First Shift 🏒
Wyatt Johnston made a smart play on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.
The 22-year-old forward was on the power play, noticed that an opposing defenseman had lost his stick, and then took advantage in the moment. Johnston stick-handled around Jake Middleton and then lifted a puck past goalie Filip Gustavsson and just inside the far post for a highlight-reel goal. It was a display of patience and agility, and it likely was born of years of preparation.
“He’s been around long enough to pick things up. He’s a talented player, so he knows when there is an opportunity,” said teammate Robertson. “It’s just practice, reps, eliminating doubt. You work on that and then you react once you get in the game.”
Head coach Glen Gulutzan said he often puts his smarter players together, because he knows they will play off of each other. He was referencing Johnston and Robertson last week as an example of how two creative players can play off one another.
The same thing is true for Seguin and Duchene or Hintz and Rantanen. By creating these pairs, Gulutzan is helping the team average five goals per game through the first week of the regular season. “We don’t need a lot of chances to score goals, so that’s a good thing,” he said.
The Stars are just three games into Gulutzan’s tenure, and they're already being forced to adjust. Benn has been out since training camp after having surgery to repair a collapsed lung. Duchene got hit hard on Tuesday and had to come out of the game against Minnesota. He didn’t practice Wednesday, but he hasn’t been ruled out for Thursday’s game against Vancouver.
“I would call Dutchy day-to-day. I wouldn’t rule him out even for [Vancouver],” Gulutzan said. “We’ll see how he feels and tomorrow morning will be a better indicator.”
If Duchene can’t play, that just means more minutes for Johnston, who leads the Stars with three goals in three games.
“I’d like to get a little more stability, but when you have this many high hockey IQ guys, it’s helped us,” Gulutzan said of the line juggling he is doing right now. “You’ve got to watch it, because stability is good, too.”
Gulutzan said he’s not a coach who likes to match against the opposition, and one of the reasons is because the forward depth is so smart.
“With our depth, I’m more an advocate of getting good rhythm from our team than reacting to what the other team is doing,” Gulutzan said. “I expect our guys to know who they are playing against. Let’s say we get three injuries or four injuries, I like to give our guys confidence that they can go out and play against anybody.”
As for Johnston, the coach likes to use him in every role.
“You don’t see him flying around out there, but you see him interrupting all of the plays,” Gulutzan said of Johnston’s strong defensive play. “That’s usually just the cerebral angling hockey-playerish type of things. I can remember Jere Lehtinen was like that. They’re just all over you without blazing speed or anything like that.”
“It’s that hockey IQ,” he added. “And it will only get better.”
