September 27, 2024
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Flyers winger Matvei Michkov celebrates his empty-net goal on the bench with teammate Morgan Frost late into Thursday night's preseason home game against the Islanders. It was the first time the Flyers' top prospect scored in front of the Wells Fargo Center crowd.
Matvei Michkov had the puck at center ice with a look straight at an empty net.
He hit the post, the Philly crowd groaned, but on a second effort, a bounce off the wall came right back to him. This time he didn't miss.
The 19-year old phenom potted the empty netter with just over a minute left on Thursday night, and with a pump of his fists and a roar, tossed himself into the glass in celebration.
His teammates loved it. No, this wasn't the clutch-time goal to send the Flyers into the playoffs in April. This was a 2-0 preseason win over the Islanders in late September.
But the energy was infectious.
"Every time we're on the bench, he just wants to go back out there," winger Owen Tippett said after Thursday night's exhibition at the Wells Fargo Center. "His excitement's contagious. Other guys want to feed off it, and it's been fun to have his energy around."
"He just likes playing," head coach John Tortorella said following practice at the team's training center in Voorhees the day after. "Scores a goal last night, empty-netter in an exhibition game, and it's like it's Game 7. I love that about him, what he brings, and I think it rubs off on the team."
🚨 ENG! 🚨
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) September 27, 2024
A Philly first for MM39.#NYIvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/RdaqqPTxrr
Look, there's still a lot for the Flyers to do, and prove, this season and over the next few years. But it's been tough to deny, the air around the team has felt a whole lot lighter ever since their top prospect arrived here over from Russia earlier this summer.
"You get happy for a 19-year old kid, coming from overseas, trying to figure it all out here, spotlight on him a little bit, and he just goes and plays," Tortorella continued on Friday. "That's fun for me to watch, to watch a kid be able to handle that."
There's been a noticeable spark in the Flyers' offensive creativity, too, even though it is still just the preseason.
Midway through the second period Thursday night, Michkov got a feed from Morgan Frost down into the right faceoff circle and just missed the mark on a one-timer while on the power play, then later on in the frame, he saw the Islanders checkers drawing to Frost with the puck along the boards and tried to take advantage with an attempt to sneak a shot in down below the goal line.
Nice play by Frost leads to Matvei attempting to score from way below the goal line 😭 pic.twitter.com/ZgONLz9YrK
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) September 27, 2024
In the third, Michkov chased a puck down along the offensive zone wall and managed to strip it away from New York defenseman Mike Reilly, even though Reilly had him cutoff with the angle. Michkov then put a pinpoint pass on the stick of Cam York, who was streaking in from across the other way, which led to the night's first tally after Erik Johnson put the bounce from the initial shot away.
🚨 GOAL! 🚨
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) September 27, 2024
Erik Johnson opens the scoring at 4:36 with helpers from @camyork2 and Matvei Michkov. #NYIvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/4dDJHfDLds
The sequence was strength, skill, and hyper-awareness of where the game was going all in a matter of seconds.
"You don't teach it," Tortorella said. "He can make plays."
The kind of plays the Flyers need to make to take another step, the ones that they couldn't last year, which stopped them short.
"You can see he has skill," Tortorella went on. "He's gonna get closed out. He's gonna run into some obstacles along the way, but that's the feeling out process for him. We're really excited about how he's gone about his business here."
Since Michkov signed his entry-level deal with the organization and arrived in Philadelphia, his play away from the puck has been the big sticking point for what he needs to work on – along with being a speculated point of contention between him and Tortorella.
On Friday, Tortorella said they're working on it, situational play, too – "You may have to fight another day to make that play between someone's legs," the head coach said.
But he doesn't want to bog Michkov down with it. He wants to let him go.
"I'm not interested in turning him into a checker," Tortorella said. "We want to lay the foundation, and it's going to take time. It's just my job as far as play away from the puck.
"Are we going to beat him over the head with it? No, because we are starving for the type of plays that he can make, the instinctive plays that he can make."
The plays the Flyers need to make to take another step.
Alexei Kolosov is here.
He was in goal practicing with the Flyers on Friday.
— Nick Tricome (@itssnick) September 27, 2024
It's been a bizarre saga surrounding the 22-year old goalie prospect.
He flew in from his native Belarus late last season to get started with the Phantoms in the AHL, went home for the summer amid rumors that he was feeling homesick and wasn't going to return, missed rookie camp entirely, and then the start of training camp, which all added up to the point where general manager Danny Brière said the organization had to move on.
But it appears the Flyers kept talks going quietly behind the scenes, which has become a bit of standard given how the Cutter Gauthier trade, Ivan Fedotov's sudden arrival, and the landing of Michkov ahead of schedule all played out. No one knew much until it happened.
How Kolosov is going to factor into the Flyers' plans now isn't clear.
Local media quickly picked up on a third unknown goaltender stepping out onto the ice Friday in Voorhees and just as quickly put together that it was him, but when Tortorella sat down for his press conference after, he had nothing to say about Kolosov's arrival.
Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov are the 1-2 NHL combo heading into the season, Cal Petersen is expected to stay down with the Phantoms, and then the Flyers recently signed AHL-level goaltender Eetu Mäkiniemi to a one-year, two-way contract, likely in anticipation that they weren't going to have Kolosov as the third goalie in line.
But now he's here. So now what?
MORE: How the Flyers endured John Tortorella's notorious Day 1 skate
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