VANCOUVER, British Columbia — When Blackhawks wing Dominik Kubalik crossed the Atlantic for his first NHL training camp last summer, he wasn’t thinking about competing for much besides a job.
‘‘I was just trying to make the team and start from there,’’ he said with a chuckle Thursday.
The 24-year-old Czech sniper has done a lot more than make the team.
Entering the second half of the season, Kubalik’s 11 goals were second to Sabres wing Victor Olofsson’s 16 for the most among NHL rookies. And at even strength, Kubalik’s nine goals made him the rookie leader.
Yet he hardly seemed fazed by the immediate success he has experienced.
‘‘It’s kind of my game,’’ he said. ‘‘I shoot everything I’ve got, and I go around the net. Everything starts there.”
Kubalik’s trigger-happy style, his spot alongside center Jonathan Toews and the Hawks’ overall lack of players eager to shoot — coach Jeremy Colliton has been talking all season about their need to shoot more — has made him a perfect fit, and he quickly has proved himself to be an important offensive weapon.
His place on the rookie leaderboard isn’t because of luck, either. Kubalik also ranks second among rookies in scoring chances, third in shots on goal and fourth in shots. And that’s in spite of ranking 35th among rookies in ice time at 13 minutes, 4 seconds a game.
But that has increased lately. In his last 11 games entering Thursday, during which he had four goals and three assists, Kubalik was averaging 14:33 of ice time and had voided the healthy-scratch punishments Colliton dealt him several times earlier in the season.
‘‘I’m very happy with his progression as the year’s gone on,’’ Colliton said. ‘‘It’s no surprise there are some ups and downs with a guy in his first year in the NHL. But he’s very coachable, wants the feedback and has acted on the feedback, which is very important.
‘‘So [I’m] pleased for him that he’s had some success, and I think he can have more goals. He’s got a great shot, [and we] want him to be a shooter, have a shooting mentality. He can produce even more.’’
Sikura earns another game
It’s not his first chance — or his second or third — but wing Dylan Sikura finally might be turning a corner after a lot of patience from everyone involved.
Of course, one strong performance — Tuesday against the Flames — might not warrant that level of optimism, even if Colliton said it was ‘‘the best he’s looked.’’ But Sikura enjoyed several high-quality scoring chances, was the closest he has been in a while to snapping his NHL goal drought and notched his second career two-assist game.
That micro-breakout earned him another appearance in the lineup Thursday against the Canucks, even though it meant scratching Alex Nylander for a second consecutive game.
‘‘He answered the bell this time when he came in,’’ Colliton said. ‘‘Little things like the net drive on [Patrick Kane’s] first goal [against the Flames] — those are things that don’t get noticed, but the goal doesn’t go in without him. . . . Overall, he gave us a lot of positive shifts, but now it’s up to him to build on it.’’
