{"id":448806,"date":"2026-02-04T16:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448806\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:40:08","slug":"matvei-michkovs-increased-usage-among-the-big-takeaways-of-win-vs-caps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448806\/","title":{"rendered":"Matvei Michkov\u2019s increased usage among the big takeaways of win vs. Caps"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Flyers snapped a four-game losing streak<\/a> Tuesday with a 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals.<\/p>\n

It was a huge game against a team above them in the standings, but also on the outside of the playoff picture. The win moved the Flyers within seven points of the Metropolitan Division\u2019s third spot, currently held by the New York Islanders, and eight points behind the Boston Bruins, who are sitting in eighth in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

The Orange and Black had more energy, held off a surge by the Capitals in the third, and were able to snag the all-important two points.<\/p>\n

Here are three things to know from the win that saw the Flyers score four goals for just the third time since beating the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Jamie Drysdale\u2019s third period goal helps Flyers beat Capitals and snaps four-game losing streak<\/a><\/p>\n

Matvei Michkov played almost 16 minutes<\/p>\n

Hitting the ice just minutes after general manager Danny Bri\u00e8re spoke about the latest Michkov-Rick Tocchet discourse<\/a>, the Russian winger played 15 minutes, 54 seconds across 21 shifts. It was the highest total since he played a little over 16 minutes against the New York Islanders on Jan. 26 and his 12th-most minutes this season.<\/p>\n

Michkov averaged 45-second shifts after averaging 35 seconds per shift on Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings, when he played a controversial 10:21. Was it a point of focus to have him take longer shifts?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, a little bit,\u201d coach Rick Tocchet<\/a> said. \u201cWe talked yesterday, too, a little bit about if you feel like staying, get out there. Obviously, if you\u2019re winded, get off. But, I thought he was moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michkov played well at times. He set up Bobby Brink<\/a> for a chance late in the third and was a key contributor to Owen Tippett<\/a>\u2019s goal that opened the scoring just under six minutes into the game.<\/p>\n

On the goal, Trevor Zegras<\/a> gained the zone and dished to Michkov, who carried the puck around the net. He patiently took it around the goal and up the right boards before threading the needle through two Capitals to Travis Sanheim<\/a> at the left point. The defenseman then threaded the needle himself to Tippett in the right circle before the forward went across the crease and scored on the backhand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we would have a little bit of room coming out of the corners there,\u201d Tippett said. \u201cI think that was a great pass to find Sanny, and Sanny made a great play to kind of calm it down and pass it right back to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Vlada\u0159 was good again<\/p>\n

In hindsight \u2014 and after taking a deep breath from a busy night \u2014 Dan Vlada\u0159 should have gotten one of the three stars of the game from this reporter.<\/p>\n

The Czech goalie stopped 26 of 28 shots to win his 17th game of the season. He raised his save percentage to .904 and dropped his goal-against average to 2.49, which is 10th-best among goalies who have played at least 20 games.<\/p>\n

He allowed two goals \u2014 one a short-handed goal on a two-on-one from Aliaksei Protas and the other a rebound goal by Anthony Beauvillier, who was left all alone in front. But while the team was facing some adversity, Vlada\u0159 was pumping them up, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a leader,\u201d said Tocchet, adding that while Vlada\u0159 doesn\u2019t wear a letter \u2014 goalies aren\u2019t allowed \u2014 for him, he has one. <\/p>\n

\u201cI forget when he came by our bench [but] he said, \u2018Guys, why are you guys holding your head down? Let\u2019s go here.\u2019 And I love that. It\u2019s good to hear that. He\u2019s our goalie, and [has] a lot of character. He\u2019s been like that all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vlada\u0159 was solid in net. In the first period, he made a save with 15:53 left, sliding across to rob Dylan Strome on a power play. Later in the frame, while shorthanded, he stopped Strome again as the puck popped up and he swiped it away with some help from his defenseman, Travis Sanheim. But Sanheim won\u2019t be doing that in a few days.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Flyers GM Danny Bri\u00e8re addresses Rick Tocchet\u2019s recent comments on Matvei Michkov: \u2018They have a good relationship.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe play him in Game 1, too. I won\u2019t be helping him out like I did,\u201d he joked, noting that Sanheim\u2019s Canada squad will be taking on Vlada\u0159 and the Czechs on Feb. 12 (10:40 a.m.) at the Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the third period, he stopped Brandon Duhaime\u2019s shot after Rasmus Ristolainen couldn\u2019t get the puck out, and with six attackers on for the Capitals, off a faceoff deep in the Flyers\u2019 end, Vlada\u0159 was quick to save an Alex Ovechkin slapshot. It was one of nine low-danger shots he faced; however, according to Natural Stat Trick, he did see seven high-danger ones, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one thing that you cannot really control as a goalie,\u201d he said about facing high-danger shots. \u201cYou\u2019re there to stop the puck, no matter where the shots are coming from. Mentality is still the same for me, trying to keep as many as I can out of the net. And then having the confidence in the group that I think that we can be scoring two or three every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n

A power-play goal!<\/p>\n

Jamie Drysdale<\/a> has been on and off the power play all season, but lately he\u2019s been getting power-play time. On Tuesday, he finally got on the board.<\/p>\n

Zegras got the puck in the corner and threw a reverse hit into Martin Feh\u00e9rv\u00e1ry to create time and space for himself. He utilized that time and space to find Drysdale as the defenseman slid into the spot atop the circles and fired off the one-timer that popped off the top of the pad of goalie Clay Stevenson and in.<\/p>\n

The goal is Drysdale\u2019s fourth of the season and first with the man advantage, giving him five power-play points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I had my chances, to be honest with you, I just couldn\u2019t put the puck in the net,\u201d Drysdale said. \u201cGuys did a great job of finding me and finding holes, and it was nice to see one go in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philly went 1-for-3 and has now scored on the man advantage in three straight games (3-for-8).<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I like the shot by Jamie. That\u2019s what we need is that … three feet [off the ground shot],\u201d Tocchet said, using his hands to show the amount. \u201cIt\u2019s that hard [shot] so we can get a tip on it. I think sometimes our shots are a little high, blocker side, and we talked about, before the power play, what we wanted, and we executed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Trevor did a really nice job, like he was excellent. He went low. He body positioned the guy, the guy goes down, he doesn\u2019t do that, maybe they get the puck out. So Trevor did a nice job to set that play up, and then obviously, Jamie, that\u2019s the shots we need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Flyers snapped a four-game losing streak Tuesday with a 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99,210576],"class_list":["post-448806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-takeaways-michkov-minutes-vladar-leadership-power-play-goal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448806","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=448806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}