New Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet was the target of boos as he was introduced to the crowd on the sidelines of Tuesday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Thanks to a brace from Andrei Kuzmenko, Tocchet tasted victory a few hours later as the Canucks won 5-2.
A large majority of fans at Rogers Arena made their dissatisfaction known with the decision of the general staff to sack Bruce Boudreau, an announcement that had been brewing for a while, but which was slow to materialize.
Beyond the dismissal of a popular instructor, we deplore in Vancouver the poor way in which the file was managed by Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin, while the 66-year-old veteran found himself in nothingness for several weeks.
An individual has also pushed his demonstration of frustration even further, throwing his Canucks jersey on the ice as a sign of abandonment.
The Hawks, who only shot 14 times on the cage of their former goalkeeper Collin Delia, nevertheless led 1-0 and 2-1 in this duel.
The troop led by Tocchet have framed more than triple the number of throws of their opponents, with 48.
In volume, the Canucks (19-25-3) ended up overcoming Petr Mrazek, notably through Kuzmenko, author of his 20th and 21st goals.
Dakota Joshua and Sheldon Dries then eluded Mrazek 34 seconds apart in the final period to end the Canucks’ three-game losing streak.
Bo Horvat eventually completed the scoring by depositing the puck in an empty net, during a shorthanded situation, at 18:34.
The Vancouver captain added a 31st goal to his tally, which equals his career high, in his 47th meeting of the season.
Patrick Kane and Sam Lafferty scored in this 28th setback for the Hawks in regulation time, on their 46th outing (14-28-4). Chicago had previously won six games in its last ten games.
Tocchet comes to Vancouver after a year and a half outside of NHL circles. He led the Arizona Coyotes for four years, from 2017-18 to 2020-21.
The BC roster will head to Seattle over the next few hours, with a matchup against the Kraken scheduled for Wednesday night.
