Flyers fans already seem done with ex-Canucks coach Tocchet
The Philadelphia Flyers are spiralling, and former Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet could take the fall.
It’s not only that the Flyers have lost their first four games of the season, but also how they’ve lost them. The Flyers have been brutally outshot in every game — their opponents have literally doubled their shot totals in three out of four games, and they’ve been outshot 158-to-77 overall.
The Flyers have earned their losses, as their underlying statistics at 5-on-5 are atrocious: they have the worst corsi, fenwick, and expected goals percentages in the NHL, and it’s not even close.
Flyers fans, never known for their propriety, haven’t been shy about sharing their dissatisfaction with the team’s start, with much of their ire aimed at Tocchet.
“At this point you have to consider firing Tocchet,” said one Flyers fan on Twitter. “Danny [Briere] wants the players to take a step, but how can that happen with this awful system? Constantly being hemmed into their own zone, not driving play, getting doubled up on shots […] this isn’t sustainable. Something has to give.”
“Genuinely, how long is Tocchet’s leash before he gets fired?” asked another fan. “The whole team can’t get a f*cking shot off. Fire Tocchet.”
“What makes it worse is how Tocchet is ruining the development of our younger stars,” said another fan on the Flyers’ subreddit. “It’s not good enough to just tank. We have to tank while giving [Matvei Michkov] and [Porter Martone] plenty of playing time. Why bother playing the vets if this is the product it produces?”
With the Canucks, Tocchet earned praise for turning the team around after he was hired midway through the 2022-23 season, leading to a first-place finish in the Pacific Division in 2023-24. As a result, Tocchet won the 2024 Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best coach.
Everything fell apart the following season. The team imploded, as their on-ice struggles and off-ice drama dragged them below the playoff bar. And, at the end of the season, Tocchet decided to leave the Canucks behind and signed a five-year contract with the Flyers.
Similar to his first full year in Vancouver, Tocchet led the Flyers back to the playoffs after years of missing the postseason. While he earned criticism for his treatment of young star Matvei Michkov — which bore a strong resemblance to his treatment of Elias Pettersson — it couldn’t be denied that Tocchet helped the Flyers exceed expectations.
This second year in Philadelphia, however, has gone awry. Even as Tocchet has three more years left on his contract after this one, some Flyers fans want him gone.
“I was wrong about Tocc,” said one Flyers fan in the Canucks’ subreddit. “I thought the Tocchet hate was overdone when he coached for you. I even joked about how you fans are hysterical with it. I thought it was the office that was the problem. But I was wrong. I didn’t realize what you were going through with this guy.
“Now I understand. And it sucks. I’m sorry.”