{"id":110758,"date":"2025-08-01T17:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110758\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T17:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:01:11","slug":"flyers-coach-rick-tocchet-talks-matvei-michkov-porter-martone-on-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110758\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers coach Rick Tocchet talks Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone on podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Flyers<\/a> ushered in the second phase of their rebuild with the hiring of Rick Tocchet<\/a> as head coach in mid-May. <\/p>\n

The former Flyers power forward was put through the normal media ringer in the days that followed, including an in-depth conversation<\/a> with The Inquirer. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Flyers coach Rick Tocchet joins Team Canada\u2019s Olympic coaching staff<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

With the bonus of two-plus months to get to know the players and reacquaint himself with the organization he holds so dear, Tocchet provided another glimpse into his process Thursday as a guest on the Nasty Knuckles podcast.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the highlights from Tocchet\u2019s sitdown with former Flyer Riley Cote and equipment manager Derek Settlemyre.<\/p>\n

On Matvei Michkov\u2019s dump-and-chase comments<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to bust his [chops] when I see him. But, yeah, I know what he\u2019s saying. I mean, he wants to hold on to pucks, and he\u2019s got that talent, and we\u2019ve got to allow him to have that creativity,\u201d said Tocchet. \u201cListen, we want to get this guy the puck as much as possible, as he can make high-level plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tocchet clarified the importance of knowing when to make a play and when to dump it in:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big believer you got the blue line, if skates are pointing north, and if you\u2019re going this way fast, and you think you can make a play, make it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if your skates are sideways, and there\u2019s no speed anywhere, and you\u2019re trying to make a play under that, a no-speed play, and you lose the puck, I don\u2019t care who you are. I don\u2019t care about, \u2018oh, I want to make a play.\u2019 Well, that\u2019s not the right play. If you want to play late in the middle of June and win a Stanley Cup, you can\u2019t play that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

On fixing the power play<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran the power play in Pittsburgh, and [Crosby] used to talk about that we should have a mentality that we have the extra guy. Everybody wants plays, this isn\u2019t football, now you have a concept, but once you beat pressure, then you have to attack. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you overpressure [on the penalty kill], a skilled guy should make you pay. There\u2019s no play; to me, it\u2019s attack. You should have three at the net. And if somebody makes a play, somebody\u2019s going to get back door, or you shoot it, or it\u2019s a rebound, or it\u2019s a retrieval, and that\u2019s when you score. \u2026 I haven\u2019t watched a ton of the Flyers\u2019 power play [last] last year, to be honest with you. But I venture to bet, they didn\u2019t get a lot of retrievals. It\u2019s one-and-done type of hockey. Retrievals are everything in power play and attacking after pressure is it for me, then you have the plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the \u2018another former Flyer\u2019 criticism<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at Craig Berube. He was a coach here. He leaves here, wins the Stanley Cup, successful guy,\u201d said Tocchet. \u201cI just think it\u2019s an unfair statement<\/a>, and I get it. Hey, listen, when you don\u2019t win \u2026 there\u2019s going to be reasons people have [the opinions] that they have. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: The Flyers\u2019 reputation for hiring ex-players is overblown when it comes to coaches. Rick Tocchet\u2019s a different case altogether.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to be an old Flyer. The old Flyers, they were successful. You can go back to the 70s, I get it. In the 80s and 90s won a lot of hockey games, and there was a great culture here. So I think there are some things to learn from the past, but you\u2019ve got to be progressive. [I\u2019d] be crazy to think I\u2019m going to be an old-time coach. You\u2019ve got to be progressive. You\u2019ve got to be a partner with these players. You\u2019ve got to give them a voice, and you\u2019ve got to explain why we\u2019re doing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

On \u2018The Michigan\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cI want our players to be creative with the puck,\u201d said Tocchet. \u201cDon\u2019t get rid of pucks, make plays under pressure, hold on to pucks. That\u2019s what Florida does. So we\u2019re going to train that way, you know? \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the creativity that I want, listen, \u2018The Michigan\u2019, if that\u2019s the best way for you to score, go for it, right? If you\u2019re doing it for show, then I\u2019m going to have a problem. \u2026 But I want guys to have fun, too.<\/p>\n

On his assistant hires<\/p>\n

Jaroslav Svejkovsk\u00fd: \u201cHe was a skills coach three or four years ago [in Vancouver], and I watched how the players kind of got better under him. \u2026 He\u2019s a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jay Varady: \u201cJay was my minor-league coach with Tucson when I was in Phoenix, so I brought him up during the bubble year and thought he did an outstanding job. Players gravitate to him, Conor Garland, all those guys loved him, [including Clayton] Keller.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd Reirden: \u201cI talked to players [like Matt Niskanen, Kris Letang, and Alex Goligoski] and these guys were raving about Todd, and obviously, I sit and talk to Todd, and [he] tells me his philosophy. He\u2019s got some smart, smart ideas on how to defend and how to get some offense walking the blue line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Flyers hire assistants Jay Varady and Jaroslav Svejkovsk\u00fd, as Rick Tocchet\u2019s coaching staff begins to take shape<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Takeaways from development camp<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of big guys, a lot of big [defenseman], I don\u2019t want to cut some other players short but this guy [Spencer] Gill \u2026 and I was watching him out there, long, 6-foot-5, good hands, and they got a bunch of these different guys,\u201d Tocchet said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think it\u2019s important, [Porter] Martone, big kid, greasy kid, these are the kids that are [not only] tough, but they\u2019re tough to play against, and they can score. So we\u2019ll see. Hopefully, this draft works out. But when I watched development camp, I was really impressed with a lot of the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Alex Bump<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched him and was really impressed,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cNobody\u2019s guaranteed jobs, but I\u2019d like to see him push people for a job. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was taking the puck to the middle off the rush, like he\u2019d somehow get himself in a scoring position in the middle of the ice. \u2026 Now, he\u2019s got to develop other parts of his game. But yeah, he\u2019s definitely on the radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Porter Martone going to college<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the choice. \u2026 You hamper a kid when you only have, I can only do this or that. \u2026 College hockey, you get what, four or five practices a week. \u2026 So development-wise, I think it\u2019s a good thing. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really part of the decision, to be honest here. But when you talk to the agent, the player, Danny Bri\u00e8re<\/a>, with Jones, and the development guys, it seems like everybody agreed with that [choice].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Flyers\u2019 Porter Martone going to Michigan State could be the best outcome for all involved<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Crosby\u2019s praise for Tyson Foerster<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the worlds, I talked to [Crosby], and he was really impressed with [Foerster],\u201d said Tocchet. \u201cBecause he\u2019s a pro. Sid loves pros, like [Foerster\u2019s] approach to the game, the way he prepared, the way he listened and practiced \u2026 as a young kid. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [Crosby] compliments you, it means something, so yeah, that\u2019s awesome to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the goaltending situation<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will play itself out \u2026 I have no idea. I know they\u2019re both capable goalies, and we have to put a system in front of them to help them out, too,\u201d said Tocchet. \u201cI don\u2019t like goalies playing post to post, so your system should make them play half the net. If most of the coverages are where they play half the net, it\u2019s a goalie\u2019s dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Flyers ushered in the second phase of their rebuild with the hiring of Rick Tocchet as head…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[70372,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-110758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-coach-rick-tocchet-nasty-knuckles-podcast-michkov-martone-power-play","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114954586650673124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}