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Flyers Benching Matvei Michkov for Game 5 Will Not Be the End of the World
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Seems like the Flyers will sit Matvei Michkov for Game 5 in Yinzerville on Monday night after showing these lines at Sunday’s practice:
Yeah look, Michkov hasn’t had a good series. No points, a bad penalty in Game 3, almost the same amount of penalty box visits as shots on goal. He’s not having any kind of impact at all as he tries to figure out a faster and more physical style of playoff hockey. Sitting him down for a game isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Thing is, you could make a case for scratching Denver Barkey or Tyson Foerster, who haven’t been lighting it up either. The third line as a whole could use a shake up, so in comes Alex Bump. Barkey had some good north/south moments in Game 1, and scored in Game 4, but otherwise has been quiet. Foerster doesn’t have a point in four games and has been logging a lot more ice time than Michkov, but doesn’t seem to be the recipient of much criticism at all. Michkov supporters will point out the goals and assists he contributed after the Olympic break, which helped propel the Flyers into the playoffs for the first time in five seasons, and argue that he deserves a longer leash because of that, which is a fair rebuttal.
At this current point in time, it feels like the Michkov scapegoat thing is going to be a storyline in perpetuity. There’s a portion of fans and media who think he’s always going to be singled out while the other guys who aren’t playing up to snuff get a free pass. Maybe there’s something to it, maybe not, but the Tocchet/Michkov thing feels exponentially less strained than it was a few months back. Regardless, this is Michkov’s first postseason, he’s 21 years old, he’s been through rough patches this year and he’s gonna come out on the other side with a whole lot of valuable experience from the entirety of the season. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that this is still technically a rebuilding year, and he’s younger than every other Flyers skater not named Barkey or Porter Martone.
So when you back up a bit and view it from afar, it’s not some absurd notion to sit down a young sophomore-year guy who isn’t impacting a series. Flyers win on Monday night, he’s in there for Game 1 against the Canes. Flyers lose, he’s probably back in there for Game 6 back in Philly.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com