After the Red Wings’ 4–2 win over the Montreal Canadiens last night, coach Todd McLellan—who has now been in Detroit for just shy of a month—revealed the biggest surprise of his tenure.
“Probably the biggest surprise for me to date is Albert [Johansson],” the coach said in his post-game media availability. “I knew nothing about Albert. We get here, and he’s kinda parked on the shelf, and everybody’s playing, and we’re trying to figure players out. I think his rise has been remarkable, really. Unless I underestimated him too, and then that’s on me, but he’s played steady in all three zones. There’s some fierceness in his game. When he gets engaged with bodies and battles, he wins a lot of them. He’s not the biggest guy. We talk about him in the locker room all the time. We’re so happy we have him. Biggest surprise in my mind.
In last night’s win, Johansson played 18:35 last night against the Canadiens, throwing a hit and blocking two shots. He broke the 18-minute plateau for the first time in his NHL career during last week’s Detroit win in Florida, and in the four games since, he’s broken it three times (including a career high 20:27 in Dallas over the weekend).
Two words stand out most from McLellan’s description: “steady” and “fierceness.” The former jumps off the page because it is such a contrast to Johansson’s game earlier in the season, when at times he looked more overwhelmed than dependable in reckoning with the pace of NHL, but now the game appears to have slowed down. His decision-making and puck play look more confident and assertive, which has helped him earn more ice.
Meanwhile, that “fierceness” is paramount for Johansson. As McLellan noted, Johansson—officially listed at six-foot and 168 pounds—gives up size more often than he doesn’t against NHL competition, but with that eagerness to engage in battles, he’s been able to compensate.
