UPDATE: Canucks Game Day: Hand injury from fight forces Dakota Joshua to sidelines (2024)

Detroit Red Wings (27-19-6) at Vancouver Canucks (36-12-6)

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When/where: Thursday, 7 p.m., Rogers Arena

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TV: SN Pacific. Radio:Sportsnet 650

The buzz: It was supposed to be goals, goals, goals. Now, it’s: “Oh, no, no, no.”

When Dakota Joshua didn’t participate in a full game-day skate Thursday morning, you hoped for the best yet feared the worst. The big winger had his first NHL career three-point performance Tuesday in Chicago and then added a fight for good measure to answer a heavy endboards hit on linemate Conor Garland.

It made for Joshua’s memorable Gordie Howe Hat-Trick showing in the 4-2 triumph to end a five-game road trip with a 3-1-1 mark. Joshua has already hit a career highs for goals (13) and points (26) and is on pace for 20 goals. All that looked like perfect progress in a contract year. Now this setback.

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When head coach Rick Tocchet was asked about the possibility of a Joshua hand injury, he gave an unfortunate nod.

“I think so,” he said. “He’s being evaluated right now. We won’t have him tonight. He’s going to be hard to replace. He checks a lot of boxes for us and has a connection with Garland. (Ilya) Mikheyev will get a chance to play with two good players (Teddy Blueger, Garland) and maybe that will get him going.”

Garland knows the magnitude of a Joshua injury.

“It’s a big loss, obviously, for our line,” said Garland. “He’s a massive presence. Holds on to pucks and it’s everything he does for us. Whoever is with us tonight just has to play simple, we’re a simple line and it should be easy to blend in.

The bravado part will be hard to replicate. Joshua didn’t hesitate to drop the gloves when MacKenzie Entwistle hammered Garland at 16:08 of the third period.

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“For me, as a player who’s under-sized, to have a guy like that — and I’ve played with them in the my career — and I guess the word is ‘thankful’ is not the best word. But to have someone that good on your line and will do it (fighting) for you, it says a lot about him and it’s been fun to play with him this year.

“Our line just likes to hanging out outside the rink and not even talking hockey. You become really close and Dak is definitely a lot louder this year and more comfortable with our group. The confidence is coming through.”

The Canucks not only have 10 players who have hit double-digits, they’re getting the type of depth production at even strength that bodes well for the stretch drive and beyond.

That can lead to making important impacts in the postseason where big guns often fall silent from close checking and somebody suddenly plays playoff hero for the Canucks. The NHL’s top team has scored 199 goals, one behind front-running Colorado Avalanche, and the most at even strength with 134, eight ahead of the Dallas Stars.

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The Canucks are sixth overall in home goals with 94, own the best home record at 18-4-2, and are the only team to not lose three-straight games this season.

The manner in which players have embraced opportunity is giving Tocchet plenty of roster options.

And what about an early line on playoff heroes? How about Nils Hoglander and Joshua, if his injury is not long term?

Hoglander was aligned with Swedish countrymen Elias Pettersson and Elias Lindholm on Tuesday. He responded to the promotion by scoring for the third-straight game with a cheeky game-winning effort down low to restore a two-goal lead. He finished with five shots and eight attempts.

Hoglander, 23, has a career-high 17 goals and on pace for 26. The tough lessons he learned in Abbotsford last season to become a more complete and dependable player are playing out.

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Joshua, 27, always had the potential to move beyond being a fourth-line fixture, but had to be pushed. His fitness needed to improve along with foot speed and ability to read the game. The result was a raging bull on the forecheck, a hard-hitting force with 197 hits that rank second overall, presence on the penalty kill and second unit power-play time.

Now we wait to see how long he’ll be out.

The history: Second meeting of the season. The Canucks dropped a disturbing 4-3 overtime decision in Detroit on Saturday in which they blew a 3-1 lead in the third period. In overtime, Quinn Hughes was called for a minor trying to negate Jake Wallman on a breakaway. He was awarded a penalty shot and converted for the first franchise goal in overtime to be scored in that manner.

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Filip Hronek and Pettersson each had a goal and two assists. J.T. Miller had eight shots and 11 attempts.

The hope: Home cooking. Winger Brock Boeser has a career-high 30 goals and hasn’t scored in the last five games, but leads the club with 17 goals at Rogers Arena. His last big effort on home ice was a hat-trick Jan. 27 in a 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The fear: Another power-play outage. It’s in an 0-for-13 funk the last four games after going 6-for-10 in a trio of previous outings. It needs a better net-front presence for screens, tips and rebounds. Ugly goals are good goals.

The top guns: Pettersson (28-41) and Miller (23-46) are tied for fifth in NHL scoring with 69 points. Hughes is tied for ninth with 66 points (12-54) and Boeser is 22nd with 54 points (30-24)and tied for third with 12 power-play goals.

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The wounded: Canucks: Carson Soucy (hand, IR), Guillaume Brisebois (concussion, LTIR). Red Wings: Ville Husso (lower body, day-to-day), Matt Luff (upper body, IR).

The quote: “I thought it was a business-like game. The Garland line was very good.” — Tocchet on Tuesday win in Chicago.

The lineup:

Hoglander-Pettersson-Lindholm

Suter-Miller-Boeser

Mikheyev-Blueger-Garland

Di Giuseppe-Aman-Lafferty

Hughes-Hronek

Cole-Myers

Zadorov-Juulsen

The prediction: The Canucks push the pace, get to the net to draw penalties. The struggling power-play scores twice in 4-2 win.

(FAN FORUM: Do you have a specific question for a player? Pass it along to @provincesports and we’ll get it in a future edition.)

bkuzma@postmedia.com

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