Price is Right: What to make of Tocchet uptick after Boudreau bump fooled Canucks

Another year over, another afternoon of optimism with the Vancouver Canucks. But after all, what more can you expect? Of course the Canucks are looking for silver linings as they approach a decade without playoff hockey at Rogers Arena.

Unfortunately, none of the fans, media, or even players, likely know what to believe in their own minds.

Take Tyler Myers for instance.

“We started to play the way we knew we could in the second half of the year and you can tell it brought us together.”

I mean, you’re thinking he’s correct, right? Well.. That quote was from a year ago.

The coaching change was real though this year, and the structural change really did make a difference, especially for the stars.

Elias Pettersson: “Ever since he came in, he’s been a positive influence. He’s taken his time with me. He definitely helped me turn around my season.”

Oh wait, that was about Bruce Boudreau.

You might also like:
• Don't expect the Canucks to buy out Ekman-Larsson this summer

Every coach will have his hallmark, his strengths, his style. And you would hope that many can get results in the early days with a halfway decent roster. Both of these last two Canucks coaches have. But suggesting there’s staying power here, is still very speculative until we’ve seen the roster changes in the offseason and until we’ve seen wins on the board through the Christmas break.

No amount of coaches speak is going to turn an imperfect team into a perfect one.

This is not to suggest Rick Tocchet is the wrong guy though. Not at all. Just that, he alone is not the answer. This isn’t automatically a playoff team because of him. Management still needs to do its job, the players and coaches then do theirs.

And Quinn Hughes knows it.

“We’re still trying to learn and get better. I want to win and I want our culture to keep improving and growing and our accountability to be high.”

Ok that’s the kind of stuff Allvin and Rutherford have been talking about. So, maybe that is sinking in from Tocchet..

Oh shoot, that was a year ago too.

The Canucks need to break the cycle.