Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet Sends Message to Goalie Kevin Lankinen After Being Pulled

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Maverick Mitchell
November 10, 2024 (6:52 PM)

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Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet sends an encouraging message to goalie Kevin Lankinen after letting 7 goals in & being pulled against the Edmonton Oilers.

In last nights blowout loss to the Edmonton Oilers, where they lost 7-3, Rick Tocchet feels that the concern of their bad performance was far from the fault of hot goalie, Lankinen.

While Lankinen gave up seven goals during the game, Tocchet clarified that the goaltender was not the root of the team's problems. Here's what Tocchet had to say.

He believes the true issues lie in preparation, and the teams inability to get off on the right foot early into games. A priority for Tocchet has been to improve this area of their game plan as the Canucks have a strong tendency to look slow and sluggish out of the gate, and the same narrative rang true in last nights loss, despite the emphasis.

«We looked at some video, and we're not getting our game early enough,» Tocchet said. «A couple of guys need to understand how we will play more predictably. We're taking too many risks early on and not sticking to our structure.»

Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet Sends Encouraging Message to Star goalie Kevin Lankinen

Kevin Lankinen has his first ugly performance of the season last night as he let in 7 goals on 31 shots. Despite this outing, head coach Rock Tocchet made it abundantly clear that the loss was not his fault int he slightest. he defended his goalie, even praising him for keeping the Canucks in the game and most of the goals were not due to error on his end.

«Kevin's a competitor,» Tocchet said. «He made a couple of big saves when we were down 3-2, and we were still in the game. There was an empty-net goal, but we've got to stick with it.»

While Lankinen's stats may not reflect it due to the high number of goals, Tocchet expressed confidence in his goalie's ability and performance under challenging circumstances. «He's the least of our problems,» Tocchet said firmly. He then redirected the focus away from Lankinen's play to other areas of concern.

Cleary Tocchet is emphasizing that his team as a whole needs to be better, and of course, we all know Lankinen did not play his best game last night, but it is awesome to see a head coach go to bat for his players like this.