The puck drops here

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This article was published 17/09/2021 (1461 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like so many Canadian kids, Justin Johnson dreamed of one day skating in the NHL. The Winnipeg product will take his first big strides in that direction when he laces up for his first-ever game next weekend — right here in his own backyard.

No, the 23-year-old won’t be in the lineup for either the hometown Jets or the visiting Ottawa Senators when the pre-season begins on Sept. 26 at Canada Life Centre. He’ll be the one dropping the puck, along with plenty of other duties, after being hired by the league earlier this month as a linesman.

“It still hasn’t hit me, it’s so surreal and a dream come true,” Johnson told the Free Press on Friday in a chat outside Red River Community Centre on north Main Street, where he got his hockey start as a Timbits player nearly two decades ago

He will become just the third Manitoban wearing stripes in the best hockey league in the world, joining fellow linesmen Ryan Galloway (hired in 2002) and Vaughan Rody (hired in 2000). Galloway will be the other linesman working with Johnson in his NHL debut in a nifty bit of scheduling, especially with spectators allowed back in the rink for the first time since the pandemic began in March 2020.

“That’s going to be crazy. We’ve had two years going on no fans here in the building. And to work beside Ryan, the last Manitoban hired almost 20 years ago, is so cool,” said Johnson, who has five other exhibition games on his calendar.

Johnson began officiating at the age of 13 in the Seven Oaks Minor Hockey Association, but things really started to take off when Kelsey Mahoney took over as the area’s referee-in-chief two years later. He saw something special in Johnson, who played high school hockey at Garden City but soon realized the only way he was likely going to extend his time in the sport was by trading in his stick for a whistle.

“I finished my hockey career after Grade 12. I was a good skater, but maybe the hockey-side of things is where I lacked. I was never the best guy on the ice by any means,” said Johnson. “Kelsey kind of put the emphasis on officiating. I kind of took that route, and it has worked out.”

No kidding. There he was earlier this week, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Wes McCauley as he learned the ropes on the fly at a five-day NHL officials training camp in Buffalo. He also spent some time with Galloway and Rody.

“They were all so welcoming, that’s for sure,” Johnson said of his first big-league experience. “Just getting to share the room with these guys, it was an honour and a privilege to be there. It was a lot to take in, at moments I was just sitting there thinking pinch me, am I really here right now?”

Under his entry-level contract, he will be travelling across North America and may work as many as 40 NHL games this coming season, along with 40 AHL contests. He already got a few of those under his belt last year in the form of Manitoba Moose games as a local fill-in, after spending the previous year doing Winnipeg Ice games in the WHL. It’s a fairly rapid rise from peewee and bantam just a few years ago, where he would often do as many as 25 games a month.

“This is tremendous news for Hockey Manitoba. We’re so proud of him,” said Mahoney, a Winnipeg police constable who is well-respected in hockey circles and has worked WHL games in Brandon for years, along with some Moose games. He has become a good friend and mentor to Johnson, who credits him for his success.

“It was Kelsey’s dream to go to the NHL. For him to take on me and really help me out, it just shows the character he is and how class of an act he is to help a kid like me,” said Johnson. “Before the combine there in Buffalo, we were on the ice at Gateway at like 9:45 p.m. at night, he’s got a family and a wife back home, and it’s just me and him out there and he’s pushing me through power-skating drills and some of the drills he thought would come up at the combine. He’s just such a great guy about it.”

Considering this province pumps out pro hockey players every year, it’s surprising that so few officials reach the highest level. Johnson, who also served a stint as Seven Oaks referee-in-chief, believes abusive parents and even coaches have driven too many young officials away over the years.

“You definitely have to be strong to push through the hardest times,” said Johnson, who at 6-6 is going to tower over plenty of players. “It’s a long path. Maybe my luck changed a bit towards the end here, where it seemed to go super fast, but I was working (AAA) just three years ago. You have to take advantage of the opportunities you get. It’s a lot of hard work.”

And it’s going to get even harder now, as Johnson notes the NHL has never been faster and keeping up with the pace while making split-second decisions is the difference between success, and failure. All officials are graded by supervisors on an ongoing basis, and those who score low ultimately see their assignments dry up.

“Nothing is guaranteed. You can always learn something on the ice, and there’s never a day I don’t learn something on the ice. The reality is you don’t want to be talked about. If you’re not talked about you probably had a good game, “ said Johnson, who will have plenty of family and friends at the downtown rink next weekend to support him.

“I don’t think it’ll set in until I step foot on that NHL ice for the first time. Even if it’s pre-season, it may not count as my first official game, but I’m going to be looking up thinking where am I, how did my life get to this?”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg