- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 2 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
-
In looking at the situation, let’s begin with things that can be equally true. Matvei Michkov did not come into the season prepared to match his rookie year levels. Rick Tocchet is right to be frustrated, but were airing those concerns in public the best pathway forward?
..
However, when given some proverbial “rope” with a new coach (and no skating test to worry about), Michkov came to camp unprepared. The organization pointing to a lack of training due to an off-season injury. However, subsequent indications are that Michkov’s off-season regimen was off-track even before that. Regardless of the injury, Michkov showed a lack of maturity, both on- and off-ice.Michkov has lacked attention to deal in Year Two. For one, he’s taken far too many careless penalties. For another, he’s made some shockingly low-percentage decisions on when to exit the defensive zone, when to make a play near the attacking blueline, and where he’s supposed to go when supporting the play.
Regardless of pre-camp injury, Michkov did not come adequately prepared. While portions of the fan base solely blame head coach Rick Tocchet or on Michkov’s linemates, the player properly assigned the blame to himself.
Too a certain extant this is all bullcrap. He was training strength in the offseason and when he went to do his on ice conditioning he had the ankle injury and was unable to skate. Should he have contacted the Flyers and worked with them regarding the ankle injury? Probably, but this is also a dysfunctional front office who was just forced to fire it’s last coach for abusing and giving up the team. Despite either one of those being enough to fire and blackball a coach for life DB still backed him publicly. Not enough can be said about Torts excesses in the last half of last season but since it’s embarrassing to the franchise and not the player you never hear it brought up by the beats on the payroll.
He is far from the first player to come into camp out of shape including former stars like Phil Kessel and Dustin Byfuglin. It was also not his intent to be out of shape
I can tell you unequivocally that his franchise was immature last year with Torts handling of the players and the front office handling of Torts. It was immature this year with pretty much everything Tocchet related including the constant internal leaks by someone (Tocchet) to Kurz even when it isn’t in the best interest of anything but his ego. What was the purpose of once again smearing Michkov’s fitness after the press conference to put out the fire after the Caps game to the point of saying there is no way to for Michkov to get in shape this season? Criminal and inaccurate.
This whole narrative that if you start out behind in your conditioning you can never catch up should be called out by the beats long ago. Players do it all the time. Players get injured and can’t skate for weeks or months and then go on a conditioning stint in the AHL in some cases and then ramp up during the season. Big Byf and Phil Kessel are obvious examples but the whole can’t catch up lie stares you right in the face every day.
Matthew Tkachuk just returned from major surgery 2 weeks ago for the first time all season and played 20 minutes and has averaged 18 min since. He didn’t start skating until November, 2 months after the season started. His legs didn’t fall off, he wasn’t played out of position on the 3rd line. Barkov is returning next. My guess is the coach won’t go out of his way to play him out of position or give him minimal minutes. If it was such a concern the could’ve sat him games so he could work on his conditioning, yet they played him while complaining about him.
Bill is just as complicit as the rest of the beats with this.
Did Michkov arrive at camp without skating for the previous couple of months? Yes. Did he train off the ice? Also yes. Did the Flyers think he trained effectively? No. Did Tocch lose his mind? Yes.
Between Kevin Kurz, Tocchet, DB, Jonesy, and Michkov there is only one adult and that is Michkov in the way this has been handled. The kid accepted responsibility, took blame, and never said a bad word about his usage or ice time. Tocch has had no issues irrationally using Michkov, who has been one of their best forwards in underlying metrics all year, in a limited checking line role. Did he start out needing to get his skating legs, sure. Apparently that doesn’t need to end your season according to last year’s Stanley Cup winner but they don’t have the Flyers “culture”.
Tocch has been one of the worst situational coaches and his mishandling of Russian players in the past :
Past Handling: Vancouver Canucks (2023-2024)
Andrei Kuzmenko: After a 39-goal season, Kuzmenko’s production dropped significantly under Tocchet, leading to him being sat in key moments and eventually traded. Reports indicated a clash over defensive responsibility and consistency.
Other Players: Discussions regarding his time in Vancouver often cite a, “cleaning house” of certain Russian players, including Nikita Zadorov and Vasily Podkolzin, leading to perceptions that he has a difficult relationship with players from that region.Tocchet should have his own thread. If he didn’t have his “friends” in the media and comcast covering for him this would be a much bigger story but Hockey front offices are like high school and he’s friends will all the right people. I thought Torts was rock bottom but the Flyers keep finding ways to keep digging.
That Ottawa game was probably the worst played in the entire NHL this season but not a criticism to be heard about Tocchet. I wonder why is that?
Not that anyone is going to read this … The team has faded into irrelevance and they expect players to want to come here for something other than being the highest bidder by a significant amount (ala Hayes)? Lol.
-
go read tweets or the like from flyers beat in september. They raved how good MM looked. Not much if anything about out of shape and the like. Evevn the coach praised him. no the tables have turned. like cutter MM is just taking the high road not saying anything
What have the flyers done to help him? Have they assigned a personal trainer? A dietichen? anything to get back on track.
seeing the cutter situation and now all the MM bullshit. Wonder what Martone is thinking? No worries player banging down the door to play for the flyers and tocchet.
-
go read tweets or the like from flyers beat in september. They raved how good MM looked. Not much if anything about out of shape and the like. Evevn the coach praised him. no the tables have turned. like cutter MM is just taking the high road not saying anything
What have the flyers done to help him? Have they assigned a personal trainer? A dietichen? anything to get back on track.
seeing the cutter situation and now all the MM bullshit. Wonder what Martone is thinking? No worries player banging down the door to play for the flyers and tocchet.
Well, the previous coach and current GM carried his stuff through the airport, so there’s that.
The Flyers drama is of their own making. Let’s see if they can handle it with a bit of professionalism this time.
-
Well, the previous coach and current GM carried his stuff through the airport, so there’s that.
The Flyers drama is of their own making. Let’s see if they can handle it with a bit of professionalism this time.
https://975thefanatic.com/2024/01/09/flyers-united-in-their-dismissiveness-towards-cutter-gauthier/
They started off unprofessionally with the coordinated media blitz on Cutter Gauthier from Hilferty to Jones/DB to Torts to Sanheim. The attacks by every level of the front office on one of their draft picks which happened to be the highest they’ve drafted in years is unprecedented to this day.
This year, Kurz and Bissonette carrying Tocchet’s water just takes it to another level. I don’t think Tocchet is capable of going 48 hours without him or Kurz mentioning that Michkov is unredeemably out of shape.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.