Johnson played in 81 regular season games last season, tallying 21 goals and 50 points, reaching the 20-goal and 50-point milestone for the third time in his career and first time since the 2014-15 season. Tonight, he'll skate on the right wing alongside Yanni Gourde (left wing) and Brayden Point (center).
"They're both tremendous players," Johnson said. "They're fun to play with. They're guys that are very tenacious and kind of just work extremely hard and have the skill to make things happen. Looking forward to playing with them, looking forward to just using our speed and getting after them on the forecheck and hopefully disrupt a little bit and create some opportunities and chances."
Since a 2-1 shootout victory over Florida in the season opener, the Lightning have had to sit around and wait for their next game while some teams, like divisional foe Toronto, are already on game No. 5. The Bolts used the extra practice time to clean up some of the deficiencies from their opening game.
But they're ready to hit an opponent for a change rather than a teammate.
"Yeah, it's been really weird to see teams play three, four, five games already and we're stuck at one," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "We're anxious to get back into the swing of things, just get back into a regular routine. I think after tonight it'll even itself out a little bit. We want to improve on our game Opening Night. We didn't think it was good enough."