Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Tag: Rick Tocchet

  • Rick Tocchet switches up Flyers’ lines again ahead of visit from defending Stanley Cup champs

    Rick Tocchet switches up Flyers’ lines again ahead of visit from defending Stanley Cup champs

    Two games into the season, the Flyers have scored twice and allowed 10 goals. They have been outshot, 41-22, on average and have spent just 37% of their time in the offensive zone, below the league average of 40.4%.

    Things aren’t great at either end.

    Coach Rick Tocchet said Saturday morning that they “need some guys to be able to hold pucks and make a play” and that several players need to move their feet and play more disciplined. It’s apparent via the eye test that the team is a step behind. According to NHL Edge stats, the Flyers rank 26th in max skating speed, led by Carl Grundström’s 21.82-mph burst in the season opener.

    The Flyers embarrassed themselves against the Penguins. It’s not too early to be a little concerned. | Mike Sielski

    They have not had a player reach 22 mph, despite hitting above that mark 97 times last season when the league average was 86.

    Although it’s two games into the season and still 82 more on the slate — beginning Saturday against the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes (7 p.m., NBCSP), the Flyers know that while they played better Thursday at New Jersey than in their season-opening 7-0 loss to Pittsburgh, it’s still not good enough.

    “I think sometimes you come in thinking that it’s just going to be easy, and you get humbled pretty quickly in this league when you aren’t on your A game, and I think you’ve seen that through the first two games,” defenseman Travis Sanheim, who, along with his partner Rasmus Ristolainen, has scored the Flyers’ goals this season, said Saturday.

    “We’ve got a lot of games coming up here against a lot of good opponents, and we’re going to have to figure it out pretty quickly, or it’s going to get out of hand.”

    Nick Seeler (left), Dan Vladař, Simon Benoit, and Carl Grundström mark Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby in the second period on Wednesday. Grundström has the Flyers’ speediest skating burst so far this season, but nobody has eclipsed 22 mph yet.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    The easy thing is to point out what has gone wrong. The harder question is how to fix it. After Wednesday’s rout, the team simplified some things on Thursday, and Tocchet liked the uptick in puck possession in earning a loser point. But as forward Owen Tippett added Saturday, going back to basics is key, as is knowing when to make the right play at the right time.

    “If you look at the last two games, even this preseason, execution hasn’t been great,” Tocchet said. “Like an 18-foot pass, passing into the guy’s skates and puck possession. That’s making plays. We want guys to make plays. We expect certain guys, even with a guy on you, he should be able to make a play. We’re not getting that play. So we’re looking for more of that.”

    The Flyers’ Achilles heel has long been their last-ranked power play. Turning the tide in 2026-27 is imperative.

    The numbers aren’t great, either. According to Natural Stat Trick, among the 10 teams that have played two games, the Flyers are last in shot attempts (64), Corsi For percentage (34.21%), expected goals for (1.92), scoring chances (22), and high-danger chances (five) at five-on-five. They also have given up the second-most high-danger chances (26), with only the New York Rangers, who have 26 themselves, giving up more (28).

    To help right the ship, Tocchet has switched up the lines for a third straight game. Trevor Zegras will center the speedy Tippett and Grundström; Alex Bump is now alongside Sean Couturier and Noel Acciari; Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak will skate with Matvei Michkov on the top line; and Porter Martone is moving down with Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster.

    The bench boss is trying to find the puzzle pieces that fit.

    “You could always say you could flush those games and stuff, but I think for us, there’s more of learning lessons and kind of take the negatives and positives from the game,” Martone said.

    “Just continue to learn from them and come in today with morning skate with that attitude that we got a lot better. We know what we have in this room. We know what we’ve got in this group. So it’s what we do with it. And just come here and compete tonight. That’s all we could ask for.”

    Flyers goaltender Joseph Woll is getting the start again on Saturday.Adam Hunger

    Breakaways

    Defenseman David Jiříček will make his season debut on the third pair with Nick Seeler and, according to Tocchet, should see some time on the second power-play unit, despite Cam York taking recent reps. Jiříček played in the Flyers’ season finale in April after being acquired from the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline for Bobby Brink. … Joseph Woll will be back in net for the Flyers after making 41 saves in their 3-2 overtime loss to the Devils on Thursday. … Forward Denver Barkey skated half the morning skate in a noncontact jersey and half in a contact jersey. “I think it’s the first time he’s switched jerseys,” Tocchet said. “A little more contact, so when that happens, obviously get closer and closer. So hopefully he’s a possibility this week.”

  • Flyers pushed to overtime by the Devils, lose 3-2 on Jack Hughes’ game-winner: ‘We are choppy with the puck’

    Flyers pushed to overtime by the Devils, lose 3-2 on Jack Hughes’ game-winner: ‘We are choppy with the puck’

    NEWARK, N.J. — The Flyers seemed at a loss.

    “I have no idea,” Rick Tocchet said when asked why they looked so out of sync in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime defeat in New Jersey. “We just talked as coaches. We’re going to have to maybe change some practices. We need more skill work. … We are choppy with the puck.”

    To make the playoffs last year, the Flyers beat teams with their defensive structure, aggressive forecheck, and excellent goaltending.

    They got at least one of those on Thursday. Make no mistake, goalie Joseph Woll was the primary reason the Flyers grabbed even a point against the Devils.

    His 41-save performance masked a clear skill gap between the two teams. It was an improvement compared to Wednesday’s 7-0 clunker, enough to send the game to overtime tied 2-2, but the Devils, led by Jack Hughes, gashed through the Flyers’ neutral zone structure to easily make controlled entry after controlled entry.

    Flyers’ mistakes have helped fuel early struggles, but Joseph Woll’s performance a welcome sign

    “We have to up our skill level,“ Tocchet said. “We‘ve got to make some plays. Deception, stepping inside, things like that offensively. Some guys are squeezing it too, and it’s only our second game. I don’t know why we’re squeezing it.”

    But because of Woll, the Flyers were up 2-1 in the third period with a real chance to win the game. With a training camp of questions about the power play, the Flyers scored their first goal of the season at six-on-five on a delayed penalty. Rasmus Ristolainen opened the scoring for the season with a redirect in front in the first period. Their only power play later in the game did not register a shot, so there’s work to be done there still.

    The Flyers took three offensive zone penalties in the first period, from Noel Acciari, Trevor Zegras, and Sean Couturier. That slowed the team’s offensive momentum, but it did showcase their penalty kill, which stood strong through the first period.

    Rasmus Ristolainen (55) is congratulated by teammates after scoring his first period goal.Adam Hunger

    The defense, which Tocchet said was “the worst” he’s seen it during his tenure as head coach after Wednesday’s loss, had more structure on Thursday. It kept a lot of the shots on Woll from long-range, but Christian Dvorak said there’s still “room for improvement.”

    But eventually, as the Devils gashed through the neutral zone and fired pucks on net, something was bound to get through. That was Dougie Hamilton, who fired a first shot that got blocked by Matvei Michkov, collected the rebound, and finally got one past Woll in the second period, 30 shots in.

    “We battled harder defensively, but we spent way too much time in the D-zone, and a lot of that came from turnovers,” Travis Sanheim said.

    Porter Martone’s rough opener provided a worthwhile reminder that he’s still just 19

    Early in the third period, Woll made his best save yet, sprawling to get a toe on a point-blank shot from Jesper Bratt. He kept the Flyers in it just enough for Sanheim to fire a scorcher past Jake Allen to restore a one-goal lead.

    The Flyers couldn’t maintain the lead for long. Luke Hughes tied the game at 2-2 with a wrister and the Devils forced overtime, where a Sanheim turnover gave Hughes, Bratt, and Hamilton a rush chance. It was all they needed to win the game.

    Tocchet and the Flyers’ coaching staff are clearly still working on ways to find the right combinations up front. For the second consecutive game, the lines were mixed significantly in an effort to slow down the Hughes line, Tocchet said.

    Travis Sanheim’s early third period goal put the Flyers ahead.Adam Hunger

    Porter Martone played just 12 minutes, 27 seconds, and Alex Bump just 8:18. Both were benched for the majority of the third period. Zegras was double-shifted with Couturier and Acciari in the third, and swapped Owen Tippett for Martone on Dvorak and Travis Konecny’s line.

    “We’re off to a slow start,” Dvorak said. “By the time you get the puck, you’re tired. You’re done on the shift, and instead of trying to make a play, get a puck deep and put the next line in a good spot. If we do that, it’ll help us moving forward. We’re trying to make too many plays in the neutral zone. The forecheck was a strength last year, we’ve got to get back to that.”

    Up next

    The Flyers return to Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes (7 p.m., NBCSP, ESPN+).

  • Flyers hope to rebound vs. Devils after having a ‘wake-up call’ in the season opener

    Flyers hope to rebound vs. Devils after having a ‘wake-up call’ in the season opener

    NEWARK, N.J. — The Flyers spent the offseason preaching that the group needed to avoid growing complacent.

    General manager Danny Briére said that it “keeps [him] up at night,” thinking about the group getting too confident and taking a step back. After the Flyers’ ugly 7-0 loss to the Penguins in the season opener at home, captain Sean Couturier said the same thing: This year’s team is not last year’s team. “We’ve got to realize that we’re not that good,” he said.

    Having a shortened training camp could have favored the Flyers, since they didn’t make many new additions this offseason. All but two members of the opening night roster played in the playoffs last year.

    Porter Martone’s rough opener provided a worthwhile reminder that he’s still just 19

    But instead, the Flyers suffered their worst home opener loss since 1971.

    Postgame, Couturier shrugged off the thought that Thursday’s back-to-back was a chance to flush the loss, especially after the poor preseason game that preceded it.

    “At some point, we’ve got to learn here,” Couturier said. “We’ve got to wake up. Last exhibition game we played was the same way. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s training camp. We’re going to ease our way into the season,’ but we’ve got to wake up here.”

    The Flyers looked like a team still on summer vacation in a 7-0 loss in the season opener.
    Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    Thursday’s game against the Devils can be a clean slate. Rick Tocchet said pregame in Newark that, despite the result, the Flyers had a “fair” training camp, and that he wasn’t sure he would have changed anything about their preparation.

    Travis Konecny agreed, and he shouldered the blame if the team felt that the noise around the game overshadowed their preparation. He described Wednesday’s opener as a “wake-up call.” But what kind of corrections can the Flyers hope to make in New Jersey?

    “There’s like an art to everything, right?” Konecny said. “It’s not just like, skate hard, go to the guy. When you make contact, take a stick away, and then the second guy gets the puck. The second guy skating hard to help the first guy getting in there, you’ve got to be there.”

    Sielski: The Flyers embarrassed themselves against the Penguins. It’s not too early to be a little concerned.

    While the Flyers made their late-season charge to the playoffs last year, Tocchet stressed the importance of staying even-keeled. “Never get too high, never get too low,” he said.

    He said the same thing on Wednesday, for the opposite reason, after the Flyers looked the worst defensively that he had ever seen them under his tenure.

    So, after a game in which the Flyers lacked both intensity and structure, what does Tocchet want to improve first?

    “When you don’t have intensity, the Xs and Os suffer, because you have to make more decisions,” Tocchet said Thursday. “We just weren’t on pucks. They had the puck most of the night.”

    Breakaways

    The Flyers traded Devin Kaplan to Seattle for forward David Goyette in a minor-league swap. Kaplan was a third-round pick in 2022, and Goyette was a second-rounder in the same draft. Goyette will report to Lehigh Valley.

  • Porter Martone’s rough opener provided a worthwhile reminder that he’s still just 19

    Porter Martone’s rough opener provided a worthwhile reminder that he’s still just 19

    Porter Martone started off with a bang last season, joining the Flyers at the end of March and scoring at over a point-per-game clip to help them to a once-improbable playoff berth. He was so steady and unfazed amid the Flyers’ run that it almost looked like he wasn’t going to have one of those “welcome to the league” moments.

    On Wednesday night, in the Flyers’ 2026-27 opener, he had it.

    Flyers lay an egg in opener, get booed off the ice after 7-0 loss to the Penguins

    After Ville Koivunen beat the Flyers, including Martone, on a bad line change, the latter sat for the final four-plus minutes of the first period. Martone was then assessed a cross-checking penalty, which quickly resulted in Pittsburgh’s third goal. He was later demoted to the fourth line, alongside Sean Couturier and Carl Grundström, in the team’s 7-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

    “I just thought the first four or five shifts, he had a couple times to go through [Erik] Karlsson, and he let up, and you can’t do that,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “His game is something — he has to play that style, like a gritty style. He’s not going to go up the ice flying around.”

    Martone had no shot attempts and four giveaways, tied for the most among the Flyers. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had a team-low 2.64 expected-goals percentage with Martone on the ice at even-strength.

    The Flyers embarrassed themselves against the Penguins. It’s not too early to be a little concerned.

    Tocchet said his line changes, including his decision to demote Martone, were the result of the overall poor offensive performance from the group.

    Rick Tocchet was disappointed in his team’s defensive structure on Wednesday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    “To have offense, you have to have the puck,” Tocchet said. “We had chances to skate the puck in, and we’re throwing pucks in, and we just reset the puck to them. If you’re not battling, that means you’re not battling offensively. That means you’re not willing to take the puck.”

    Martone, 19, was far from the only player to have a bad night. Tocchet said the team won “no battles” and that the defensive structure was the worst he’d seen it since he arrived in Philadelphia a year ago.

    As bulletproof as Martone might have looked to start his NHL career — he was a preseason Calder Trophy favorite, and projected to be one of the Flyers’ most important players heading into this year — there were signs in the playoffs that there was still going to be an adjustment period. He endured a five-game scoreless streak before picking up two more assists in the final two games of the Flyers’ second-round playoff series loss to Carolina.

    The orange carpet treatment, Charles Barkley’s hot take, and more from the Flyers’ fan fest

    Tocchet said pregame that the Flyers are trying to “cocoon” Martone and all the young players from the outside attention, and to use the team environment to avoid overloading him in his rookie season.

    But Wednesday’s opener is a reminder that, as even-keeled as Martone can be, there are still growing pains in becoming an NHL regular.

    “I don’t think it’s an excuse, but I find younger players need longer,” Tocchet said. “You need a longer training camp. Veteran teams don’t. That’s not an excuse. That’s the way it is. Everybody lives in that world.”