Matvei Michkov Goals Teenager NHL

We Need To Talk About Matvei Michkov

Scoreless in 7 straight games. Matvei Michkov was a point per game played through 27 games, and one of the most productive rookies in recent history. Since then, he’s endured a slump that would require him to go on a McDavid run to climb out of that hole. How did this happen?

Did Matvei Michkov’s game suddenly fall off a cliff at the game 28 mark? Is he so historically unconditioned that 5 days off wasn’t sufficient to refresh his batteries? One might assume so with Tortorella’s recent quote on the matter.

John Tortorella on Matvei Michkov:

That answer didn’t satisfy me, mostly because it’s completely ridiculous. It wasn’t a loss of energy despite 5 days off that warranted benching him in that game. However, it can perhaps be something that simulates a loss of energy.

You play slower when you hesitate on your decision making. You may have the physical energy to get up and down the sheet, but if you’re not immediately certain where you have to be and when you need to be there? That time to think translates to longer decisions and slower actions.

It seems ridiculous to think that Matvei Michkov–a hockey genius–is struggling with how to make his decisions. That should be the least of your worries. But the human brain is a complicated thing. We aren’t our smartest all of the time.

At the time, I wondered if that was the extent of it. Is this an abbreviated form of CJ Stroud’s year 2 fog?

I’m not familiar with what happened in the case of Stroud. I don’t deep-dive Texans tape, though I do watch the occasional video of people who do! But I have seen a painful amount of Flyers tape, and I know exactly what happened with Matvei Michkov.

In truth, it’s something that I was fearful might happen some time ago. 10 points in 5 games and a 100 point pace over 14 games have a way of distracting you, and of masking concerns. But the mask is off, and now I had to revisit something I feared all the way back in November.

In the first 9 games of his career, Michkov was generating 3.14 expected goals per 60 at 5v5. This came at a time when the Flyers were generating absolutely nothing at 5v5. As a team, they generated 2.31 expected goals per hour.

He was improving their offense by mind-numbing amounts. If it weren’t for an abysmal on-ice shooting percentage at 5v5 of 0%, we wouldn’t have been talking about the Calder for Michkov over that time. We’d be too discussing the Hart trophy.

He had 9 points in 9 games over that time. If he scored like he should at 5v5, you’d be talking conservatively about 13 points in 9 games on one of the worst offensive teams in the NHL. With the underlying numbers to back up that kind of production.

Since that time, Matvei Michkov has generated offense at an identical rate to… Ryan Poehling. One of the Flyers’ least effective players in terms of creating offense, despite having been their best by a mile not too long ago. What the hell happened? As it turned out, Torts told you what he did.

He has already confessed to his transgressions. There’s no mystery here. The guilty party is found. We must merely decide if accountability is real or not.

“I think Mich has a tough time understanding… he likes to play on the weak side in the open ice… instead of supporting the play into the corner. Where we’re getting outnumbered, and he’s waiting for the puck over here.”

That doesn’t sound like a lot. It sounds like basic coaching, actually. It sounds like talking about some minor little detail, but it’s not minor. It’s actually fundamental to the way hockey is played, and how players think the game.

In essence, hockey is two priorities.

When you’re playing with the puck, you want to create space on a team level. You want to spread out and stretch the defense thin.

When you’re playing without the puck, you want to close down space as much as possible and make sure there’s no room to do anything until you can ultimately force a turnover.

These are two entirely different ways of thinking. There’s a thought that goes around in hockey that hockey sense is a blanket term where you’re either smart or you’re not. That’s there only one way to think. That’s ridiculous. It’s akin to expecting a neuroscientist to be an Academy Award winning movie director.

Players have different aptitudes for creating space and for closing it. Michkov is one of the smartest prospects ever in terms of finding ways to create space on the ice for himself and others.

He’s doing a high-wire act, and he’s using that safety at times. He loves to gamble, and like any gambler, he can be wrong. Over time, he’ll gamble less and less. He’ll identify when to play it safe and “support the play into the corner,” and he’ll know when to hunt for space on the weak side of the ice.

That’s natural development. Players respond to results. They do more of what works, and less of what doesn’t.

What Tortorella did was throw a monkey wrench into that process, and he attempted to reach that point of peak development too soon. He rushed things. He got impatient. He believed that he could just “teach” a player like Matvei Michkov. Big mistake. Big, gigantic mistake.

What Tortorella did instead of teaching Matvei Michkov was… he rewired his decision making process. When Michkov hears that he has to prioritize supporting every puck battle and either outnumbering the opposition or making the numbers of even? He hears that every decision he used to make is now invalid, and that he has to make Torts’ decisions.

Well, we tried that. We tried getting Michkov to play Torts hockey. It isn’t working. See, what Michkov’s actual response to Tortorella is… what he wants to say, and what he may have said… is, “getting outnumbered is exactly what I’m looking for.”

Basketball fundamentals. When there’s two people on the ball, what does that mean? Someone’s open. There’s only 5 defenders on the surface for 5 attackers. If 2 players are on 1, what does that mean? Someone’s open.

When a point guard is getting swallowed up by traps, does the coach make sure that they have two players on top of the trapped point guard so they have a 3 on 2 loose ball battle? Of course not.

There’s a short pass to the roll man–usually the trap is a pick and roll coverage–and then everyone else spaces to the corners.

Point guards who can’t handle traps in the NBA don’t last long. They don’t get the opportunity to run many pick and rolls.

There’s various levels of efficacy when it comes to handling the trap… or to getting doubled in any manner.

For example, Steph Curry is a shorter guard and not an elite passer, so he generally opts for the short pass to the roll-man. That roll-man is generally Draymond Green, who was (especially in his prime) a grandmaster at playing the ensuing 4 on 3.

Then there’s Luka Doncic, who is one of the better playmakers in NBA history. He can make every pass. When you trap him, it’s a layup. He has an arsenal of solutions to that particular problem that never runs dry. For him, you just need to space out and watch him work.

There’s no NBA guard who played a lot of games that couldn’t handle the double team. Because NBA offense is entirely predicated off of drawing the help, so you can create space around the court. Away from the ball, every player is taught to create as much space as possible.

That’s how Matvei Michkov operates. He creates as much space as possible in order to give his team the best offensive options imaginable. He punishes double teams. That’s true when he’s away from the puck. He’s waiting on the weak side to turn a contested puck into a quality offensive chance.

Michkov is on the weak side of the play the entire time here. Because he was, he created a situation where there was simply too much ice for Vancouver to defend. The puck changed sides 4 times on that play.

How often do you see THAT in the NHL?

You see it all the time in the NBA. In fact, the “ball changing sides” is something that offenses attempt to manufacture. In the days of their dynasty, Golden State was famous for wanting the ball to change sides multiple times every possession.

This isn’t selfish from Michkov. He expects that, by playing this way, his teammates should leave him alone, too. Don’t over-support him. In fact, he’s specifically looking to draw in pressure from multiple defenders before he makes his move.

Matvei Michkov invites pressure and then he beats pressure, providing his team with space to work. When he’s under pressure, he has a million moves to circumvent it and he always knows who’s open on the weak side.

Does that go wrong sometimes? Sure.

I don’t care. Buckle up, buttercup. Because Matvei Michkov was brought on to bring the Flyers for a ride, and I don’t really give a shit if you’re getting sick on the roller coaster.

This is intended as a call to action for the Flyers. It’s a reminder of what ticket they bought, because they should get the hell back on the ride.

Your two choices look like this, Torts:

  1. You can have something the game hasn’t seen before.
  2. You can have Ryan Poehling but a winger with a couple more goals.

Is this really a close call?

Flyers ‘get right’ in 3-1 victory over Ducks >>

Join The Chase

Read More

Comments (0)

Leave a Reply

Back To Top

Discover more from The Liberty Line

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading