BLOG: Dickinson's shutdown role finds the perfect place in Edmonton

EDMONTON, AB – Jason Dickinson knows his role, and he knows he’s really good at it.

How does he know? The faces of his opponents over a 12-year career making life difficult for the opposition’s top lines is all the proof he’s needed to know that he can get under the opponent’s skin and stay there for the entire 60 minutes.

Eventually, they’re gonna break.

“Obviously, I love scoring goals. Don't get me wrong,” Dickinson said while speaking to the Oilers media for the first time on Friday before making his debut against the Hurricanes. “But my favourite thing about doing what I do is seeing the frustration and the will to win come out of guys during the game.”

“It's a battle. It's a fight the entire time, and seeing the frustration build is a win for me. I love seeing that because it usually creates offence later in the game. It might not happen right away, and it might be a 50-50 game for the first or second period, but then it's the longevity to stay with it for the third period where I'm absolutely grinding them down, and they just don't want to do it anymore.”

Dickinson arrives ready to fulfill that shutdown role in Edmonton as a third-line centre who can alleviate some tougher assignments for top players like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, creating some more favourable matchups for them while also taking on penalty-killing responsibilities alongside newly acquired defenceman Connor Murphy.

There's extra comfort for Dickinson knowing he's been brought in to do exactly that.

"It would suck to come in here and have them try to put me in a place where I won't have success," he said. "Thankfully, we are on the same page. I know what I'm good at. I know what my job is, and that's where my game excels. So I know what I have to do and I'm going to go out and do it, and that's all they've asked of me."

Perhaps no one knows just how effective he is at shutting down other teams’ top players more than Connor McDavid, who’s been subjected to Dickinson’s shadow over the years and experienced some of that frustration in the past during matchups against Chicago.

“I think he's found a role in the NHL that he's very good at it, and you can tell when somebody's good at a job when they enjoy it,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I've seen him play some pretty good games lined up against McDavid, who's the hardest to check, so I'm not surprised that it’s something that he takes a lot of pride in.”

After getting a rise a few times from the Oilers captain as opposition, Dickinson’s excited to be on the same side as the generational talent and help open up space for him.

“Over the years, I saw some frustration out of him, but he's so dynamic and so good that he finds his way to get points and score to keep himself happy,” Dickinson said with a smile about facing McDavid one-on-one.

“It'll be a lot better. I’ve definitely had my struggles with him, and I've loved doing it, but it'll be a lot nicer to watch him do his thing.”