After a Vancouver Canucks loss, the postgame press conference with head coach Rick Tocchet is typically a muted affair.
That’s not unusual. Players and coaches alike are generally more expansive after a win — more willing to go in-depth in an answer or entertain more interesting questions. After a loss, they frequently turn into Johnny Tightlips — answers are typically clipped and they often lapse into cliche, making it harder to draw out interesting quotes and insights.
Tuesday’s postgame presser after an overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues seemed to be heading in that direction, with Tocchet giving short answers to the first few questions, suggesting that this particular press conference might be a short one.
Then things got a little bit spicy.
Here’s a quick insight into how these types of press conferences and media scrums go. Fans often bemoan the questions asked by the media but the key to understanding them is knowing what different media member is seeking with their questions.
A radio guy like Brendan Batchelor is looking for general statements about the game as a whole that are easy to use in a postgame show or for the talking heads to plug into their morning shows the next day. A TV reporter often wants a quote that will play well in a short clip as part of a highlight package. Anyone writing for a deadline like a newspaper or Canadian Press reporter is typically looking for a quote that will fit into the game story they’ve already written. Someone writing for a more specialized sports audience like Thomas Drance at The Athletic might be looking for minutiae on tactics or a specific moment in a game.
What this can sometimes mean is that the same topic gets asked about in multiple different ways by multiple different reporters looking for a quote that fits their specific needs.
So, when Drance asked a question about the power play that led to some discussion about how Elias Pettersson attacked the net, I followed up connecting Pettersson’s play to a quote Tocchet gave from their last game about the Tampa Bay Lightning’s “best players” winning the game for them. That led into TSN’s Farhan Lalji asking about how Pettersson has stepped up in the absence of J.T. Miller.
“You guys are obsessed with Petey, yeah?” said Tochet with a sideways smile. “Petey, Petey, Petey — every game. Sorry, sorry…You guys are good at it, you analyse the game, why do I have to? When I asked questions at TNT, I never always said, ‘Hey, this player.’ I know what you’re saying, it’s just, I love you guys, but it gets old. Every time, Petey, Petey.
“I know you want me to say the wrong thing, that’s why. I’m not falling for that trap anymore.”
There were some laughs around the room, some likely because they saw the “trap” comment as a joke, some perhaps because it was unclear if any of it was a joke at all. But then Tocchet popped the tension in the room.
“I’m joking, that is a legitimate question,” said Tocchet. “I’m screwing around with you. He has been producing since J.T.’s been out. Hopefully, with J.T. coming back, those two will both produce like they did last year for us.”
At the very end, Drance provided the button with the final question: “What did you think of Pettersson’s faceoffs?”
Tocchet laughed, then asked, “What were they?” and Drance had to admit he didn’t know. “That was good,” said Tocchet with another chuckle.
It was definitely an unusual press conference, as Tocchet doesn’t normally get that punchy. While Tocchet said he was joking, there seemed to be some legitimate frustration there. Whether it was with the media for asking so much about Pettersson or some underlying frustration with the Canucks’ mediocre play on home ice is hard to say.
But let’s be clear: it’s fine. There’s no animosity between Tocchet and the media. A few media members even chatted with Tocchet in the corridor as he walked back to his office, quipping about asking more questions about Pettersson, myself included. It was congenial because we’re all just doing our jobs and we’re going to have to continue to do those jobs for the rest of the season and beyond, so what’s the point in being combative and adversarial?
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time for being combative and adversarial. It’s just that time wasn’t after I watched this game.
- The big story of the game was, of course, the return of Thatcher Demko to the Canucks’ net. And I’ll be the first to say it: he wasn’t great. Don’t get me wrong, he made a few very good saves and bailed out the Canucks several times but he also gave up some uncharacteristic goals against and seemed to have trouble tracking the puck. That’s pretty understandable after missing nearly eight months and he admitted that the speed of the game was a tough adjustment: “Those are all just in-game reads that will get sharper over time.”
- “I felt rusty, for sure,” said Demko, adding, “There’s a couple things I can clean up that shouldn’t take too much time, just different reads and different ideas positionally, things like that. I’m frustrated losing the game. I want to make a couple of those saves but there’s some things I can build off.”
- The skaters in front of Demko didn’t let him ease into things. Instead, it was like throwing someone into a lake to teach them how to swim. While the Canucks only allowed 25 shots, a handful of those came on breakaways. If the thinking was that Demko’s debut would inspire the team to lock things down defensively, it definitely didn’t work out that way.
- “You don’t want to give a team four or five breakaways or odd-man rushes, so it’s not very good,” said Conor Garland. “But he’s a battler, he hangs in there and makes big saves. That’s why he’s the greatest.”
- Demko took a spill in the opening minute when Radek Faksa swept the leg like Johnny Lawrence. Evidently, Radek didn’t give a Faksa ‘bout Demko’s injury.
- The Canucks opened the scoring on Dakota Joshua’s first goal of the season, appropriately assisted by good buddy Conor Garland. A bad line change by the Blues meant Ryan Suter — who is still in the NHL, apparently — was flat-footed and Garland blew right past him to move in 2-on-1. Joshua charged the net and Garland put the puck right on his tape.
- “It felt good, it felt good,” said Joshua. “We’ve been working but it was nice to finally see one go in.”
- The Blues quickly responded on a goal that Demko wanted to have back. Really, he wanted the whole play back, as it started with him giving the puck away to Dylan Holloway. The Blues winger swung the puck to Zach Bolduc — no relation to former Canuck Alex Bolduc — and Demko seemed to have trouble tracking the puck around the frustratingly opaque Oskar Sundqvist in front of him, as he didn’t react to the shot until after the puck was already in the net.
- The Canucks got lucky a few minutes later, as Brayden Schenn went flying past a wholly unaware Carson Soucy to move in alone on Demko. He had Demko dead to rights with a deke to the backhand but clunked the puck off the post. It’s possible the dual stick checks from Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes played a role.
- After Pettersson drew a tripping penalty, the Canucks’ power play went to work (derogatory). Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk ran into each other along the boards and the Blues stole the puck, then Garland gambled on the clearing attempt and completely whiffed on the bouncing puck. Robert Thomas, who wishes the real world would just stop hassling him, sniped the puck top corner past Demko to take the 2-1 lead.
- Kiefer Sherwood isn’t a centre, so it’s not surprising that he went 0-for-3 in the faceoff circle when was called upon. What was surprising was when the right-handed Sherwood switched his stick to a left-handed grip for a faceoff on the left side of the ice, which is a trick Aatu Räty uses to take faceoffs on his off side. It didn’t work but it was still neat to see.
- It may sound surprising but I don’t actually like complaining about NHL officiating. It just feels like there have been a lot of truly awful penalty calls this season and the tripping call on Brock Boeser felt like a new low. As Boeser was forechecking, Colton Parayko’s feet slipped out from under him without Boeser touching them. The ref right next to the play kept his arm down; the ref at centre ice, Peter MacDougall, called a trip, to the utter disbelief of both Boeser and Tocchet.
- When Brock Boeser, one of the nicest guys in the league, looks at you like this, you know you messed up.
- To make it worse, the Blues scored on the power play. Pavel Buchnevich moved from the bumped to the front of the net and Tyler Myers moved with him, opening up a Tyler Myers-sized passing lane through the slot. Thomas sent a cross-seam pass through to Kyrou and Demko couldn’t get across quickly enough to make the stop.
- “I mean, listen, [the ref] came over and said he thought he saw something,” said Tocchet. “[Those calls] happen, I mean, it is what it is. What are you going to do? Sometimes, the refs, there’s people in front of them, it’s a tough play. But you move on from those things.”
- The Canucks responded on what some might argue was a make-up call but was really just a correct call — it was even the other ref, Cody Beach, who called it, so it wasn’t even MacDougall correcting his own mistake. In any case, the Canucks getting a power play of their own didn’t mean all was forgiven, as Tocchet still gave MacDougall an earful as the power play was starting.
- The Canucks’ power play seemed to take some motivation from the bad call, as they were buzzing right from puck drop with multiple chances. At one point, Buchnevich broke his stick, so decided his best bet was just to shadow Quinn Hughes, so Hughes skated out into the neutral zone to create a 4-on-3 situation. It was chaos but chaos is a ladder.
- Finally, all the pucks thrown at the net bore fruit. Boeser found Pettersson with a cross-seam pass but, with no shooting lane, he tried to find Garland at the backdoor for a tap-in. Instead, Parayko did the tapping, then collapsed in despair like King Lear: dramatically.
- Might there be a lesson in scoring a power play goal by being so direct about getting the puck to the net? “Definitely,” said Pettersson. “We need to outwork the PK and, when we do that, good things happen…Shoot the puck, recover, shoot the puck. It sounds cliche but that power play goal shows it…I think we’ve got to play with that intensity of shoot the puck, recover, and continue the shooting mentality.”
- Demko’s best save on the night came on yet another breakaway — actually a 2-on-0 after Carson Soucy blew a tire and blocked Hughes’ skating lane in the process. Sundqvist set up Holloway, who deked to the backhand, but Demko hung out his left pad to rob him. Actually, the save was so good that we can’t just call it “rob”; that was definitely “Robert.”
- "In that moment, you're just trying to make the save," said Demko, suggesting there wasn't a lot of special technique involved. "Luckily, I'm long enough to cover that side of the net on that one."
- I am not making a joke about Demko being "long enough." Stop it.
- The Canucks pushed hard for the tying goal in the third period, like when Garland drew a penalty on a fantastic shift, then Pettersson hammered a one-timer off the crossbar on the subsequent power play. The Canucks didn’t actually get a shot on goal in the third, however, until ten minutes in when Danton Heinen, after outmuscling Matthew Kessel along the boards, set up Max Sasson alone in front at point-blank range. It was a golden opportunity for his first career goal but Sasson couldn’t quite lift the puck over Joel Hofer’s pad.
- It took pulling Demko for the extra attacker to finally get the tying goal. Boeser again found Pettersson cross-ice but Pettersson had to take the pass of his skate and couldn’t get a shot off. Like he was Josh Ruben, it was no problem for Pettersson, who instead swung a backhand pass out front to DeBrusk, who sent the puck top shelf for his 10th goal in his last 9 games.
- “There’s moments in a game where you really need your guys to produce or turn the tide,” said Tocchet. “That was a big goal that Petey got us and, obviously, the Jake goal — those are big moments.”
- Unfortunately, overtime went very poorly, as the Blues had possession the entire time. Soucy, for an unknown reason, gave Holloway a clear path to the net as if he was defending a 2-on-1 that didn’t exist. DeBrusk also could have been a bit more urgent on the backcheck but that was inexplicable from Soucy and Holloway took full advantage, snapping the puck over Demko’s glove.
- “Unfortunately, we took the wrong angle and their guy made a hell of a goal,” said Tocchet.
