University of Minnesota Athletics
Dynamic Duo; Goalies Travis Weber and Justin Johnson
3/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
It was sure to cause competition. There's no way a starting job could be up between two friends and not cause some rift. While Weber and Johnson kept saying that it was just a friendly rivalry, media and fans kept wanting to label it something else. And then Weber got the starting nod for two, then three, then four straight games. Surely Johnson would be upset with his new "backup" position. Then the team went to Alaska Jan. 31-Feb. 1, where Johnson was given the starting role for the Saturday night game. The Gophers swept the Seawolves that weekend with each goaltender posting a solid win.
What was Lucia to do now? The rotating starts theory of the beginning of the season had been so quickly forgotten between mid-November and January when Weber was the only one in net. But Johnson's performance couldn't be ignored. The question was answered the Thursday before heading to Colorado College when at the team meeting, Lucia talked about how the goalies would play well. Goalies. Plural. For a while it has been a single "goaltender." The rotation in net concept that people had a hard time grasping at season's start has been back in action since. Most importantly, it's working.
There is a genuine friendship that exists between Weber and Johnson. Their camaraderie isn't for show. It's not to conceal some deep hostility between the two; they honestly are each other's strongest supporters. You can see that the most when talking to the two of them.
What do you say to each other before a game?
Justin Johnson: It's basically the same type of stuff. It's all encouraging. Travis Weber: It's kind of like, `Hey, we don't lose to this team. We've been practicing all week - this is what we practice for. Let's show everyone what we can do.'
Do you say anything to one another after letting in a goal or after a bad game?
JJ: As far as between ourselves, we understand ourselves enough to know that, if it's him, I won't come up to him right after and try to talk about it because the first thing you want to do is just be by yourself. And then later, I'll tell him `Hey, don't worry about it. We're `OK' or anything in that type of nature. It's good that we know each other in that way that we keep our distance first, but I know eventually he's going to come up to me and say don't worry about it or something like that.
TW: You analyze every play, go over it in your head, think about what you could have done better. Try to get some positives out of it and then you just kind of forget about it. Kind of put it in the back of your head and try to move on. You've just got to take it one game at a time and move on from there and not think about it and the next day just prepare as it's a new game.
What did you learn while backing up Adam Hauser last season?
TW: I think it was important because we weren't just thrown into the fire like Adam was his freshman year. You weren't expected to do a whole lot and you also got to sit back and see the whole grand scheme. Get used to the road trips and stuff like that. Get used to going into other places, different environments. It was kind of a learning process and it helped for our own maturity and growing into what we've become right now.
JJ: We'd both been `the guy' before so that's not necessarily any different than coming to college and being `the guy.' It was more to see what it's like at this level for traveling, what it takes, the media scrutiny, the daily grind. To sit back and be able to see Adam go through it, and the other players go through it too, all the way to the end, to the highest potential, was the biggest part for me.
How do you deal with the criticism and what gets written and said about your performances?
JJ: I talked to Adam last month and he still doesn't read newspapers. He thinks that's the best thing and that worked for him. After he realized what people say about him, he didn't want to read it. I'm almost more in favor of reading that stuff because it motivates you.
TW: It gives you something to kind of like shut people up. You read it and you're like, `that's what you think.' And then you go out there the next night and try to shut those type of people up.
When Travis was continuously getting the start there for a while, what did you think about what people were saying about you, Justin?
JJ: I didn't read it daily because I just basically figured it out. After a while it was like [laughing] okay, Travis is the starter. And that was enough for me and I understood that's what everybody thought, so I had that thought in my mind when I went to practice everyday. Sometimes it's funny to see what people think about certain situations, not necessarily between us, but outsiders looking at the team.
TW: It's just funny because at any time he could have played and became the starter. It was just so up in the air. It just happened that I got the games and he was backing up. And everyone was like, `oh he's a backup.` It's funny how people act to how things are working out. And now they're all like, `what happened?'
JJ: Now it's like, `Whoa, where'd this kid come from?' And I've been here the whole time!
TW: Yeah, he just hasn't played that many games.
Did it get competitive between the two of you during that time?
JJ: It's competitive, but it's friendly.
TW: It also helped too because during that time I was playing, he didn't allow me to kind of sit back and just enjoy it because he would come to practice everyday and battle his [butt] off. I had to work just as hard just to keep up with him.
Was there a change in pressure to perform?
JJ: I think I practiced in a similar way. There's just that type of energy that you can't get when you know that you're going to have a chance to play that weekend. If I went into a weekend where I knew that I wasn't going to get to play, I'd practice hard, but I didn't practice with enthusiasm to prepare myself in that way to play. Where now, it's so much fun to come to the rink. You miss it. During that time, I missed that feeling where it was fun to come to the rink and work hard and know I'm going to get rewarded at the end of the week.
TW: For me, I don't think it was really a different thing of preparing for games. I just think for practice you had to be more prepared and you had to come to the rink with a work face on and work hard. I don't think there was pressure on either of us. It was more of a friendly competition between us. But it wasn't said, it wasn't brought up, it wasn't a main point of the day, it was just implied.
What do you think are your biggest strengths?
TW: I would say I kind of pride myself on fundamentals, like movement kind of stuff. I just try to stay square to the puck. That's me.
JJ: [Laughing] This is the part that makes me so mad because everyone thinks that I'm [shaking hands] just out there. And I try to be square. I try to be fundamental. But everyone thinks that I'm just athletic, I'm just trying to make it. Everybody thinks that. I know I'm fundamentally sound, but I guess what I'm trying to say is I wish I could pride myself on being fundamental.
So what do you pride yourselves the most on?
TW: See it's a whole different story when you get into games. It's just all about stopping the puck.
JJ: Winning. That's what I pride myself on is winning. I want to win.
TW: Everything you do during the week, you can just throw that out the window because when it all comes down to it, you're just out there trying to stop the puck. You'll do whatever it takes.
What's the deal with Justin going all the way in the net during the huddle?
TW: It's kind of weird. We have our own little thing - we've never actually talked about this. But he will skate around the right circle to me as I'm facing out with like 30 seconds left. I'll go out and he'll come in and go in the net and then I'll go in and lean on the crossbar. And then when he starts, he just goes into the net and I go into the back. I've always gone into the back when I don't start. So, it's just kind of like our little routine. It's weird because we never talked about it or anything. It just kind of happened and it's been consistent.
Finally, what's the biggest difference between the beginning of the season to now?
TW: I think at the beginning of the season, we had a whole bunch of young guys. We knew we had a decent team, we just didn't know how good we were. It wasn't immaturity, it was just a new group of guys and it was just all about getting the chemistry back that we lost from last year. And I'm starting to see that click now. Everyone's starting to get along really well. There's a lot of upside to it and I think people are starting to recognize that if we come out and play well, that we can be good. It's just that we determine our own destiny and until everyone gets on board, it's not going to happen.
JJ: I think what I said personally about myself is the same I think for everybody. It's exciting to come to the rink. The guys know that if we work hard and play hard, we're going to win. Having this stretch of wins, regardless of who we play, having it at this time of year, it's confidence for our team. Everyone's excited for what could possibly happen for this team.
How ever the rest of the season pans out, heck how ever the rest of their Minnesota careers pan out, one thing can be said. The biggest supporter of Justin Johnson is Travis Weber. And the biggest supporter of Weber is Johnson. As different as the goaltending situation for this season may be from previous years, it is working. Instead of one goaltender facing the pressure alone, the two of them have each other to lean on. And when it comes to glory, they will bask in it together, no matter which one got them there.
As much as Minnesota supporters want a single goaltending star, as the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Both Weber and Johnson have the goaltending goods and both can bring them night in and night out. If anything, Golden Gopher fans should be overjoyed that the team has two quality goaltenders. No need to make it a competition, even if it is a friendly one.
Written by Media Relations Student Assistant Courtney Walerius. (Courtney welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu) It took a while for the Minnesota media and hockey fans to grasp what was going to happen with goaltending for the 2002-03 season. While Head Coach Don Lucia kept saying that his two sophomore goalies, Justin Johnson and Travis Weber, were going to rotate time in net, the people cheering for the Maroon and Gold had a hard time understanding the concept. And who can blame them? The Golden Gophers had a main man between the pipes in Adam Hauser for four years.
It was sure to cause competition. There's no way a starting job could be up between two friends and not cause some rift. While Weber and Johnson kept saying that it was just a friendly rivalry, media and fans kept wanting to label it something else. And then Weber got the starting nod for two, then three, then four straight games. Surely Johnson would be upset with his new "backup" position. Then the team went to Alaska Jan. 31-Feb. 1, where Johnson was given the starting role for the Saturday night game. The Gophers swept the Seawolves that weekend with each goaltender posting a solid win.
What was Lucia to do now? The rotating starts theory of the beginning of the season had been so quickly forgotten between mid-November and January when Weber was the only one in net. But Johnson's performance couldn't be ignored. The question was answered the Thursday before heading to Colorado College when at the team meeting, Lucia talked about how the goalies would play well. Goalies. Plural. For a while it has been a single "goaltender." The rotation in net concept that people had a hard time grasping at season's start has been back in action since. Most importantly, it's working.
There is a genuine friendship that exists between Weber and Johnson. Their camaraderie isn't for show. It's not to conceal some deep hostility between the two; they honestly are each other's strongest supporters. You can see that the most when talking to the two of them.
What do you say to each other before a game?
Justin Johnson: It's basically the same type of stuff. It's all encouraging. Travis Weber: It's kind of like, `Hey, we don't lose to this team. We've been practicing all week - this is what we practice for. Let's show everyone what we can do.'
Do you say anything to one another after letting in a goal or after a bad game?
JJ: As far as between ourselves, we understand ourselves enough to know that, if it's him, I won't come up to him right after and try to talk about it because the first thing you want to do is just be by yourself. And then later, I'll tell him `Hey, don't worry about it. We're `OK' or anything in that type of nature. It's good that we know each other in that way that we keep our distance first, but I know eventually he's going to come up to me and say don't worry about it or something like that.
TW: You analyze every play, go over it in your head, think about what you could have done better. Try to get some positives out of it and then you just kind of forget about it. Kind of put it in the back of your head and try to move on. You've just got to take it one game at a time and move on from there and not think about it and the next day just prepare as it's a new game.
What did you learn while backing up Adam Hauser last season?
TW: I think it was important because we weren't just thrown into the fire like Adam was his freshman year. You weren't expected to do a whole lot and you also got to sit back and see the whole grand scheme. Get used to the road trips and stuff like that. Get used to going into other places, different environments. It was kind of a learning process and it helped for our own maturity and growing into what we've become right now.
JJ: We'd both been `the guy' before so that's not necessarily any different than coming to college and being `the guy.' It was more to see what it's like at this level for traveling, what it takes, the media scrutiny, the daily grind. To sit back and be able to see Adam go through it, and the other players go through it too, all the way to the end, to the highest potential, was the biggest part for me.
How do you deal with the criticism and what gets written and said about your performances?
JJ: I talked to Adam last month and he still doesn't read newspapers. He thinks that's the best thing and that worked for him. After he realized what people say about him, he didn't want to read it. I'm almost more in favor of reading that stuff because it motivates you.
TW: It gives you something to kind of like shut people up. You read it and you're like, `that's what you think.' And then you go out there the next night and try to shut those type of people up.
When Travis was continuously getting the start there for a while, what did you think about what people were saying about you, Justin?
JJ: I didn't read it daily because I just basically figured it out. After a while it was like [laughing] okay, Travis is the starter. And that was enough for me and I understood that's what everybody thought, so I had that thought in my mind when I went to practice everyday. Sometimes it's funny to see what people think about certain situations, not necessarily between us, but outsiders looking at the team.
TW: It's just funny because at any time he could have played and became the starter. It was just so up in the air. It just happened that I got the games and he was backing up. And everyone was like, `oh he's a backup.` It's funny how people act to how things are working out. And now they're all like, `what happened?'
JJ: Now it's like, `Whoa, where'd this kid come from?' And I've been here the whole time!
TW: Yeah, he just hasn't played that many games.
Did it get competitive between the two of you during that time?
JJ: It's competitive, but it's friendly.
TW: It also helped too because during that time I was playing, he didn't allow me to kind of sit back and just enjoy it because he would come to practice everyday and battle his [butt] off. I had to work just as hard just to keep up with him.
Was there a change in pressure to perform?
JJ: I think I practiced in a similar way. There's just that type of energy that you can't get when you know that you're going to have a chance to play that weekend. If I went into a weekend where I knew that I wasn't going to get to play, I'd practice hard, but I didn't practice with enthusiasm to prepare myself in that way to play. Where now, it's so much fun to come to the rink. You miss it. During that time, I missed that feeling where it was fun to come to the rink and work hard and know I'm going to get rewarded at the end of the week.
TW: For me, I don't think it was really a different thing of preparing for games. I just think for practice you had to be more prepared and you had to come to the rink with a work face on and work hard. I don't think there was pressure on either of us. It was more of a friendly competition between us. But it wasn't said, it wasn't brought up, it wasn't a main point of the day, it was just implied.
What do you think are your biggest strengths?
TW: I would say I kind of pride myself on fundamentals, like movement kind of stuff. I just try to stay square to the puck. That's me.
JJ: [Laughing] This is the part that makes me so mad because everyone thinks that I'm [shaking hands] just out there. And I try to be square. I try to be fundamental. But everyone thinks that I'm just athletic, I'm just trying to make it. Everybody thinks that. I know I'm fundamentally sound, but I guess what I'm trying to say is I wish I could pride myself on being fundamental.
So what do you pride yourselves the most on?
TW: See it's a whole different story when you get into games. It's just all about stopping the puck.
JJ: Winning. That's what I pride myself on is winning. I want to win.
TW: Everything you do during the week, you can just throw that out the window because when it all comes down to it, you're just out there trying to stop the puck. You'll do whatever it takes.
What's the deal with Justin going all the way in the net during the huddle?
TW: It's kind of weird. We have our own little thing - we've never actually talked about this. But he will skate around the right circle to me as I'm facing out with like 30 seconds left. I'll go out and he'll come in and go in the net and then I'll go in and lean on the crossbar. And then when he starts, he just goes into the net and I go into the back. I've always gone into the back when I don't start. So, it's just kind of like our little routine. It's weird because we never talked about it or anything. It just kind of happened and it's been consistent.
Finally, what's the biggest difference between the beginning of the season to now?
TW: I think at the beginning of the season, we had a whole bunch of young guys. We knew we had a decent team, we just didn't know how good we were. It wasn't immaturity, it was just a new group of guys and it was just all about getting the chemistry back that we lost from last year. And I'm starting to see that click now. Everyone's starting to get along really well. There's a lot of upside to it and I think people are starting to recognize that if we come out and play well, that we can be good. It's just that we determine our own destiny and until everyone gets on board, it's not going to happen.
JJ: I think what I said personally about myself is the same I think for everybody. It's exciting to come to the rink. The guys know that if we work hard and play hard, we're going to win. Having this stretch of wins, regardless of who we play, having it at this time of year, it's confidence for our team. Everyone's excited for what could possibly happen for this team.
How ever the rest of the season pans out, heck how ever the rest of their Minnesota careers pan out, one thing can be said. The biggest supporter of Justin Johnson is Travis Weber. And the biggest supporter of Weber is Johnson. As different as the goaltending situation for this season may be from previous years, it is working. Instead of one goaltender facing the pressure alone, the two of them have each other to lean on. And when it comes to glory, they will bask in it together, no matter which one got them there.
As much as Minnesota supporters want a single goaltending star, as the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Both Weber and Johnson have the goaltending goods and both can bring them night in and night out. If anything, Golden Gopher fans should be overjoyed that the team has two quality goaltenders. No need to make it a competition, even if it is a friendly one.
Written by Media Relations Student Assistant Courtney Walerius. (Courtney welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu)
