Canucks: Why Rick Tocchet left remains unsaid
Is Rick Tocchet an idiot?
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After a few weeks' introspection, Tocchet says, the choice to leave was clearly the right one. He made the call at the end of April because it was time to evolve. It was time for a fresh start. But in speaking with Rick Dhaliwal and Don Taylor on Tuesday morning, he admitted that some might think he's an idiot for leaving a work situation he basically couldn't say a bad thing about.
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'Sometimes in life, you have decisions you got to make. You hit the crossroads — you've got to go right or left. And sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you don't. You got to go with your conviction. It wasn't a quick thing. It was just something I felt for me to evolve, and just in my life, this was the right decision,' Tocchet told CHEK-TV's Donnie and Dhali show. Tocchet chatted last week with me about his former assistant Adam Foote taking on his old role as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, but this was his first full-on interview with anyone in Vancouver since he departed the Canucks three weeks ago.
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The Flyers gave him the same five-year term on his contract that the Canucks had offered. It is believed they offered a little more in salary per year — but it's clear the switch is about more than money.
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He made a point of thanking his old bosses, Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford, as well as the ownership. But he still intimated there were a few reasons why he left — he laughed, first of all, about the practice facility situation. The Canucks are now the only team without a permanent practice rink — the Calgary Flames will get their own facility as part of the construction of that city's new arena — and he admitted it was a small reason why he chose to move on.
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The University of B.C., where the Canucks practise when Rogers Arena isn't available, is a fine facility, he noted — but it's not the team's.
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'And there's other things. Not going to dive into it. I just feel like this was the time,' he added, leaving one to wonder. But you can bet he looked at the management stability in Philadelphia compared to the situation in Vancouver and you have to believe that played a role.
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