VANCOUVER – Everyone around the National Hockey League knows what Derek Dorsett can do with his gloves off. But the abrasive forward believes he can help the Vancouver Canucks with his gloves on, too. And the goal he scored to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead in Monday’s preseason game against the Arizona Coyotes is a prime example of how Dorsett plans to bring a spark to the hockey club.

After Linden Vey set up Chris Higgins for a one time blast from the right circle that handcuffed Coyotes goalie Mike Smith, Dorsett shook of the check of Arizona defenseman Zbynek Michalek, beat him to the goalmouth and banged home the loose puck as it lay sitting in the crease.

“I just want to make sure I’m getting to the net and getting my nose dirty and sometimes they’ll go off you and in and sometimes they’ll just be sitting there for you,” Dorsett said following the Canucks 4-2 loss on home ice. “There are no pictures on the scorecard so I’ll take ‘em any way I can get ‘em.”

Dorsett was given an opportunity Monday night to skate on what amounted to the Canucks third line. The 6’0” 192-pound winger finished the game with a goal, two shots and a hit in 13:56 of ice-time. Last season with the New York Rangers, the 27-year-old averaged 11:01 of ice-time per game scoring four times and setting up four others.

However, three seasons ago with the Columbus Blue Jackets Dorsett scored a career-high 12 goals (while spending 235 minutes in the penalty box). And he believes double-digits are again a possibility in his first season with the Canucks.

“You always want to score, but it doesn’t always happen that way,” he says. “I’m going to work my hardest to get to the net. You’ll get good breaks if you’re going hard to the crease. It’s hard to get points in this league not being on the power play. You have to work hard for it to get to the dirty areas and win the battles in those areas and that’s what I’m going to try to do. And that year I scored a dozen, that’s where a lot of my goals came from.”

While Dorsett was thrilled to chip in offensively on Monday, he knows that in order to earn more opportunities to play he has to show head coach Willie Desjardins he can hold his own in the defensive zone, as well. And in the loss to Arizona, Dorsett and his linemates were on the ice for three of the four Coyotes goals including the dagger with less than two minutes remaining that ended any hope of a Canuck comeback.

So there is still work to do for Dorsett and the Canucks with just two exhibition games remaining before they start playing for keeps on October 8th in Calgary. And the regular season can’t get here quickly enough for the Kindersley, Saskatchewan native.

While he’s enjoyed his first few weeks getting to know the city of Vancouver and his new teammates in the Canucks organization, Dorsett finds it difficult to prove his true value to his new hockey club – and its fans – in preseason games that, to this point, have lacked emotion and intensity. That’s why he’s counting down the minutes until the regular season puck drops. And there’s a pretty good chance Dorsett’s gloves will drop that night, too.

“Obviously you don’t want to be going out there and fighting too much and risking injury,” he says of the preseason so far. “I think everyone knows that I’m willing and can drop the gloves, but I don’t necessarily need to go out there and do it for no reason. The intensity will pick up as numbers get down and teams start trying to send some messages for the regular season and the way we’re going to play. So I expect the intensity to crank up a little bit.”

Dorsett got a taste of the ultimate in hockey intensity last spring when he and the Rangers competed for the Stanley Cup. Weeks later, at the draft in Philadelphia, he was dealt to the Canucks. He’s been in Vancouver for a month now and says he feels more comfortable in his new hockey home with each passing day. And with the start of the regular season in sight now, Derek Dorsett is excited to start the next chapter of his NHL career.

“I feel confident around the guys with the way I can play and that’s a huge plus going into the season,” he says. “So I’m just excited to get it going here.”
Whether it’s sticking up for teammates or sticking the occasional goal in the back of the net, Derek Dorsett is looking forward to making his mark with the Vancouver Canucks.