It is happening again.
Matvei Michkov got his first taste of the famous John Tortorella benching during last week’s game against the Blues, as he found himself sitting for a few rotations of his line during the first period as Tortorella sought to have him settle down a bit, sit with a critique they gave him, and just watch for a moment. The lesson seemed to take, and he was right back out there with his line for the remainder of the game. A small bit of drama, but quickly smoothed over.
If the hope was that it would be a while before Michkov was stuck in a similar situation again, we would be quickly disappointed — in tonight’s game down in Raleigh against the Hurricanes, which quickly started to spiral on the Flyers, Michkov took a shift around the eight minute mark of the period, and something must have cropped up with displeased Tortorella, because he found himself stapled to the bench from then on out. This means, as well, that Michkov was not made available to the group in the late game push, the 6-on-5 setting, looking for the tying goal to force overtime. Such was the severity of the message desired to be sent.
Now, perhaps this all shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise, after all, Tortorella told the assembled media after that first benching that a repeat of this, even an escalation, was in play as the season went on. “That’s the way it’s going to be,” he said. “[Michkov] may miss games, who knows? I don’t know what’s going to happen. But that’s part of the development of a 19 year old kid.”
The process of developing him is an ongoing one, and there are certainly going to be ups and downs along the way. The Flyers are clearly taking a concentrated approach to his development, that development over everything, and this was made clear tonight — Michkov on the ice with the goalie pulled would have given them the best chance to push for at least the lone standings point that comes with forcing overtime, but evidently the message sent by sitting him for that was deemed more important.
Tortorella is sticking to his promise to sit Michkov if he sees fit, and this ever evolving situation remains one keeping us on our toes.
