When Linus Ullmark went down with a lower-body injury back on Jan. 28 in a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators, the Buffalo Sabres called up 24-year-old netminder Jonas Johansson from the Rochester Americans to back up goalie Carter Hutton in Buffalo.
It has been a long road for Johansson to get to this point, starting out as the Sabres' third round pick (61st overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft out of Sweden's SuperElit Junior League with Brynäs IF. From there, he went from playing in the Swedish second-tier league Allsvenskan to signing his entry-level contract and starting his North American career in the ECHL to getting some work in the American Hockey League with the Amerks to finally earning his first call up in the National Hockey League.
"It's been like a roller coaster for me, even ever since I got drafted," Johansson said following Wednesday's practice at Harborcenter. "This has always been the goal, so it's nice to get rewarded and to be here. I'm just taking it in and enjoying every moment."
In his third full season in North America, Johansson has really started to set himself up as a legitimate goaltending option for the Sabres organization in the coming couple of years.
Last season was when he first started to show his potential with a strong start with the Cincinnati Cyclones, going 18-5-3 with a 2.60 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage. In some limited action with the Amerks that year, he went 4-1-0 with a 2.26 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage. However, a mid-season injury halted his progress after it was determined that he needed season-ending surgery in February.
However, he bounced back nicely in training camp and went to work on focusing in on a full-time spot with the Amerks in 2019-20.
"I don't know if I put pressure on myself more than usual. You always want to prepare, you always want to play well, but I think I just felt better and better the longer the year went starting from camp," Johansson said. "Up until now, I feel more comfortable in the net so that's a good thing."
This season has been the breakout year for Johansson with the Amerks as he posted a 13-3-3 record in Rochester with a 2.19 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage in 20 games played. At the time of his call up last week Wednesday, Johansson had ranked third in the AHL in goals-against average, while his save percentage had him ranked fourth in the league.
Now that the rookie netminder has had some time to get acclimated to the NHL level of hockey, he's starting to notice the differences.
"Everything around is [up another] level. Even though it's really good in Rochester, you can definitely tell this is another level [of hockey], even in practice and how things work around the game," Johansson said.
The Sabres have played three games since Johansson was called up from Rochester, and he was able to make his NHL debut on Tuesday night in a 6-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. He entered the game at the 10:58 mark of the second period after Hutton had given up five goals-against on 13 shots on goal.
It may not have been the debut that he was expecting to make, but Johansson says he has to be ready for anything on a nightly basis.
"You always try to stay prepared," Johansson said. "I prepare myself before the game exactly as I would if I were to play, so you really can't do much about it when you go in there or you stay on the bench. You just got to have to deal with it as it comes, I guess.
"I try not to focus on what the score is or who we're playing against. I just try to help the team as much as I can and do my part. That's what I try to focus on even if it's a 1-1 game or a 5-1 game."
Despite giving up a goal on his first shot faced in the NHL, a decent shot from forward Mikko Rantanen off the post and in the top part of the net, he was able to turn away the remaining 13 shots he faced on the night.
Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger was certainly pleased with the effort from his young netminder coming in cold off the bench.
“We really liked the way he came in," Krueger said with Howard Simon and Jeremy White on Wednesday morning on WGR. "He ended up eating [a goal-against] off a 2-on-1 early. It was an unbelievable shot that he really didn't have a chance on the short side, and we thought he settled in nicely and showed a very calm first performance and made some nice plays with the puck... There weren't a lot of holes in his game and there were some scoring chances in the third as we were trying to force some opportunities at the other end to give our fans something to cheer about going home. We thought overall it was a really good performance from him, and probably that’s one positive that we all need to take out of last night was his performance.”
"He made some really big saves," Sabres forward Conor Sheary said of his young goaltender on Wednesday. "In the third, he probably had three or four Grade-A chances that he turned away. It's good for him to get that opportunity, obviously in some unfortunate circumstances, but maybe better that way [because] he wasn't thinking about it all day and he just got to jump in there and know he can play at this level. I think we're going to need him moving forward with Linus out, so hopefully that will grow his confidence."
With the Sabres set to close out their five-game homestand on Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings, followed by a Friday night road matchup with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, it is likely that Johansson will get the opportunity to make his first career NHL start. What Krueger did not confirm on Wednesday is which of the two games that he would have the chance to start.
In spite of that, Johansson is already looking forward to getting the opportunity to get his first start under his belt in the NHL.
"There's some excitement, for sure," Johansson said. "It would be really awesome to play some more up here, but I feel prepared and I feel confident, so I'm just feeling ready and prepared if the opportunity comes."
Before Tuesday's game against Colorado, the team announced that forwards Johan Larsson (lower-body injury) and Curtis Lazar (illness), as well as defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (upper-body injury) were all day-to-day. On Wednesday, Lazar and Dahlin both were still not back to action, while Larsson was back skating with his teammates.
Dahlin had taken the ice just before practice began to test his upper-body injury, but did not take part in the team skate that followed. Krueger said that Dahlin is questionable to Thursday's game against Detroit and that he remains day-to-day and it's not a long-term injury.
Krueger also said that he feels like Larsson will be good to go for Thursday against the Red Wings, but they would confirm that in the morning.
Here are the lines from practice on Wednesday:
Vesey - Eichel - Reinhart
Skinner - Rodrigues - Asplund
Sheary - Johansson - Frolik
Girgensons - Larsson - Dea
Montour - Ristolainen
McCabe - Jokiharju
Pilut - Miller
Bogosian
With Dahlin still not practicing, the defense rotated in and out with one another at practice.
Here is also a look at the power play units:
Reinhart
Eichel - Skinner - Johansson
Ristolainen
Vesey
Montour - Rodrigues - Sheary
Miller
Later on Wednesday, the Sabres called up forward Scott Wilson from the Rochester Americans, while assigning J.S. Dea back to the Amerks.