awaited Johansen when former NHLer Jason Smith was hired to steer the Rockets' ship just two weeks after the draft.
Smith, who captained the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers over the course of his NHL career which consisted of 15 seasons and over 1,000 games played, certainly could identify with Johansen, although thanks to being removed from the WHL for such a long period of time due to his extensive playing career as well as a two year stint as an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators limited his exposure to both the league and the Port Moody, B.C. native.
But that's not to say that he didn't or couldn't identify with Johansen's situation. Like Johansen, Smith also played in the WHL, spending three seasons with the Regina Pats, like Johansen, he was also a defenseman, and finally he knew all about the pressures of being a first round draft pick who was selected after his second season in the WHL, having experienced the same situation in 1992 when the New Jersey Devils chose him.
"After I took the position I spent time watching video and asking questions about his game, and how he could be a factor for our team. Coming to a new spot and coming from pro hockey back to junior hockey I didn’t know a whole lot about the Rockets and all the players, but I spent time in the summer watching their games and talking to the assistant coaches who were here and still here to this day. I tried to learn as much as I could about him as a player, what positives he had in his game, and what things we might need to work on."
Smith continued, "From the start of the year he had a huge role on our team, whether it was defending, being on the power play, or being relied upon to be a puck mover. He also played against quality players on the opposition every night and was relied upon each night to not only defend, but to provide offense by being involved in the offensive zone and getting pucks to the net."
Fully capitalizing on the unique opportunity presented to him last season, Johansen excelled under the watchful eye of Smith, combining his abundance of natural talent with the wealth of experience and hockey knowledge that Smith possesses to nearly match his offensive totals from the previous season, while at the same time refining his defensive game, as evidenced by his doubling of his previous season's plus/minus rating.
"We had those three coaches in three years, which is also more adversity that people sometimes forget about, but my time there was awesome," said Johansen, reflecting fondly upon his career with the Rockets. "They have such a high standard there and there are so many great people throughout the organization who work so hard and strive to do their best to help the players move on, with Jason in particular. I remember the first practice that I had, he gave me a tip that I’ll always remember, and that told me right away that he had some good intel. It was a tip that only a 15-year NHL vet would have up his sleeve kind of thing.”
It takes an attentive student, one who is willing to learn, to make a teacher look good. The student has to possess excellent listening skills, with the ability to absorb the words and then take what he has heard from his mentor and apply them to excel and avoid the potholes that can be avoided by drawing upon the words and experiences that his mentor encountered, and that's a lesson that Smith learned early in his pro career, and it's one that he passed on to Johansen.
"There are certain things that are really important to allow yourself the opportunity to play at the highest level. I think me having the having the experience of being a player at the National League level, and going through all of the steps of developing along the way, when you speak to players and you’re trying to give them direction, I think they have an understanding that you’ve experienced it and obviously not one player is exactly the same, but the information that you give is about trying to get them to the next level and allow them to have the most success they can."
Smith continued, "I think anytime along the way when you’re a player, and I can speak to this, as I was lucky enough to have Larry Robinson in New Jersey when I first came into the league. The knowledge that I took in from him in my three, three and a half years with him was as much as I learned all the way coming up playing hockey. You can rely on people who have experience and have gone through the stages of being a player in that league. Lucas was very coachable and he wanted to get better and prove that he could be a real dominant player in our league."
On the hockey ladder, the step from the junior level to the professional level is only one rung up, but when a rookie, even one as highly touted as Johansen takes that step, there are guaranteed to be positive moments, and then those not so positive moments, and it didn't take long for Johansen to experience his first "minus moment".
In the Bears' season opener, he was on the ice for a goal against less than three minutes into the contest, and it didn't get any better as the game progressed as the rookie rearguard finished the contest with a minus-4 rating, and it also didn't get much better in the following four games, after which he found himself sporting a minus-8 rating, and then found himself out of the lineup in game six.
'We didn’t sit him based on play," said Hershey assistant coach Reid Cashman, who works with the club's rearguards. "It’s just that we had a lot of young defensemen and there was almost a rotation going on. Connor Hobbs (a former Regina Pat) sat out a game, and then some injuries happened."
Undoubtedly sitting out as a healthy scratch for the first time is a moment of awakening, there is potential for the player to sulk and spin further into a downward spiral, but if approached the right way, both by the coaching staff and the player, it can turn into a learning opportunity where the player gets to rest, watching the game from the vantage point of the press box, and exercise, and Johansen did both.
"It happens to everybody, right? For example, our captain was scratched this year too, and that’s no shot at him at all. I’m not going to let it get me down or let it bug me or anything. They were very clear on why it happening and I used it to get a great workout in, because for me it’s about gaining as much strength as I can. I was able to get in a good quality workout that day and it’s all part of the journey. So I had no problems with it."
Johansen has responded in a most positive way since sitting out, finding himself in the lineup every night, finding his name on the good side of the plus/minus column on most nights, and often finding his name in the goal scoring column, including his first pro goal, which was netted exactly one week after the benching.
"Lucas has continued to get better week in and week out. He works his butt off every day in practice, and he’s taken the initiative to continuously get better,", said Cashman. "He has great poise and a high hockey IQ, and he's found a level of urgency. What he's really good at is slowing the game down. We had to find a way to speed the game up so he could slow it down, if you know what I mean. He’s found that sense of urgency to play fast, and then let his natural instincts take over when there's time to make a play."
For the majority of the season, Johansen's defensive partner, or "right hand man", has been another former WHL alumnus, Tyler Lewington (Medicine Hat Tigers). To say that Lewington's style of play and Johansen's style of play are different would be a huge understatement.
Yet, despite their contrasting styles, with Lewington being a bruising, in your face contact type of defender who never met a collision that he didn't like, with an underrated offensive side, and a skating stride that can be characterized as something less than smooth, and Johansen being an elusive type of player, who describes himself as a "smooth skating defenseman who has good poise with the puck, who can produce offensively by either joining or leading the rush, and uses his stick well defensively", the distinctly different duo proved to be a near perfect pairing, but some recent roster moves have broken the pair up.
"We like that Lewie is a very stabilizing force for Lucas both on the ice and in between shifts. They work well together and have good chemistry, but with Aaron Ness coming down that has changed some things, and we've moved him over on the right side with (Hubert) Labrie,", said Cashman, "With the way our lineup is now we have four lefties in it, and Lucas played right D all last year in juniors, so we feel very comfortable with him on the right side. But we try to make our D pairs as interchangeable as possible to set us up for later in the year, and a recent example of that was the game the other night when we down, and Lucas and Colby Williams (another former Regina Pat) got shifts together to try and create some offense."
"We have different styles of play for sure,” said Johansen, discussing his pairing with Lewington. "He’s definitely a lot more hard-nosed than I am and a lot more physical, and he can also make great plays. I think we complement each other pretty well. We were joking that he’s one of the vets on the team even though he’s only had two years at the pro level. He’s a great guy to play with and he’s also a great communicator, and that makes my life easy out there on the ice."
It's very easy to get consumed by the numbers, and forget the fact that young rookies like Johansen are in a mighty struggle as they take the first steps in the infancy of their professional careers.
If it wasn't enough that they are challenged almost on a daily basis by any number of factors, such as fatigue, their veteran teammates, a coach, or an intimidating foe in or near the rink, in an environment that they are familiar with, there is also that added factor that most of them, and Johansen is no exception, are also adjusting to a new life in a different environment, the kitchen, far away from home and family.
"It’s definitely different,” said Johansen, who recently turned 20, and celebrated the occasion by scoring a goal on the eve of his birthday. "Even when I was in Kelowna, I was only four and a half hour drive away from home, and now I’m almost on the Eastern seaboard. On the ice, you definitely notice that the speed is up and your time and space is limited, everything is a level up from the CHL. But the most change is off the ice, in terms of I’ve got to figure out how to cook now, which is easier said than done, he laughed. “But it’s fun, it’s a new process for me, a new challenge, and I’m enjoying it thus far."
Being the younger brother of NHL star Ryan Johansen, currently a member of the Nashville Predators, and a former 2010 first round draft pick, 4th overall, of the Columbus Blue Jackets via the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, means that Lucas always has, and always will be, compared to his older brother.
 |
| Lucas and Ryan, 2016 NHL Entry Draft. All photos courtesy russianmachineneverbreaks.com |
Lucas continued, "I took it in stride and did the best I could with the situation and hopefully one day we will eventually get to compete against each other at the top level and that’s exciting. He definitely taught me a lot over the years, and if we were compared it didn’t matter, he was all for me, and I was happy that he was there."
Johansen's Rockets career got off to a flaming start in the 2104-15 WHL season, when the "Kids from Kelowna", aided by Lucas' eight points and plus-20 rating, captured the WHL title, but ultimately fell just short of capturing the Memorial Cup, falling to the Oshawa Generals, coached by former Bears defenseman D.J. Smith in heartbreaking, overtime fashion.
A second season in Kelowna resulted in a second head coach for Johansen, former Bear Brad Ralph, but despite the coaching change he posted career highs in goals (10), assists (39), and points (49), and the Capitals took note and selected him later that summer in Buffalo in his first year of draft eligibility, with Ryan on hand for the festivities.
So, after solidifying himself as a standout WHL defenseman in his sophomore season by posting outstanding numbers, having been selected by the Caps, therefor knowing where his NHL future was going to be spent, one would think that maybe season three in the Orchard City would be a smooth, peachy ride, but a third coach in as many season awaited Johansen when former NHLer Jason Smith was hired to steer the Rockets' ship just two weeks after the draft.
Smith, who captained the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers over the course of his NHL career which consisted of 15 seasons and over 1,000 games played, certainly could identify with Johansen, although thanks to being removed from the WHL for such a long period of time due to his extensive playing career as well as a two year stint as an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators limited his exposure to both the league and the Port Moody, B.C. native.
But that's not to say that he didn't or couldn't identify with Johansen's situation. Like Johansen, Smith also played in the WHL, spending three seasons with the Regina Pats, like Johansen, he was also a defenseman, and finally he knew all about the pressures of being a first round draft pick who was selected after his second season in the WHL, having experienced the same situation in 1992 when the New Jersey Devils chose him.
"After I took the position I spent time watching video and asking questions about his game, and how he could be a factor for our team. Coming to a new spot and coming from pro hockey back to junior hockey I didn’t know a whole lot about the Rockets and all the players, but I spent time in the summer watching their games and talking to the assistant coaches who were here and still here to this day. I tried to learn as much as I could about him as a player, what positives he had in his game, and what things we might need to work on."
Smith continued, "From the start of the year he had a huge role on our team, whether it was defending, being on the power play, or being relied upon to be a puck mover. He also played against quality players on the opposition every night and was relied upon each night to not only defend, but to provide offense by being involved in the offensive zone and getting pucks to the net."
Fully capitalizing on the unique opportunity presented to him last season, Johansen excelled under the watchful eye of Smith, combining his abundance of natural talent with the wealth of experience and hockey knowledge that Smith possesses to nearly match his offensive totals from the previous season, while at the same time refining his defensive game, as evidenced by his doubling of his previous season's plus/minus rating.
"We had those three coaches in three years, which is also more adversity that people sometimes forget about, but my time there was awesome," said Johansen, reflecting fondly upon his career with the Rockets. "They have such a high standard there and there are so many great people throughout the organization who work so hard and strive to do their best to help the players move on, with Jason in particular. I remember the first practice that I had, he gave me a tip that I’ll always remember, and that told me right away that he had some good intel. It was a tip that only a 15-year NHL vet would have up his sleeve kind of thing.”
It takes an attentive student, one who is willing to learn, to make a teacher look good. The student has to possess excellent listening skills, with the ability to absorb the words and then take what he has heard from his mentor and apply them to excel and avoid the potholes that can be avoided by drawing upon the words and experiences that his mentor encountered, and that's a lesson that Smith learned early in his pro career, and it's one that he passed on to Johansen.
"There are certain things that are really important to allow yourself the opportunity to play at the highest level. I think me having the having the experience of being a player at the National League level, and going through all of the steps of developing along the way, when you speak to players and you’re trying to give them direction, I think they have an understanding that you’ve experienced it and obviously not one player is exactly the same, but the information that you give is about trying to get them to the next level and allow them to have the most success they can."
Smith continued, "I think anytime along the way when you’re a player, and I can speak to this, as I was lucky enough to have Larry Robinson in New Jersey when I first came into the league. The knowledge that I took in from him in my three, three and a half years with him was as much as I learned all the way coming up playing hockey. You can rely on people who have experience and have gone through the stages of being a player in that league. Lucas was very coachable and he wanted to get better and prove that he could be a real dominant player in our league."
On the hockey ladder, the step from the junior level to the professional level is only one rung up, but when a rookie, even one as highly touted as Johansen takes that step, there are guaranteed to be positive moments, and then those not so positive moments, and it didn't take long for Johansen to experience his first "minus moment".
In the Bears' season opener, he was on the ice for a goal against less than three minutes into the contest, and it didn't get any better as the game progressed as the rookie rearguard finished the contest with a minus-4 rating, and it also didn't get much better in the following four games, after which he found himself sporting a minus-8 rating, and then found himself out of the lineup in game six.
'We didn’t sit him based on play," said Hershey assistant coach Reid Cashman, who works with the club's rearguards. "It’s just that we had a lot of young defensemen and there was almost a rotation going on. Connor Hobbs (a former Regina Pat) sat out a game, and then some injuries happened."
Undoubtedly sitting out as a healthy scratch for the first time is a moment of awakening, there is potential for the player to sulk and spin further into a downward spiral, but if approached the right way, both by the coaching staff and the player, it can turn into a learning opportunity where the player gets to rest, watching the game from the vantage point of the press box, and exercise, and Johansen did both.
"It happens to everybody, right? For example, our captain was scratched this year too, and that’s no shot at him at all. I’m not going to let it get me down or let it bug me or anything. They were very clear on why it happening and I used it to get a great workout in, because for me it’s about gaining as much strength as I can. I was able to get in a good quality workout that day and it’s all part of the journey. So I had no problems with it."
Johansen has responded in a most positive way since sitting out, finding himself in the lineup every night, finding his name on the good side of the plus/minus column on most nights, and often finding his name in the goal scoring column, including his first pro goal, which was netted exactly one week after the benching.
"Lucas has continued to get better week in and week out. He works his butt off every day in practice, and he’s taken the initiative to continuously get better,", said Cashman. "He has great poise and a high hockey IQ, and he's found a level of urgency. What he's really good at is slowing the game down. We had to find a way to speed the game up so he could slow it down, if you know what I mean. He’s found that sense of urgency to play fast, and then let his natural instincts take over when there's time to make a play."
For the majority of the season, Johansen's defensive partner, or "right hand man", has been another former WHL alumnus, Tyler Lewington (Medicine Hat Tigers). To say that Lewington's style of play and Johansen's style of play are different would be a huge understatement.
Yet, despite their contrasting styles, with Lewington being a bruising, in your face contact type of defender who never met a collision that he didn't like, with an underrated offensive side, and a skating stride that can be characterized as something less than smooth, and Johansen being an elusive type of player, who describes himself as a "smooth skating defenseman who has good poise with the puck, who can produce offensively by either joining or leading the rush, and uses his stick well defensively", the distinctly different duo proved to be a near perfect pairing, but some recent roster moves have broken the pair up.
"We like that Lewie is a very stabilizing force for Lucas both on the ice and in between shifts. They work well together and have good chemistry, but with Aaron Ness coming down that has changed some things, and we've moved him over on the right side with (Hubert) Labrie,", said Cashman, "With the way our lineup is now we have four lefties in it, and Lucas played right D all last year in juniors, so we feel very comfortable with him on the right side. But we try to make our D pairs as interchangeable as possible to set us up for later in the year, and a recent example of that was the game the other night when we down, and Lucas and Colby Williams (another former Regina Pat) got shifts together to try and create some offense."
"We have different styles of play for sure,” said Johansen, discussing his pairing with Lewington. "He’s definitely a lot more hard-nosed than I am and a lot more physical, and he can also make great plays. I think we complement each other pretty well. We were joking that he’s one of the vets on the team even though he’s only had two years at the pro level. He’s a great guy to play with and he’s also a great communicator, and that makes my life easy out there on the ice."
It's very easy to get consumed by the numbers, and forget the fact that young rookies like Johansen are in a mighty struggle as they take the first steps in the infancy of their professional careers.
If it wasn't enough that they are challenged almost on a daily basis by any number of factors, such as fatigue, their veteran teammates, a coach, or an intimidating foe in or near the rink, in an environment that they are familiar with, there is also that added factor that most of them, and Johansen is no exception, are also adjusting to a new life in a different environment, the kitchen, far away from home and family.
"It’s definitely different,” said Johansen, who recently turned 20, and celebrated the occasion by scoring a goal on the eve of his birthday. "Even when I was in Kelowna, I was only four and a half hour drive away from home, and now I’m almost on the Eastern seaboard. On the ice, you definitely notice that the speed is up and your time and space is limited, everything is a level up from the CHL. But the most change is off the ice, in terms of I’ve got to figure out how to cook now, which is easier said than done, he laughed. “But it’s fun, it’s a new process for me, a new challenge, and I’m enjoying it thus far."
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