{"id":616567,"date":"2026-05-01T04:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T04:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/616567\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T04:24:09","slug":"rick-tocchet-reveals-whats-next-for-matvei-michkov-in-flyers-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/616567\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Tocchet reveals what\u2019s next for Matvei Michkov in Flyers playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Flyers figure out when their second round series against the Carolina Hurricanes begins, Philadelphia head coach Rick Tocchet said Thursday<\/a> to the media that the youth were vital to the team\u2019s success. <\/p>\n

The four of Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Denver Barkey, and Alex Bump had seven points combined (four goals, three assists) over the six-game battle of Pennsylvania. Michkov earned a primary assist on the game-winning goal by Cam York in overtime,<\/a> and had a few quality chances to break the 0-0 deadlock. After a tough few games to start the series, Michkov was a healthy scratch for Game 5. The Russian responded in the way Tocchet wanted for the most part, but the coach felt it\u2019s a process that any of those players mentioned above should try and grow from<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah of course, they\u2019re called building blocks,\u201d the coach said. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to you guys all year about it, I know he\u2019s a lightning rod, and all that stuff. But he\u2019s just a guy trying to build his game. We\u2019re trying to help him like he\u2019s trying to help himself. And I thought last night was a building block for him. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still some stuff that he has to work on like everybody, like Barks and Bump. He\u2019s no different. And I think the building blocks (were) a great assist, a nice backhand pass to Yorky. So you got to give him some credit in some areas of the game, and he helped us last night. So can he build on that in the next game? That\u2019s what it really comes down to, the building blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

New series offers a fresh slate for Michkov<\/p>\n

Michkov\u2019s assist got him on the stat sheet for the first time all series, leaving Tyson Foerster as the lone Flyer outside of defenseman Emil Andrae (who played two games) with zero points through round one. Tocchet pointed to a current Winnipeg Jet and former Chicago captain as proof that even the best players have rough spots during the playoffs. Thus, it\u2019s important that players struggling can look towards the next game or next series to start fresh, changing their fortunes on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, every game \u2014 even though it\u2019s heightened in the playoffs, every game is a new game for a guy,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cA guy could have a tough night or a couple of bad games and you can reset and get another opportunity in the playoffs. It\u2019s huge. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I know it correctly but Jonathan Toews, an unbelievable hockey player, I\u2019m not sure he scored in two series when they won the Cup. I don\u2019t think anybody knows that. All you know is he\u2019s a great player who won the Stanley Cup and a great leader. I didn\u2019t know that until it was brought to my attention about a year ago. So things might not go your way or you might not score a goal for six or seven games. But that new opportunity every game is important. Yeah we know we have some guys who have to get going, but it is a clean slate, and it\u2019s 0-0 again. You can use that mentality too to energize yourself for the new game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teaching tools for the Flyers\u2019 youngsters<\/p>\n

At the time of the presser, the Flyers still were waiting for the results from Thursday\u2019s games to figure out the scheduling for Philadelphia and Carolina. Tocchet said some guys were eager to get going and carry the momentum from the Penguins win into Game 1 against a Canes team that might have some rust after a rather lengthy span between games. But he emphasized that whenever the series begins, the youth can\u2019t be drowning in do\u2019s and don\u2019ts about a new (and far more talented) opponent going in. Essentially, keeping it simple is the route Tocchet believes works best.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the war room all day talking about that,\u201d he said. \u201cNot a lot of information. There are some guys, like Ports is hitting a little bit of a wall. The last thing he needs is a ton of information. He probably needs a couple of points for his game to help his game. No different than the Bumps, the Michkovs of the world. So a little bit less is more. But the points that we\u2019re giving them have to be heightened. Instead of six or seven points, give them two points but these are really important two points that you\u2019re going to have to do especially against Carolina. That might help, especially the young guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michkov has the most experience against Carolina. In seven regular games he has three points (one goal, two assists). Both Martone and Barkey had an assist each in the Flyers\u2019 playoff clinching victory over Carolina on April 13. And Bump hasn\u2019t played against them before. Regardless of what transpires, it\u2019s another terrific opportunity for these players (and others navigating their maiden playoff voyage) to embrace the pressure and see what they can do. Many aren\u2019t suspecting a Flyers upset over Carolina, so the team is playing with a little more house money than they were a week ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Flyers figure out when their second round series against the Carolina Hurricanes begins, Philadelphia head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-616567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616567","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=616567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}