OverDrive - Tocchet on the Flyers' season, the league's condensed scheduling and Olympics coaching

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Flyers' season, the team turning up the notch, Trevor Zegras' star status in the organization, building players mindset, the scheduling of the season, the Olympics' roster and more.

Here he is on the Maple Toyota Hotline, the head coach of the Flyers, Rick Tockett. How are you, Rick? Good. How are you guys? We're doing very well. You must be happy with your team through 41 games. Yeah, it's been a fun team to coach. You know, what is it, halfway through the point, a lot of hockey left. But, yeah, we like what's going on.

We've got some injuries here coming up. But the depth has really helped us out this year when we've had some injuries and kind of trying to keep the losses to minimum. Talk, we were talking about your fights and showing a bunch of your fights before you came on because we loved talking about that. A couple of weeks ago it seemed like you were going to fight a reporter when they kept asking you about Mitch Koff.

Did you just get sick of talking about it and you're like it's about the team and I'm just not addressing the questions about this guy anymore? Yeah, it was, no, it's actually a nice guy, Jordan Hall. He just happened to be the fifth guy, The six guy that answered a different question on it. So, yeah, he's a good guy. Yeah, I know, just, you know, after a while, it's just, you know,

the team was doing well, and I was like, you know, I don't mind three or four questions, but the fifth and six when I was getting a little bit tired, you know. They're good guys. I mean, what are you going to do that? They're trying to get information. I get it. Yeah.

Well, I mean, being back in Philly, it's obviously where you started, and a lot of those clips we were playing. Some guy wrote who it was on Calgary. Who the hell was that guy? Baxter. Paul Baxter. Paul Baxter, where he gave him the body shot at one time,

and we played the fight with you and Wendell at the Gardens. I think that was in 85 or 86. Like being back in Philly, it must be, is it nostalgic for you? And how many people want to ask you about your playing days as opposed to your coaching days? Yeah, well, let me clarify the Paul Baxter one was he actually, you don't see it. Like, he went by me, it almost hit me in the eye with his stick.

So that's why I kind of went a little crazy. But, yeah, not so much. I mean, like, you know, not so much of my playing is. I mean, obviously, we had a lot of success in the 80s and the early 90s, and it was a fun place to play. But I'll tell you what, last night against the Ducks was probably the loudest I've heard the building. It reminded me in the old days with the Flyers. It was a really loud building.

They were into it. They got the team into it. So it was fun to play in that atmosphere to see the fans really. do their thing. Well, I'm glad you brought that up because you look at a guy like Zegras who, you know, I don't think this is offside in saying he doesn't scream like Philly hockey the way, you know, he's built and he plays when you consider the Rick Tockets and the Bobby Clarks and the Eric Lindross is like the face of those of Philly hockey for the last 50 years. But he seems to be fitting in and the crowd seems to love him. Like why is

he, why has it worked for Zegris in Philly? you know he's got a bubbly personality you know we knew that coming in he's a fun guy to be around you know obviously he's produced which helps uh you know and then the flyers fans over the years they're looking for that you know they've been looking for that star guy to follow right and he's done a nice job you know he scores some big goals for his you know he's a you know he's a great interview and and you can tell the fans really are warming up to him and love him so i think that's what it has to do with and you know he's he's a really good guy in the locker I didn't know Trevor much.

The one thing, you know, and OV, you know this too, and address you. You know, you have a collective group, right? You have the funny guys, the quiet guys, the serious guys, and he just adds that to a room, you know. And I think he's really helped, you know, that closeness of the team. It's a very close group. It's a young group, but it's very close, and I think he's part of that.

Talk, how far away do you think you guys are? like there's always discussions when they're, you know, rebuilding and doing different things, retooling, and then you get to a point where it's like, okay, guys, you know, it's time to go. Like, is there any timeline on that for you as a coach or is it just, you know, let's try to do this as soon as possible? Well, I mean, when I was talking to Danny and Jones, you know, about the job, you know, they really stress it. Hey, this is, you know, we're getting close to the end of a rebuild. you know, we want to start stacking some things together, right? We don't want to always be sellers at the trade deadline.

I'm not sure this year they expected, you know, to be where we're at. So I don't think things are going to change. I think they're still, you know, want to progress in the same manner. You know, sometimes as coaches we get answered me, we're like, hey, man, can we go get this, can we get that? But, you know, I also understand why I took the job and the task at hand and the plan. So, you know, I bought into it, and I'm all in. So, you know, I think I've got to be judged on, you know, obviously you get judged on wins and loss. It don't get me wrong, but is, you know, can you get guys to play better?

Can you develop guys at the NHL level? Things like that. And I think that's something that, you know, I've been trying to do this year, you know, try to put the culture in. I mean, I know it's the most overused word of sports. I hate to keep using it. But it is true. Like, we're trying to build something with the crest. I'm a crest guy.

And, you know, I believe in culture. And, you know, it's not just an individual game. It's a team game. So that's what we're trying to stress here, and that's part of the plan. You just mentioned something I found interesting because for as long as I was around the National Hockey League, the quote in the term, this is not a developmental league. And you just said developing guys at the NHL. How is that kind of new in the league, and how do you do that?

Yeah, well, it's a young league now. Well, I mean, listen, I don't believe, you know, you get the people that say to you, hey, play the young guys and let them make their mistakes and play. Well, I mean, I get it to a point, and you're trying to develop a guy, you know, put some guys out in this pressure situation to see if they get handled. I understand that, but, you know, the type of mistakes you can't accept are, you know, the carelessness, the not work ethic and stuff like that. So you're developing the player to be, you know, not everyday NHL player. We have some guys that every day are trying to be an NHL player. So I got to try to put them in the right positions, but there's also got to the internal competition and all that.

sort of stuff. So, yeah, I think the development, it really isn't a development league, but it is developing a player at this level. You know, let's take a guy as Gibranca, like he's trying to be an everyday NHL player, and we've been trying to you know, all year

you know, try to develop into that. And he's a way ahead of he was two months ago, so he is developing into an NHL player. So I just use him as an example. With Rick Talkin. So you're going to be a part of the staff for Canada at the Olympic Games and prior to us getting to that.

I want to ask you about how you're navigating the schedule. We talk about it constantly on this show. And that Olympic break in particular, like everyone's got, I think, around 14, 15 more games before you hit that break. And it's a two and a half, three-week reset, and then it'll be like 22, 23-game race to the finish line. Are you breaking your season up as, you know, pre-break post-break?

How are you handling the break in terms of, you know, goal-orienting, you know, putting stuff on the board in terms of what you're chasing, what you want your team to be thinking. How are you kind of navigating the schedule and the Olympic break in particular? Yeah, first of all, more of the science part of it. So we got, you know, it's a little bit of a sprint here before the Olympics. So, you know, I got to get these guys, you know, how many practices, you know, can I have, how many days off?

Like, you probably have to give more days off to the guys because of the schedule, you know, and the travel in four and six nights. So I'm more attuned to that, making sure I get the energy level of players. Don't really look too far ahead. Like we don't like, you know, some coaches, you know, I think down the road you start like, hey, can we, you know, you almost play the, hey, you know, seven games series. Can we win four, five games in the next seven games? I mean, you could do those tricks in March and April.

But I think now for me is the energy level and trying to get the guys for these next, 13, 14 games where, you know, we're our optimal best energy-wise, and then we got that break, right? That's another thing. You know, you know, you can win or lose those two weeks as a coach, you know, how do you, it's like a mini

training camp, but how do you get the guys prepared for that stretch drive? That's another thing that we're going to have to dive into. We haven't done it yet, but the next week or two, we're going to have to divide, you know, because I'll be gone, so, you know, put a schedule together. It's going to be huge. You know, I'm a big believer,

and coaching can really help that in those breaks. You take a guy like Andy Reed, he's the best coach in the NFL after a buy, right? So what does he do for those two weeks with his team to be the most successful coach? I think that's something we look into. Like, you know, what's the best way for those two

weeks to optimize the players for the stretch drive? Have your guys call the O-Dog on his old Cancun routine back in 98-02? Right off? Talk. I used to tell these guys I'd go to Cancun. I didn't do anything, and I came back, and I felt the best I've ever felt.

I felt refreshed, and obviously you've got to get a couple workouts in when you get back, but with the whole time, 10 days, Cancun, nothing, I'd never felt better when I came back. You have to have a lot of talent to be able to do that. I could, listen, I used to have my fun, but I could never do that. The way I skated, man, if I took 10 days off, oh, my God, I'd be out. I'd be out of the league. But, yeah, the guys nowadays, you know, it's

a guy like Sidney's Brozzi. I don't know if he still does it. Well, obviously, he's going to Olympics. But he has a break of the All-Star Games or he's always in it. But when he gets breaks, he always wants to stay in cold weather. He finds it it's better for him

when he comes back. He never like going to the beach and stuff like that. So, amazing how guys are different the way they approach, you know, those days off or those breaks. That's cool. Yeah, with Rick Talkett.

Go ahead, Jones. Rick, I was wondering, for Canadians who haven't seen much of Travis Sandheim, what you would tell them to expect at the Olympics? Yeah, I think the same thing in the Four Nations. You know, he didn't play the first game. Then he was putting the lineup, and he really defended well. Like, he did a really nice job to play a 200-foot game.

He played the right side and the left side when we needed them. Very versatile. Can really skate, long reach. You know, and, you know, he could skate all day. know, I mean, for a while there at this beginning of year, we were planning like 26, 27 minutes a night. He was handled those minutes. We backed off lately because we've got, you know, our team's been pretty healthy other than Drysville going down the other night. But he's been one of those guys that just plays a 200-foot game that can skate all day.

Yeah, it's interesting, like all these, you know, decisions that had to be made and, you know, some guys made it from Four Nations, some guys didn't. And you're in a unique situation because Sanheim's back on the team, but Kinecti is not. You know, did you have to navigate that at all, Rick? Like, what kind of conversation did he have with Travis Kineckney on that? You know, it's one of the greatest processes I've been involved with. You know, you're on a meetings, live meetings, or Zoom call meetings with, you know, the six gentlemeners, you know, great minds, you know, obviously coop and then beat the bore and that staff.

And then Bruce Cassidy. So what happens is, you know, you go through a list and then, you know, you bring up a name and, you know, and it's hard because you're, how do you rip a star player? Like, well, you want this guy over this guy. You're trying to like, not so much fight for a guy and have your opinion. Hey, I like this guy, darn the other guy. And they're both great players, so it's hard to really kind of rip a player. But you also have the opinion that, you know, hey, I would have this guy because of this reason. And Doug Armstrong was great.

I mean, he listened to everybody and everybody had a voice. And then at the end of the day, you know, Coop and Doug picked the team. So it was a great process for me to be involved in that. It was about three or four of those meetings. It was kind of fun, actually, to hear how people talked about other players, you know, even about my players. So, yeah, it was a great learning lesson for me. Talk, I just came back from the World Juniors and talking with people there, like, in years past, it was, you know, McDavid and how eye-popping that.

was, or McKinnon or McCar. And I've got to be honest, this year, everybody talked about the ability to see Schaefer live, and they said it's just incredible the way that this guy skates. I know he is not going to the Olympics as of right now, but can you put eyes on this guy? Like, what are we talking about here with Matthew Schaefer, the Islanders? Unbelievable. One of my favorite, like, we played them twice. This was about a month ago.

I think a week or 10 days span and really impressed the swagger for an 18-year-old, the way he controls play. I was really impressed. This guy's the real deal. You know, he was just, you know, there's serious consideration to put him on the team. You know, he was in the mix,

which is amazing for an 18-year-old. You know, it's a hell of a pick for the audience. It really has changed the hours a little bit. We're a good team going before they had them, and they're even a better team with them. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, what a picked act it was. Yeah, no kidding, man. He's fun to watch, 18 years old.

And O also said, what do you say about the Flyers? Best team in the gym in Minnesota? Was that what you said last time? Yeah, Matt, Breyer was in the gym, Keith Jones was in the gym, and Patrick Sharp. They were all busting their ass. Jonesy was leading the way. I know you know that that is something that he really prides himself on talk.

So, well, you guys know the story of Jones, you know, the sixth game overtime when we played Pittsburgh back in the day, 2001, I think it was. Well, we were, I think it was the sixth overtime intermission. And guys were, you know, I think John O'Clair was getting an IV. We're all getting IV. Well, Joe Zee had his shirt off, and he came out of a big pizza in his mouth. And he had pizza sauce all over his belly and his mouth. and he goes through the guys. Well, boys, I've been hibernating

like a bear all game. This is where I shine and start patting his belly. And Keith Tremel went out the next period and scored a goal. So he takes a lot of credit for that. As he should. As he should.

Yeah, well, I guess he wasn't just a cheerleader in the gym, right? Oh, he was grinding, like you said, man. Exactly. There you go. Well, it's great catching up with you, Rick, as always. We appreciate it. We look forward to seeing a game tomorrow night.

Good luck against the Leafs, and we'll do it again down the road. Okay, guys. Yeah, anytime. Thanks, man. You got it. There is Rick Tock. Joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Seasoned gamer or just video game curious. This week in gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games from basics to beyond.

The hottest gaming news, insight, and industry leaders and more weekly. Join me, Naomi Kyle, and stay ahead of the game with all the latest updates. Even if you're a total newbie. Stream this week in gaming on the free IHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Quest complete.