October 16, 2024
The first needed a look, but the second was undeniable.
Matvei Michkov got on the board Tuesday night in Edmonton, first on a puck he jammed through Stuart Skinner's pad and then on a one-timer he rifled right by the Oilers goaltender's glove from out wide – both on the power play and both moments apart going toward an early 2-0 Flyers lead.
That first goal hurdle was cleared, much to his and his teammates' own excitement on the bench after the call stood upon review. Then the 19-year old wasted no time getting the next one, on a sequence the Flyers' power play would've been incapable of pulling off seven months ago.
The legend is beginning.
Still, as much as the Flyers fought to hold on, Tuesday night did end up slipping away from them in a 4-3 overtime loss.
"I think everyone in this room was maybe more excited than he was," veteran winger Garnet Hathaway said postgame of Michkov's first two goals. "You can see the battle he has, the compete he has, and I think that kind of goal just epitomizes what he brings to the game. He's a weapon on the power play for us right now."
One the team has sorely needed for a long time, but with plenty of work still to do there and elsewhere.
The Flyers jumped on an Oilers team that stumbled out of the gate to begin the new season, both from a mix of bad luck and likely lingering fatigue from that extended run all the way up to Game 7 of last year's Stanley Cup Final. But you couldn't count on them to stay down. They're still the defending Western Conference champion, and they still boast two of the game's best in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
A Bobby Brink goal on an odd bounce just as another Philadelphia man-advantage expired kept the Flyers ahead, 3-2, going into the third period after Adam Henrique and Connor Brown found openings past Sam Ersson.
But then with just under four minutes left in regulation, McDavid and Draisaitl were moving the puck down in the right corner of the Flyers' own end, skaters drew to them, and that left Evan Bouchard crashing in from the left all alone. McDavid saw him and slipped the pass through immediately. It was bad news as soon as everyone else on the ice registered it. Tie game at three.
Then in overtime, after Travis Sanheim crashed into the wall from trying to make a move for the winner cutting in close, McDavid was left streaking up the ice with the puck all alone. Ersson made the initial stop, but Draisaitl was trailing for the second attempt, and Travis Konecny as the lone back checker who could make chase got caught too far down.
There was little Ersson could do as the horn sounded for the Oilers win.
So far on the Western Canadian road trip to begin the season, the Flyers are 1-1-1 after also losing 6-3 in Calgary on Saturday night in the latter of a back-to-back.
There's definitely been good – Michkov, Jett Luchanko holding his own so far, Brink looking noticeably stronger and more confident (see his perfect saucer pass on Joel Farabee's goal from Saturday night), Cam York and Travis Sanheim eating up some monster top-pairing minutes so far, Owen Tippett being able to put guys in a blender, and the fact that the power play is actually producing now – and Tuesday night in Edmonton for sure yielded positives in the effort.
But it's nothing the Flyers want to fully rest on. Their process is there, but they knew that had a few bounces gone different, had they tightened up a couple of things instead, they'd be walking out of Edmonton with two points instead of one.
"I think you're happy about the process of the game you built," Hathaway said. "We've been on the road for quite a bit, even though it's our third game, and we were up a goal in the third period in a tough environment against a really good team. You can take the positive from it. You can say 'Hey, this is a way to build our season.' And you can take the negatives and try and twist them and learn from it.
"I think we can dial in some detail. I think that that forecheck, that kind of 'foot on the gas' mentality that we have, I think it's there. I think it's just making sure we take care of our zone before we go the other way."
There's one more game out West in Seattle on Thursday night, then Michkov, Hathaway, and the Flyers finally come home to the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday for a second go at the Canucks – with a crowd that, after the way October has gone for Philadelphia so far and with all the hype surrounding Michkov coming in, might be the most excited to see the team skate in a long, long time.
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