{"id":882518,"date":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882518\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","slug":"rick-tocchet-says-flyers-defensemen-are-too-horny-on-the-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882518\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Tocchet says Flyers defensemen are \u2018too horny\u2019 on the ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest differences in Tuesday night\u2019s 3-2 shootout loss to Seattle <\/a> for the Flyers was seeing the defense jump up in the rush. Oliver Bonk, who played with Travis Sanheim on the first pairing, was a force to be reckoned with at some points, and managed to start the play that lead to Philadelphia cutting the lead by the Kraken in half when Christian Dvorak made it 2-1.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I was waiting to get stopped, but I was just doing my best to keeping my feet moving,\u201d Bonk said afterwards regarding the rush<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a big thing to not throw pucks away at this level, so just keep going until I could make a play.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon after practice, Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet was asked about something Trevor Zegras said post-game<\/a>, citing the term \u201cscooter skating\u201d which was something Tocchet smiled about. <\/p>\n

\u201cSee, he\u2019s listening, wow,\u201d Tocchet said before elaborating on the term. \u201cSo, you\u2019ll see the really good teams when you delay, the fourth guy, he scooters. If you watched us last night, there were four instances where our defense are too\u2026I can\u2019t use the word. They\u2019re too\u2026if you heard the word, I can\u2019t say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After deliberating briefly as to whether he would be able to say the word, Tocchet decided to live life to the fullest, the heck with the consequences, and said the word. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can say it, they\u2019re too horny, right? They get up in the play, and they get too\u2026so you have to just slow your skating down. The delay comes and then you scoot your skating, so you time it right, and then you get your shot. We were getting in too close. Then when you get it, you\u2019re on top of their rail guys, so you got to scoot your skating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was something we worked on today. It happened honestly four or five times where we, literally, if we just waited just an extra two seconds, we would\u2019ve had a Grade A (opportunity) instead of a blocked shot. So that\u2019s something we\u2019ve been really working on.\u201d<\/p>\n

There could have been plenty of other words used in that instance, but Tocchet decided to use the one that would certainly make us all think about this on-ice phenomenon a little bit longer than normal. While the Flyers could use a whole lot of offense, the fourth player entering the zone, typically the defenseman, has been a little bit more aggressive than he would like, going down too deep in the zone and too fast, not waiting to see play develop and maybe get more involved in the play by slowing down.<\/p>\n

Although the rushes didn\u2019t result in the two points Philadelphia are desperately craving now with a 0-5-3 record, it was one of the bright spots in a game that went right down to the wire. And then the shootout.<\/p>\n

Both Bonk and Sanheim joined the Flyers rush<\/p>\n

The rushes by both Bonk and Travis Sanheim gave Philadelphia a bit more offensive jump or punch, and might be something to look forward to as the Flyers hope to crush this winless streak once and for all.<\/p>\n

Whether both defenders were tired of the \u201csafe is death\u201d blueprint that has characterized some of Tocchet\u2019s defensive philosophy, or the fact Philadelphia has had a tough time scoring goals, both decided to join the rush, or start the rush with strong dashes over the blueline.<\/p>\n

Sanheim, who said he \u201csaw a chance to jump\u201d on the penalty kill, also showed some skill driving the play up ice. \u201cI mean I\u2019m trying every game, as best that I can if I got the legs,\u201d Sanheim said regarding trying to move up into the offensive zone or be a playmaker. \u201cIn this league you have to have offense come from the back end to help the forwards generate. Teams play too good defensively, so if you don\u2019t have that fourth or fifth guy up ice, it\u2019s hard to generate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of what racy language or euphemisms Tocchet and his coaching staff may consider to get the Flyers out of the rut, seeing the defense jump up on the rush is something that might pay bigger dividends the longer this season continues. Particularly if Sanheim remains healthy, and Bonk remains in the picture with Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen possibly closer to returning.<\/p>\n

The Flyers have a chance to be slightly less \u201chorny\u201d when they visit the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, still searching for that first win of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest differences in Tuesday night\u2019s 3-2 shootout loss to Seattle for the Flyers was seeing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-882518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}