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What Did Rick Tocchet Say to Trevor Zegras That Made This Fan Instantly Age 20 Years?
By Matt Schultz
Published:
The Flyers lost their Game 3 matchup with the Hurricanes in a tough one. Philly had its chances, but penalties and inexperience made for a long night at Xfinity Mobile Arena – not for a lack of effort. The Flyers are a young team doing everything they can against the top team in the conference, and as the series goes on, their growing pains are adding up – and emotions are running high, as seen in this exchange between Rick Tocchet and Trevor Zegras:
I don’t know what was said here, and honestly, I’m kind of glad I don’t. Based on the way this nearby fan reacted, it had to have been something truly, deeply upsetting:
Eyes wide, small mouth agape, color gone from his face: This man looks profoundly troubled by what he’s hearing. You can’t help but feel for him. All he wanted was to see a Flyers win, and instead he had to bear witness to a verbal dispute so profane, so harrowing, that it immediately turned his hair gray. He looks like a young guy – but the moment Tocchet laid into Zegras with such terrifying force, his forehead was etched with the deep, weathered lines of a Korean War veteran. This fan was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time…
It’s safe to assume this poor guy hasn’t slept since it happened. He’s too shaken up. His adrenaline’s too high. He likely spent the night pacing around his bedroom, doing calming breathing exercises he found on Instagram, all to no avail. Today he had to call out of work; he’s still wired, worried, jumpy. Perhaps he’s at an Urgent Care right now, hoping to get a prescription for Ambien. “I shouldn’t have heard that… That was not for me…” he mutters over and over in an exhausted daze. Tears fall on the check-in kiosk screen…
But regardless of how traumatic it may have been for that fan, whatever Tocchet said was clearly the right thing to say. Right after their dust-up, Zegras scored from an impossible angle during a delayed penalty:
It clearly worked… but what did Tocchet say? It’s tough to let the mystery be… What could it have been, to make this guy react like this?
Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know. Instead of going into specifics about his clash with Zegras, Tocchet spoke more broadly post-game about the team’s frustration with the refs, and how he wished his Flyers handled it differently –
“Obviously we were frustrated… I mean you guys saw some of the stuff. We had nine penalties. You know, I don’t know. That’s a lot of penalties. And we just gotta understand too, like, you’re in a scrum, you take a punch in the mouth and just – don’t do anything. Just take the power play. If you’re gonna go in, like I told you guys: If you’re gonna go in, fight. If you’re not gonna fight, then get out of there. So, a little inexperience from us.”
Just sounds like a lot of frustration boiling over – not that this is anything new between the Flyers’ coach and star player, or even necessarily a bad thing. In a breakdown of the spat, Kevin Bieksa explained that Zegras is an emotional guy, but he appreciates this kind of feedback from his coaches and teammates:
“Different players have to be coached different ways. It’s just the way it is in the NHL. There’s different personalities… you have to adapt to who they are. Trevor Zegras, not a ton of success in Anaheim. He comes to Philly, he gets Rick Tocchet. So some people are like, ‘Oh that’s a hard-nosed coach. He’s not gonna do well.’ But Tocchet has known how to push the right buttons with this kid to get the most of him. He’s had a great year. And Zegras… he’s a very emotional guy, and he’s very engaged in a lot of the stuff that’s going on between, you know, like the penalties and the non-calls… and then Tocchet right there’s gonna be like – in my opinion – he’s saying, ‘Stop it with the referees. Let me deal with it. You play hockey.’ And then [Tocchet] backs it up by putting him out there. So it’s not like he yells at him, benches him. This is the best kind of support he needs.”
It was a tough loss for the Flyers, but if we’re looking at this glass-half-full, it can’t be a bad thing that Tocchet and Zegras squabbled like this. Worst case scenario, if the Flyers can’t manage to fight their way back into this series, this kind of experience in a high-leverage game will only make them both better next year. I’m of the opinion we should all be grateful this happened. I believe this guy will see it that way, too, once he lowers his heart rate and finally gets some sleep –
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…)