Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t happy with one of his team’s premier lines in Monday night’s loss.
The Canucks lost 4-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime and the head coach was not impressed by the trio of Conor Garland, Elias Pettersson, and Nils Höglander.
The line has been one of the best for the Canucks over their recent stretch but was barely used tonight. They had the lowest five-on-five ice-time for any Canucks line across the first 40 minutes and then broken up in the last period as Arshdeep Bains took Höglander’s spot.
The three players on that line had two combined shots at five-on-five through the first 50 minutes of the game.
“Obviously, when you change it, you didn’t like it right? So I didn’t like a couple things,” said Tocchet when asked about his deployment of the trio.
“Didn’t like Hoggy at all, Petey…listen I’m not going to pick on that line, I just felt that I wanted to make a couple changes.”
“Obviously if you change it you don’t like it right? So I didn’t like a couple things,” says Tocchet about the Garland/Höglander/Pettersson line.
“I didn’t like Hoggy at all, Petey…..”
Then stops himself and says he doesn’t want to pick on the line. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/A4AnVLM4ct
— Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) October 29, 2024
Pettersson played a season-low 16:38 tonight and finished the game minus-one. Höglander also played a season-low mark, although just by 41 seconds. He did manage to get a secondary assist.
The Canucks got goals from Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes, and Pius Suter in the loss.
That line wasn’t the only thing Tocchet didn’t like from tonight’s performance. He was also unimpressed with the power-play which failed to score with three opportunities.
“We’re going to have to make some changes,” said the head coach about his team’s units. “Not working hard enough, very lackadaisical.”
The Canucks are now 4-1-3 and have gathered points in seven of eight games this year. They’re back in action on Wednesday as they take on Jack and Luke Hughes and the New Jersey Devils. The head coach will be hoping for a better effort.
“It’s early in the season but we need some guys to take the information we give them and apply it,” said Tocchet.
“Early on, not moving their feet, not winning battles. But then we decided to do the things and we made a game out of it. Take the positive that we got the point but there are still lessons to learn.”
🗣 Hear from Head Coach Rick Tocchet post-game.#Canucks | @theprovince pic.twitter.com/l2prAkYv1d
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 29, 2024