New Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson needed to get out of his head.
Thrown into the fire in his Hawks debut Saturday, he did just that — because he hardly knew anything about his new team anyway.
“The best players in the world play the game without thinking, right?” he said. “Everything’s on instinct. So there’s definitely something to it. I know over my career I’ve overthought too much sometimes, and that definitely is a problem when I start playing poorly. [I’m working on] just going out there and playing. Simple as that.”
Dickinson tallied three points — for just the third time in his career — and was named the second star of the Hawks’ 5-2 win over the Sharks.
It was a remarkable debut for the 27-year-old forward who’d just met the team for the first time Friday, after a weeklong wait for his immigration paperwork to process, and who’d received his first and only instruction from coach Luke Richardson at morning skate.
“Sometimes things just click,” Richardson said. “He had a chance to come in here and have a fresh start, and he took advantage of it. … Sometimes there’s this instant chemistry, and sometimes there isn’t. Fortunately for us, there is [chemistry] here.”
Dickinson has experienced both those scenarios already. With the Stars, his home for his first three full NHL seasons, Dickinson fit perfectly.
His defensive results were stellar: From 2018-19 through 2021, he allowed just 2.09 expected goals per 60 even-strength minutes, tied for 10th-best among league forwards. He was also a solid penalty killer and scored enough — 22, 21 and 15 points in the three seasons, respectively — to not be a liability offensively.
But with the Canucks, who gave him a bigger, three-year contract last summer, it turned out he never fit well. He tallied only 11 points in 62 games and allowed 2.78 expected goals against per 60 even-strength minutes, below the team average. An under-the-radar injury further hindered him.
“I want to get back to what I was in Dallas,” he said Saturday. “I was the Swiss Army Knife [there], and that’s what I’ve done most of my career: Just do what I’ve got to do.
“Last year, there were some tough circumstances. I had a broken hand I didn’t know about for a while. Maybe my game wasn’t where I wanted it to be, but there were also a lot of things just going against me.”
That adversity, multiplied by the added pressure of playing in Canada, took a toll on his mental fortitude.
“I wasn’t able to compartmentalize and shut things out,” he added. “[I was] letting too much get to me and putting a ton of pressure on myself. It never goes well when you start thinking too much.”
On Saturday, in his first game in a white-and-red sweater, he immediately proved to himself he could compartmentalize successfully again.
His first period was understandably “ugly,” in his words. He was on the ice for both Sharks goals, and he said replaying those in his mind would “eat me alive for a little bit.” He quickly put that behind him, though, and dominated the remaining 40 minutes.
He made savvy plays to set up both of Sam Lafferty’s shorthanded goals, including a never-give-up centering pass laying on the ice behind the goal on the second one. He later ripped a perfectly placed shot on a two-on-one rush for the Hawks’ fifth goal. He finished the game, as one might expect, with the Hawks’ third-best expected goals ratio (66.6%).
It was just one game, but Dickinson seemed refreshed already.
“I’ve forgotten about last year,” he said. “[I] can’t let it bother me and can’t dwell on it because it’s done and it’s over with. Now it’s just, ‘Move forward. Start playing hockey again.'”
