During the opening press conference of the Vancouver Canucks’ training camp, coach Rick Tocchet was asked about what changes he will be making to the system for the upcoming season. While he claims these adjustments won’t be a huge difference from what the team utilized last season, he hopes it will improve their offensive production.
“It’s not like brain surgery or we’re trying to reinvent the wheel, but there are stuff that, I think especially off the rush or off our breakouts, where we can attack better,” he said. “I think we’ve, we’ve done a good dive into it. We got some good video for the players. We got some good drills. I don’t want to bore you guys in exactly what it is, but a lot of times we’re, we’re not getting the puck in the middle enough, and we’re only having a certain chunk of players middle driving enough.”
This stays consistent with what Tocchet mentioned was coming during the offseason. He made it known on numerous occasions that he was not satisfied with the fact his team did not score enough in the playoffs and wanted to see some improvements. Their 1-2-2 forecheck may have been effective in the regular season and led to strong defensive performances, but this did not translate into consistent scoring in the postseason.
The primary culprit of this lacklustre attack in the spring was their zone entry. They were too deliberate in their approaches, which allowed the opposition enough time to set up the neutral zone trap to suffocate the attack. It resulted in too many instances where sequences that could have been more potent withered away into nothing because of their hesitancy in the entry.
One way that this can be rectified is by allowing the Canucks’ defenders the freedom to jump into the rush to create chaos on the entry and disrupt the setup for the opposition. Quinn Hughes will certainly lead the way in that department, but allowing their blueliners to activate will amount to more lethal scoring chances instead of hoping for a tip/rebound off a point shot.
Tocchet certainly thinks that is an area that could be used to improve Vancouver’s zone rushes and lead to better offensive chances in the coming year.
“I think if we get our D up in the play a little bit more, not just Hughes, that’ll help,” he said. “Our breakouts are really good, it’s just that sometimes we break out and we’re ahead of everybody, but somehow the other team catches up. I don’t think it’s the other team’s faster, I think sometimes we play a little bit safer. Guys are just content to chip in a puck. and because we are one of the best teams forechecking teams, especially on the same side ship, but I think there’s more weak side plays for us, and I think that’s on me to get the players to do that.”
It certainly will take some time for Tocchet’s new system to get mastered by the Canucks, so don’t be surprised to see some growing pains offensively to begin the year. While it remains to be seen if it will lead to more creative scoring chances or better results offensively, seeing Vancouver willing to make some adjustments is surely a welcome sight nonetheless.
The Canucks shocked the hockey world last season with a strong regular season, pushing the eventual Western Conference Champions to Game 7 of the second round, but now the rest of the league will not be taking them lightly. It seems that Tocchet is already one step ahead and is beginning the process of adjusting the team’s system to ensure the success from a year ago continues.
