Rick Tocchet Talks Flyers Hot Start, And The Development Of Matvei Michkov

Rick Tocchet Talks Flyers Hot Start, And The Development Of Matvei Michkov

joining us now on the Comcast Business Hotline where every day in business a big day. Let Comcast Business help you move forward with what’s next. They have been on fire. How many points in how many games, Johnny? At least a point. 11 of their last 14, which is incredible. The Flyers have been tremendous. And of course, they’re led by head coach Rick Tocket. Rick, good morning. How you doing, coach? Morning, guys. How are you? We’re doing fantastic. It’s been a lot of fun watching the team. I have a very important question that you might not even want to give the answer to. Nick Serriani down the street will say competitive advantage. I don’t want to tell you anything. How the hell do you guys all a sudden win shootouts? It’s been something that I think even when you played for the Flyers the team couldn’t do. What is the magic button that you’re pushing? Trust me, it’s not me. It’s uh you know it’s the Ziggus, the Meech Coffs, you know, Bobby Brink, you know KKN, he’s good at it. Uh actually like Christian, I had Christian D’vorak in Arizona. He was good at it. So we just got a lot of players that are very good at it. Um um and they they have their different moves and uh I kind of stay out of their way. We actually practiced it the other day because we have we haven’t had one in a while. Um but yeah, it’s it’s all the players. I mean, they’re they’re creative and they do their thing. Rick, uh Tyson Forester and his injury, when you see a loss like that and you know you’re going to in a condensed schedule have to be without such a critical player, how do you go about trying to fill that spot? And I know it’s you can’t fill the production, but how do you know? Do you just mix and match and try till you find something that works? Yeah, I’m not going to lie to you. When you get the news, uh it’s a downer. Um you can tell, uh, you know, obviously when we found out a couple of months the coaches were, you know, you’re down, right? The you see the players, but then you got to click right into, hey, competitive mode, you know, leadership mode from all of us. Can can everybody give five to 10% better? like can you get can each player play five to 10% better? Can the coaches do something better? So I think it’s just a collective mindset. Um you know uh great teams you know they they there’ll be a great player they lose and the team rallies around it and that’s what we’re trying to do now. I mean he’s a hell of a hockey player. I feel bad for him because he had an injury this summer too. And you know, I just worry about, you know, sometimes with players, we forget about the mental health part where, you know, you get injured and then you get injur you’re having a good year, you get injured again cuz you know, these these these injuries, you’re you’re alone a lot, right? You’re you’re rehabbing by yourself. You’re not with the team. So that’s one thing I always concerned about with the players, too, is make sure they’re still part of the team. What have you seen from Matt Veov, either on the ice or even on off days that has sort of changed the direction of his season a little bit? He’s shown up in the box score a lot more recently either with scoring goals or of course assists but also doing things on the defensive end as well. Yeah, I just think the buyin I mean obviously he’s disappointed he didn’t have a great summer. Uh uh you know you remember he’s a young kid um kind of off to a slow start in the sense of fitness wise and I think he realized what he has to do. He’s bought into what we’ve preached um you know dayto-day what he has to do to get back. Um I really think putting him on the left wing has helped him play faster. Um, and he he works his ass off. You know, he’s just a he’s a guy that uh wants to be great and he’ll, you know, he realizes there’s going to be some stuff that he’s going to do, but he’s really bought in like, you know, there’s not been one time that I’ve had a problem with him or the coaches where, you know, he’s salt or been mad at something. He’s like, “Okay, what do I got to do?” And he’s just done it. So, uh, hopefully we continue with that path. Coach, I know that penalty kill and power play is something that you wanted to come in and and you know is sort of established as a strength and power play has greatly improved. Uh and I’m sure you want to take it to a whole another level than where it’s at right now. What have you seen out of your power play units and uh tell us a little bit about that development. Yeah, I think you know coming into this summer you know obviously it’s um it was a sore spot with the fires I think the last place the last couple of years and hasn’t been great. So what you got to do is the mental part with the team like you know you got to just reboot refresh and get these guys confidence you know and I think Yogi and and uh Jay Vity who’s run the power have done a really good job of just kind of giving these guys some concepts that we want. We’re not there yet. We understand that we got a long way to go. You know we need guys to shoot the puck a little bit more play more inside and understand when you beat pressure to attack. We’re getting better at it but um you know and and we constantly preach it. Um, but it, you know, it’s it’s won some games this year and, you know, I don’t know what we are. Are we 20th or something? You’re 11th. You’re 18th in power play. You’re 11th in penalty kill. And that’s those are both and those are both now those are both both good. The penalty kill number is really good. Yeah. So, you try to if you add up the two percentages if you’re you’reund over 100 or 105. I mean, that’s where you that’s the goal. I mean, anything over that is is excellent, but you know, it can really win you games. penalty kill. There you go. So, you know, I think 105 is the goal. That’s really that’s really a good barometer. So, 101’s not bad. I mean, it’s good. Um, and it keeps you in the game. The penalty kill obviously won us some a lot of games. Uh, a few weeks ago, there was about four or five games where we’re in tough spots and and won us a game. The power play won us the game against Buffalo. So, you know, you you got to be sure special teams is is up there around that 100. That’s our goal. Flyers head coach Vic Taketta joins us here on the Comcast Business Hotline. How are you going to balance the usage of Dan Vladar? I say this as respectfully as possible. I don’t think anybody’s expected this sort of greatness from Vladar at this point of the season. He’s already halfway toward his career high in terms of game start. So, how do you balance that? Yeah. So, this is kind of new territory. You know, he’s in Calgary. I I I can’t remember the the most games he’s played and even consecutive games. So, we’re we’re mindful of that. I mean, and we got Erison who’s I I mean, he’s won he’s won six or seven of his last 10 starts, so he wins for us. So, I I I think we have a balanced goalending. Um I think uh Vladar really trained hard last summer on his uh actually skating, so it it helped his side to side movement. you really want to prove that and his and and his um you know deflections and things around the net. If you watch he’s made some really big saves this year when there’s been goldmouth scrambles because he’s he’s still he’s not he’s not like flipping and flopping all over the place. He’s just looked big in there and I think that’s I got to give him a lot of credit. He’s trained really hard for this summer. You know, I have a lot of respect for guys that in the summer they they they work on their weaknesses and they really train hard and he did that. He came in really good shape. Um, so that that’s one thing I got to give him a lot of credit for and you know we have a lot of games left and you know he’s gonna be a big part of our team. Rick, I got to ask though is that because I’m one of those guys who complains that you know why wouldn’t Lar be able to play more because I remember when you were playing and and Hexi would play what 58 games 61 games or Keenan would play somebody till his legs fell off. Like it’s like what’s changed about goalending today that they feel that goalenders can’t carry a bit much bigger load? What happened? Yeah, it’s a Yeah, it’s a great question. You know, Patrick W, Broda, they played stat playing 70 games. Correct. Grant Fur 73 games. Uh um well, there’s a couple of things. Uh I mean, I think it’s the schedule’s a lot more condensed. Um there’s not as much practice time uh when we played, I don’t think. Um so, it’s a condensed schedule. The goalies are a little bit more violent in the sense when they go post to post. I mean, they go they they push pretty hard. But I’m not saying back in the day they didn’t, but it the goes are a little bit bigger and they they’re they’re more violent like so when they do push, you know, there’s a lot of wear and tear on the soft tissue, the groins. Um so and then, you know, you practice the next day and then you have to play and so I think um yeah, I I I I don’t really have the answer on the fact I think it’s maybe a little bit harder to be a goalie that in today’s game with the schedule and all the practice when you do have a practice. So I guess that’s my answer. Well, coach, listen, you guys are uh redot right now. It’s been a lot of fun watching you guys this season. Keep up the great work and we’ll talk to you again soon. Thanks, coach. Hey, thanks for the support, guys. Talk to you soon. Thank you so much for checking out our content here on our YouTube channel. You know, you can like and subscribe and that way you’re never going to miss anything that we’ve got going on right here at 975 the Fanatic.

Flyers Head Coach Rick Tocchet joined Kincade & Salciunas to discuss his team, the good start to the season, the development of young star Matvei Michkov, and more.

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