THE NECESSARY TOOLS

Based on sheer physical talent, Johnson is in an enviable position. With excellent skating ability and good hands, he has a skill package that should translate to a genuine offensive threat on the ice.

And by all accounts, this will be the year that will happen.

“Charlie’s a guy who comes to play,” senior forward Brendan Bernakevitch says. “He’s really creative, he’s really fast, he’s smart out there on the ice...He’s got the hunger to score goals and get to the net.”

Those skills were honed playing in the Alberta Junior Hockey League for the Calgary Royals the year before he came to Harvard, and they’ve been obvious ever since Johnson’s freshman year, when, despite a deep Crimson roster, he still registered 20 points on the season and split the team’s Rookie of the Year award with defensemen Peter Hafner.

Physically, he’s one of the most talented players on the team—and the most focused.

“He comes to work every day, punches in, punches out, doesn’t ask any questions,” freshman Jon Pelle says. “He plays a different style than some of the other guys on the team, but he’s one of the most gifted players I’ve seen in a long time.”

And after two years of tantalizing glimpses doled out in multi-point game after multi-point game, Johnson feels that he is just a short step away from showing off that sort of skill in every game, on every shot.

Pelle is willing to vouch for him.

“I think he’s going to have a breakthrough year,” he says.

THE STRONG, SILENT TYPE

With the graduation of several impact players on the front line, Johnson can’t waste any time this year in hitting his stride.

“ I definitely expect my role to be a lot bigger than last year’s, since we lost a lot of big forwards like [Tyler Kolarik ’04 and Dennis Packard ’04],” Johnson says. “I started to play the way I wanted to play last year, but I definitely didn’t produce like I had expected.”

Aside from his responsibility as a key manufacturer of the Crimson’s offense, Johnson will have to step up off the ice as well.

“I’ve actually taken it upon myself to take more of a leadership role,” Johnson says. “The last couple years I’ve just kind of followed, listened to last year’s senior class and the year before that, because there were a lot of them. With so few juniors and seniors this year, I’ve definitely taken it upon myself to help the freshmen along, to tell them what I learned, how I got through it.”