Johnson is to face the Shannyban.
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson will have a phone hearing Tuesday with the NHL Department of Player Safety for a third-period slash on New York Islanders forward Frans Nielsen on Saturday night.
Vancouver haunts Team USA.
“It was tough. Usually by the time you get the bitter taste of losing out of your mouth you’re coming back to start another (National Hockey League) season,” U.S. forward Patrick Kane told reporters.
“But that one took a little while to get over with. You know four, five, six months and then you’re thinking about it in the summer.”
Despite their lingering disappointment, goaltender Ryan Miller said there were still plenty of positives the Americans could take from the experiences they had in Vancouver.
They proved they could match it with any team, reaching the final undefeated, including a win over Canada in the preliminary round.
Maybe the size of the ice isn't the biggest change for the players.
Team Canada executive director Steve Yzerman said the first initial adjustment would be to the time change. That, however, applied to all the players coming over from North America and therefore would affect all the top teams in the tournament.
“We could talk about the size of the ice,” Yzerman said, “but I think the bigger adjustment is [that elite players will have to accept] playing a lesser role.”
It is something Yzerman and Babcock and their assistants have talked about at length to the players, all of whom are stars on their own NHL teams and, therefore, used to the bulk of the ice time available to players at their position. A first-liner back home might well become a fourth-liner in Sochi.
“It doesn’t matter,” Perry said. “I’ll do whatever I need to do. Obviously, back home, you’re going to play 17 to 20 minutes a game. Here, you could play six, seven, eight minutes a game. You got to go out and beat the line you’re playing against.