Canucks' Rick Tocchet among new coaches making an impact in leading teams to NHL playoffs

Rick Tocchet barely had a chance to get accustomed to the Pacific time zone when the newly hired Canucks coach wondered what exactly he had just gotten himself into in late January 2023.

Four days and two games into his tenure, Tocchet recalled the feeling of dread he experienced standing on a Vancouver street corner at 3 a.m. after the team returned home from Seattle following a 6-1 loss, in which the coach referred to the Canucks being “soft.”

“I felt like I got hit by a bus,” Tocchet told The Associated Press this week. “And actually, my assistant coach, Sergei Gonchar, pulled me aside and said, `Listen, we just got here. You just got to relax.’”

The memory stands as a moment of validation for Tocchet, who at the time was second-guessing his decision to leave what he called “a nice comfy job” in broadcasting to take on a Canucks team on its third coach in three seasons.