Canucks' Tocchet hints excess penalties will be met with benchings
Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet has had enough with his team’s discipline issues.
“I think we lead the league in penalties since the All-Star break. That’s kind of a concerning thing for me because a lot of it is the stick. We gotta stop,” said Tocchet after practice today.
The head coach is right. The Canucks have taken the most penalties and have been short-handed more than any other team since the All-Star break.
They’ve allowed the second most power play goals during that time as a result, all despite the penalty kill being just below average at 75.6%. If you remove the wacky game against the Minnesota Wild, the penalty kill would come in at a very solid 82%, yet they’d still be just outside the top 10 in power play goals allowed.
The sheer number of penalties is making it difficult for the Canucks to win the special teams battle on any given night. The head coach has a few ideas on how to reverse the trend, including benching repeat offenders.
“We practiced today, we had a drill where it was just stick on puck, that’ll help. Might have to start taking ice time from guys that are taking numerous penalties,” said the head coach when discussing solutions today. “That’s really how you make players accountable and then hopefully the player understands that and changes even the technique. You can’t have a loose stick, you can’t have your stick flapping in the air.”
Nikita Zadorov and J.T. Miller lead the team with six minor penalties each since the All-Star break at the start of the month. Nils Höglander, Ian Cole, and Tyler Myers are right behind them with five minor penalties each.
While Tocchet is unhappy with his team’s discipline, he also called out a worrying trend he’s seeing where players fool referees into getting calls.
“I do hate in the league that people snap their heads back and they get penalties. I feel bad for the refs because I could see a guy who snaps his head and they call it. We’ve had three where the guy didn’t really high stick him and the guy snapped his head,” said Tocchet after practice today before praising the on-ice officials. “But the refs have done a great job, I’ve actually told a couple refs ‘if you find a guy snapping his head, I wouldn’t even give the guy a penalty for the rest of the year.’ That’s how you curb that crap.”
The Canucks have an important stretch coming up as they prepare for the playoffs. Their play has dropped off a bit over recent weeks and bad habits like these stick penalties have crept into their game. Fixing this before the playoffs is paramount if the Canucks wish to have extended success.