PHILADELPHIA \u2013 The last thing the Flyers needed was more gossip about an unsettled locker room situation.<\/p>\n
Which is why general manager Daniel Briere chose to hold an impromptu media conference 20 minutes before Tuesday night\u2019s game against Washington at Xfinity Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
Rumors have swirled since the beginning of the season about a possible rift between coach Rick Tocchet and Russian second-year forward Matvei Michkov.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a known fact that Michkov came to training camp last September in less than ideal shape. If there\u2019s one thing Tocchet won\u2019t tolerate, it\u2019s a player who isn\u2019t game-ready.<\/p>\n
So it was only natural trade rumors would start to swirl.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I can tell you is Matvei Michkov isn\u2019t going anywhere,\u201d Briere said. \u201cLet\u2019s make that clear. Matvei is going to be here for a long time. He\u2019s going to be a good player for the Flyers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few expected Michkov to repeat the 26-goal performance of his rookie season. They don\u2019t call it the sophomore slump for nothing. But 13 goals and 15 assists in 53 games entering Tuesday was well shy of even those standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he\u2019s going through right now is all part of the learning process,\u201d Briere said. \u201cSo that\u2019s out of the way. He\u2019s not going anywhere. He\u2019ll be here, he\u2019ll be a good player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briere said it\u2019s a good thing that Tocchet is willing to go out of his way to teach Michkov how to play the game the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are learning,\u201d Briere said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what Rick Tocchet is trying to teach them. I\u2019ve been been through it (team president) Keith Jones has been through it, Rick Tocchet has been through it. It\u2019s all part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The GM said when Michkov arrived there would be bumps along the way. This current situation might be one of those.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talk to Rick Tocchet on a daily basis and he wants Matvei to succeed,\u201d Briere said. \u201cHe wants to develop him to be the best player he can be. Along the way there\u2019s tough lessons that come with that. It\u2019s like raising a child. There are tough lessons that he\u2019s learning along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe and Matvei have a good relationship. Sometimes they\u2019re fiery when you\u2019re not winning. Things are done and said but they always come back to what\u2019s best for the team and Matvei.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Briere, Tocchet is trying to teach these guys to be better pros: Making sure that everything off the ice is taken care of like training, nutrition, getting physically ready for the next game.<\/p>\n
Maybe things would have been different if Michkov had reported for training camp in top shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I know about Matvei is how driven he is,\u201d Briere said. \u201cHe wants to be the best player he can be. He admitted himself he wasn\u2019t in the best physical condition coming in. It\u2019s going to be tough catching up. He\u2019s going to do that in the offseason. It\u2019s going to make him a better hockey player.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the Flyers\u2019 recent slump and temporary fall from contention, Briere preached patience.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little bit of the noise that\u2019s going around,\u201d Briere said. \u201cEspecially when it comes to a little rocky patch that we\u2019ve hit lately. I know it\u2019s upset a lot of people. But it\u2019s just the reality of a team growing. Early in the season, when we were fighting for one of the top positions in the division, we realized that was probably a little ahead of schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past month, a series of poor performances have dropped the Flyers around 10 points out of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening now, the way we\u2019ve been playing, it\u2019s not as bad as the way we\u2019ve been playing,\u201d Briere said. \u201cSo we\u2019re somewhere in between all that. It\u2019s important to keep an even keel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briere said the Flyers are still rebuilding, even though this is his third year at the helm and the team is in danger of missing the playoffs for a franchise-record sixth straight season.<\/p>\n
This much we know. No one cares more about the Flyers\u2019 future than Briere.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s going to do everything in his power to get this process done the right way, even if it means having to explain what\u2019s going on behind the scenes just minutes before the start of an important game.<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. Follow his coverage at www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2013 The last thing the Flyers needed was more gossip about an unsettled locker room situation. Which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-450119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116028809527086290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}