Tocchet brings international pedigree to 4 Nations Face-Off as Canada assistant

Rick Tocchet modestly suggests he'll be "a fly on the wall" with Canada during the 4 Nations Face-Off, observing the finest details that he'll soon apply behind the bench of the Vancouver Canucks.

Voted winner of the 2024 Jack Adams Award by the NHL Broadcasters' Association as the League's best coach, Tocchet also has a fine pedigree as a player on the NHL and international stage, a member of his country's victorious teams in the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cup tournaments, both coached by Mike Keenan.

Now on coach Jon Cooper's staff with fellow assistants Bruce Cassidy, Peter DeBoer and Misha Donskov, Tocchet is eager for a tournament that he expects will be a richly rewarding classroom.

"To somewhat coach the Connor McDavids of the world, Brayden Point, Nathan MacKinnon, obviously the relationship I have with Sidney Crosby… you go down the list and I'm going to be a fly on the wall, absorbing all of it and learning from those guys," Tocchet said before arriving in Montreal.

Canada will play Sweden in the first game of the tournament at Bell Centre on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS).

Pittsburgh Penguins teammates Rick Tocchet (l.) and Ulf Samuelsson celebrate their 1992 Stanley Cup championship win against the Chicago Blackhawks; and Tocchet on New York's Madison Square Garden ice during that playoff season.

Tocchet won the Stanley Cup in 1992 as a forward with the Pittsburgh Penguins, then in 2016 and 2017 as a Penguins assistant. He was a player and is a coach, so he understands the value of everyone playing a role, sometimes stepping out of his comfort zone to do a different job for the benefit of the team.

"You really have to be a puzzle guy at any time," Tocchet said. "Certain guys are used to playing 24, 25 minutes a game, on the power-play's first unit, but in certain situations, you might have to take a back seat and do a different job.

"At this point, you might have to be a certain type of player for a particular moment. That's where you have to check your ego at the door, being a puzzle piece at any time, in any situation in a game.

"The 4 Nations is a very short tournament. It's not like you have a couple weeks if you have a bad game. This one, you can't have a bad game. You need everyone to pull the right way with every detail."

Rick Tocchet skates behind Sweden's goal while Peter Sundstrom and goalie Peter Lindmark follow the puck during a 1987 Canada Cup game at the Montreal Forum.

Tocchet referenced a conversation he recently had with Crosby, Canada's captain who held the title for the Penguins' 2009, 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup wins and for his country's gold medal victories at the 2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi Olympics, 2015 IIHF World Championship and the World Cup of Hockey 2016.

"When I spoke to Sid the other day, he said, 'I want to know if I play wing, what do I have to do off the face-off in this situation?' That's the detail that a kid like Sid would want to know and to me, that's incredible."

Tocchet is eager to do whatever will be required for Canada at 4 Nations.

"I'll lend my hand to anything they need, certain chores, certain system stuff," he said. "In a tournament like this, you try to help players, but you also stay out of their way. You can't overcoach."

Tocchet brings rich experience to Canada's staff before the Canucks having been coach or assistant coach with the Penguins, Arizona Coyotes, Tampa Bay Lightning and Colorado Avalanche.

"There's a bit of 'open the door and let them play' philosophy but there are also some guidelines and structure you want to give them," he said of 4 Nations. "These guys are world-class players. Let them go and don't give them too much."

Rick Tocchet crowds Sweden goalie Peter Lindmark, covered by Peter Sundstrom, during a 1987 Canada Cup game at the Montreal Forum.

Tocchet has vivid memories of the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cup events. Of the 16 coaches on the four teams at 4 Nations, he is the only one to have played in the Canada Cup; Sweden assistant Daniel Alfredsson and Finland assistant Tuomo Ruutu skated for their countries in the 2004 World Cup, Alfredsson also having played in 1996.

Through 19 NHL seasons between 1984-2002, Tocchet scored 952 points in 1,144 regular-season games (440 goals, 512 assists) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals and Coyotes. He had 112 points (52 goals, 60 assists) in 145 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

"I was lucky enough to win the Stanley Cup as a player, then twice as an assistant coach with Pittsburgh," Tocchet said. "For me, the 1987 Canada Cup was the closest to that. The Stanley Cup is No. 1. To play an entire year with your teammates then win it all, there's nothing better.

"I remember the 1987 Canada Cup for the Russians, the politics of the time, how they were seen by many as the superior hockey team, the Red Army, how they trained together every hour of the day to become this big red machine.

"Those Canada Cup games were magical for me. You could tell there was hatred in the competitiveness. You respected their players but when we won, we'd won for our country."

Canada's Rick Tocchet with the United States' Jim Johnson in front of goalie Mike Richter during Game 1 of the 1991 Canada Cup Final at the Montreal.

Tocchet, a member of the Flyers who turned 22 during the Canada Cup, views being a member of that national team "as one of the greatest accomplishments of my career.

"Mike Keenan, my Flyers coach, was a big influence for me being invited to camp but there were so many players who were cut, Hall of Famers," he said. "I'm very humbled to have been chosen for that team. Learning from the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Ray Bourque… it's an experience I'll never forget."

Lemieux's dramatic goal on a pass from Gretzky at 18:34 of the third period, lifting Canada to its 6-5 championship win in Game 3 of the best-of-three Final against the Soviet Union, might be the country's second-most replayed goal, behind only Paul Henderson's 1972 Summit Series clincher in Moscow.

Lost in the shadow of Lemieux's goal that lifted the roof off Hamilton's Copps Coliseum is that without Tocchet's first-period power-play goal, then his assist on Brian Propp's goal about 5 1/2 minutes later, the final score very likely would have been different.

Rick Tocchet's key goal for Canada in Game 3 of the 1987 Canada Cup Final against the Soviet Union. Courtesy CTV

Deeper in the plot was that Tocchet was skating almost on one leg, having badly sprained ligaments in his left knee nine days earlier. He soldiered on, missing Canada's semifinal against Czechoslovakia, then aggravating the injury in Game 1 against the Soviets and forced to sit out Game 2.

Tocchet returned to Philadelphia to visit the Flyers' orthopedist.

"He didn't give me a shot or anything," he said. "The doctor just looked at the knee and I looked at him and said, 'I want to play in this game as much as any game in my life.' He looked at me and said, 'I don't blame you, kid.' "

Tocchet returned to Hamilton and to this day heaps credit on massage therapist Jurgen Merz, who worked wonders with the 1980s Edmonton Oilers dynasty, for getting him back on his feet.

"Did you ever watch the movie 'The Karate Kid,' when Daniel has his injured leg fixed by Mr. Miyagi?" Tocchet said, laughing. "I had a bit of that moment with Jurgen. Whatever he did with my knee, he got me through the game and I able to play. I was doubtful to start but he got me working and the rest is history."

Dale Hawerchuk pours champagne for Rick Tocchet in celebration of Canada's 6-5 win against the Soviet Union in the clinching game of the 1987 Canada Cup at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario.

Not that history looked good early on for Canada. The Soviets jumped out to a 3-0 lead just eight minutes after the opening face-off, stunning the home team and their fans.

But then Igor Kravchuk was called for cross-checking. Keenan tapped Tocchet for the power-play.

"Mike told me to get out there and I literally did not go," Tocchet said. "What am I going out there for, with the talent level we had? So he tapped me again and said, 'Get the (heck) out there.'

"So, I got out there, the puck came to me and I put it in. Mike put us out there again a few shifts later, (Brent) Sutter, Propp and I did our thing, we made it 3-2 and the crowd went nuts.

"That stretch was one of the most important in my career because now it's, 'OK, we're back in the game, let the boys take over, Gretzky and Lemieux. We did our job, now Mario and Gretz can do their magic.' That was our goal."

Pittsburgh Penguins' Rick Tocchet, representing the Wales Conference, faces Winnipeg Jets' shot-blocking Phil Housley, of the Campbell Conference, during the 1993 NHL All-Star Game at the Montreal Forum. In 1984, Tocchet scored his first of 440 regular-season NHL goals in the Forum.

Lemieux from Gretzky was a goal for the ages, shaking the steel town of Hamilton to its girders and touching off a dressing-room celebration that rivaled those Tocchet would enjoy with the Penguins as a player and assistant coach.

"The euphoria… here was a bunch of guys from different teams who came together and played for their country," he recalled. "No egos. I think we spent at least a month together in training camp. There were a couple of seconds after that game that I'm thinking, 'What am I doing in this dressing room?' I'm looking around at Wayne, Mario, Paul, it was surreal.

"I kept my jersey and was given a (tribute) ring. They made a Canada Cup necklace pendant, and I gave it to my late mom. We were Italian immigrants. She grew to love the game of hockey and she was there to experience it."

Tocchet's performance was the talk of the locker room.

"Rick Tocchet was out there on one leg and he turned the game around for us," Gretzky said. "He's a great kid. I'd be proud to have him as a teammate any time."

Sutter said, "Rick Tocchet … I mean, does that guy have guts. I have nothing but respect for him. He has a ton of heart in him."

Rick Tocchet, as a Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach in 2015-16, maps out a play for captain Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz during a break in the action.

Now, Tocchet is eager to experience the 4 Nations Face-Off electricity of Bell Centre, one of his favorite buildings. It's the city where he scored the first of his 440 regular-season NHL goals, coming against Canadiens goalie Steve Penney at the Montreal Forum on Oct. 15, 1984.

"When you go to Montreal, the fans make you want to play the game of hockey," he said. "Sometimes, if you're tired and you go into that building, the fans don't let you be tired."

Wearing the maple leaf this week, Tocchet might entertain a thought or two of the Canada Cup while sponging up every drop of every moment. Perhaps best of all will be the memories made, old friendships revisited, new ones made, and his knowledge base that will grow.

"I have so many memories from the Canada Cup, and I gained lifelong friends," Tocchet said. "Wayne and Mario and Paul Coffey are among my best friends. That's hard to fathom. That championship brought me friends for life.

"Now at 4 Nations, to be able to talk hockey with all of these people, to learn from these guys -- what they do and how they think the game -- will be invaluable for me as a coach."

Top photo: Rick Tocchet warms up with Canada at the Montreal Forum before a 1987 Canada Cup game; Tocchet behind the Vancouver Canucks bench before a 2024 game.