Tocchet not averse to fire as fuel for playoff push
After Wednesday's game slipped away, Canucks coach embraces `a bit of a battle'
If you play like you practise, it usually has the desired effect.
The Vancouver Canucks lost a number of battles Wednesday en route to blowing a 3-0 lead, and then doing the great fade of indecision and indifference in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
On Thursday, they tried to make amends.
In a two-on-two mini practice scrimmage with nets close together, sticks got up and so did the temperature level.
Conor Garland and Filip Hronek had a brief but testy exchange that had to be broken up by Ian Cole. And maybe that's what it takes to restore some sense of measured urgency.
“I let it go more than I usually do,” admitted Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet. “I don't want stupidity, but I want a bit of a battle. Just don't hurt each other.”
Tocchet wants players to understand the fine line between competitiveness and stepping over it. Be aggressive, but also responsible. Sometimes that's easier said than done when momentum shifts. Players make mistakes.
“You want to test guys,” added Tocchet. “Some guys were taking stupid penalties out there. We want to beat that.”
As for Garland, you can't knock the will and the want to move the intensity meter.
“You want guys who are competitive,” said captain Quinn Hughes. “(Garland) certainly is and he has been all year.”
It's nothing new for Garland. He had a training-camp in-yourface confrontation with Dakota Joshua during a special-teams drill in Victoria in September. And on Valentine's Day in 2023, there was one brief but testy shoving match between Hughes and Joshua.
Hughes got his back up during a two-on-two scrimmage. It ramped up the testosterone and Garland stepped in as referee. All in all, those episodes served a purpose.
Cole is a two-time Stanley Cup champion and understands the ebb and flow of any season. However, when a game gets away from the Canucks like it did Wednesday, the collective response is vital.
And if that practice skirmish Thursday was a byproduct of heightened awareness, then so be it, right?
“I won't speak on that drill in particular, or personnel,” said Cole. “But we were obviously unhappy with how the game went last night (Wednesday). We had a stern video session today with the coaches.
“I would boil it down to it wasn't good enough against a team that knows how to win with a number of elite players who can create with very minimal time and space.
“We didn't close that game out like others we have this year or how we hoped to. We had a stern talk amongst each other and we came with a good pushback today.”
Tocchet constantly preaches non-negotiable “staples” and “protecting the guts of the ice” because he knows where his club is at and, more importantly, where it needs to go.
Like a professor trying to hammer home lessons for the final exam — that long-awaited return to the playoffs — there is a mix of anticipation and angst in his addresses.
It's why blowing that lead Wednesday — fuelled by a third period of indecision and indifference — was like failing a pop quiz. It's why school was back in session Thursday, and will be again today.
J.T. Miller has twice lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final on home ice. Nikita Zadorov got to the final.
Cole has twice raised the Cup. They know what awaits.
“As the season goes on, and especially in the playoffs, things are going to get harder and harder and harder,” stressed Cole.
“Every puck touch, every play without the puck and everything you do on the ice is going to matter more.
“To feel how things get ramped up over time — and let's call the third period (Wednesday) as a microcosm of a playoff series — we did not handle the push that they (Avalanche) gave as well as we could have.”
It's why Cole could take issue with his third-period hook Wednesday with Elias Pettersson in the box for a slash.
That's not being called in the playoffs. It resulted in a five-on-three for 41 seconds that lasted 15 seconds. Nathan MacKinnon wired a one-time slapper high to the stick side to draw the Avalanche to within a goal at 3-2.
“I have a very strong opinion on the call, and I'm not going to get into it and criticize anyone with decision-making,” said Cole.
In overtime, Cole found himself in another tough position on the four-on-three game-winning, double-deflection goal that went off the visor of Valeri Nichushkin, who was trying to establish position in front of Casey DeSmith.
Cole had to box out but also be aware of power-play options as MacKinnon's point shot first went off a shot-blocking Noah Juulsen and then Nichushkin.
“You tie up with Nichushkin and there's (Mikko) Rantanen there for a one-timer,” noted Cole. “You have to stay loose and kind of play on his back and try to push him as far as you can, so he's not building a wall on the back door.
“You try to assess what the most dangerous play is on any given second. What happened was so far down the list. But, ultimately, we can't put ourselves in that (short-handed) position.”