If you hate it when the Vancouver Canucks play dump-and-chase hockey, you’re in good company; Rick Tocchet hates it too.
That may come as a surprise — isn’t Tocchet the dump-and-chase guy? — but he readily agreed when I suggested the team gave up possession too easily with their dump-and-chase game after taking a 2-1 lead in the second period against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
Instead, Tocchet wanted his team to continue pushing the Sabres back by keeping possession and attacking off the rush.
“To be a rush team, you need all five people skating,” said Tocchet. “You can't just have two guys skating and the rest just post it up…We've been preaching until the cows come home, you've got to move your feet in this league. You've got to attack the interior; you've got to come off the wall; you have to have double drives — that's a good rush team if you can do that; the D's got to get up in the play, you can't lag behind.
“You need four on the attack as a good rush team and sometimes we're not getting that for whatever reason.”
Tocchet was clearly frustrated after the 3-2 loss to the Sabres, a team that’s currently dead last in the Eastern Conference and was playing on the second half of back-to-back nights. But he wasn’t just frustrated that the team gave up the lead and lost but in how they weren’t executing what the coaching staff wanted them to do.
“It's just been a microcosm of our season,” said Tocchet. “Key times, key moments: we're not getting them…Sometimes in the key moment, we're just — I hate to use the word — we go kind of numb for whatever reason.”
Tocchet emphasized that even once his team got the 2-1 lead, he wanted the team to “keep attacking” and lamented his team’s tendency to defer instead of taking charge.
“When we've got a bunch of good things happening, and all of a sudden a guy gets it, and then he just kind of defers to, like, not moving his feet and ‘I'll just throw it to the point,’” said Tocchet. “That's the one thing where the coaching staff gets a little frustrated, because that's when you really want to, when you've got the team down, you really want to keep doing the same thing, right? We've got to attack the interior, but I just felt we were perimeter.”
In other words, the boring, low-event hockey that features nothing more than dump-and-chase hockey, low-to-high plays in the offensive zone, and low-percentage shots from the point? Tocchet is just as frustrated by it as the fans are.
Unlike the fans, of course, Tocchet can do something about it. At least, in theory.
It’s easy to point the fingers at the head coach in this situation and Tocchet certainly bears some responsibility. His previous coaching stints haven’t exactly featured high-event teams that get a lot of shots on goal. At the same time, this core group of players is on its fourth head coach.
Something’s got to give. Like Tocchet, I was bewildered and frustrated when I watched this game.
- The Canucks haven’t won two games in a row in 23 games. That’s over a quarter of the season without back-to-back wins. It’s truly shocking, at this point. Even the last-place San Jose Sharks have won two games in a row in 2025.
- Quinn Hughes was paired with Mark Friedman to start the game, but also played 6:43 with Filip Hronek. In that brief ice time together, the Canucks gave up two goals. So, don’t blame Friedman for this one.
- Midway through the first period, Pius Suter poked a puck past Rasmus Dahlin and tried to drive past him for an odd-man rush. Dahlin’s stick got stuck in Suter’s equipment, so, for a moment, it looked like Suter was playing with two sticks. This was the most entertaining moment of the first period, which should tell you a lot about the first period, despite Thomas Drance repeatedly calling it “fast, fun hockey” in the press box, a claim he recanted by the end of the period.
- The Sabres opened the scoring after Brock Boeser missed a breakout pass from Quinn Hughes, leading to an icing. Elias Pettersson, who had won the preceding faceoff on his strong side, lost the ensuing faceoff on his weak side, and Tage Thompson took the puck, maneuvered across the top of the slot, and whipped a shot past Thatcher Demko.
- “If I just win the draw on their first goal, it doesn't happen,” said Pettersson. “Then I try to block it and I end up screening Demmer — it went right through my legs. So, yeah, I've just got to be better.”
- The Canucks responded well in the second period and got a bounce off of some offensive zone pressure. J.T. Miller and Carson Soucy played catch to create some space and a shooting lane and Soucy’s shot hit Phil Di Giuseppe’s skate and deflected wide of the net. As the excellently-named Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen looked over the wrong shoulder, the puck made like old Mr. Johnson’s yellow cat and came back to Di Giuseppe and he shot it into the net.
- “We scored a goal because our D moved their feet, changed direction, we got the puck through,” said Tocchet, clearly frustrated that his D weren’t doing that more often.
- The Canucks had an absolutely dominant shift midway through the second period, as they took advantage of Sabres defenceman Dennis Gilbert breaking his stick to control play in the offensive zone for over a minute. Halfway through the shift, Derek Forbort made a stunning cross-seam pass to Boeser for what should have been an easy, open-net goal. But Boeser seemed just as surprised as every Canucks fan by Forbort making that pass and completely missed the puck.
- The dominant shift culminated in Quinn Hughes taking the ice and deciding that it was time for the Canucks to score. He attacked down the left side, first setting up Boeser in the crease, then regaining the puck off the rebound and setting up Pettersson, who, like The Februarys, had all the time in the world to snipe the top corner.
- I asked Pettersson how they can have more of those types of shifts in the future and he deadpanned, “Break one of their sticks.”
- The trouble was, after that fantastic shift and beautiful goal, the Canucks couldn’t extend the lead and the Sabres started to push back. Demko made a great blocker save in the shift after the goal, then the Canucks got a bit lucky when a rebound off a Sabres 2-on-1 bounced through Dylan Cozens’ legs with an open net. Like a Pokémon trainer choosing Charmander as their starter, they were playing with fire.
- The Sabres’ tying goal came off some incredibly sloppy defensive coverage by the Canucks. Hronek went to the boards to try (and fail) to cut off a pass, which was risky, then Hughes went to the puck-carrier, meaning both defencemen were below the goal line, which isn’t ideal. But that could have been fine if Danton Heinen, whose responsibility was the middle of the ice, had come down low to support his defence. Instead, Jiri Kulich was wide open in front to finish off JJ Peterka’s pass.
- The Sabres’ third goal was reminiscent of their first. Teddy Blueger won a faceoff on his strong side but Hughes’ breakout pass missed Kiefer Sherwood and went for an icing. Blueger lost the subsequent faceoff on his weak side and all three forwards rushed the point, so when Dahlin jumped up the left side, he had Peterka wide open in the bumper for a one-timer.
- “Not to pick on people, you've got to go straight line. If you go straight line, you probably get that play,” said Tocchet of the first goal of a faceoff. “And the other one, a couple of guys went on their different routes. Two goals in the guts of the ice, right? Can't happen. If we're in the right spots, they're not goals.”
- It’s hard to blame the goaltender in a game where the team in front of him only scored two goals but Demko was quick to say that he wanted to get a piece of at least one of the third period goals, knowing that it could have made the difference. Demko now has an .873 save percentage in his 11 starts this season after returning from his popliteus injury.
- “We've got to man up a little bit, and certainly myself included,” said Demko. “I mean, I don't think I've been good enough this year so far. So, I've got to keep working to find that level that I know I can get to, and I'll be the first guy working on my game day in and day out. So, focus on myself and focus on my game and I think if everyone does that, then we'll be okay.”
- Hughes was on the ice for three goals against and it was two of his breakout passes that went for icings, so it’s fair to say that this was an off game for him. He gave the Canucks their best chance to tie the game, however, with just over five minutes left. He stepped around his man at the point to jump up the left side, then spotted Hronek activating for the backdoor play. With an open net, Hronek heeled the puck and sent the puck so far wide that it didn’t even enter the crease.
- The miss looks bad from the angle of the TV cameras. From the press box on the opposite side of the ice, it was even more egregious, as it was clear that Hronek had the entire net available, from post to post. That one hurts.
- “In hockey, there's key moments,” said Tocchet. “Most of the game is played — 70-80% — kind of neutral. It's that 30%, you need big moments, where the tide turns. Whether it's a big face off win or a block or a back door play to an open net — scoring there — these are big plays that you've got to make.”
- To their credit, the Canucks pushed hard in the final minutes, with a couple of great chances at 6-on-5 with the goalie pulled. To their debit, they shouldn’t have needed the extra attacker to beat the Sabres. This game should have been won long before those final minutes.
- At least Canucks fans got a thrilling finish, as the Canucks managed to gain the offensive zone with possession as the final seconds ticked down. With Pettersson running some subtle interference, Boeser got a shot off with 1.4 seconds left and Luukkonen kicked out a rebound to the net-crashing Conor Garland, who got his stick on the puck but was robbed by Luukkonen’s left Ukko (or maybe it was his right Pekka).
- It was agonizing because it would have counted. There was just enough time on the clock for that last, split-second miracle goal. The Canucks shouldn’t have needed it but they almost got it.
- “There’s pockets of some good stuff,” said Tocchet. “And there’s pockets where we’re just — I don’t know if it’s, I don’t want to say defeated, but we’re up 2-to-1. You should feel confident. You should want that puck. You should know off the faceoff, this is where I’ve gotta go.
"For whatever reason, I don’t know, there’s a few guys — I don’t know whether a few can be four, five, six some nights — where they just kind of stand around. It’s like it’s too big for them sometimes. I don’t know why. Just go play. That’s the frustrating part.”
