The first day of Flyers training camp was also Rick Tocchet’s first day on the ice as head coach of the team that drafted him over four decades earlier. Tocchet may be new behind the bench, but he is hardly new to the Flyers culture and identity.
One his first day, Tocchet had the team get right to work on systems, wasting very little time in establishing the style the team should play.
“I expect them to work hard. I don’t have to get it out of them in a sense,” Tocchet said. “I need to get these guys in concepts of what we want to do. We need to hold onto pucks. We don’t want to throw pucks away. We want to be a better possession team. So we’ve got to work on that stuff.”
Tocchet’s main goal is making sure as much of the systems are familiar to the team in time for opening night on Oct. 9. There will be an adjustment period, which Tocchet expects, but starting early allows the “staples” to set in.
“They were a good team last year off the rush. Can we hold onto pucks that long? There’s some offensive concepts. Can’t throw the playbook at them right now, but there’s certain things that you want to see,” Tocchet said. “I think there’s not a lot of time, so you want to make sure that the guys know the system opening night. It’s going to take some time. They’re going to have to get used to some of the stuff we’re going to do.
“They should be working hard. I shouldn’t have to demand it out of them. If there’s times when I have to, I will. Right now, for me, the concepts and systems and details – we call it staples. The details of handling the puck off the wall and the certain situation that comes. That’s what we’ll continue to work on.”
Another goal Tocchet has is to get the Flyers to continue to be tough to play against and capable of competing in any style of game.
“The way I want to play, it’s the Flyers. Uncomfortable team to play against. They can play any way you want them to play,” Tocchet said. “Some games you’re going to have to win 2-1. Some games you have to win 6-5.”
Tocchet also discussed his importance on play without the puck and defending properly. He identified the way the team can do that and why it’s an important part of his philosophy as head coach.
“The one thing that, for me, that I’ll never change is play without the puck,” Tocchet said. “We want the goalie to play half the net. If we’ve got to give something up, where’s the puck going to be? That’s important to me.
“If you’ve got a goalie playing post to post, there’s a lot of slot shots, a lot of backdoor plays, you’re gambling. I don’t want to gamble. I want to be calculated in the way we play. Obviously, we’ve got some creative guys. When we have the puck, go have a party, man. Do what you’ve got to do. But when you don’t have the puck, I expect guys to know what they’re doing.”
Tocchet has two more days of practices before the Flyers hit the road for the first game of the preseason, attempting to put the practices and systems into a game setting.