Over the past few days, there has been a lot of talk about Matvei Michkov. The young Flyers forward was left out of two consecutive Flyers games, which sparked reactions.
Especially since upon his return to the lineup Monday evening, he collected a goal and an assist in addition to scoring the victorious goal in the shootout.
At the time, John Tortorella explained the whole thing as a decision that was “part of the process.” It looked like workload control, basically.
That said, it hadn’t been confirmed in that sense… and obviously, that’s maybe because it wasn’t exactly that.
In fact, according to what Elliotte Friedman reports in his column 32 ThoughtsMichkov was left out due to comments made on the bench.
Friedman does not add further details regarding the remarks as such, but he notes that it is not very severe. The Flyers simply wanted to resolve the matter immediately instead of letting it drag on.
But obviously, knowing that it has a link with comments made on the bench makes you react. We don’t know if it was something that happened with one of his teammates or with one of his coaches, but it doesn’t seem to have happened.
In his text, Friedman evokes Michkov’s hyper-competitive personality. Did he criticize a teammate for a sequence on the ice? Or a coach for a strategy? I dare to believe that it is possible.
That said, that seems to be a thing of the past now. The Flyers wanted to resolve everything to avoid it dragging on, and we will have to see if Michkov learned lessons from all of this.
No one questions his talent, but there have been questions about his attitude in the past. And clearly, there are connections to be made.
In burst
– We can understand that.
– Oui.
– Wow.
– Damage.
– It will take more to support him.
