- Rick Tocchet didn’t hold back after the Flyers got shut out 7-0 by Pittsburgh
- The Flyers coach also pointed at the length of training camp, and at himself
- Read below for the full postgame video and the rest of his comments
Rick Tocchet has seen enough of his defense already.
The Flyers coach was asked about Wednesday’s 7-0 home-opener loss to the Penguins, and he went right at his team’s own end of the ice.
“Our D-zone was the worst,” Tocchet said. “Since I’ve been here, that’s the worst D-zone I’ve ever seen.”
Watch Tocchet’s full postgame presser:
He opened the presser with a shrug. Tocchet said he honestly didn’t have an answer, and that Pittsburgh “did everything better than us tonight.”
Puck battles were the next thing he brought up.
“I don’t know if we won a battle,” he said. “When you don’t win battles, they have the puck.”
Philadelphia got outshot 38-19 and never found an answer for a Pittsburgh lineup full of new faces. Nick Robertson scored twice in his Penguins debut, Hendrix Lapierre and Filip Hallander also scored, and Arturs Silovs stopped all 19 shots. We broke down the goals in our Silovs shutout recap.
Fans let the Flyers hear it at the final horn:
Asked whether a result like this worries him long term, the coach tried to keep it in perspective, saying it’s a long year and the team can’t get too high or too low. Still, he said there were “alarming things” out there, and that the last two exhibition games looked the same.
When a reporter brought up the shorter preseason, Tocchet didn’t use it as cover.
“I don’t think it’s an excuse, but I find younger players need a longer training camp,” Tocchet said. “That’s not an excuse. That’s the way it is. Everybody lives in that world, so it’s on me to teach it better.”
Defenseman Travis Sanheim didn’t sugarcoat it either, telling reporters it “was as ugly as it could have gotten.”
It stung a little extra given the opponent. Philadelphia knocked Pittsburgh out in six games in the first round last spring, and the Penguins tied their franchise record for the biggest shutout win over the Flyers, matching a 7-0 game from March 1988.
There’s no time to stew on it. The Flyers visit the Devils on Thursday, and Tocchet already warned that a repeat performance against New Jersey would go the same way.
