Rick Tocchet drew attention from six Canucks on the ice during the All-Star Game.
Rick Tocchet appeared to be an expert in predicting the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. There were six Vancouver Canucks players on the ice, but it was the head coach who provided the highlight of the night.
Six Canucks were eliminated in the first round of a two-round mini-tournament in Toronto on Saturday, falling short in the shootout. That’s not surprising either. The Canucks have lost both times this season in penalty shootouts. Thankfully, there are no shootouts in the playoffs.
Lindholm and Team McKinnon lose to Team McDavid
Canuck rookie Elias Lindholm first joined Team McKinnon after the former Calgary Flame was drafted by Flames fan Tate McRae before being acquired by Quinn Hughes. Lindholm and his team faced Team McDavid in the first game of the afternoon.
Lindholm had several chances during the game, but only scored one point, a secondary assist on a goal by Seattle Kraken’s Oliver Bjorkstrand.
The game was relatively fast-paced for an All-Star Game, and it looked like Lindholm and Team McKinnon would win 3-1 until the final moments. But Team McDavid scored two goals in the final minute, with Connor McDavid scoring on a backdoor pass from David Pastrnak with 5.4 seconds left to force a shootout.
Team McDavid made a comeback in the penalty shootout with goals from McDavid and Pastrnak, ending Lindholm’s All-Star career.
“[Travis Konecny] They found me a few times, but they couldn’t get me online,” Lindholm said. “But we had a lot of fun outside.”
“I’m very excited to be a Canuck and join this great team,” Lindholm said.
Team Hughes plays Team Matthews
Now it’s time for five longtime Canucks players to replace Team Hughes and face Team Matthews’ Leafs-centered lineup.
Quinn Hughes skated in a trio with his best friends Brady Tkachuk and Kyle Connor. Elias Pettersson got a chance to skate with NHL leading scorer Nikita Kucherov and Anaheim Ducks forward Frank Vatrano, who has been subject to trade rumors all season. Pettersson’s lottery line teammates JT Miller and Brock Boeser skated with Jesper Bratt of the New Jersey Devils.
Hughes, Tkachuk and Conner clearly enjoyed having the opportunity to play together outside of offseason training. Pettersson and Kucherov had fun chemistry on the ice, connecting on some smart passing plays. And what about Miller and Boeser? Well, they scored a ton.
Kucherov led off with a breakaway, Alex DeBrincat tied it at 2-1 for Team Matthews, and Boeser came back last. Then, off a stretch pass from goaltender Cam Talbot, Vatrano fired into the top corner of the goal, giving Team Hughes a 2-1 lead.
“Varano, I was really impressed with him and his shot,” Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said after the game.
Boeser then passed the puck to DeBrincat near the blue line and scored the tying goal, much to Boeser’s surprise as he exclaimed, “Oh!” It was loud enough to be heard on the broadcast.
Pettersson scores the Canucks’ only goal.
Boeser had a chance to score one back in the second of two periods off a backdoor pass from Miller, but it was taken away by Igor Shesterkin. Thatcher Demko then countered with a robbery of his own as well, stopping Matthew Barzal’s crotch action.
Demko, by the way, wore some gorgeous All-Star Game pads and an all-black setup with the skate logo and bright yellow stars. It’s a setup that fits his goaltending coach, Ian Clark. Clark believes that using dark pads makes it easier for opposing players to find gaps when shooting, so he is against anything other than white pads.
“The color was a little difficult because I didn’t know which team was going to draft me,” Demko said of the custom pads. “We thought black would look good on him 75 percent of the way in the jersey, and it was kind of a gamble, and it worked out.”
Demko’s custom All-Star mask featured all of his All-Star teammates, not just the head coach, which was a nice touch.
“It was a great opportunity to be here with a lot of the players and pay homage to the other players,” Demko said. “I think they liked it. It went so well that I’m going to get them to sign it and I’ll have it for the rest of my life.”
After Mitch Marner gave Team Matthews the lead on Demko’s top corner shot, Pettersson answered with his first and only goal of the All-Star Game.
It was a powerful shift by Kucherov, who seemed to have saved up all the energy he didn’t expend in the skills competition. Pettersson had trouble tucking the puck in on his wraparound, but he chopped a pass from Vatrano upstairs to Shesterkin to tie the game at 3-3.
Team Matthews responded, with Filip Forsberg once again on the ice for a rebound against Miller, Boeser and Blatt.
Tocchet brought his old buddy Wayne Gretzky on Quinn Hughes’ bench and got some coaching advice after Forsberg’s goal.
“Wayne wants me to bench the Miller line. They’re minus-3,” Tocchet joked to Kevin Bieksa in a bench interview.
“For me, it was probably the same for him, because I was a dashing three,” Boeser said with a laugh of Tocchet’s presence behind the bench during the All-Star Game. Michael Bublé was rather a comforting presence. “Every time I scored, he hugged me, so that made me happy.”
Rick Tocchet’s expert predictions
Tocchet’s interview with Bieksa resulted in one of the best moments of the All-Star Game when Bieksa asked Tocchet which of his players would score next. Tocchet predicted that Tkachuk would score the next goal, and sure enough, moments later Tkachuk received a pass from Hughes and hit a five-hole slider to tie the game at 4-4.
Bieksa quickly went back to Tocetto and made another prediction, this time Tocetto predicting Vatrano’s goal. Hughes once again made that prediction a reality, sending a smooth pass to Vatrano to make it 5-4.
“Oh. Oh. I’m going to get on a plane and go to Las Vegas right now,” Bieksa said to Tocchet and Gretzky. their common gambling history. “You just called the last two scorers.”
“He’s a good coach,” Gretzky quipped.
Notably, this was Hughes’ third assist of the game, which is fitting given how many goals he has scored for the Canucks this season.
Unfortunately, Tocchet’s next prediction, Pettersson’s goal, did not come true. Instead, Pettersson turned the puck over and Forsberg made a breakaway, and Forsberg put Demko on top to tie the game at 5-5.
“I expected Pettersson to score, but I think it meant a turnover,” Tocchet said with a laugh after the game.
One step away in a gunfight
This sent the match into a shootout. Demko stopped the first three shooters he faced, but no one from Team Hughes could score, and Pettersson lost his handle on Deke. DeBrincat fired the puck past Demko to give Team Matthews an advantage, but Miller was poke-checked by Shesterkin before he could finish his usual wide-left shootout move.
Team Matthews defeated Team McDavid 7-4 to win the mini-tournament and Auston Matthews earned MVP honors.
All in all, it was a fun All-Star weekend with some highlight moments for many Canucks. All-Star His tournament featured a fairly high pace, some great goals, and a top-notch musical performance by Tate His McRae.
“The highlight for me was the draft,” Hughes said. “Petey is one of my best friends, along with Jack, my brother and Michael of course.” [Bublé] It was a lot of fun…just having six players and coaches in the game was really special and an opportunity that probably won’t happen again. It’s very special and it highlights how successful our team has been. ”
Most importantly, the Canucks had no injuries. I’m sure many Canucks fans cringed every time Demko went into the splits to make a save, but they all came into the game undaunted and ready for a playoff push.
