Tocchet has Flyers on cusp of 2nd round after leaving impact on Penguins

VOORHEES, N.J. -- Rick Tocchet left quite the impact on Sidney Crosby during their three seasons together with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Just maybe not in the way you'd expect.

"I remember I had a collision with him during practice, and he barely moved," Crosby said. "I was going full speed, and I ran into him, and it's one of the hardest hits I've ever taken. I don't think he fell."

Tocchet left his mark on the Penguins in more useful ways during his time as an assistant coach on Mike Sullivan's staff from 2014-17, including helping oversee a power play that contributed to Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017.

"Learning on that staff with Mike Sullivan and (assistant) Jacques Martin, that was great learning for me," Tocchet said. "To be coaching the high-end players like Sid and (Evgeni) Malkin, those guys, being able to learn from those guys, their day-to-day preparation, learning outside-of-the-box sort of stuff with those guys, that was great."

Crosby is one of four players still with the Penguins from Tocchet's time in Pittsburgh with Malkin, forward Bryan Rust and defenseman Kris Letang.

Nearly a decade later, Tocchet still maintains good relationships with those players, but as coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, it's all business in the Eastern Conference First Round. The Flyers lead 3-1 in the best-of-7 series with Game 5 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Monday (7 p.m. ET; SN-PIT, NBCSP, ESPN, SN, TVAS).

That's a building where Tocchet has had a lot of success.

"I just appreciate the memories we have," he said. "Obviously we're in the fight now, but for me, those memories always come back to me."

They also come back to the Penguins players who were there with Tocchet.

"I think he just really noticed the little things within the game, little details, and was able to identify things, either to work on, or maybe other players did, to try to learn from," Crosby said. "Just really good communicator, good person, and cares about his players. I think that's that showed wherever he's gone. I think he communicates well and wants the best for them."

Letang certainly appreciated that personal touch.

"Me and 'Tocc' had a pretty close relationship," he said. "What I remember the best is always after games, we would sit in his office for a while, and we would discuss about past experiences or what we kind of felt and things that we could bring."

It also helped Tocchet get through to one of the more mercurial players on those Penguins teams, Phil Kessel, a forward who led them with 10 goals and 22 points during the 2016 playoffs and five power-play goals the following year.

"I know him and Phil Kessel were close," said Rust, who made his NHL debut during Tocchet's first season in Pittsburgh. "Just their interactions. They were always kind of bickering at each other, but in a friendly way. And I think that's probably the most kind of laughs I get from thinking about him."

Tocchet was able to build relationships with more than just the star players.

"He was extremely relatable," Rust said. "I think he was able to relate to the guys and kind of the ups and downs of the season. He obviously was an extremely accomplished player, and also, as a coach too, he's been to the top of the mountain, so he's seen everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. So, he's able to, most of the time, everybody's not perfect, but push the right buttons. And I think he's able to do that fairly well."

Tocchet's playing career ran the gamut. He scored 30 goals five times and 440 goals in 18 seasons, and won the Cup with the Penguins in 1992 playing on a line with Mario Lemieux. He finished as a fourth-line grinder and is 10th in NHL history with 2,970 penalty minutes.

"When a coach walks in the room, or anybody, I think you automatically respect them, and you're trying to learn," Crosby said. "I think with Tocc, he had a history of playing here. I had met him previously and known him a little bit, so I knew what kind of person he was. I think the fact that he has experience and wasn't that far removed from the game, I think helps definitely to relate to things."

Tocchet has coached the Arizona Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks and now the Flyers since leaving Pittsburgh, but he still relies on his former players.

After he was hired by the Flyers on May 14, 2025, he got feedback from Crosby about forward Tyson Foerster. And prior to hiring Todd Reirden as an assistant for his coaching staff, he spoke to Letang about his experiences working with Reirden as a Penguins assistant the previous four seasons.

"Even for learning situations, if something as a coach arises now, whatever, good or bad, I remember how we handled it with this player back then," Tocchet said. "So, there's a lot of learning that really helped me.

"But the memories, that's one thing you always take with you."

Letang said it's just business playing against Tocchet, but once this series ends he'll fall back on good memories.

"When you spend many years with somebody and you happen to get all the way and win, it creates memory for a lifetime," he said.