Rick Tocchet has lamented lack of speed, size, smarts to make bigger impact. He saw positives Sunday in Filip Chytil, Drew O’Connor.
Rick Tocchet called it “a freshness” Sunday because of the excitement newcomers exude.
The Vancouver Canucks head coach was right.
And when you really think about it, everything that occurred in the previous 48 hours — new players running on trade fumes and then adrenalin — it turned the mood and play from stale to upbeat and encouraging.
More speed, size and commitment bode well for the stretch drive because it’s everything Tocchet has hoped for to build a contender. Sometimes you have to go looking for it.
And if what the newcomers brought Sunday rubs off on the rest of the room, there’s reason for optimism.
Of course, it was just one game, but the new guys entered the offensive zone with puck control, drive, creativity and select shots. There were a lot of positives and the biggest one was down the middle.
The Canucks are in a race to get back to the playoffs, and without a big bullet in the chamber with the trade departure of J.T. Miller, it will be harder to get past the Calgary Flames.
They remain two points up on the Canucks in the final wild-card spot. They have each played 52 games but the Flames have one more regulation win, which is the positional tiebreaker.
The Flames made a wise play by adding wingers Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost, and unloading the mercurial Andrei Kuzmenko, in a swap with the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
The Canucks answered the next day with centre Filip Chytil, who was playing 14 minutes a night with the New York Rangers as a third-liner behind pivots Vincent Trocheck and Mika Zibanejad.
Chytil pined for more ice time. He wanted to be in a top-six role. And the early returns here are encouraging. He logged 20:03 Sunday and was in the first overtime deployment. He played fast and smart.
“He was really good,” lauded Tocchet. “He controlled play, he wanted the puck. And off the rush, he’s a guy who can make plays. It was a good debut for him.”
And it wasn’t just Chytil. Big winger Drew O’Connor did the same on the third line.
“To be a good rush team you have to have speed,” stressed Tocchet. “And those two guys have it and they understand getting off the wall and getting to the middle.
“Hopefully, that’s contagious. With Drew, there’s a lot to work with. He hasn’t scored a lot this year (six goals in 53 games with Pittsburgh this season) but with that kind of speed, and getting into the interior, he’s going to score.
“He just has to stick with it.”
And it went beyond that with the good-news summation.
The Canucks have been chasing defenceman Marcus Pettersson for a long time and you could tell why Sunday. The calmness in which he moves pucks and his defensive awareness are going to add a vital need to the second pairing.
Good top-four blueliners are hard to find because nobody really wants to give them up, unless they have to, in cementing a multi-package deal.
“He was terrific tonight and nice trade for us,” Tocchet said of Pettersson. “He could really stabilize our defence. There are a lot of games left and some guys haven’t had the year they want. Plenty of games to turn the page.”
And with what they saw in the newbies Sunday, there’s no reason not to be encouraged about what could be the rest of the way.
A season that was going off the rails could now be salvaged in the best possible way with a better feeling in the room and more talent on the roster.