PHILADELPHIA — From the moment they first met him, the Philadelphia Flyers’ executives and coaches have never questioned Matvei Michkov’s enthusiasm for hockey or desire to get better.
That was reinforced at the beginning of this month.
After a 3-0 loss at home to the Boston Bruins on Nov. 2, when he was on the ice for all three goals against, Michkov didn’t have dinner reservations at any fancy restaurants downtown or anything of a social nature on his mind. Instead, he drove directly from Wells Fargo Center to the Flyers practice facility in South Jersey. He spent his night off taking a closer look at his equipment and fiddling with a few new pieces and went into the shooting room adjacent to the dressing room to fire some pucks.
Anything to get better, it would seem, and anything to have more of an impact than he’d been having lately. A team source referred to Michkov’s obsession with hockey as “a little like (Jaromir) Jagr,” the legendary winger who is still playing professionally in the Czech Republic at age 52.
It didn’t get better for Michkov immediately after that, as he struggled in the Flyers’ loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 5 and was then made a healthy scratch in the next two games, at the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. But Michkov was back in the lineup at home against the last-place San Jose Sharks on Monday and played with purpose. He deftly set up Travis Konecny’s power-play goal in the first period, scored on a breakaway in the second and tallied the game winner in the shootout as the Flyers triumphed 4-3.
It was the best performance of his young career.
“Didn’t play two games,” Michkov said. “(Energy tank) was full today.”
The kid knows how to put on a show. #SJSvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/cWj7JgjxUF
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 12, 2024
Was it perfect? No. Coach John Tortorella mentioned Michkov as one of a few players who overstayed his shift during a lull late in the second period that allowed the Sharks to cut into what was a 3-0 Flyers lead to make it 3-2 before the intermission. Then, at the end of regulation, Michkov was tagged for roughing fellow rookie Macklin Celebrini with a retaliatory punch to the face, putting the Flyers short-handed for the first two minutes of overtime.
But that’s just part of the learning process, and everyone seems to expect Michkov to figure it all out eventually. Michkov has all but assured them of that with how he has conducted himself and with what he has achieved so far, recording his fourth multi-point effort in just his 14th NHL game.
“I think it’s easy to maybe hang your head a bit as a young player with a lot of promise and a high pick,” defenseman Erik Johnson said of Michkov coming out of the lineup. “But I think he had the right attitude about it, and he responded.”
Said Konecny: “You guys see it: He’s competitive. That’s what we love about him. He brings all the other stuff to the game, the skill and that offensive mindset, but he also competes and hangs in there.”
Tortorella has made it crystal clear lately that he doesn’t want to put too much of a spotlight on Michkov. He deflected questions about the rookie Monday morning after making it known that Michkov would be returning to the lineup. After the game against San Jose, he simply said: “He played good.”
At the moment, though, Tortorella’s decision to remove Michkov from the lineup looks like a shrewd one. The Flyers have married what was a generally defensively structured group for the handful of games before Michkov came out with a much more dangerous offensive attack, beginning with the first game he was out and continuing against the Sharks, as they fired a season-high 42 shots on goal. The Flyers have points in three straight games for the first time this season (2-0-1) and are 4-2-1 in their last seven.
“We’re trying to put layers on our game, trying to be more consistent, trying to be on our toes,” Tortorella said.
An improving and effective Michkov will help that cause, of course. But another rookie is proving to be just as valuable of late.
Enter Andrae
It didn’t take long for Emil Andrae’s “welcome to the NHL” moment. It came on the first shift of his career, in fact, when he was trucked by the Ottawa Senators’ Ridly Greig on Oct. 14, 2023, leading directly to a Jakob Chychrun goal in the Senators’ 5-2 win over the Flyers in their second game of last season.
“I think I remember a lot of plays,” Andrae said Monday morning, “but I tried to forget about that one.”
It would seem to be well in the rearview mirror now.
Andrae was already outplaying Jamie Drysdale on the blue line. Now that Drysdale is on injured reserve for approximately one to two weeks with an upper-body injury, per a team source, the opportunity is in front of the 22-year-old Swede to stake his claim for a full-time roster spot.
Monday’s performance suggested he’s embracing that challenge. Eight games into the season, Andrae is second on the team in expected goals share (55.5 percent). He skated for a career-high 25:40 on Monday night alongside Travis Sanheim on the Flyers’ top pair, had the secondary assist on Konecny’s goal as the quarterback of the top power-play unit, and registered four shots on goal on 11 shot attempts.
He doesn’t look anything like the player who had just a cup of coffee in the NHL last season.
“He’s made plays that we haven’t seen yet this year,” Tortorella said. “The ice time he’s getting, he deserves.”
Andrae acknowledged being “overwhelmed” last season when he was a bit of a surprise addition to the opening-night roster. He lasted just four games in October before he was reassigned to the Phantoms for the remainder of 2023-24. He was far and away the best defensive prospect in training camp in September, though, and it wasn’t all that surprising when he was recalled on Oct. 27.
Part of being an effective defenseman is not taking the kind of hits he took from Greig a little over a year ago. As a smaller guy at just 5 feet 9 — and someone who doesn’t seem to be afraid to take chances in dangerous areas of the ice — that’s going to be vital.
“I learned a lot during (last) year,” Andrae said. “Of course I’m aware, when I was back in Sweden, being a skilled, puck-moving defenseman, they really like to get you and get in your face. I think it comes more now in the (smaller) rink. … I’ve got to be aware when (certain) players are on the ice.”
Monday night almost ended in disaster for the Flyers. The Sharks are among the worst teams in the league and were playing the second game of a back-to-back. Even the Flyers should have been able to put them away after earning a three-goal cushion when Michkov scored at 5:09 of the middle frame.
Still, the primary focus continues to be learning about their young players. In that way, they gathered further information on two who could be huge keys to the future, as Michkov and Andrae showed an ability to persevere through their different types of challenges.
(Photo of Matvei Michkov scoring the shootout game winner against San Jose: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)
