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Rick Tocchet Doesn’t Read Tweets or Listen to Podcasters, Thinks Fourth Line Criticism is “Bullshit”
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This is pretty good. Rick Tocchet finally with an interesting quote, this one in response to criticism about the fourth line being out there late in the third period against the Avalanche. From Charlie O’Connor at PHLY:
Yeah look, Garnet Hathaway, Nic Deslauriers, Rodrigo Abols, and Nikita Grebenkin have five points this year and four of them are Grebenkin’s. Hathaway has been good for 20ish points a year over the last five or six years but has had a really awful season, 0 points in 27 games, a -9 overall. Deslauriers is Deslauriers. He and Hathaway are both 34 years old. Abols is 29.
Asking for production from the 4th line is like expecting something out of Taijuan Walker as the 5th starter before this past season. Occasionally Cy-Juan shows up, and gives you a great outing, but he’s not Zack Wheeler or Cristopher Sanchez.
Expectations being what they are, the Flyers are getting absolutely nothing out of the 4th line. It would be one thing if these guys were all young and needed ice time and needed opportunity, but outside of Grebenkin, that’s not the case here. So why are they getting key minutes in a winnable home game against one of the league’s best teams? That’s not an unfair question to ask. It’s one thing to build culture but it’s another thing to just put the best players on the ice. And it’s a third thing to have a competitive roster in the first place, which the Flyers haven’t had in a long time.
Maybe Tocc SHOULD listen to podcasters, like Russell Joy and Sherlock San Filippo. But avoid Twitter like the plague.
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