Flyers

Rick Tocchet Asks for a Hockey Puck that Allows Guys Like David Jiricek to Shoot in Practice Without Killing Teammates

By Matt Schultz

Published: Sep 21st, 2026 · 11:28 AM EDT

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With Flyers training camp underway in Voorhees, head coach Rick Tocchet sounds a little frustrated by some of the limitations his team’s been running into in practice. Namely, Tocchet lamented the fact that power play units can’t go all-out because no one wants to get hurt by a hard slap shot from the point – especially from David Jiricek, who by all accounts has a booming shot.

But Tocchet isn’t one to complain without offering possible solutions. On Saturday, the Flyers coach pitched an idea for a puck that feels and looks like a normal puck, but is much lighter so players wouldn’t get hurt by it:

“Yeah, he (Jiricek) passed well… He’s got a hard shot, he doesn’t want to kill somebody in front. And that’s probably the hardest thing for power play coaches, is to practice it, cause guys don’t want to hurt each other. In the game you don’t care, you tee it up, but that’s the hardest thing. And then guys don’t shoot it. So I’ve always — can anybody invent a puck that is an actual puck that doesn’t, you know, if you get hit it doesn’t hurt you? I mean, it’s 2026. If somebody can do that, make a lot of money. I’ve said that for ten years. Can you get a real puck that feels like a puck, looks like a puck, but doesn’t hurt like a puck? Right? So, we haven’t found that yet.”

Lot of good stuff here from Tocchet. I like where his head’s at. A lot of head coaches may be content with the X’s and O’s, drawing up defensive schemes, working on line combinations on penalty kill strategies, on locker room vibes, etc., etc. And there’s nothing wrong with that, technically. That is the job description for a head coach. But hearing that Tocchet is going above and beyond the bare minimum, and is going as far as to concern himself with the physics of how matter itself is constructed and distributed by gravity as it moves through space-time, by how the inertia and velocity of a slap shot is limiting to his team’s ability to practice, just shows how dedicated he is to his craft. I’ve never heard another coach question the atomic mass of a hockey puck. This is good to hear.

Truth be told, I don’t really see a solution here, though. I think if a hockey puck looks and feels like a hockey puck, it probably has to weigh the same as a puck, too. But maybe I’m being naïve. Maybe my thinking is limited. Maybe I’m being just like all the other run-of-the-mill coaches in the NHL, too stuck in my ways to ponder the possibilities of a puck that feels like a normal puck when it’s on my stick, but becomes light as a feather as soon as I shoot it. Maybe I’m part of the problem…

That very well could be true. And if it is, I’m glad to have Tocchet as the head coach of my favorite team. It’s good to know he’s been thinking about this problem for ten years. I trust Tocchet to find an edge anywhere he can, even against the laws of the natural world.