Rick Tocchet hoping Flyers’ opening drop in intensity is ‘one-game thing’

NEWARK, N.J. – This wasn’t the first time a Rick Tocchet team laid an egg on opening night. But going through the experience in the past doesn’t necessarily make things any easier for a coach.

Few saw Wednesday night’s 7-0 bombing by Pittsburgh coming. At least the Flyers had the chance to flush that out of their system less than 24 hours later with a visit to Prudential Center and the Devils.

Tocchet met the media prior to Thursday night’s game and said his messaging to the team after the embarrassing defeat was simple.

“You have to take it as a one-game thing, hopefully,” he said. “I felt like the last couple preseason (games) it was the same thing. We’ve just got to get to our game a little quicker tonight. And play for each other.”

The coach discussed why there seemed to be issues with both the intensity and structure of the effort against the Penguins. Which will he try to fix first?

“For me, it’s the intensity,” he said. “When you don’t have intensity, the Xs and Os suffer because you have to make more decisions. We just weren’t on pucks. They had the puck most of the night.

“It happened last year at the start of the year. In January we weren’t playing aggressive enough. We have to make different decisions. When you have the puck more, you have to make less decisions. That’s really what it comes down to.”

One bad decision took place in the first period when Porter Martone messed up a line change. He took a penalty early in the second on which the Penguins scored, and Martone found himself on the bench the rest of the period.

Tocchet downplayed the incident, spreading the blame to much of the lineup.

“It was everybody, it wasn’t Porter,” the coach said. “The line changes are something you can control. And we weren’t good at that either. We were missing the As, Bs and Cs to go to the D. Instead of going through a guy or holding onto a puck, we were kind of softly going through somebody. We weren’t going to the net. It’s not just him (Martone), it’s everybody. You have to do the little things to score goals.”

It didn’t sound like the coach felt he had to have a follow-up conversation with Martone.

“I think there’s a lot of hype on him,” Tocchet said. “He’s just got to learn who he is. I know he wants to score a goal but you have to go through the procession to score a goal.”

The coach put some of the blame on his own shoulders for Wednesday.

“They were prepared to play and we weren’t,” he said. “It’s on me. So we have to be prepared.”

It was particularly galling because the Xfinity Mobile Arena was so jacked up for the opener after last season’s promising late run.

“It should gnaw on everybody,” Tocchet said. “Just a bad effort. Opening night in your own building, player introductions, national TV. The best thing is you get to redeem yourself as a team. That’s character.”

The Flyers acquired forward David Goyette from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for forward Devin Kaplan Tuesday. Goyette will report to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Goyette, 22, was selected by Seattle in the second round (61st overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft. He has appeared in 108 AHL games with the Coachella Valley Firebirds from 2024-26, recording nine goals and 28 points.