Halfway through the second period or so, I heard Razor stifle a chuckle as he was commenting on Stephen Johns. If Razor was seeing what I was seeing, it was a giant, cardboard sign reading “FREE HONKA.” The timing was spot-on, unlike a lot of this game tonight.
And, to be honest, I was wondering if we were going to see a repeat of last year, when Julius Honka was more likely to replace Stephen Johns in the lineup. Johns had a really rough go of things in this one, making some early miscues by Oleksiak look tame in comparison.