The Toronto Maple Leafs face the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Saturday, October 31.
Head coach Jim Hiller’s team is looking to get back to winning ways after suffering two consecutive losses to the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken.
With Kirill Marchenko and John Tavares unavailable, Hiller will have to turn to Dakota Joshua, who has faced heavy criticism ahead of the matchup against the Canucks.
On Friday, October 30, in Daily Faceoff’s “The Leafs Morning Take,” Nick Alberga and Zack Phillips discussed what to expect from Joshua ahead of the game.
Phillips was particularly critical, making it clear he is far from excited to see the 30-year-old forward on the ice.
Dakota Joshua Faces Heavy Criticism Ahead of Maple Leafs vs. Canucks
Alberga first said, “I am semi-curious to see what Dakota Joshua looks like in a Jim Hiller system, but maybe I’m just thinking too highly of the guy.”
Phillips responded, “Yeah, I think you are. I’m not curious. I’m actually to the point where I don’t want to see it, and I wish that his gear didn’t make it out on the West Coast road trip here because, other than William Nylander, who we basically opened the show with here and we talked about the effort and the energy, that’s basically been something that hasn’t been a question mark or a problem with this team this season.”
“Everybody, top to bottom, gives you something every single night from, like, a give-a-sh*t meter and shows up and tries. The execution might not be there. They might not have the best night from everybody involved. We’ve seen this over the past week. We saw that in the week where they went on the three-game losing streak.”
“But I haven’t really questioned, like, the intensity and the buy-in. Dakota Joshua last year, there were times where he, which maybe is, like, the same as the rest of the team, so maybe that’s where the counterpoint is, and I can understand that, but there would be times where I’m like, why is this guy on the ice? Like, he’s a big body.”
“He’s supposed to have scoring touch. He was supposed to have a mean streak, and you basically just see him out there like he was just happy to get on the ice and was looking forward to getting out of there so that he could go to the bar after the game, because that was all that mattered: getting in, getting out. So I just don’t have any interest.”
“I think he resembles the Brad Treliving era way too closely. I think he’s slow. I don’t think he has the bite. I don’t think he has the motor. I don’t think he has what the bottom six needs long term.”
Maple Leafs Forward Blasted Before Canucks Game: ‘Why Is This Guy on the Ice?’