BURSTVANCOUVER — More popular than the 50/50 draw and fantasy football pools is the name-the-uninvested-Canucks game that Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet spawned Saturday night.
Who doesn’t love intrigue, gossip and potential conflict within their favourite hockey team? Or somebody else’s?
“Let’s face facts, we have four or five guys, they’re struggling,” Tocchet told reporters after the Canucks flat-lined again on home ice and lost 5-1 to the Boston Bruins. “They’re struggling to get emotionally invested in the game.”
On Sunday, after a brisk practice that featured some battle drills, Tocchet expanded the betting field by saying “there could be a couple other guys” beyond the original four or five he didn’t name the night before.
So, when you’re getting to six or seven skaters deep in a National Hockey League team, you’re talking about at least one-third of the lineup. The parlay payout will be astronomical for whoever guesses right on everyone.
About the only place no one should be guessing is inside the Canucks dressing room. Because the players know.
The low-hanging fruit is headlined by Elias Pettersson (two shots, no points, 14:49 of average ice time the last two games). Pettersson even said after Saturday’s loss: “I’ve got to be better. I’m not happy with my performance today.”
Further down the lineup, wingers Nils Hoglander (no points in 19 games) and Danton Heinen (one point in 12) will be on Tocchet’s list.
There are others, of course, but we’re going to stop guessing because coaches see things that most of us miss.
But the players know.
“Well, they know now,” Tocchet said Sunday. “I mean, that’s what you’re hoping, that when guys go home, they’re like, ‘Hey, man, I had a tough night, and I’m going to do something about it.’ (If they’re) driving home saying ‘it wasn’t me’… then you’re in trouble. We have no problem here, you know, talking to players. Sometimes guys aren’t going to have their A-game. We understand that. But some guys were just not engaged.
“We don’t have the team to have three or four or five passengers. We just don’t have it. Edmonton, they can have four or five guys sleeping, and they’ve got guys that can win the game for him. We are a team that needs everybody to play. That was kind of the most disheartening thing yesterday is, you know, we had some guys that weren’t ready.”
Whoever the Hoglander and Heinen equivalents are on the Oilers, they could sleep all season and it wouldn’t matter much until playoff time as long as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were doing what they do.
“We need all our guys going every single night,” Canucks winger Brock Boeser said. “There’s been times I’ve been one of those guys that hasn’t been engaged; it happens to everyone. But you’ve got to make sure it’s not a consistent thing. I think that’s the biggest thing — making sure whoever it is, you kind of pull them in in practice (and talk). I think that stuff’s important.
“I think that’s kind of our tough thing right now… to make sure we’re bringing it every night. Yesterday you could just see, we were losing puck battles. When we’re at our best, we’re physically engaged and yesterday just wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to figure out why we’re so inconsistent, but that’s why I talk about practice. That’s where you can build that consistency.”
Tocchet said coaches “got the point across” during practice.
Most of the players we spoke with on Sunday were unaware what Tocchet told the media post-game, but not surprised by the summary of his comments.
“I don’t think Rick’s intention is to call guys out via the media,” goalie Thatcher Demko said. “If anything, he might be even more colourful in our team meetings. I don’t think he’s going and telling you guys one thing and then holding back on us.
“People know he’s honest, he’s blunt when he needs to be. That’s why he’s got so much respect in here. His message gets received. That’s always been the case. He expresses his concerns (and) we hear it as players. We understand it. It’s warranted. I think it’s on us to kind of get out of this right now as far as the consistency. (But) it’s a long season, man. I think we’ll be alright.”
Tocchet’s boss certainly isn’t panicking. On Hockey Night in Canada’s “After Hours” segment with host Scott Oake on Saturday, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said Tocchet “does a terrific job.”
“He’s been dealt a different hand this year than he was last year. He’s had a lot more things to deal with, and I believe he’s done a really good job. And he’ll figure this out.
“We worked together in Pittsburgh, so I knew him really well. He handled some of the tougher situations in Pittsburgh. He handled those for (head coach) Mike Sullivan. And we knew how he coached as a head coach because we watched him when he was in Arizona. He communicates really well with the players when players are struggling or there are issues. He’s a guy that can sort that out.”
This doesn’t mean there won’t be changes. But they will be on the players’ bench, not behind it.
With Game 30 for the Canucks Monday at home against the Colorado Avalanche, Rutherford said his hockey-operations staff has to start making decisions about this year’s team and what changes are needed.
“Nobody needs to panic,” senior defenceman Tyler Myers said Sunday. “Do we want to get more consistent within our game? For sure. Focusing on the things that will get you to that point, should be the focus. There’s a lot of good things, and we’re not far off, and we’ve just got to keep coming to the rink and talking to each other and working in practice. We’ve shown that we can play a really solid game. We’ve just got to get our minds to the point where we do it more often.”
Myers acknowledged that accountability is paramount to the solution.
“You need your leadership group to handle that, to help out,” Tocchet said. “Obviously, that’s a big part of it. And then individually, yourself, make yourself accountable. I’ve got to make players accountable with ice time, whether you play or not, things like that. But you don’t want to be a coach that keeps yelling and screaming and being a hardass all the time. It’s got to be a partnership. And I think for the most part, since I’ve been here, the guys have done a nice job of recognizing when they’re not playing well and what we have to do. It just seems this year has been a little bit longer… recognizing, ‘Hey, man… let’s go here.’”
The Canucks are 15-9-5.
ICE CHIPS – The most immediate ramifications of Saturday’s loss were new forward lines and defence pairings on Sunday. Tocchet stuck with the first line that finished Saturday’s game, Conor Garland with J.T. Miller and Boeser, and promoted rookie Max Sasson to the second line beside Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk. Kiefer Sherwood practised on the third line with Pius Suter and Heinen, while Dakota Joshua was dropped to the fourth unit beside Teddy Blueger and Hoglander. The defence pairs were: Quinn Hughes-Noah Juulsen; Carson Soucy-Myers; and Derek Forbort-Mark Friedman… Tocchet said a “bug” going through the team was affecting goalie Kevin Lankinen, who may not be ready to play Monday after getting Saturday’s game off.
