Dakota Joshua sidelined with injury likely suffered during fight Tuesday night in Chicago

Dakota Joshua was not on the ice for Vancouver Canucks morning skate on Thursday, as the top team in the NHL gets set to welcome the Detroit Red Wings to town this evening.

“He’s getting evaluated this afternoon, but we don’t have him for tonight,” said Tocchet. The Canucks’ bench boss added that he thinks Joshua’s injury is a result of the fight he got into Tuesday night in Chicago.

That game, a 4-2 win for the Canucks, saw Joshua set a new career-high in points via two assists and a goal. Joshua completed the Gordie Howe hat-trick when he came to the defence of Conor Garland by dropping the gloves with MacKenzie Entwistle:

As always, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that Joshua hurt his hand by punching a hockey helmet with his bare hand.

It’s tough news for Joshua, who is in the midst of a career year and is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. Through 53 games with the Canucks this season, Joshua is up to 13 goals and 13 assists. Everyone is hoping that Joshua’s injury doesn’t keep him out of the Canucks’ lineup for long.

“He’s going to be hard to replace,” said Tocchet. “He checks a lot of boxes for us. He’s a really good penalty killer, him and Garland the last 2-3 months, they got a connection. They get a lot of loose pucks, Dak’s got a good stick, he stuck up for Garzy the other night — that’s tough to replace.”

It looks like Ilya Mikheyev will slot in to replace Joshua on the Canucks’ third line alongside Teddy Blueger and Conor Garland.

You can read more about what went down at today’s morning skate in our “Scenes from Morning Skate” article, courtesy of Jeff Paterson, by clicking here!