As expected, Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t too pleased with his team’s lack of composure during their 6-5 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames on opening night.
“I think so. I think there’s enough guys probably said it, and owned it up to it,” Tocchet said when asked if he felt his team got too comfortable after the first period. “There’s really not much for me to rip on those guys for tonight, they know what happened tonight and we gotta move on.
“I mean, Calgary, they wanted it more, and they played faster than us. And that’s what happens. It just kind of snowballed, right? Management of the puck, you know, things like that. I think a couple of players even said it: too much summer hockey and a lot of battles they were winning. That’s really what it comes down to, and plus, we gave up six goals. That’s a lot of goals to give up.
“I’m not going to overact the first game. I mean, we were heavy in training camp with a lot of transitional stuff, and I was a little worried about this, because we got away from our identity. Our play without the puck was not good. I mean, that’s a year and a half go hockey. It’s only one game, but our identity, we got to be careful here, because we are a good team without the puck. And I thought we didn’t protect the guts of the ice. Guys were swinging, and things like that, do not win. But like I said, it’s the first game. And you know, I got to take a little bit of the blame, because I was really heavy this year in training camp on the transitional and we did D-Zone drills, but not as much as we did last year.
“Now, like I said, it’s one game, so I’m not going to… players know they got to be in certain spots, they weren’t. If it’s a trend for four or five games, I’d be worried. But it’s one game and you know, we’ll sharpen up tomorrow.”
The Canucks brought the hammer down on the Flames to start things off and were clearly the stronger team in the first period when they jumped out to a 3-0, then 4-1 lead.
From that point on, however, the Canucks sat back and watched as the Flames stormed back, eventually taking a 5-4 lead late in the third period. A late tying goal with the net empty from JT Miller forced overtime and earned the Canucks a point, but the end result and overall performance is still certainly disappointing from a team that enters the year with high expectations after finishing atop the Pacific Division in 2023-24.
