In the middle of a three-game road trip that has taken the Philadelphia Flyers down south against three incredibly tough opponents, the coaching staff has decided to sit their star rookie.
Matvei Michkov will not be in the lineup on Thursday against the Lightning in Tampa. The Flyers young phenom who has scored 10 points in his first 13 games of NHL action will be sitting in the press box and watching the game from up above. Flyers head coach John Tortorella made it crystal clear as to why he, and the team, have made this decision to not have Michkov playing in a fairly important game.
“It’s part of the process,” Tortorella told reporters at Thursday’s morning skate. “Just part of the process. I mean, I told you guys. Young guy, they can watch tape too as part of their development. It’s trying to help them.
The process is adapting a very talented young player to the NHL, after all. And Tortorella views that Michkov needs to take some time and just watch the game away from the bench. In fairness, Michkov’s early success has dwindled. He has just one point in his last five games and of his 10 points earned, just one did not come on the power play. That doesn’t spell out a raging success — and add in that the 19-year-old has already been benched for a stretch of time in multiple games, this was bound to happen eventually.
Now, Michkov gets the typical rookie treatment of being able to relax and study the game instead of participating. If it was anyone else, this would feel much more normal. But it’s Matvei Michkov.
In the teenager’s place, the recently recalled Anthony Richard will be in the lineup tonight to make his Flyers regular-season debut. The 27-year-old forward really impressed during training camp and now he gets to add his agility and tenacity to this current Flyers team that has been surely lacking it recently.
“He had a real good camp. Skates well and played real well down there,” Tortorella said about Richard. “Brings some offense, and as I told him in camp, I’m hoping to — I want him to take a chance offensively. I don’t want him to worry about making mistakes, I want him to take a chance offensively, so he gets an opportunity.”
Tortorella is not just giving Richard some even-strength opportunity, no. Richard will be taking Michkov’s direct spot on the top power-play unit. A 27-year-old AHL veteran with 24 games of experience in the NHL and four goals and eight points total, and just four minutes of ever being on an NHL-level power-play unit, is now getting a primary role on this team.
Honestly, good for him. We love it for Richard and are happy to have him get this opportunity. It is just so Flyers, it’s not even funny.
