Tocchet rips Canucks: 'I don't like the word soft, but...'
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Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet laid into his team after a 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
Tocchet ripped the performance of every player, save for goaltender Thatcher Demko, after the Canucks were outshot 42-25 on the night - and 22-3 in the second period.
“I can’t even pick one guy who played well except Demko, who was unbelievable," Tocchet said. "He was great tonight, and the rest of the guys weren't."
"We've got some guys, they better pick it up. I don't like the word soft, but I didn't see guys competing at all. And that's alarming. But saying that, we win two games, let's not get too high, it was a bad effort, so let's not get too low. But we've obviously got to go to the drawing board with some guys.
"We were off all over. We were off every single system part of it. And then the compete wasn't there. They competed and we didn't. Bottom line."
Demko allowed both goals against in the first period, with Egor Zamula scoring less than two minutes into the game and Sean Couturier converting on a penalty shot just 52 seconds later.
Tuesday marked the first loss of the Canucks season after the team opened with back-to-back wins over the Edmonton Oilers.
"That wasn't up to our standard," Canucks forward J.T. Miller said post-game. "We didn't win enough battles, not strong on the puck, not sticking to the criteria of what makes our team good. We just got away from our game. Not how we want to play."
The Canucks will continue their current five-game road trip on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, with a meeting with the Florida Panthers set for Saturday to end their week.