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Flyers’ Matvei Michkov named NHL rookie of the month

Harry November 2, 2024

everyone is watching flyers How well do you know games? Matvei Michkov like that. Now the NHL has realized this.

On Friday, Michkov was named the NHL’s October Rookie of the Month. He appeared in 11 games, scoring four goals and five assists, and had nine points in the first eight games of the season. He is the first Flyer to receive this award since James van Riemsdyk in November 2009.

“Some parts work well, some don’t,” Michkov said Friday through team advisor Slava Kuznetsov. “Everything is a work in progress.”

The work done so far looks pretty good. He finished October first among rookies in goals (four), power play goals (three) and power play points (six), tied for first place with the Dallas Stars’ Logan Stankoven with nine points.

At just 19 years old, Michkov has dazzled fans with his hockey vision and determination. The Russian phenom made his NHL debut on October 11, playing almost 19 minutes against the Vancouver Canucks. he founded Travis Konecny The next night in Calgary he was on the power play for his first NHL point.

Two nights later, against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, he scored his first NHL goal on the power play by tucking the puck into the netside. There were several delays, first to determine if the ball had gone in, and then the Oilers challenged for goaltender interference, but had the opportunity to celebrate the landmark moment when it became official.

“I think everyone in this room is more excited than him, I hope,” Garnet Hathaway said after the game, shaking Michkov when the goal was scored. “You can see the fight, the competition he has. And I think that kind of goal is kind of an example of what he brings to the game.”

Michkov added another power play marker to the game and his first four NHL points were on the man advantage. He became the first Flyer to score his first two goals in the same game since Vinny Prospal on March 8, 1997, and the youngest player to have a multi-goal game since Nolan Patrick in April 2018.

He scored one goal in two games against Russian star Alex Ovechkin and added two assists in one of three multi-point games.

“He came out of the blocks flying,” assistant coach Brad Shaw said Friday. “You can see he likes to have the puck on his stick. It’s an unforgiving league, it’s a really tough league and we’re trying to learn a language, we’re trying to learn how to play on this size of ice surface, I think we all anticipate there’s going to be a few bumps along the way, but we expect it to come out of the gates. do it quickly and show what it can do.

There were some tremors and Thursday night St. We beat Louis Blues 2-1Michkov sat several shifts. Ram John Tortorella He said after the game that he wouldn’t go into detail about the three-shift bench at five-on-five — he jumped at a power play in between — but did say it was “repetitive.”

“He likes to play on the move and there are so many elements of the game in this league, stopping and starting is a much more effective way of defending, controlling and even creating support in attack,” Shaw said. he said. “There is a tendency to stay in motion and sometimes that can drag you out of the nice ice you started on.

“He’s learning. … He is a determined man. “You see how competitive he is, and there’s no doubt he’ll solve those problems and become a better hockey player.”

One thing that comes up easily is his connection to Travis Konecny. The two hot wingers (yes, Michkov also plays with advantage) either came close to each other or connected several times.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers allowed eight goals on 162 shot attempts while on the ice together; The opposing team has 8 goals in 87 shot attempts. When Michkov without Konency (42.13%) or Konecny without Michkov (39.58%), counter-reverse shot attempts favor the opponent. However, it is still a work in progress.

“Travis is a great player,” Michkov said. “Something works well, something doesn’t work. “It probably just needed a little more time to bond and get really good chemistry.”

These days, Michkov is just trying to enjoy the game and the experience of being an NHL player. The player, who was selected seventh overall by the Flyers in the 2023 NHL draft, plays for SKA St. Louis of the KHL. He arrived in the United States two years earlier than expected after being released from his deal with St. Petersburg. Michkov Signed entry-level contract with Flyers on July 1 and started his career as advertised.

While the NHL Rookie of the Month award is the first step towards bigger hardware, Michkov knows he can’t do it without his teammates.

“I want to thank you, my mutual friends, because without them this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.