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Thoughts on Thoughts: Domi and Duclair, Torts, Trotz, Toronto (Marlies), and more

Thoughts on Thoughts is a feature that looks at Elliotte Friedman's terrific weekly post, "30 Thoughts." Justin Bourne selects his five favorite tidbits and elaborates.

Elliotte Friedman's 30 Thoughts: Flames willing to deal, but is anyone else?

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Elliotte’s opening this week centered on Justin Johnson, a 34-year-old heavyweight with the Toronto Marlies, and the very specific niche he’s filling for the club.

“There’s a logjam there, so they wanted a veteran with good habits who won’t cause a problem,” Johnson’s agent, Jeff Helperl, said last week. “Yes, he wants to play, but also do the things the Marlies are looking for. Justin’s biggest selling point is his character.”

It’s also likely the Marlies wanted someone to protect their youth in case opponents started running at them. It’s tough to say for sure, because assistant GM Kyle Dubas, who negotiated with Helperl, is in media jail.

The interesting thing is how the team and the agent designed this contract. The structure is very different, with a couple of agents and executives saying they’d never seen anything like it before. Johnson’s salary and signing bonus are normal, in American funds.

What stands out are the bonuses.

Johnson gets:

  • $5,000 (these are in Canadian dollars) for every Marlie who scores 20 goals
  • $5,000 for every Marlie who reaches 50 points
  • $2,500 based on the success of the power play and penalty kill
  • $2,500 for everyone who plays 10 games with the Marlies and 15 with the Maple Leafs

“Initially, it was more elaborate than what it ended up being,” Helperl said. “It took a month to finish.”

I spent four years with JJ (three NCAA, one pro), and I can wholeheartedly say I can’t imagine a contract suiting anyone better. JJ’s nickname in college was “The Mayor,” because everywhere you go he’s shaking babies and kissing hands, or whatever it is mayors do. If JJ likes you, and he likes most people, he’s got a big, warm personality.

His job will be threefold with the Marlies: Protect the talent when need be, keep people on the team message/work ethic off the ice, and do everything - including getting scratched - with a smile. He’ll be very successful checking each of those boxes.

He pushes guys in practice, he keeps the room light, and he’s a really great addition for a room full of extremely young pros transitioning to the next level. It’s kind of like planting a full-time player development coach in the middle of your dressing room.

13. Max Domi and Anthony Duclair are playing a huge role, bringing some much-needed youthful energy. Having Hanzal and Mikkel Boedker healthy makes a big difference, too. (Boedker’s father watched his son’s hat trick from last Saturday live in Denmark.) But, as usual, goaltending is everything. The Coyotes hired Mike Smith’s long-time sounding board, Jon Elkin.

“We wanted to get him from reacting and reflexes 40 per cent of the time down to 20 per cent,” Elkin said. “So far, he’s stuck to that.”

Smith has battled confidence issues, and admitted he saw a sports psychologist. Has Elkin seen the goalie’s mental strength wane? “No, not at all,” he replied.

That will be critical. Smith’s been great.

Something about his year’s Coyotes feels like last year’s Flames, doesn’t it? They’ve plugged in some youthful energy and skill in Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, and the second season of Tobias Rieder (a la Johnny Gaudreau, Sam Bennett, and the second season of Sean Monahan), they’re gonna live on a Norris-contending D-man in Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Mark Giordano), and they seem to be riding the wave of “good feelings” in the face of poor analytics and people like myself who absolutely won't believe in them throughout the year.

Smith has been excellent for Arizona where the Flames got good goaltending last year, but, either way, I’m gonna continue to go NONONO about the Coyotes all year. Still, two years ago the Avalanche did it, last year the Flames did it, so for their fans, hey … you never know. (It also helps that the Pacific is more or less trash.)

Last note: "Killer Dès" is an awesome nickname for Domi/Duclair. Get in the mix, Dylan Strome.

15. If there’s one man who knows what’s coming here, it is Jay Feaster, Tampa Bay’s executive director of community hockey development. “I would tell Ryan Johansen to understand none of it is personal. It’s not that (Tortorella) doesn’t like you, it’s that he has no politically correct bone in his body. No regulator, no unvarnished feeling. I would love it when a player would come into my office and say, ‘He hates me.’ I would always hold up my hand, stop them and say, ‘He hates all of us the same way. You are not special.’”

In John Feinstein’s outstanding book on basketball coach Bob Knight, A Season on the Brink, there’s a point where he’s told (I’m paraphrasing), “When he calls you a (bleep), don’t listen. When he tells you why you’re a (bleep), that’s when you listen.” Feaster laughed at that, saying it’s a good parallel.

“For all the bluster…he would not invest the time and trouble if he didn’t believe in you and didn’t care.”

I hate that this is supposed to be redeeming for Tortorella, particularly the "He hates us all equally" thing. Tough love is a real and important thing, but his particular brand of inflexibility doesn't jibe with what I know about today's young players.

It’s nicely suited for more veteran players, guys I would label "men." But so often these days you need contributions from your youth, and I'm just not sold that one gear, one speed, full steam ahead is gonna work for everyone. It sounds emotionally exhausting.

I had an experience with a junior coach who was very much John Tortorella-esque, and I do look back at my time with him and appreciate what he did for me. But I was never a star on any team, never believed I was a special player. I was built for: "You’re only gonna make it if you do exactly as I say."

A 20-year-old with a three-year NHL deal in hand who’s never been anything but the best player on every team he’s been on? He might hold the idea that things have gone OK with a few of his own ideas mixed in. Compromise may be in order.

19. Washington is 6-1 after taking Western Canada by a combined 16-8 with wins over Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. In 2014-15, their sixth win came in their 14th game.

“There was a learning curve,” Brooks Orpik said Monday. “We should have been five games over .500. This year, we’re comfortable with how our practices and systems work. During games, we’re not thinking, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ It’s more instinctive. Last year was a big adjustment. Of all my training camps, it was the hardest I’ve been through. I’m guessing it was harder than (coach Barry Trotz’s) normal camps, too.

“The first day, we had our first practice, and the conditioning test right after. There were longer meetings, the systems were complicated, a lot of info to take in and digest. The pace of practice was an eye-opener, too. It’s easy to make a 10-15 foot pass when you’re 100 per cent focused, but there are a lot of times in a season where you aren’t. He went after that sloppiness in practices. Now, as soon as practice starts slipping, one of the players tries to get it going, because it’s not too long before (Trotz) does.”

Was this year’s camp any better? “It wasn’t enjoyable, but we understood.”

I’m mostly including this point to link to what I wrote earlier today, about how hard it is to just "play" when you have a new coach who's asking you to play differently. You end up thinking on the ice, and thinking slows your reactions down just enough to put you a step behind all over the ice.

I have no doubt that the talent on the Capitals playing in their second year under Trotz is going to be a force to be reckoned with this year. They'll likely lead the Metro this season.

23. When training camp started, did either ask, “Who is the No. 1 here?” Reese said that didn’t happen.

“If they were 21 or 22 that question would be asked. Antti knew what he was getting into here. He wanted the situation, that’s why he came. Not once has there been a complaint the other guy is going. We make sure both are involved, don’t sit them out too long. I’ve had two guys battling before, but younger. These two are very mature and understand. And with the travel, they get a chance to work and have a breather.”

Lehtonen and Niemi are Western Conference veterans, so they understand the demanding schedule. Reese, who was in Philadelphia, joked that he forgot. “I’m used to short flights and train rides. Last night, we got home (from Pittsburgh) late and are heading to the rink for (a noon) practice. In the past, both would be playing. There are no easy games. Being fresh gives you a better chance to win.”

It’s tough to love the goaltending situation in Dallas, as good as it’s gone so far - particularly when compared to that of other teams you’d consider contenders (Montreal, the Rangers, the Capitals, the Blackhawks, etc.)

How they’re deploying these two guys in the regular season makes perfect sense. A couple of 32-year-old goaltenders are going to play with more energy and be better protected from injuries when rotated in and out. They could easily get through the season succeeding with this plan. Hell, the two guys could post numbers above their career norms doing this.

But is it a solid strategy for a team that seems to want to win the big prize sooner than later (hello, Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp, Ales Hemsky, and Johnny Oduya)?

Sharing the crease has rarely (if ever) proven to be an effective postseason strategy, to the point where teams have basically stopped attempting it - preferring instead to give the keys to the crease to one guy and ride him throughout playoffs. And if you choose to give the keys to Niemi or Lehtonen, you’re changing up the consistent workload from the previous seven months, and rolling out a suddenly more fatigued guy ... whose career save percentage is somewhere around average anyway.

I’m not saying one of these guys couldn’t get hot and go on a run. Any NHL goalie could. It just seems risky to bet on it.

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