Rolling in the Depth: The Joshua-Suter-Garland Line Thriving in a 3rd Line Role

The Vancouver Canucks continue to have success in the early stages of the season and though the team currently boasts the league-leading point-getter in Elias Pettersson, the depth of the lineup is helping carry the load.

We’ve seen the Canucks have big point producers in the past, but this season, the points in the standings are coming from another source.

A full-group buy-in.

The Canucks have bought into the system and structure that is being driven into their craniums on a daily basis by head coach Rick Tocchet and his staff. Whether you are a top-line scorer or penalty-kill specialist, every player is playing under the same umbrella with Tocchet at the helm.

With an 11-3-1 record on the year, the Canucks are getting production up and down the lineup, but it has been the defensive play of one trio that has caught our attention. 

The third line of Dakota Joshua, Pius Suter and Conor Garland is beginning to find chemistry as a trio through the osmosis of each individual’s approbation for the team’s focus on system and structure.

“It's an easy system for the wingers because we know our role,” said Garland. “We know when it's our time in the defensive zone to make a play and when to strike or not to strike. And then when you have a centre like Pius [Suter], he doesn't really make mistakes and doesn't make bad reads. He's always on the right side of the puck. Forecheck-wise, I like to be F1 or F2 and Pius likes to be F3, which just works well all around the ice. Defensively, for Dak [Joshua] and me, we know that when we get pucks out we can quickly turn it into a chance and if not, Pius is right below us to help out. So, it just seems like it's working [right now] but we're still early on in the year. We have a long way to go, and we just have to be consistent – that’s probably the most important thing for our mind.”

This line has played 73:40 together at five-on-five this season and has impressive numbers that back up the eye test of the trio having a good start to the season in a third-line role. Transitioning the puck out of their own zone and spending time in the offensive zone has been the best skill of this trio.

In the 73+ minutes together, the trio has not been on the ice for a goal-against this season. 

He also spoke about how the line is gelling together. 

“Dak and I have always played well together since he's been here and I've enjoyed playing with him,” said Garland. “Dak’s big body causes a lot of disruption but it's his very underrated poise through the neutral zone and how he holds on to pucks so well in the offensive zone and then can still make plays while attacking at the blue line, and at his size, that’s not really common.  I didn't know a ton about Pius [Suter] but through training camp, he was pretty smart and [he] sees the ice very well. He’s defensively responsible and makes plays at that end of the ice but also understands the offensive zone. He knows when to go to the net and when not to, and I think he's one of the easier players that I've played with so it's, it's been fun. We've just taken our role as a third line and tried to be hard to play against,  try to be a tough line to match up against for other teams, and when we get our chances to score we try to score.”

And for us stat nerds out there, the line possesses a 64.4% Corsi, a 70.2% control of the shot share, a 69.2% control of expected goals and a 64.3% control of on-ice scoring chances.

To simplify, when the Joshua-Suter-Garland line is on the ice, they are spending most of that time in the offensive zone and getting good-quality shots on net during those offensive zone possessions. 

Something that the trio is beginning to thrive on is setting the table for the next line over the boards and just keeping the train on the tracks. Garland spoke about how long offensive zone possessions are a good thing for the next line up to get themselves scoring chances against a tired opposition and that he often sees the next group over the boards draw a penalty against a tired opponent.

This type of team-first mentality brings success to the group.

Head coach Rick Tocchet spoke about how he has been impressed with the play from the third line throughout the early parts of the season.

“They're connected,” said Tocchet. I’ll admit it, they probably deserve a few more minutes. The way they've played, they deserve it. But they're connected all over the ice, which is big. Dakota’s game has come on [over] the last three to four games. Garland has been really consistent this year. And I think Suits [Suter], his last five or six or seven games, he’s really been one of our better forwards."

The trio hopes to continue their success as the season continues and looks to keep building chemistry in the offensive and defensive zones.

“If that line can be really good defensively, that's huge for us, because then I don't have to always have the Miller line go out there,” said Tocchet as he spoke about the Suter line building chemistry in both the offensive and defensive zones. [That line] can go out there and give us minutes against top players, they crave it and they're building that chemistry.”

The trio meshes well, and each player has different strengths. Joshua is a big body and is a sneaky playmaker, while Garland uses his elusiveness to get the puck out of corners and funnel it toward the high-danger areas. As the centre on the line, Suter has to be good defensively but as of late, he has been able to find his spots to step up and help bring some offence to the bottom-six.

Garland spoke about a long road of building chemistry from this trio. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a third line stick together for an extended period of time, but the combination of Dakota Joshua, Pius Suter and Conor Garland is starting to show success at both ends of the ice and that could give them an extended run as a group.

And according to Tocchet, some more ice time as well.