Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet sits tenth all-time on the NHL’s career penalty minutes list. No one playing in the league today will catch him at 2,970, let alone the untouchable leader in PIM, former Canucks winger Tiger Williams at 3,971.
The latest player to sneak into the top-50 list is former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, 47th on the all-time chart with 2,085. It took him 24 seasons and the most regular season games ever played by a defenceman to get there.
The point is, the game has changed dramatically since Tocchet hung up his playing skates in 2001. The NHL insists today’s game is the “best it’s every been”. You’d get an argument from many who miss the overall lack of aggression and in some cases, the legitimate nastiness and fights.
“Not the staged fights, just for the sake of fighting, but when you feel someone’s being taken advantage of, you’ve gotta answer the bell,” Tocchet told Vancouver Hockey Insider in Seattle last week.
“Whatever that is. Nowadays, tough hockey — guys know who has to go out and do their thing — but it could be a skill guy who blocks a shot, that’s tough hockey. Dropping the gloves, not everybody’s gonna drop ’em, I don’t care about that, but other guys have to participate in the tough hockey. It might just be holding the puck in the corner for five or ten seconds to wait for a line change. It’s little things like that, that good teams do, that’s tough hockey to me.”
We brought up the topic after watching Vancouver’s previous game on December 31st against the Calgary Flames. Despite being a 3-1 Canucks loss, it was an entertaining throwback affair for hockey fans everywhere, including in Vancouver. It included legitimate hockey hate, three fights, whopping hits, and aggression from start to finish.
“I think rival games, back in the day, that happened a lot,” Tocchet said. “Guys held more grudges. If you didn’t play well, guys would say ‘we’ve gotta be ready’. I thought it was a great emotional response from our team and it was a good hockey game. They (the Flames) made the moments they had to.”
Tocchet went on to point out that in today’s game, it’s more about being a teacher, as opposed to being a dictator.
“The coaches back in the day were great coaches, don’t get me wrong, but it was more ‘you’ve gotta do this or you’re not going to play or you’re going to the minors’, now it’s more, you’ve really gotta teach. It’s a ‘why’ generation. ‘Why are we doing this forecheck tonight’, and you’ve gotta explain.
“It’s a lot more teaching.”
Tocchet’s been known to refer to great, former New England Patriots coach and GM Bill Belichick. Appropriate in this case with today’s hockey; ‘it is what it is.’
Meanwhile, and despite that, keep building up those division rivalries, as in, ‘more please!’
