Andreas Johnsson
The gift of a dream line
We contemplated giving Andreas Johnsson the gift of a new nickname. He adopted the name Mango. It could be a good nickname if it had a better meaning. Johnsson has explained that Mango was what he was called in high school and it meant “man” then “go”. He could do better.
We decided to look more closely at how he, like some of his teammates, comes from a hockey family. For his gift, we believed that it would be a dream come true to play a high-level game with family.
Johnsson’s father, Jonas, played 18 seasons in the Swedish Elite League. He was even the Frölunda HC team captain for five seasons. He never played in the NHL despite being drafted in the seventh round by the St. Louis Blues in 2002.
Andreas’s brother, Jonathan, is the current leading scorer of the Allsvenskan league in Sweden. The 26-year-old is playing for MODO Hockey and has accumulated 17 goals and 31 assists in 31 games this season.
We give the gift of playing all three Johnssons together on a line for the first time ever.
Jake Muzzin and Cody Ceci
The gift of an ice pack
Jake Muzzin was acquired in a trade from the Los Angeles Kings and Cody Ceci in a deal with the Ottawa Senators. Both these defensemen have something in common, they’re great at getting hit by the puck.
Muzzin and Ceci have had their defensive challenges this season, but one thing that they can both boast about is their ability to shot block. Each of them is on the top 30 leaderboard in this category for the season. Muzzin has blocked 63 and Ceci, one less. For them, we have reusable ice packs. Because our generosity knows no bounds, we have given them one each; no need for them to share.
Interestingly, the player that went to the Senators in the swap for Ceci, Nikita Zaitsev, has been even better than the pair of Leafs. Prior to his lower-body injury designating him for the injured reserve, Zaitsev had the seventh-most blocked shots in the NHL with 74. He now sits at ninth.
Kasperi Kapanen
The gift of a Men in Black memory eraser
While we could have gifted Kasperi Kapanen with a haircut, we were concerned that there were fans out there that enjoyed his flow. Instead, we thought we would get him something practical, the memory eraser from Men in Black.
Hockey fans and pundits love to reminisce about the Oct. 5 gaff Kapanen made when he threw his broken stick at Montreal Canadiens’ defenseman Jeff Petry.
It still gets brought up (like right now) because it was a needless act that resulted in a penalty shot to tie the game, which the Buds eventually lost in overtime. With the MIB doodad, Kapanen can simply erase the memory of anyone who continues to discuss the play.