Dakota Joshua did not have a good training camp and preseason for the Vancouver Canucks.
After the team’s first preseason game, Joshua got bumped from the main group that featured primarily NHL players to skate with the AHL players in the second group. It certainly seemed like head coach Rick Tocchet was sending a message that he needed more out of the big winger.
“[Joshua] has to pick it up," said Tocchet at the time. "He has to try to win a job. The job is not there. There are guys breathing down [his neck] for that one job. Whether it's a message or not, there are a lot of other factors, and I'm not going to get into it, but yeah, he's got to pick it up.”
Tocchet gave him plenty of opportunities, as Joshua played in five of the Canucks’ six preseason games. He finished the preseason with no points and a minus-5 plus/minus. While he still made the Canucks’ roster out of camp, he was on thin ice and ended up a healthy scratch a month into the season.
“It was definitely eye-opening,” reflected Joshua in January. “I was at a spot that they didn’t think I should have been at. I wasn’t aware enough that I needed to give more…It was fair and warranted and a ‘make sure it doesn’t happen again’ type of thing. I feel like the standard was different. To have this type of season, they expected a lot more out of everyone and that’s where I didn’t meet the bar to begin with.”
It had to be disappointing for a player who had impressed Tocchet last season. Tocchet had talked up Joshua’s potential to be more than just a bottom-six grinder and talked about wanting to be personally involved in his training to help him reach that potential.
“I don’t want to put pressure on him, but he can score 20 goals in this league and can be a really good penalty killer for us," said Tocchet at one point last season.
On another occasion, Tocchet suggested that Joshua could be a complementary top-six forward if he worked at his game around the net: “If he can get to that level, you can play him with great players, because the great players want to play with north-south type of players that will get you the puck and go retrieve the puck. So, there is a spot there, and if he can grab it, we'll see.”
Joshua didn’t grab it. Or, at least, he didn’t for the first month of the season.
Since his healthy scratch on November 2, Joshua has become an integral part of the Canucks’ lineup. He has 12 goals and 25 points in the 44 games since his scratch and the only Canucks forwards with more points in that time are J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, and Brock Boeser.
“Tough camp and I didn’t dress him and look what he’s done,” said Tocchet in December.
“A week after I got scratched, it finally clicked in on what needed to be done,” said Joshua. “If I keep doing these things, good things will happen. It was just making sure I was doing all the right things and doing extra things every day to the point where they were happy and I was happy with myself.”
That point total includes the first three-point night of his career on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks, as he had a goal and two assists, then added a fight late in the game to complete the Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
With the goal, Joshua is now on pace this season to do exactly what Tocchet said he could: score 20 goals. And, even if his line with Teddy Blueger and Conor Garland is supposed to be the third line, he’s still among the Canucks’ top-six forwards in scoring, so he’s basically fulfilled his potential to be a top-six forward too.
Joshua has gone from a scratch to a do-it-all player for the Canucks. He’s a go-to penalty killer, he’s one of the Canucks’ best forwards along the wall, he creates clean zone exits, he sets up goals, he scores goals, and he even leads all NHL forwards in hits.
Joshua’s evolution as a player is a credit to both him and the coaching staff who believed in him and gave him some tough love when he needed it.
- Joshua’s chemistry with Garland, has played a major role in his growth this season. They have chemistry like Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore on the ice and it was on full display on the opening goal. Filip Hronek picked off a pass in the neutral zone and sent Garland and Joshua the other way on a 2-on-1. Garland sent a no-look pass across to Joshua, who kick-faked the shot before sending the puck back to Garland for the tap-in goal.
- “Me and Dak do a lot of two-on-ones in practice,” said Garland. “We weren’t very good this morning, so it was nice to convert tonight. Great play by him, just shows what an all-around player he is, holding that puck and then sliding it back for an open-netter.”
- After Garland’s goal, the officials handed the Blackhawks a power play on what might be the worst penalty call I’ve ever seen. Sam Lafferty got crosschecked/pushed from behind by Isaak Phillips, causing him to bump into goaltender Petr Mrazek outside of the crease, which was somehow deemed to be goaltender interference. He probably asked the official, “Are you having a laff?” and it turned out he was indeed having a Laff and took that Laff to the penalty box.
- Even with the janky penalty call, the Blackhawks were absolutely hapless against the Canucks in the first period. They were entirely without haps and almost entirely without shots, finally registering their first shot on goal of the game with 31 seconds remaining in the period on another power play. Shots were 12-to-1 for the Canucks after the opening 20 minutes.
- “They got most of their shots on the power play,” said Tocchet. “I thought 5-on-5 we did a good job of shutting them down.”
- The Good Job Boys — Garland, Joshua, and Blueger — were dominant all game and swarmed the Blackhawks in the second period to put the Canucks up 2-0. They got a lucky bounce when Hronek’s point shot painfully deflected in off Garland’s foot but that bounce was only possible because he and his linemates made like Napoleon Bonaparte and won battle after battle to keep the puck in the offensive zone.
- Blueger had a great game with his linemates but was also at fault on the Blackhawks’ first goal. On the penalty kill, Blueger had a chance to clear the puck and hoisted it towards the blue line but not high enough, as it was knocked down by Nick Foligno. As Blueger tried to rectify his error, his skate clipped Foligno’s and he tumbled to the ice, leaving a gap in the Canucks’ PK coverage. Tyler Johnson took advantage to fire in a one-timer inside the far post.
- Colin Blackwell nearly tied the game late in the second with a backhand that hit the underside of the crossbar. Instead, the Canucks burst the other way and Nils Höglander gave them a two-goal lead. Elias Lindholm chipped the puck in, then chased it down himself on the forecheck and shoved Jaycob Megna off the puck. That left it loose for Höglander, who was stopped on his first attempt to tuck the puck five-hole but he put the puck home on the rebound.
- “I thought they were pretty good,” said Tocchet of Elias Pettersson’s Swedish Fish line with Lindholm and Höglander. “A little chemistry starting to come. I know I shook Lindy around a little bit, so maybe see if we can settle him in a line. That goal was a big goal, Höggy getting it for us. When it was 2-to-1, you never know.”
- Höglander tried to get a little fancy in the third period, attempting a spinning between-the-legs goal that was disrupted by a Mrazek pokecheck. It would have been gorgeous if it worked but it instead turned into a Kevin Jamesian pratfall, with Mrazek giving him an extra blocker punch to the dome for his cheekiness.
- A moment later, Joshua extended the lead to 4-1. Quinn Hughes moved the puck down low to Blueger, who sent a blind backhand pass to the front of the net. While it was out of the reach of Garland, the pass landed right on the stick of Joshua, who came off the bench and went straight for the goal. Instead of shooting immediately, Joshua sent Mrazek sliding right into False Creek with a deke to the backhand for the open net.
- “It’s great because if some guys are in some slumps, other lines can pick it up,” said Tocchet. “I think the Garland line, if we have some guys that are not scoring goals, they can chip in.”
- Elias Pettersson was held off the scoresheet but only just barely. Midway through the third period, he ripped a wrist shot that ripped the stick right out of Mrazek’s hand, sending it proppelering through the air. Personally, I feel like that should be worth at least half a goal.
- The Blackhawks got one more goal make the score look respectable. Hughes gambled at the blue line, which is typically a safe bet with his skillset but the puck got past him this time. That led to a 2-on-1 against Hronek, who went to the ice to take the passing lane away but Ryan Donato outwaited his slide and set up Kevin Korchinski for the 4-2 goal.
- Late in the third period MacKenzie Entwistle buried Garland against the boards behind the Blackhawks’ net and Joshua immediately stepped up for his linemate, dropping the gloves with Entwistle and making short work of the tall winger. The sign that Joshua really is turning into a top-six forward is that I immediately thought, “Oh, he shouldn’t be fighting, he could hurt his hands and he needs those for scoring goals.”
- Garland, at least, greatly appreciated Joshua’s knuckle-chucking: “I owe Dak a dinner tonight. That's unbelievable right there. That shows how tight this team is and the character we have in our room to do that.”
- When asked where Joshua wanted Garland to take him for dinner, Joshua didn’t hesitate: “Somewhere expensive.”
- Fun fact: Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet is the all-time leader in Gordie Howe Hat Tricks in NHL history with 18. Joshua just needs 17 more to catch him.
