I caught up with Nashville Predators center Ryan Johansen on Thursday as the Predators returned to practice following their mandatory break. We hit on some hot topics surrounding the Predators, the “JOFA” line and his skills as a wedding planner.
We here at TheGameNashville.com are going to try to do these as often as the schedule allows us to throughout the remainder of the season. Here’s volume one with Johansen:
Stanley: How beneficial have you found this bye week to be in the last couple of years that you guys have experienced it?
Johansen: I think everybody says the same thing for how grueling and demanding an NHL season is, with how many games and travel and all that. When you can have five days of not setting your alarm and kind of get your mind away from everything, I think it’s so beneficial and makes a big difference in an individual’s game and a team game moving forward. So we hope to use it to our advantage like every other team in the League is hoping as well. We look forward to getting back out there now, though, and heal up all of our bruises and stuff.
RS: How would you assess where you guys are at right now given everything you’ve been through with injuries and having to deal with all of that and now coming through the other side of it with a chance to win the Central Division?
RJ: You know, I think we’ve got a little ways to get where we want to go, but going into the break we won two big road games and coming out of the break after [Friday] we’ve got a couple of big division games coming up. You know, it’s tough to say. Right now we’re just looking to start off on a good note again and coming out of the break on the right foot. You see a lot of teams that struggle coming out of breaks, so we’re really emphasizing in here just coming out from that first shift and playing a solid game. I guess time will tell to see where we’re at.
RS: What about you personally? Do you feel like this year has been right up there with the best hockey you’ve played in your career?
RJ: Yeah, I think I’ve done a lot of good things this year. In saying that, that’s hard to answer because I feel like I’ve still got some more to go and some more to give here. It’s not that I’m not trying to, I just need to keep putting my game together. But now with Fil and Arv healthy and having a few days of rest, there’s no excuse but to come out of this break with full steam ahead and try and take off as an individual, and that will help the team. I’m excited coming out of this break.
RS: We all know your line has always been good. But do you feel like you guys are progressively getting better? It just seems like right now you guys are probably better than you ever have been.
RJ: Yeah, I think so. I think that’s what makes it so much fun playing together is we go into each game kind of expecting more and more and knowing that there is more. That’s kind of a challenge within the games and ourselves that we look forward to is trying to set that bar as high as we can.
RS: Hockey aside, you’ve got a wedding that you’re helping to plan for this summer with your fiancé (Madison Bell)
RJ: [Laughing] yeah.
RS: What’s that process been like for you? What’s been the most stressful part?
RJ: It’s busy for her. She’s pretty good about letting me do my thing and focus on what I do, so I just kind of let her do all of the decision-making and whatnot.
Stanley: Just say yes?
Johansen: Yeah. Yes. Sure, dear. No, she’s been having a lot of fun with it though and really enjoying working with things, the family and stuff. For me, it’s fun to watch her go through that process, and us together. But yeah it’ll be here before we know it. So hopefully we can head right from playoffs to the wedding. That would be the goal.
