Rick Tocchet sees a kindred spirit in Auston Matthews.
The Coyotes coach, who played 1,144 NHL games, scored 440 goals and incurred more than 3,000 penalty minutes when playoffs were included, was quick to praise when the Arizona native’s play was broached before Thursday’s game.
“He’s already a man,” Tocchet said of the 20-year-old. “Everyone has talent and skill, but I love it when he goes in the corners. I’m a corner guy, I always will be. He holds on to pucks, he wins puck battles. If you’re a talented guy and can do that, then you’re a special player.”
Derek Stepan and Tobias Rieder were expected to get some of Thursday’s duties shadowing Matthews’ line, which led Tocchet to another important point.
“The best way to check the great players is to have the puck on your stick. Throwing pucks away is not the way to defend against the greats. Holding on to it, like a Matthews does, is huge.
“It’s like all our players, if you can’t play inside the dots today, you’re not going to get many goals and assists. You look at the leaderboard, most of those guys’ goals are in the slot, whether it’s Matthews, Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid. They’re willing to take the puck to the net.”
BOWER POWER
The Coyotes held a moment of silence for Johnny Bower before the game, a chance for the Scarborough-born Tocchet to recall an old relationship with the family.
“I met him years ago. His daughter (Cindy) taught me power skating at Commander Park Arena in the summers. She was a big part of me getting to the NHL. She was awesome and he’d come and watch. He was an unbelievable man.”
ZAC SACKED
Arizona was without Hamilton-born forward Zac Rinaldo on Thursday as he began serving his six-game suspension for a hard right punch to Colorado’s Samuel Girard in a game Dec. 23.
Repeat offender Rinaldo’s fifth NHL suspension since 2011-12 came after he shook up Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon with a clean hit, causing Girard to stalk him. But before anything happened, Rinaldo unloaded a punch that staggered the unsuspecting Girard.
“Zac is a guy that we’ve had a lot of discussions with about what we’re looking for and what we’re not looking for,” Coyotes general manager John Chayka told Arizona Sports. “To this point, he’s done an excellent job of being a model player, on and off the ice.
“It was an unfortunate play, a confluence of differing events. He made a mistake so he gets punished.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Matthews says he has yet to make any Canada-United States bets on the world junior hockey championship with teammates, joking that two weeks ago, head coach Mike Babcock finally delivered the bottle of wine the centre won in last year’s wager … Jake Brenk was one of the referees Thursday night. The American has been in the league a couple of years and was drafted by the Oilers in 2001 in the 5th round, where Toronto chose Kyle Wellwood … Congratulations to hard-working Leafs Nation Network producer Nicole Burns, who announced her Christmas engagement to team video analyst Jordan Bean. A stream of players offered best wishes and Babcock opened his news conference on Wednesday with congratulations to the couple.