PHILADELPHIA — About eight hours before the puck dropped on Game 1 of their season, Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet was asked what was intended to be a bit of a softball question — or at least one that seemingly had an obvious answer.
Did he get the sense that his players were more excited, or more tense in the lead-up to the opener, in terms of following up their success from the previous season?
Tocchet could have praised his team’s mentality. He could have noted that training camp had been a success in his eyes and they were ready to start strong. He could have even spouted some cliches about his guys planning to take the season one game at a time.
Instead, Tocchet let the public get a glimpse of his mind’s inner dialogue regarding the psyche of his team.
“You know, that’s a good question,” Tocchet responded. “For the last two weeks, I would say mixed bag. I would say a mixed bag, to be honest with you.”
Tocchet didn’t sound like a coach fully confident in the strength of his team’s mindset — far from it. Instead, he sounded like one who had seen enough in camp and preseason to give him some pause, to make him wonder if just maybe, his team wasn’t as ready for the opener and the season as he wanted them to be.
If he did indeed harbor those thoughts, then he was right. Because they weren’t.
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15 Comments (11 conversations)
jackettmac
Spot on thoughts Chuck. A wake up call after 1 game? Disappointing is an understatement.
jonas
A humiliation on that scale might be exactly what a lot of these players needed. No way they want to experience that night after night.
jackettmac
Agreed
yoni
Coots said it. It’s not a good team. Hopefully Danny already knew this. My takeaway from last years Hurricanes was only 5-6 players still there from beginning of rebuild. Same here is going to happen. I just want watchable a couple years in a row. Thanks Charlie.
jimmyb
I like that the young core are a tight group, hang out a lot, some are roommates etc but they probably did a bit too much drinking, golfing, and Xbox this summer. Throw in the contract extensions for several of them, and complacency can set in. I think we will see a much higher degree of effort tonight. The East is too competitive this year to count on some major winning streak later in the season, so I hope they get their shit together soon.
Michael Sheahan
This Flyers team only won a single round in last year’s playoffs. They are by any measure, a very soft team in a very hard league. IMHO, if the Pens had started the goalie they had in net last night, the Pens would have won that series last spring. For some reason they trade away both Hathaway and Nick D, both of whom, while not good enough to keep here, have both found a home in Carolina? Those two guys would have made a difference last night. I love what Rick T. was able to achieve last year, but it appears that this very soft team needs a whip cracker for a coach as they just always seem to get way too comfy too often. And yes, this awful start is very much on the coaches. Vladar, also was just horsesh*t last night as well. Hopefully our new backup is much better prepared to play tonight. Someone let our “D” corps know that they are out there to clear the crease of opposing players also. Hitting the other team is NOT optional, it is required….
Ira Smith
YEAH, we really miss the two goals for a year that Hathaway and Deslaurier would have brought
Matthew
If this team can’t turn it around quickly then the winning culture they were trying to foster by avoiding stripping the team down and tanking clearly didn’t develop. I can deal with a bad loss but (other than a few players) the effort team wide looked like a July scrimmage. A few more games of this and I’d fire the coach. You just can’t let this happen as the coach, and if you can’t get the team out of bed for the season opener it seems like you probably don’t have much sway with the players.
Mike
The young guys (playing Xbox all Summer) are sporting young man bodies in a heavy weight league. If you are trying to avoid injury and feeling content with your status, you have a game like this. If I were Tocchet, and this continues, I’d send someone down to the AHL. Suddenly everyone will feel a sense of urgency.
ClarkesMissingTeeth
Where did you see that they were playing XBox all summer?
ifollowcharlieo
It was nice to see Mich and Seels start that scrum after the boarding hit on Benoit.
Other than that, I don’t think there is anything else worth remembering.
Ed Lowe
I love that the fans booed them. They deserved to be booed.
Kiall Jennett
Bump was good. That was a concern going in and the one positive takeaway.
etcz
I’ve never seen a team suffer from a “first round championship” hangover like the 2026-27 Philadelphia Flyers. They better come out on fire tonight.
David LaVeck
Utterly embarrassing. Man that was a tough watch, not one thing to get excited about in this one. You captured the essence of what may have attributed to such a bad loss. I put this game squarely on the players as the effort just wasn’t there. Not that the coaches are absolved but they are indirectly responsible.