Rick Tocchet’s reaction to Matvei Michkov’s viral clip should have Flyers fans fired up

Matvei Michkov hasn’t even played a shift for Rick Tocchet yet, and the two already seem like a match made in hockey heaven.

If you missed it, Matvei Michkov recently went viral after saying in a YouTube video that he hates the dump-and-chase style of play.

Michkov basically said, “Why would I waste my energy dumping the puck in when I can just carry it in and make something happen?” Eventually, he went along with it under John Tortorella (and briefly Brad Shaw), but you could tell his heart wasn’t in it.

Matvei Michkov on Dump and Chase hockey:

Rick Tocchet reacts to the viral Matvei Michkov dump and chase clip 😂

📺: https://t.co/QDB1vFeRAm pic.twitter.com/82H0Chi3db

— Nasty Knuckles (@NastyKnuckles) July 31, 2025

Rick Tocchet LOVED it:

On the Nasty Knuckles podcast with Riley Cote and Derek Settlemyre, Tocchet revealed that he, GM Danny Briere, and team president Keith Jones actually watched the Michkov clip together.

“Me and Jonesy and Danny were laughing,” Tocchet said. “First of all, he was going two miles an hour, and there was nobody in front of him, and he said don’t dump the puck. Well yeah, obviously there’s nobody in front of you, you should have took it! I’m busting his balls, and I’m gonna bust his balls when I see him… He wants to hold onto pucks, and he’s got that talent. We got to allow him to have that creativity. Listen, we want to get this guy the puck as much as possible because he can make high-level plays.”

That’s exactly what Flyers fans have been waiting to hear.

After the last few years of grind-it-out, system-first hockey under Tortorella. Tocchet’s already talking about giving Michkov the freedom to create, and more importantly, he’s talking about building around his skill set rather than trying to jam it into a system that doesn’t fit.

Sure, it’s one thing to say it in August and another to let it fly in the middle of a tight Metro Division game in February. Tocchet wants the Flyers playing a style that gets Michkov the puck and lets him cook and for fans, that’s exactly what you want to hear.

If you’re still worried about the team forcing him into some outdated style that kills his creativity, you can probably put those fears on ice for now. This is a head coach who gets it, and if he sticks to his word, Flyers fans might actually get to watch their Russian superstar play the game his way.

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