{"id":357730,"date":"2025-12-19T08:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/357730\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T08:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:48:10","slug":"heres-why-matvei-michkov-is-playing-less-than-other-flyers-forwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/357730\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s why Matvei Michkov is playing less than other Flyers forwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO \u2015 Flyers coach Rick Tocchet<\/a> likes his pairs.<\/p>\n

Trevor Zegras<\/a> and Christian Dvorak have been attached at the hip since almost the start of the season. Noah Cates<\/a> and Bobby Brink<\/a> have been a duo dating back to the John Tortorella<\/a> era, as have Matvei Michkov<\/a> and Sean Couturier<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But Michkov was recently switched to the left wing with Cates and Brink \u2014 and it paid off with a Brink goal in Tuesday\u2019s 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

\u201cBobby and Noah have been together last year and this year, and they have a little chemistry. I just wanted to switch, get a little juice,\u201d Tocchet explained on Thursday before the Flyers take on the Buffalo Sabres (7:30 p.m., ESPN+, Hulu).<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: The Flyers are playing well for the first time in what seems like forever. Let\u2019s enjoy them and stop complaining.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNoah and Bobby play a little bit more north,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019ve got some speed, so that could help Matvei and his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michkov\u2019s season started slowly, but his game has certainly picked up as the schedule builds. After leading all rookies in goals last season with 26, he had just one tally, along with five assists, in the first 13 games this season. Since then, he has seven goals and 12 points in 19 games.<\/p>\n

Tocchet has seen an improvement in the young Russian\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he\u2019s obviously making less turnovers,\u201d he said of Michkov, who has seen his giveaways drop from almost two a game (22 in the first 13 games) to one a game (19 in the last 19). <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trying to understand. He\u2019s getting his shifts. He\u2019s doing 30-second shifts, which is fine. I have no problem with it. I know he\u2019s coming off early sometimes, and I think there\u2019s a number of reasons why, but I don\u2019t mind the progression when it comes to that. We\u2019ll work on the other stuff, and he\u2019s still building his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Michkov\u2019s ice time has been a point of contention with fans, he is often the one opting to skate a short shift, as he goes to the bench with his linemates still on the ice. <\/p>\n

According to Natural Stat Trick, he is tied with Cates and defenseman Nick Seeler for the second shortest average shift length at 41 seconds; only Garnet Hathaway and Noah Juulsen average fewer seconds per shift (39). And while the 21-year-old winger ranks ninth in average time on ice among Flyers forwards at 14:40, there are several factors leading to it, like the fact that he leads the team with 32 penalty minutes in 32 games.<\/p>\n

Among the forwards, he ranks eighth with 555 shifts, trailing Travis Konecny<\/a> (623), Tippett (593), Christian Dvorak (591), Cates (582), and Couturier (573), who all serve on the penalty kill and have all played on the power play too at some point this season. The only two players above him who do not kill penalties, but are on the power play, are Trevor Zegras (589) \u2014 who leads the team in goals (14) and points (33) \u2014 and Brink, who has only just six more shifts than Michkov.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do like short shifts, but there\u2019s sometimes you\u2019ve been out there for 30, but you still got juice. You can still stay out there. It\u2019s time and place. It\u2019s a lot of different things,\u201d Tocchet said, speaking in a general sense about short shifts. <\/p>\n

\u201cShift lengths are anywhere from 30 to 40, 45 seconds, and you get up a minute, 55 seconds, it can happen. Sometimes when you have the puck, and you\u2019re just moving around, and you\u2019re not really tired, stay out there and try to score. But I think for the most part, every coach preaches short shifts. I mean, that\u2019s how you drive play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Flyers place defenseman Egor Zamula on waivers<\/a><\/p>\n

The Flyers need Michkov to drive play, and thus far, he has looked better as he gets back into shape and builds his game. Although he doesn\u2019t have a goal in December, he does have four assists in eight games \u2014 along with 10 penalty minutes. <\/p>\n

And while he is one of five forwards who have played at least half the games this season with a negative plus-minus (minus-2), he has an even rating in December. That was helped by setting up Brink on Monday during his 20 five-on-five shifts and 14:06 of ice time, which was one more shift than Brink and one fewer than Konecny, who played 16:08 and 17:50, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got that skill and that vision,\u201d Cates said before the game in Montreal. \u201cI think, just for me, to get him in good spots, get him the puck with time and space … [and] going to the net or getting open, because, you know, he\u2019s special, and he\u2019ll find you. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo obviously just got to talk with him and work with him a little bit with some things, but just the kind of special skills that he has, you know, we\u2019ve got to try to take advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breakaways<\/p>\n

Sam Ersson<\/a> will start in goal against the Sabres. He is 4-1-0 against with a 1.87 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage against Buffalo for his career. Ersson\u2019s first career shutout came in Western New York, when he made 28 saves on Jan. 9, 2023. … Tocchet said there are game-time decisions, but forward Nikita Grebenkin and defensemen Juulsen and Egor Zamula were the only ones on the ice for the optional morning skate. The Flyers later placed Zamula on waivers Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Rasmus Ristolainen\u2019s return gives Flyers an edge: \u2018He likes the physical part of the game\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO \u2015 Flyers coach Rick Tocchet likes his pairs. Trevor Zegras and Christian Dvorak have been attached at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[177183,385,99],"class_list":["post-357730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-matvei-michkov-forwards-ice-time-turnovers-short-shifts","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}