The major storyline that continued through the entire Philadelphia Flyers season is how Matvei Michkov had a disappointing sophomore season and how his relationship with new head coach Rick Tocchet was put in the public eye. And now the coach has expressed what he wants to see from him this summer and next season, right after the team was eliminated from the playoffs.
It is true — Michkov following up his 63-point rookie campaign with just 20 goals and 51 points and having a game highlighted by defensive mistakes, was not great to see. It was also not great to see his average ice-time drop by almost two minutes per game and see him not with the teammates that can get the most out of his offensive game.
And that is where the conflict with Flyers fans between what they see in Michkov and how he’s being coached, truly started. Rick Tocchet’s approach for Michkov has been brought into question throughout this season and the Flyers head coach has addressed it multiple times.
But after the season ended this past weekend, Tocchet appeared on PHLY’s The Anthony Gargano Show and really spilled the beans on where he thinks Michkov is at, what he saw this past season, and where they go from here.
Rick Tocchet explains his approach with Matvei Michkov
During the interview that lasted over 20 minutes (it is all fairly worthwhile stuff to get a sense of where Tocchet is at with a lot of players), Gargano brought up how he loves Tocchet’s focus on his relationship with players. He mentioned specifically how he saw the coach speaking with rookie Porter Martone and how much the player will get out of that.
He did not mention Michkov, but Tocchet addressed it head on and brought up how there is a storyline going around about his relationship with the young Russian winger, and what he wants from him.
“Yeah, and every player is different. You know, the narrative around here — and I’m not even scared [to mention it], you know me, I’ll talk about anything — is with the Michkov thing and the relationships,” Tocchet said. “We’re trying to make him like Bump, like Barkey. Coots, look at him the last couple of months. He’s caught fire in certain things and how he’s going to be better next year.
“We’re all trying to do the right thing. Nobody is trying to hurt anyone’s career. We’re all on the same page. Sometimes you have to go a different path with different players, and that’s it. That’s our job. If I’m not doing my job properly — my theory is that each player has to pay the mortgage. Each player deserves a piece of the pie. But, they have to do it in the confines of the team. It’s the logo. It’s the Flyers through and through. Yeah, you have to worry about individuals and what they need but at the end of the day, how do you beat a Carolina? The only way you’re going to beat Carolina is the team. Not one individual is going to beat Carolina. That’s what we’ve preached all year and we got to get better at it.”
Even the biggest critic of Tocchet can agree with him there. The sport of ice hockey isn’t an individual sport and no one can play “hero ball” to will their team to a win — if they could, then Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers would be back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.
The point that Tocchet made that could be the most interesting is about him trying to “make” Michkov more like the other young players on this team. Whether he means play more like them on the ice — how Barkey is committed in all three zones and is an extremely thoughtful off-puck player — or whether he means that he should be more like them, in the terms of willing to listen or adapt their game; is uncertain. But all we know is that it’s hard to disagree with the head coach there.
What Tocchet wants to see from Michkov this summer
As Gargano continued the interview, he then started to ask about specific players. And instead of letting Tocchet bring up Michkov, he wanted to get the full picture view of what the coach thought of the talented winger.
Gargano even mentioned himself that the goals are obvious: That Michkov needs to get stronger and faster this summer. But what Tocchet said is certainly more interesting than that.
“I just think the expectations were put on him. I know the Flyers fans, everyone wants him to be a star, and he’s not there yet. And it’s okay,” Tocchet said. “He’s a spoke in the wheel. He’s part of the young group — Bump and Barkey. I think it’s important for him to be in that group. We shouldn’t put him on a pedestal.
“It’s not his fault. I think the pressure and this — it affected him early. And obviously he wasn’t ready to start the year, and that’s all water under the bridge. He came in, especially the last few months, working harder, trying to understand more of the English part and the team game. And that’s all part of the process and we can’t be afraid of it. Nobody is ruining him here, Anthony. Trust me, our assistant coaches are some of the best. The players love them. They’ll come at 11 o’clock at night to meet a player if it means for them to play better. Michkov is a spoke in the wheel and we’re going to enhance the relationships of all our players and he’s one of them, too. We got to get better, and I’ve got to get better, too.”
Okay, damn.
Tocchet has talked before about how previous expectations of Michkov and how he came into this league with so much hype and it only grew because of a good rookie year, has inflated his perception a little bit. But in this Monday morning sitdown with Gargano, he really let it all out.
It is true. Michkov exploded offensively last season because he was put on a slightly higher pedestal than other young players. He was given more generous opportunities playing with top offensive talents like Travis Konecny, and former coach John Tortorella even admitted that he’s changing his tactics for Michkov, to give the Flyers more odd-man rushes and let him cheat for offense a little bit.
Now, Tocchet is holding the player more accountable as he sees that that isn’t the recipe for long-term success and everyone buying in. If he does that for Michkov, then what about the other offensively gifted players on this team?
But maybe the best part about what Tocchet said is that all of the conflict and concern about last summer and his training camp and the start to the season; it’s all water under the bridge. It’s done. Now we look to the future and what they can get out of him. Now, he’s complementing his work the last few months on and off the ice — getting more work done and also making sure the language barrier between him and the coach is starting to break.
It was interesting to see Tocchet admit that he has to be better after talking about how Michkov has come a long way from the start of the season. Maybe that’s some confession that he shouldn’t have been so hard on him early on, or that he shouldn’t have made the off-ice conditioning issues with Michkov so pubic.
Either way, there are some positives coming out of what a rollercoaster of a season it has been. And now we just hope that Michkov has a killer summer, gets shredded, and fulfills some promise on the ice next season for the Flyers.
