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Rick Tocchet Says Flyers’ Overtime Decision Making Has Been “Mind Boggling”
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Wild game on Tuesday night.
The Flyers were down 3-0 at home to the Blue Jackets, came all the way back to tie it with just 9 seconds left in the third period, then lost in overtime in somewhat comical fashion:
That was a 2-on-0, right after the Jackets had JUST gone on a 2-on-0 that Dan Vladar somehow stopped.
“Good comeback and then obviously overtime, the decision making in overtime this year has just been mind boggling on some players,” Rick Tocchet said after the game. “We gotta fix it quickly.”
Re-watching the overtime period, Tocchet starts with Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak, and Travis Sanheim on the ice. They played with control, came out of the zone to reset, and then Sanheim didn’t get much on a cross-ice one-timer from Zegras. Stoppage in play. Sean Couturier, Jamie Drysdale, and Tyson Foerster took the second shift, which saw Coots come off for Matvei Michkov about 15 seconds in. Charlie Coyle toasted Foerster and Vladar made a nice save, only for Michkov to be stripped from behind on the next sequence, resulting in the first 2-on-0. Fast forward 30 seconds and they’ve got a group of Michkov, Denver Barkey, and Cam York out there. York takes the puck to the net himself and tries to make something happen, Michkov pinches for some reason, and they’ve got nobody back:
Not sure why York is trying to play hero in that moment. Who does he think he is, Cale Makar?
But the Flyers would have had someone back if Michkov didn’t crash the backdoor there. Although, if we’re being honest with ourselves, Michkov probably isn’t doing anything against Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson in a transitional 2v1 situation. He’d look like a fish out of water trying to defend that. But 2v1 is better than 2v0, and if York is gonna drive hard to the net like that, someone has to be back.
Maybe they go back to the Torts approach in overtime. Leave your best attacking players on the bench and go super-conservative. Play for the shootout. Only half-joking.
Michkov didn’t have a great game, by the way. The five-game point streak comes to an end with just one shot against Columbus and an OT turnover. The Flyers are last in the Metro with 10 points.
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