Head coach Luke Richardson remembers being on the opposite bench of Dickinson several times over his career, and knew the forward as a player who was able to wreak havoc on his opponents and one coveted by other teams. He was able to sit down with the 27-year-old on Saturday before morning skate to give him a small rundown of the different concepts before being thrown into the mix with his new teammates.
Richardson depicted Dickinson as a proactive player and was impressed by his observation and questions he asked to understand the new concepts.
"He understands it knows how to implement it," Richardson said. "It's one thing to understand and listen to what we're saying, but how to implement that into his game right away, it was pretty impressive."
In his lone appearance with the team, Dickinson recorded three points (1G, 2A) on a line with Sam Lafferty and Philipp Kurashev. He assisted on Lafferty's two short-handed goals in the second period to put the team in the lead in California.
Lafferty described the new center as dependable and someone who makes his job as a winger easier during the game.
"He's in all the right spots," Lafferty said. "So, it makes our job as wingers pretty easy on the breakouts. Hopefully we can keep out on some more chemistry together."
Richardson mentioned that the team will probably not have a high offensive game most nights but having a reliable, two-way player like Dickinson as double threat will only help create their scoring chances.
Three games into the season, Andreas Athanasiou feels the goals will come soon enough. As chemistry begins to form within the lines, he knows the shooting chances will find their way to the back of the net.
"We're generating some real, real good chances," Athanasiou said. "It's just a matter of time before it goes back into the net, obviously, you want it to be sooner than later."
