Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet joined Paul Bissonnette on the latest episode of the Spittin' Chiclets podcast.
Theres a language warning throughout the podcast.
Tocchet spoke about his career, his time as an assistant coach with the Penguins, and new Coyote Phil Kessel.
An hour and 11 minutes into the podcast, Tocchet tells an interesting story about Evgeni Malkin.
“Geno, early on I wanted to kill him," Tocchet recalled. "I didn’t really get along with Geno early. My personality, I don’t know why.
"I don't share this story very often, but he communicated, but not really much with me. We were playing Florida, and 4-on-4 is man-on-man. And the game before, Geno lost his man and they scored a goal. And it happened twice before on the road trip. And we were playing Florida, and the same thing happens. So Sully yells, ‘Tocc! Will you tell him? Get him!’ so Geno comes to the bench. I don’t yell, as an assistant coach. I don't believe an assistant coach should yell. That's for the head coach ... I believe if the head coach is an a**hole, then you can be a good guy. If the head coach is being a real good guy, then maybe you could be an a**hole. Don't be the same as the head coach.
“Anyway, Geno comes off and I go to talk to him. And he basically (swears at) me, in Russian, like basically snaps on me. I tell you what, I’ve never lost it in my life like I did, Biz. In all of 15 years of coaching. I snapped at him. I’m not gonna tell you what I said to him. It wasn’t nice. But my favorite part of this whole thing, I snapped at him, and you know he sat there and I gave it to him. And Sully goes, ‘Tocc take it easy’ and I didn't take it easy.
“Kessel looks at me, ‘Tocc, I got him, don’t worry’ — he was joking around— ‘leave my center alone!’ And I go, ‘Hey Kess, you f*** off too!’ And he goes, ‘what did I do wrong, what did I do wrong?’
"So, Kess did a good job of diffusing the whole situation. The next day, Geno comes up to me, we were practicing, 'Hey coach, sorry coach. You still talk to me?'
"I said, 'Geno, I'll go to bat, go to war with you, man. You're a hell of a player.' And since that day, I loved Geno. There was just a little bit of a thing that we had to go through, but, man, he played some great games for the Penguins, that kid."
