Lucas Johansen is studying Christian Djoos footage to add to his offensive game
In 68 games last season with the Kelowna Rockets, defenseman Lucas Johansen had six goals. In only 25 games for the Hershey Bears, Johansen has five.
So where has this scoring touch come from this season? Possibly a little bit of studying of a former Bears defenseman, Christian Djoos.
“I went into [Reid Cashman’s] office the other day, and I said ‘Hey can you set me up with some clips of Djoos of what he used to do,'” said Johansen after Saturday’s Bears game. “He set me up with some stuff, and obviously we know how creative Djoos is with the puck. Maybe learn a couple of things from the video from what he did. Just try to incorporate it in my game.”
The unpredictable factor in Djoos game is something Johansen is trying to incorporate into his style of play. “He’s very deceptive. He always looks like he’s going to shoot and to be honest you never know he’s going to do with the puck which is always a challenge as a defender. He moves his feet well, he shows good deception, and that’s that’s kind of the two things I took from him.”
Troy Mann sees the same things he saw in Djoos in Johansen, especially on a goal he scored Friday night. “The goal he scored last night where he changed the angle to get us back in the game there at 5-2 was a little bit of a Djoos type of move we’ve seen a lot of the last couple of years,” said Mann on Saturday. “He’s gaining confidence, and obviously there’s a lot of work to do on the defensive side of things, and that’s just normal with any young defenseman.”
The 20-year-old rookie has goals in two straight games, scoring Hershey’s opening goal on Saturday with a “Crash the Net” play on Lehigh Valley’s Dustin Tokarski. “I was trying to support the puck. And I figured you score goals when you go right in front of the net. I was about as close as you could get to it. So I just tapped it in.”
Johansen is on pace to score 15 goals this season, and that could be huge for a team always looking for more offense.
