Q&A: New Flyers coach Rick Tocchet talks systems and strategies, his ideas for fixing the power play, and more
In a one-on-one interview with The Inquirer, Tocchet discussed the narrative that he's a defensive coach and his excitement to work with Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny, and Owen Tippett specifically.
The Flyers have their new man behind the bench, as they officially unveiled Rick Tocchet as the 25th head coach in team history on Friday.
With Tocchet tasked with taking the Flyers through the next step in their rebuild, The Inquirer sat down with the 61-year-old to discuss his approach to coaching and his in-game strategies and systems.
Tocchet didn’t shy away from the fact that he prefers a more structured type of hockey, and that he doesn’t see a chance-for-chance type style as one you can consistently win with.
The veteran coach believes the key to a good power play is beating pressure by attacking. While plays are nice, he believes sometimes too many plays can lead to players overthinking and not attacking openings or maximizing their creativity.
Speaking of pressure, Tocchet said he doesn’t shy away from it and wouldn’t want to work in a market where he didn’t have it. He called being in a pressure cooker like Philly “fun” and agrees that pressure is a privilege.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
» READ MORE: Rick Tocchet says the Flyers’ ‘untapped talent’ and managerial ‘stability’ excite him as a coach
The Flyers have their new man behind the bench, as they officially unveiled Rick Tocchet as the 25th head coach in team history on Friday.
With Tocchet tasked with taking the Flyers through the next step in their rebuild, The Inquirer sat down with the 61-year-old to discuss his approach to coaching and his in-game strategies and systems.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Are you someone who sets the systems based on your players, or do you have systems you like to run, and then you fit your players into those systems?
A: You’ve got to look at your roster. I would say 85%, I know what I’m going to do. And then you can look at your roster, and there’s the 15% you tweak. My last job in Vancouver, a lot of issues were with defensive systems, and a lot of the goals against weren’t good, and all that sort of stuff, so I knew when I went in there, I had to put in a really good defensive structure where guys understood where to go. When that started to work well, then you started to branch out, gave more rope. I think that’s really what it comes down to.
And it’s the players you’ve got; you’ve got some talented guys here. Matvei Michkov is an offensive guy, where you’ve got to give him rope for that creativity. Travis Konecny. I think Owen Tippett is a guy who I feel has another level in him. I think he’s a prototypical big, fast winger. Can we unleash him? So, there are a lot of tools here to work with. It’s important that myself and my staff can unleash the talent that they have.
Q: There’s a lot of talk about how you’re a defense-first coach. Do you agree with that? And what are your defensive strategies?
A: I’m not man-to-man. And I understand that narrative [about being defense-first]. But if you look at the past teams that have won the Stanley Cup. Vegas won the Cup, and when you talk about Vegas, intelligent, very hard to play against, and very good without the puck. There are some teams here vying for the Cup, and if you look, the same thing — smart play, intelligent. So, you don’t want to beat yourself.
Yeah, there’s got to be some offense to your game, and sometimes you have to look at your roster. I don’t believe in river hockey, a chance-for-chance type of game. I don’t think it wins that way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t unleash some of that and stretch the envelope. But I think it’s important that you have a base first before you branch out.
» READ MORE: Flyers hire former player Rick Tocchet as 25th head coach in franchise history
Q: John Tortorella liked a strong forecheck and ran a 2-1-2 system. Do you run a similar system?
A: I don’t like to give the players numbers. I want the first forward — we call it an F1 — I want him to anticipate and get on top fast. If there’s going to be some kind of confrontation or any kind of stall, our F2 has to get in there as quickly as possible. Then we align from there, you shrink the zone because you want the puck back. We don’t want to have gaps. We don’t want to be late. And if we are late, we have to have a strategy. If you’re late to the puck, what are you doing after that?
I just feel like when teams are late, you get in trouble, that’s when you get odd-man rushes, that’s when you get 6-4 hockey games. So I guess you’ve got to be calculated in my system, but also an aggressive system, too.
Q: You ran the power play in Colorado and Pittsburgh. Do you have a power-play strategy that you prefer to use?
A: Here’s the thing, and I’m still trying to figure this out — and don’t call me crazy — but how do you practice a power play? It’s the hardest thing in today’s game, because everybody’s just scared to shoot the puck in practice and hurt somebody with a shot. So if you practice, a lot of guys won’t shoot it. The power play is about beating pressure.
When I was in Vancouver, we had the third-best penalty kill in the league because we were aggressive, but smart. So now, we felt, when you beat pressure as a power play, to me, it’s attack. The worst thing I’ve known, from my experience over the years, is giving the players too many plays. If you look for plays all the time, you lose what I call road hockey. We just beat three guys out of the corner, so why would you be thinking about a play?
To me, it’s an attack style. Now you’ve got to have creativity. You’ve got a guy like Michov, who’s obviously a very high-level offensive guy, and getting him the puck when you beat pressure. You figure a lot of times, hopefully, he’s going to make a lot of good plays out of that pressure. But when things get stagnant, it’s because players look for plays. I don’t like that. I want them to beat pressure, whether it’s a spread, whether it’s, like Bruce Cassidy likes low plays. There’s a certain part, when a PK sells out high, when that puck goes low, it’s on, and that’s where you beat pressure. So I think that’s the sort of concepts that I like.
Q: When I spoke with Wes Walz, he brought up how you worked a lot with Steve Downie in Tampa and helped him grow his game. You have a reputation for making sure every single player is heard and listened to. Is that a focus for you?
A: Over the recent years, I’m proud [of that]. I really forged a great relationship with Brock Boeser, for instance. He had some off-ice things; his dad died. There was a lot of stuff, and we really forged a great relationship. He scored 40 goals for me, he had a career year. Kiefer Sherwood this year, I don’t know, the most he’s ever scored is 10 goals; he ended up scoring 19 goals for me and had a career year. Dakota Joshua. These are the guys that I’ve been proud of because they’ve had career years.
» READ MORE: Hiring Rick Tocchet shows the Flyers know who they are and how far they have to go.
It’s just not me, like it’s all them, don’t get me wrong. But I think when you spend time with them, communicate — because they want to play better — that’s the sort of stuff I love doing. I love being on the ice with players. I’m not a guy who goes out there for 20 and gets off because I have to talk to the media. The media is going to have to wait for me. Because I think it’s important that you show the players that you’re in it with them, especially on the ice.
Q: Walz also said that you really listen to your staff and players. How important is it for you to have that type of open-door policy?
A: I think for me, like, the construction of your office is important. I don’t like cubicles. We have a big, huge table, and that’s where I usually spend my day with assistant coaches. You do your brainstorming, out-of-the-box thinking. Sometimes it’s not about Xs and Os, sometimes it could be an inspirational video. It could be getting an idea, and I remember back then Marty [St. Louis] would give me some ideas to present to the team, that sort of stuff. Quinn Hughes, a fabulous guy to work with, and I spent a lot of time brainstorming with him. How do you want to do a meeting today? Hey, what do you think about practicing today? I’d be crazy not to listen to these guys.
So that’s why the open-door policy is something I always do because it’s really important that you’re available — sometimes 24/7. I enjoy it because, to be honest, at the end of the day, yeah, the money’s great, don’t get me wrong, and all this sort of stuff, the organization treats you like gold, but it’s pretty cool when you’re 10 years from now, and I think I’ve said this before, you see a former player, and he comes up to you and he goes, man, that guy helped my career. That means a lot to me. There’s more to it than just all the fancy stuff, it’s helping somebody become a better person, too.
Q: As a former Flyer with such a history with the organization, do you feel any pressure because of that, or do you just push it all aside?
A: Well, I came from a pressure cooker in Vancouver, so I’m used to it. I played in pressure games as a player. I’m not shy about pressure. But, yeah, coming here as a former Flyer, coming in this position, a team hasn’t won in quite a bit of time, there’s pressure. But who wants to go somewhere where there is no pressure? I mean, I might as well just lie in the sun, and who cares? But it’s fun to face pressure. It’s fun to have competition, and it’s fun to work with people who are pulling in the same direction, too, who have your back. So yeah, no, I’m excited about that.
The Flyers have their new man behind the bench, as they officially unveiled Rick Tocchet as the 25th head coach in team history on Friday.
With Tocchet tasked with taking the Flyers through the next step in their rebuild, The Inquirer sat down with the 61-year-old to discuss his approach to coaching and his in-game strategies and systems.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Are you someone who sets the systems based on your players, or do you have systems you like to run, and then you fit your players into those systems?
A: You’ve got to look at your roster. I would say 85%, I know what I’m going to do. And then you can look at your roster, and there’s the 15% you tweak. My last job in Vancouver, a lot of issues were with defensive systems, and a lot of the goals against weren’t good, and all that sort of stuff, so I knew when I went in there, I had to put in a really good defensive structure where guys understood where to go. When that started to work well, then you started to branch out, gave more rope. I think that’s really what it comes down to.
And it’s the players you’ve got; you’ve got some talented guys here. Matvei Michkov is an offensive guy, where you’ve got to give him rope for that creativity. Travis Konecny. I think Owen Tippett is a guy who I feel has another level in him. I think he’s a prototypical big, fast winger. Can we unleash him? So, there are a lot of tools here to work with. It’s important that myself and my staff can unleash the talent that they have.
Q: There’s a lot of talk about how you’re a defense-first coach. Do you agree with that? And what are your defensive strategies?
A: I’m not man-to-man. And I understand that narrative [about being defense-first]. But if you look at the past teams that have won the Stanley Cup. Vegas won the Cup, and when you talk about Vegas, intelligent, very hard to play against, and very good without the puck. There are some teams here vying for the Cup, and if you look, the same thing — smart play, intelligent. So, you don’t want to beat yourself.
Yeah, there’s got to be some offense to your game, and sometimes you have to look at your roster. I don’t believe in river hockey, a chance-for-chance type of game. I don’t think it wins that way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t unleash some of that and stretch the envelope. But I think it’s important that you have a base first before you branch out.
Q: So you like to play zone?
A: I like to play zone. It’s a very aggressive zone. I don’t like a run-around pressure type of system. It’s got to be calculated. There are certain parts of the D-zone, we will tweak — and I want to tweak a little bit of my system — but it’s more of an aggressive zone type, double, triple up when you can, and when you can, it’s more of a keep the puck on the outside.
» READ MORE: Hiring Rick Tocchet shows the Flyers know who they are and how far they have to go.
Q: You’re known to be a strong communicator. It sounds like you want your players to be the same on the ice because, to play zone properly, it’s all about communication.
A: You have to talk. You have to communicate. If you’re not communicating on switches, you can be in trouble. And that’s from day one. That’s something that right from training camp, I’m going to demand from the players: communication. I’ve got to hear you, and that means you’ve got to know the system. If you’re yelling stuff or you’re barking out orders, you better know what you’re barking out. So I think that’s important.
It starts today, when I start talking to players. It’s the stuff that I send them out in the summer, the video. I might go see some players personally at their homes. It starts now, to be honest with you. But then, when training camp comes, you morph it as a team and for the team.
Q: John Tortorella liked a strong forecheck and ran a 2-1-2 system. Do you run a similar system?
A: I don’t like to give the players numbers. I want the first forward — we call it an F1 — I want him to anticipate and get on top fast. If there’s going to be some kind of confrontation or any kind of stall, our F2 has to get in there as quickly as possible. Then we align from there, you shrink the zone because you want the puck back. We don’t want to have gaps. We don’t want to be late. And if we are late, we have to have a strategy. If you’re late to the puck, what are you doing after that?
I just feel like when teams are late, you get in trouble, that’s when you get odd-man rushes, that’s when you get 6-4 hockey games. So I guess you’ve got to be calculated in my system, but also an aggressive system, too.
Q: I don’t know how much you’ve watched of the Flyers, but the Noah Cates line is a line that is big on the triangle and big on puck support. Is that something you believe in, too, the fundamentals?
A: That kind of makes me smile because to have that type of line, whether I use that line like that or whatever, but the language you just said, the triangles, the reloads. But there are also certain things I can help them with, and my staff too. Is there something that can help them with creativity? Are there other ways to explore?
I already have some ideas on how to explore offensively, using the weak side more. It might be a little more risky, but I think the rewards are more. If you can come up with a system, especially offensively, where the rewards are big and the risk is not — there’s going to be risk, but it’s kind of minimal — I’m all for it. I just don’t like playing a risky game. I think, in the long run, it doesn’t win.
Q: You ran the power play in Colorado and Pittsburgh. Do you have a power-play strategy that you prefer to use?
A: Here’s the thing, and I’m still trying to figure this out — and don’t call me crazy — but how do you practice a power play? It’s the hardest thing in today’s game, because everybody’s just scared to shoot the puck in practice and hurt somebody with a shot. So if you practice, a lot of guys won’t shoot it. The power play is about beating pressure.
When I was in Vancouver, we had the third-best penalty kill in the league because we were aggressive, but smart. So now, we felt, when you beat pressure as a power play, to me, it’s attack. The worst thing I’ve known, from my experience over the years, is giving the players too many plays. If you look for plays all the time, you lose what I call road hockey. We just beat three guys out of the corner, so why would you be thinking about a play?
» READ MORE: Rick Tocchet says the Flyers’ ‘untapped talent’ and managerial ‘stability’ excite him as a coach
To me, it’s an attack style. Now you’ve got to have creativity. You’ve got a guy like Michov, who’s obviously a very high-level offensive guy, and getting him the puck when you beat pressure. You figure a lot of times, hopefully, he’s going to make a lot of good plays out of that pressure. But when things get stagnant, it’s because players look for plays. I don’t like that. I want them to beat pressure, whether it’s a spread, whether it’s, like Bruce Cassidy likes low plays. There’s a certain part, when a PK sells out high, when that puck goes low, it’s on, and that’s where you beat pressure. So I think that’s the sort of concepts that I like.
Q: When I spoke with Wes Walz, he brought up how you worked a lot with Steve Downie in Tampa and helped him grow his game. You have a reputation for making sure every single player is heard and listened to. Is that a focus for you?
A: Over the recent years, I’m proud [of that]. I really forged a great relationship with Brock Boeser, for instance. He had some off-ice things; his dad died. There was a lot of stuff, and we really forged a great relationship. He scored 40 goals for me, he had a career year. Kiefer Sherwood this year, I don’t know, the most he’s ever scored is 10 goals; he ended up scoring 19 goals for me and had a career year. Dakota Joshua. These are the guys that I’ve been proud of because they’ve had career years.
It’s just not me, like it’s all them, don’t get me wrong. But I think when you spend time with them, communicate — because they want to play better — that’s the sort of stuff I love doing. I love being on the ice with players. I’m not a guy who goes out there for 20 and gets off because I have to talk to the media. The media is going to have to wait for me. Because I think it’s important that you show the players that you’re in it with them, especially on the ice.
Q: Walz also said that you really listen to your staff and players. How important is it for you to have that type of open-door policy?
A: I think for me, like, the construction of your office is important. I don’t like cubicles. We have a big, huge table, and that’s where I usually spend my day with assistant coaches. You do your brainstorming, out-of-the-box thinking. Sometimes it’s not about Xs and Os, sometimes it could be an inspirational video. It could be getting an idea, and I remember back then Marty [St. Louis] would give me some ideas to present to the team, that sort of stuff. Quinn Hughes, a fabulous guy to work with, and I spent a lot of time brainstorming with him. How do you want to do a meeting today? Hey, what do you think about practicing today? I’d be crazy not to listen to these guys.
So that’s why the open-door policy is something I always do because it’s really important that you’re available — sometimes 24/7. I enjoy it because, to be honest, at the end of the day, yeah, the money’s great, don’t get me wrong, and all this sort of stuff, the organization treats you like gold, but it’s pretty cool when you’re 10 years from now, and I think I’ve said this before, you see a former player, and he comes up to you and he goes, man, that guy helped my career. That means a lot to me. There’s more to it than just all the fancy stuff, it’s helping somebody become a better person, too.
Q: Inspirational videos? Are you like Joe Maddon, who had inspirational quotes on his lineup cards when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays?
A: Well, I‘m thinking now, for this group, signage, messaging, I’m big on that. So we’ll dive into that since I’ve got the job. In Vancouver, when I first got there, it was: ‘We want to meet pressure with pressure.’ We had that all over. Then it was ‘Embrace the hard.’ So we’ll have to think of something here. We’ll put our heads together to come up with the message. I’m a messaging guy, also a big inspirational guy. I like inspirational videos, whether it’s two minutes or four or five minutes. I do like to show that to the players. I think it really helps. And there are other ways to motivate players, and it’s my job to find them. You’ve got to be fresh. You can’t be the same guy. You have to evolve as a coach.
» READ MORE: In hiring Rick Tocchet, the Flyers are getting a ‘great communicator’ and a coach players ‘want to play for’
Q: Anyone in particular you pull up for inspirational videos?
A: I’m on Instagram. Sometimes, I watch these inspirational reels. I hate to say it, I start to cry. So I do watch a lot of the comeback guys, people who are being counted out. Listen, I played a lot of years as a player and a coach, and you’re going to have detractors. You’re going to have people who criticize you and stuff like that, and it’s important that you have thick skin, but you’ve got to really believe in yourself. But you’ve got to use your tools too. Whether it’s looking at inspirational videos or talking to Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux. Did you ever have this experience? What did you do? There’s a lot of guys in my life that I can call who are high-level people that can help me. So, yeah, I use that Rolodex.
Q: As a former Flyer with such a history with the organization, do you feel any pressure because of that, or do you just push it all aside?
A: Well, I came from a pressure cooker in Vancouver, so I’m used to it. I played in pressure games as a player. I’m not shy about pressure. But, yeah, coming here as a former Flyer, coming in this position, a team hasn’t won in quite a bit of time, there’s pressure. But who wants to go somewhere where there is no pressure? I mean, I might as well just lie in the sun, and who cares? But it’s fun to face pressure. It’s fun to have competition, and it’s fun to work with people who are pulling in the same direction, too, who have your back. So yeah, I’m excited about that.
Q: Pressure is a privilege?
A: It is. I love that.