Early in the NHL season, Rick Tocchet is still searching for one element from his Vancouver Canucks — consistency.
The head coach challenged his group to play a full 60-minute game Monday when they hosted the Carolina Hurricanes.
Instead, the Canucks fell behind 3-1 early in the second period and had to rally to level the game at 3-3 late in the third. Ultimately, Vancouver settled for a single point in the 4-3 overtime loss.
“You’ve just gotta stay focused on your task at hand. You can’t have those lulls. I think sometimes we lose focus at a certain part of the game, and then the next line loses focus,” Tocchet said.
“If somebody’s had a bad shift, I get it. Or maybe there are two bad shifts. We need that third shift to get back to what we’re talking about. You can’t pour gasoline on the fire. But we’ve …