TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston joins Gino Reda to discuss the pressure mounting on Rick Tocchet with the Flyers off to their worst start in franchise history, the expectations on Connor Bedard as he approaches his return to the Blackhawks, how the Leafs are dealing with Chris Tanev’s injury, and more.
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Gino Reda: Are heads ready to roll in Philly. Is Bedard back? How bad is Tanev? And what’s the plan for future outdoor games? With the details on these stories and more, insider Chris Johnston.
CJ, Flyers are winless in seven. Their worst start in franchise history. Is Rick Tocchet in trouble?
Chris Johnston: Well, certainly the fans are trying to put him on notice. And with the pressure mounting there, I can understand the question. But at this point in time, the organization and those making those kind of decisions have no interest in looking elsewhere for a coach. And really, when they look at this difficult start to the year, they’re looking at some of the best offensive players on the team all collectively in a slump. They only scored eight goals across those first seven games.
That falls on guys like Trevor Zegras. He’s still a rookie, but Porter Martone is part of this for the Flyers. And this is still a young team, one that took some steps last year, made the playoffs, got to Round 2.
And I think it’s fair to wonder if maybe that success in some ways, you know, everyone just thought it was going to carry over. But at this point in time, while I know all the questions make sense, I just don’t see a coaching change being made. A drastic trade is not in the offing.
I think that they believe they can figure it out internally. And you know, as time goes along, and if that doesn’t happen, perhaps you’ll see them make some moves to the roster. but at this point in time do not see a change at the head coaching position.
Reda: Chicago Blackhawks are also struggling out at the start of the season, but so far they’ve been without their captain Connor Bedard.
What’s the timeline for his season debut and what are the expectations when he does start dressing?
Johnston: It’s a huge shot in the arm for the Blackhawks as he’s set to return on Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. And look, there’s no good way to dress this up. Connor Bedard getting injured, getting shoulder surgery in the off-season was a tough blow for a team looking to take a step this year.
We’ve seen in their early play that they haven’t been able to fare well without him. But this is a year where the Blackhawks do expect to take a step forward and they hope that Connor Bedard can carry that attack.
You know, it gets lost a little bit because he also missed time last year with a shoulder ailment. But he had taken a pretty significant step at the beginning of last season. And I think the Blackhawks believe this guy is ready to be a difference maker.
And so this was not the way you would want to draw it up in terms of getting off to the right start, getting your franchise player in a position to succeed. But there’s a lot of confidence about where Bedard is at physically, the work he’s been able to do over the last number of weeks and really months as he went through his rehab and ramped up to his return to play. And there’s a lot of high hopes for him in Chicago.
They made some big moves this off-season, getting Patrick Kane back, which is a symbolic move, but even acquiring Bo Byram and signing him to an extension. That’s all done with an idea of having better players around Bedard so that he’s ready to flourish here in his fourth NHL season.
Reda: Chris Tanev got hurt on Saturday. This is a guy who only played 11 games all of last year because of injury. The Leafs put him on the IR, which means he’s got to miss at least seven days. What are you hearing beyond that, CJ?
Johnston: Well they’ve also provided a bit of a vague timeline, really no timeline officially in terms of what to expect from Tanev. And I think that that’s raised some concerns in the market just because this remains an important part of the Leafs’ blueline and because of what you mentioned last year, missing more than 70 games because of injuries.
But at this point in time, I don’t sense that it’s super sensitive in terms of where Tanev’s at. Really the Leafs are working through due diligence, doing some further testing on him.
And I think this is going to be more of a standard for them when players get injured under this new performance staff. They invested heavily in bringing in some new people from the outside with the idea of obviously keeping the team healthier, but also working on the return to play format. And so with Tanev, it’s not known exactly what that time frame looks like, but I don’t know that it’s one that you have to jump to conclusions and assume it’s going to be repeat of last season.
I think that there’s a little more optimism around his situation that I’m sensing right now than what he went through last year with multiple injuries.
Reda: But CJ, even when Tanev is healthy, the Leafs’ blue line, we’ve all been saying they need some help, they need to bolster that blue line. Are there any indications that they’re still out there shopping or maybe looking within the organization for somebody they could call up?
Johnston: At this point in time, that seems like an internal solution type of thing. They called up Marshall Rifai from the Marlies to step into the lineup. Obviously, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, not at 100 per cent. He missed practice for them on Monday in Utah. And so they are weathering a bit of a situation here. But the Leafs feel they have the depth, I think, short term to get through these kind of issues. Now, bigger picture for sure.
We’re going to continue talking about them scouring the market for defencemen. It’s really the one area of the roster that wasn’t significantly touched, I would say, since John Chayka and Matt Sundin took over the hockey operations department.
So, you know, I think this will be something that stretches over a period of time in terms of trying to look for upgrades and improvements to that blue line. But in the here and now, even with some of these injuries and with it to being a key person like Chris Tanev, the Leafs seem to believe they can sort of push through it and get some results while they wait for him to recover.
Reda: I was looking back in the calendar, it’s hard to believe, but the league played its first regular season outdoor game 23 years ago. But has the showcase now run its course? Is it time to move on from it?
Johnston: The fan interest, the sponsor interest says no. There’s going to be a game next Saturday, Oct. 25 in Winnipeg at Princess Auto Stadium. That’s between the Jets and the Canadians. Ticket sales have been very strong for that. There’s an alumni event attached to it as well.
And so there does seem to be a demand, certainly in specific markets for these types of games. But the one issue they have in Canada, the NHL, is that there’s not a lot of venues to stage them at. In the U.S., they’re taking a game to the Cowboys Stadium this year. They’re taking a game to the campus in Utah for the Winter Classic. It’s not as much variety in terms of available venues in Canada, but I do think there’s still a desire for the league to have a Heritage Classic every second year.
If you look at the rotation after Winnipeg 10 years ago, they ended up going to Regina where the Saskatchewan Roughriders play at Mosaic Stadium. I don’t know if that’s as appealing because it’s not an NHL market for the league. So there will be a game next weekend. I think it’s going to be a success for the league, but in terms of where the next one will be held, that’s still got a TBD attached to it. Because you just don’t have a venue, for example, in Montreal.
I think that’s somewhere the NHL would love to have a big outdoor game, but there’s not a big outdoor stadium to play it in. And so the league is sort of navigating between some of those restraints and constraints. But there’s definitely interest, I would say, to keep staging these events.
Reda: All right, that’s the early version of Insider Training. The full version with CJ, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.