LATEST | Tocchet points out the one thing he'll correct next year to bring the Canucks to the playoffs

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Felip Gosselin
April 8, 2023 (12:27)

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It goes without saying, the Canucks have not played up to the expectations. However, the late-season surge provided by the coaching change has given us hope for next year.

Since Tocchet came aboard, the Canucks have a 17-11-4 record to show for themselves. Tocchet's defensive style completely transformed the team's behavior for the best, especially since he got some of the team's veterans back on track (J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Thatcher Demko), while Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes remained hot despite the change of structure.

Rick Tocchet sat down with Sportsnet journalist Iain MacIntyre and gave a really interesting interview, in which he revealed exactly what he needed to change in this team's culture to make them a playoff contender:

''I don't know if we have what it takes to win yet. I'm not saying (we don't), and it's my job to get that out of them. Meet pressure with pressure. You have to teach your players to understand that, like, when the pressure hits you, don't go away from pressure, meet it head-on. We're not there yet. I felt when we've had some pressure situations, guys were going away from the puck ... instead of going through a situation where it might get a little bit uncomfortable, but if you make that play, it's going to be a big reward. I shouldn't say it displeases me (but) it's something I'm questioning right now. Do we have that yet? And I take it personally; I have to get them to do that.''

Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done with the Canucks. Since Tocchet came in, there's already been a notable change in the way they manage to win. They've managed to win low-scoring games, a thing that they couldn't achieve under Bruce Boudreau's orders. If the Canucks show decent consistency through 82-games and their current sequence translates over to next year, do we have a playoff contender in our hands?