Canucks Takeaways: Joshua playing best hockey of career as third line drives win

With West Coast social media abuzz that Phil Kessel will work out with the Vancouver Canucks’ minor-league team, the National Hockey League team showed Tuesday why it probably doesn’t need him.

The Canucks’ depth scoring is fine. It’s a top six-scorer they need and if 36-year-old Kessel, who has 22 goals in his last 164 NHL games and hasn’t played in nearly 10 months, can walk into a premier role on a top line, the Canucks may not be as good as most people think.

With all of their star forwards dormant in Chicago, the Canucks got another two goals from Conor Garland and a Gordie Howe hat trick from linemate Dakota Joshua to beat the Blackhawks 4-2 and close out their five-game road trip at 3-1-1. That .700 hockey was good enough to keep the Canucks first in the overall standings with one-third of the regular season remaining.

After a six-game scoring lull, before and after the NHL All-Star Break, the Garland-Joshua-Teddy Blueger “Life Line” helped drive the Canucks to wins in Chicago and Washington to make it another successful road trip for Vancouver after the team wobbled for a couple of games in the middle.

With Blueger’s excellent assist on Joshua’s goal that made it 4-1 early in the third period, the trio combined for six points. Already with the first three-point game of his career, Joshua finished his Gordie Howe hatty by fighting Mackenzie Entwistle with 3:52 remaining after the Blackhawk crushed Garland with a fair check behind the net.

Garland scored Vancouver’s first two goals. He finished a beautiful two-on-one with Joshua to open scoring at 10:05 of the first period, shooting into an open net after a give-and-go as the Canucks passed the puck twice across $76-million defenceman Seth Jones.

Garland’s second-period goal was less pretty and more painful as defenceman Filip Hronek’s slapshot tumbled in off his left skate.

After Tyler Johnson scored a power-play goal for the Blackhawks, who were outshot 12-1 in the first period and 21-7 at one stage but stayed in the game with four power plays (three of them questionable), Nils Hoglander continued his outstanding season offensively by dragging the puck past Chicago goalie Petr Mrazek to make it 3-1 at 18:28 of the second period.

Joshua scored at 6:07 of the third, patiently waiting for Mrazek to over-commit on Blueger’s blind centring pass from the sideboards.

Chicago had 10 of their 15 even-strength shots in the final period, but Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko was sharp, finishing with 21 saves for his NHL-leading 29^th win of the season. 

If inclined, the Canucks were able to celebrate their road trip in Chicago as the team was staying over before flying home Wednesday for a two-game homestand that starts the next night against the Detroit Red Wings.

FLYING PHIL?

Kessel has had an outstanding career, re-branding himself as a player after former Maple Leafs general manager Dave Nonis somehow convinced Jim Rutherford to take him to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2015. Reformed by Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan and able to play a complementary role instead of being a focal point – the Penguins had fellows named Crosby and Malkin for that – Kessel won two Stanley Cups in Pennsylvania.

Kessel got a third ring as a spare part with the Vegas Golden Knights last spring, although he was a healthy scratch for the final 18 games of the Cup run.

Officially, being scratched in the playoffs didn’t end Kessel’s remarkable 1,064 ironman streak, which reflects his skill level, durability and his coaches’ patience with him. But surrounded by excellent players, the American scored only 14 times in 82 games last season, after managing just eight goals (but 52 points) the previous year with the Arizona Coyotes.

Despite Kessel’s eagerness to keep playing, and graciousness in sacrificing his ironman streak to make it happen, no one has yet signed the free agent who has 992 NHL points. 

But on Tuesday, after a report by CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal, Canuck general manager Patrik Allvin confirmed in a statement: “Phil has made his way to Vancouver and will be working out in Abbotsford this week.”

Allvin, like his boss Rutherford, is a Penguins alumnus. So is Canucks coach Rick Tocchet. They’re going to take a look at Kessel before deciding whether to offer him a contract.

Is Kessel worth it? Well, it costs the Canucks nothing to find out. Is there a lineup spot for him? Hard to see where since he is no longer a top-six player and unlikely to have the tool kit necessary to play in the bottom six the way Tocchet demands. 

Might he help the power-play depth? Possibly. Do teammates love him? Yes. Does the media? No one cares. Will he disrupt the chemistry the Canucks have going? Probably not (see Pittsburgh, Las Vegas).

Is Phil Kessel really what the Canucks need as a final lineup upgrade before the March 8 trade deadline? No. But they’re taking a look.

“He's going to go down there and skate for two or three days, see how he is down there, then re-evaluate from there,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet told reporters in Chicago. “I know Phil. I haven't talked to him at all (this season), but I know Phil, especially from the Pittsburgh days.”

DAKOTA NOT FANNING

The Canucks roster in Chicago included nine players eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season. None of them is more important to the team’s long-term future than Joshua, a 27-year-old late-bloomer who only now is starting to show what his ceiling might be as a power forward.

The six-foot-three winger from Michigan is finally playing with consistency, and his confidence is evident in the elevation of an offensive game that includes career-highs in goals (13) and points (26) through 53 games. Joshua is second in the league in hits, has become a smart and reliable penalty killer, and has the wheels and hands to play with skilled players like Garland.

Joshua is going to get a huge bump from someone on the $850,000 salary Allvin agreed to pay him on a two-year, free-agent deal two summers ago. They’re going to have difficult choices to make after the season, but the Canucks should do everything possible to ensure Joshua is still working in Vancouver next season.

FINAL STAT

In 29 games since Dec. 2, Garland, Joshua and Blueger have each posted 20 points. Garland’s first goal Tuesday made him the 10^th Canuck to hit double figures this season, the 11^th if you include recently-acquired Elias Lindholm. No other NHL team boasts that many 10-goal scorers.

“It's just nice that we have a deep team, a deep offensive team, and on any given night there's a lot of guys that can step up and you can count on,” Joshua said. “It makes everybody else's job a lot easier. It's just nice to have on this team.”