Johnny Back on the Spot

Goalie Brent Johnson, who was the forgotten man down the stretch last season, is back in the forefront of everybody's mind. Or at least the mind of GM George McPhee and coach Bruce Boudreau.

"I think he understood what went on there [last season]. I talked to him about a week ago, just after we made the Theodore move, and he understands that there are opportunities to get games this year," McPhee told STC today. "In the past, he'd come in and have a great training camp, but he would play only one out of every seven games, and by January, he's pretty stale. So I think the objective would be to get him a little more work early on and keep him sharp -- because he comes to camp ready to go, and at the end of training camp, he's had a good camp and he's pretty sharp. [But] he loses that edge because he's not playing enough. So the opportunities will be there for him to play a little bit more."

"We talked a lot last year about what was going on [during the season]," Boudreau told STC today. "Brent, I've seen him twice this week, he's ready to go and we're ready to have him. He's going to play quite a few games this year. We believe he's very talented and we're looking for big things from him."

Theodore's career high in games play in one regular season is 67 -- which he achieved twice (2001-02 and 2003-04) as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. But he only played 53 games last season (starting all but one) and 33 the previous campaign with the Colorado Avalanche. Should Theodore hover around that number of starts, both coach and GM think Johnson would be ready to excel between the pipes.

"If need be, I'm sure he can [play that many games]," Boudreau said. "He's in great shape and I'm sure he'll play as many games as possible. I don't know of a competitive guy in the world that doesn't want to play every night. So I mean he's going to take what we give him."

"Yeah, you would hope he's ready for that. He's been a starting NHL goaltender. So you just never know how seasons go, but we're certainly confident that he could handle 25 or 30 games or more."