Tocchet challenges Flyers to want the ‘hard ice’ and ‘confrontation’

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Flyers seemed almost stunned by the Hurricanes’ relentless pressure.

When dissecting the film of Game 1, it probably didn’t take long for Rick Tocchet to identify the issues.

That’s because they happened right off the bat.

“From my experience, it’s a little bit of a mindset going into a game, going into an environment that’s loud, it’s a team that’s going to press and they’re going to get at you,” Tocchet said Sunday afternoon, a day after the Flyers were shut out by Carolina, 3-0. “I’m a big believer in meeting pressure with pressure. Wherever that pressure is, go find it. We were going away from it, so that’s something that we have to learn from.”

The Flyers were down 2-0 just 7:30 minutes into the first game of this best-of-seven second-round playoff series. They never recovered as the Hurricanes turned it up and so did the fans at Lenovo Center.

“To me, it was the first 15 minutes, just watching the video, it didn’t look like a lot of guys wanted the puck,” Tocchet said. “Against Carolina, you want to want the puck, you’re going to want confrontation, you’re going to want to make that play. Those are things that we didn’t do early on.

“I just said we’ve got to hit singles every shift. We can’t try to hit home runs. And I just felt a lot of guys were either all in on a home run or not skating. We’ve learned from it and we’re moving on from it.”

How the Flyers respond Monday night in Game 2 will be the true barometer of if the Flyers moved on from it.

“That’s our coaching staff challenging us,” Garnet Hathaway said. “They watch a ton of video, they study the game, they know our skill set. They’re watching film, they find out what will work. It’s up to us to implement it. It’s them highlighting the things that we need to do.

“We take a lot of pride in this room. We trust and believe in them that they know what they’re talking about. Listen to what they say, challenge each other in the room and then try to execute it.”

Tocchet said the Flyers need to “find the hard ice.”

“The easy ice is taking it back or playing the outside,” the head coach said. “Of course. But if you want the hard ice, it’s inside. You might get hit, but somebody might hook you, somebody might hold you, somebody might drag you down. I’m a big believer in hard ice, especially in the playoffs. The first half, we were more on the easy ice side.”

The Flyers have drawn praise from Tocchet for being “a very attentive group.” They’ve lost consecutive games just twice since Feb. 26. They’ll try to answer Tocchet’s call here by finding the hard ice.

“Play through guys a little bit more, go places where you might get hit,” Trevor Zegras said. “I think maybe the easy ice is a little bit more time and space. So play a little bit more under pressure. It’s three periods of hockey in a long series. Just find ways to get better.”

A play late in Game 1 that may have gone unnoticed was Travis Konecny running over Sean Walker with under 30 seconds left. Could a hit like that spark Konecny?

The Flyers’ alternate captain has one goal in seven games of these playoffs. He’s not the only one who needs to score more. But Konecny is the team’s emotional leader. When he’s playing with an edge, the Flyers fuel off it.

“They had a couple of big hits on us,” Tocchet said. “We have to take some numbers. Hopefully he can do that early in the game. But every hit that happens or any of those type of hits, it’s not just that moment; it could affect the series. One of those hits could knock a guy out, it could make a guy tired, there are a lot of different factors. It’s hard to do, but for sure, that could really help not just in the moment, but the series.”