Rick Tocchet wants to see ‘some will’ — and more shots on goal — from his Flyers

Captain Sean Couturier probably said it best Sunday night after a frustratingly disappointing 2-1 loss to the basement-dwelling Calgary Flames.

“I think guys just almost are trying too hard to make plays, and everyone wants to make the pretty play, and tic-tac-toe, and beat guys one on one,” he said.

“But it’s hard in this league to do that. Teams are pretty solid defensively when you play on the outside. You have to create more in the middle, in the slot, and we’re not getting enough bodies there right now.”

» READ MORE: Revisiting the Flyers-Flames trade that sent Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to Calgary

Trying to be too pretty has often plagued the Flyers — especially on the power play — as have one-and-dones, when they get one chance before the puck heads the other way. But, right now, the Flyers aren’t really putting much rubber on the net. They rank dead last in the NHL in shots per game at 23.5.

They dropped below the Seattle Kraken after firing just 18 shots on Flames goalie Dustin Wolf on Sunday. “We kind of made it easy on them,” forward Noah Cates said.

And this came despite coach Rick Tocchet saying before the game that, in addition to the power play, the “whole morning meeting today” focused on getting pucks to the net.

“There were legitimately double-digit opportunities to get pucks to the net with people there. And we were passing it off, and then we had three or four guys away from the net,” Tocchet said before Sunday’s game, referencing the Flyers’ 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs the night before.

“Sometimes, as a player, you think that’s the play,” he added. “I call it easy ice. We don’t want easy ice. We want the hard ice. The hard ice is around the net.”

Tocchet can say he wants to see more shots, but low shot totals are a trend with his coaching style. In his two full years with the Vancouver Canucks, they ranked 26th in 2023-24 (28.4) and 31st last season (25.5).

And while last year’s Canucks, across the whole season, and this year’s Flyers, through 12 games, rank 31st in shots from all locations, according to NHL Edge, the Canucks were 24th in high-danger shots.

The Flyers are 30th. They have just seven shots on goal from around the crease despite ranking 16th in offensive-zone time (40.8%).

“At the end there, we have a guy in the slot, and two guys go to the side of the net, and the goalie makes the save, but nobody’s in front of the net,” Tocchet said.

“We haven’t had practice the last couple of days, three days, I think we’re going to have to do a lot of net front drills, like, almost constantly. We’re going to have to get it ingrained in these guys. It’s hard to win in this league. If you want to play in April or May and stuff like that, you’ve got to play hard hockey.”

Here’s the thing: Tocchet does not believe in river hockey or fire-wagon hockey or whatever term you want to use for constant up and down the ice play. He wants his team to keep the opposition to the outside in their end while controlling the net-front in the offensive zone.

In recent seasons, the Flyers have been a strong transition team and have done a good job controlling the boards. But under Tocchet they have fallen into old habits of not dictating play, of playing too much on the outside, and of creating a single scoring chance but not maintaining pressure. The old one-and-dones, often brought up last season as a reason for the Flyers’ demise, are back with a vengeance.

» READ MORE: ‘Always going to be home for me’: Scott Laughton reflects on his life and legacy with the Flyers

“The one-and-dones aren’t what you want to see,” forward Travis Konecny said. “Kind of kills the momentum because you’re going back and forth. You might spend two, three shifts just chasing the puck around.”

Added Couturier, “We’ve got to find a way to get more offense — second opportunities, third opportunities, jump on loose pucks — it seems like we’re one-and done. I think we have a lot of O-zone, possession time, but not enough dirty goals.

“We’ve got to simplify it, go to the net, put pucks there, and get two, three guys banging and recovering pucks. When we’re struggling, that’s what you’ve got to do. Go back to the basics.”

The Flyers also have to stop passing up shooting opportunities. Once again, the team had open lanes and opted to pass against the Flames. Or, when they did have bodies in front, they failed to get the puck to the net. They try the “fancy stuff,” and it burns them — every time.

It all came to a head Sunday with several missed opportunities despite Tocchet saying on Saturday night, “We’ve got to start delivering pucks. We need people to shoot the puck with people at the net.”

That didn’t happen for the most part. One player who did find some of the dirty areas was Trevor Zegras. He led the team with 10 shot attempts, but five of those shots were blocked.

According to Natural Stat Trick, he had three scoring chances, led the team with two high-danger chances — both at five-on-five — and was one of two players with a rebound attempt (the other being Couturier), and a rebound created (the other being Travis Sanheim).

Zegras is not the grittiest player, but he certainly tried Sunday to heed the coach’s directives.

Of course, there is only so much a coach can do from the bench. In the end, it’s up to the players to figure things out. There was a lot of talk postgame about keeping it simple and getting back to basics.

They’ll need to do that now on the road. And it doesn’t get easy. The Flyers take on the rising Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday (7 p.m., NBCSP) and the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8 p.m., NBCSP). Philly, which is expected to practice Wednesday, has played three games on the road thus far, and lost all three.

“I’m an honest guy, like, I’m not ripping our players, but we need some guys to get some will,” Tocchet said, also calling out the team’s leadership. “I think we had a couple of guys last two, three games who are accepting, eh, it’s just another hockey game. The fans pay a lot of money here to watch games, and I don’t think we gave them a half-decent product the last two games.

“I think they were kind of boring games, and it falls on myself. I’ve got to get these guys to start to show some will. The Flyers fans, they see some will, they’ll cheer you on. If they don’t, you’re going to get booed.”