Toronto Maple Leafs forward Dakota Joshua put together his best game of the season against the Pittsburgh Penguins which felt like a long time coming for both him and the team.
Joshua recorded a goal on the scoresheet, a nice one at that, but he was impactful in all facets the contest and was arguably their most important forward of the night. He led the team with seven hits, along with two blocks, that opened up space for his linemates Bobby McMann and Nicolas Roy to also have productive nights of their own.
After getting a reset as a healthy scratch on Wednesday, Joshua told reporters after Saturday’s game that his performance is something he can build on.
“That can be a confidence booster. We gotta take that momentum and keep it going to string a couple together here,” Joshua said. “I mean, that’s my goal every night, and to finally have a game like that feels nice. And once again, just got to keep it going now.”
It had been a struggle for Joshua before the contest against the Penguins, as he had just two goals and five points at the time of his scratch, while failing to provide plus-defence for a Maple Leafs team that has struggled to keep the puck out of the net.
Joshua took that night off well, and it has been apparent that it lit a fire under him.
“It’s just making an impact in any way possible. Fortunate to get one to go there, but I try to be involved all over the ice,” he said. “I think you got to keep doing your job right and then you will get a result like that. It’s obviously been not ideal to this point, so to get that result means a lot and now the importance of keeping it going is there.”
Joshua knows he has it in him to be impactful in all aspects of the game consistently, and the fact that it has taken this long to get into that groove has no doubt been frustrating for all parties involved. But at the end of the day, you just need one to go your way and it can snowball into other positive results for a good stretch of time, and now he has that in his back pocket.
“I thought he had a lot better game in Washington too,” Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said of Joshua. “He had a big hit early, scores his goals in tight, and he got one tonight. So that line was good, big, heavy line. They were good on a forward check. They possessed pucks down low, and they got two goals for us.”