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Rick Tocchet Says it’s His Fault that Flyers are “Way Too Comfortable” and Not Competing
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It seems like every game the Flyers play in Tampa is a low-scoring slop fest, and Monday night was no different.
They mustered 14 shots in a 4-1 loss that would have been blown open in the second period if not for the play of Dan Vladar, who stood on his head and gave the pitiful skaters in front of him a chance to win their first hockey game of the season.
“We just didn’t compete,” said head coach Rick Tocchet after the game. “There were some pockets there we came (close to resembling a hockey team), but not enough compete in this group right now. It’s on me.”
“It’s hard to do it consistently (sustain competitive play). It starts with me. This team is way too comfortable and did not compete today.”
There’s your accountability. Tocchet is putting it on himself and taking responsibility. Everybody loves accountability in Philadelphia sports, especially the talking heads who don’t watch hockey.
But you watched the game last night, and it was a tough one. Borderline unwatchable, actually. The Sixers’ preseason game was more interesting, and that one didn’t event count.
What’s particularly rough is that the Flyers are currently playing that uninteresting, low-event Tocchet hockey. They have 19 shots on goal per game, which is 2nd worst. They’re 0 for 11 on the power play. They’ve allowed 38, 44, 40, and 36 shots to their first four opponents, while the league average is just 26.9 SOG per game. They’re scoring 1.25 goals per game and allowing 4.25. They’ve given the puck away 74 times (3rd most).
You’re sitting there thinking to yourself – what does this team do well at the moment? They don’t create a lot of chances. They don’t limit chances. They don’t forecheck particularly well. They don’t create much off the rush. They’ve been noticeably sloppy in terms of basic puck handling and receiving passes and making passes. There was one sequence last night where Travis Konecny I think laid off the puck for someone who wasn’t expecting it, which resulted in a 2v1 going the other way and Dan Vladar made a tough save from like 5 feet out to keep the game close. And the goal they did score came off of Porter Martone, who was standing next to the goal. They all count the same, but it was a good snapshot of how this game went.
The stats are what they are, but the eye test really tells you everything. These guys don’t appear to be playing very hard. They seem to have cruised into the season. Maybe they were still sniffing themselves after the Penguins series win. It was a fun, overachievement season, but that was last year. The Penguins obviously turned the page and came out ready to play in the season opener.
Most Flyers fans I think are being honest with themselves when it comes to this season. The playoff run put this team a little bit ahead of schedule and accelerated expectations. But the fact of the matter is that this was a team that came out of the Olympic break with a 3.8% chance to make the playoffs and barely snuck it. Danny Briere knew it and tried to tell us not to get ahead of ourselves. He tried for Leo Carlsson and the Ducks matched. They still need that superstar move to open the floodgates and turn a hard corner, and it hasn’t happened just yet. So we’ll have to adjust accordingly, and maybe keep the Flyers at arm’s length until they put together something resembling a decent performance.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com