addEventListener for keydown on Canvas

Set the tabindex of the canvas element to 1 or something like this

<canvas tabindex='1'></canvas>

It's an old trick to make any element focusable

Edit - This answer is a solution, but a much simpler and proper approach would be setting the tabindex attribute on the canvas element (as suggested by hobberwickey).

You can't focus a canvas element. A simple work around this, would be to make your "own" focus.

var lastDownTarget, canvas;
window.onload = function() {
    canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');

    document.addEventListener('mousedown', function(event) {
        lastDownTarget = event.target;
        alert('mousedown');
    }, false);

    document.addEventListener('keydown', function(event) {
        if(lastDownTarget == canvas) {
            alert('keydown');
        }
    }, false);
}

JSFIDDLE