Matvei Michkov was back on the ice Monday night after sitting out the last two games. He had a goal and an assist in regulation and scored in the shootout, giving the Flyers a 4-3 home win. After the game, John Tortorella was asked about the 19-year-old rookie:

Reporter: “Michkov, it seemed like he responded in a pretty good way. What did you think of his overall game, not just the scoring?”

Torts: “Yeah, he played good.” 

Wow, thanks for that!

Luckily he was asked more about it with the last question of the press conference:

“I wasn’t worried about how he was gonna respond. I wasn’t worried about that at all. He competes.” 

Fact check: true. Michkov responded with his fourth multi-point game in 14 career games. We did get to hear from him, speaking in the locker room with Slava Kuznetsov translating via phone, or zoom, or something. He wasn’t physically present:

  • Did he have extra motivation after missing the last two? – “Every game is important, every game the motivation is there. And every time when I take the ice I feel like I need to put everything out there for the team.”
  • Did he feel better/more confident playing in his own end? – “The (coach) will decide on it. He sees it better and I hope I will do better being on my game.”

It was an entertaining game. The Flyers blew a 3-0 lead, Nick Seeler fought some dude, Michkov got into it with Macklin Celebrini, then hit the “are you not entertained?” celebration after scoring in the shootout. And John Tortorella is going to try to push what he thinks are the right buttons here. He’s not going to blow sunshine up the rookie’s ass after a two-game scratching. He’ll give him light praise and see how the kid handles it on the ice.


There were conversations in the Philly sports ecosystem about whether or not Torts was being a dickhead here. The idea was that the casuals want to see Michkov. They don’t necessarily care about Emil Andrae or the backup goaltender position. Hardcore Flyers fans do. But regardless of whether you’re a casual or a hardcore, we all knew Michkov was going to be benched at some point. It was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when, so better to get it out of the way early on, right? He responded well.