{"id":470452,"date":"2026-02-25T02:02:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470452\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T02:02:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:02:04","slug":"matvei-michkov-says-he-has-common-relationship-with-rick-tocchet-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470452\/","title":{"rendered":"Matvei Michkov says he has \u2018common relationship\u2019 with Rick Tocchet \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

For various reasons, Matvei Michkov has gone through the proverbial sophomore slump.<\/p>\n

And to no surprise, that slump has been well-publicized \u2014 from Michkov’s offseason training<\/a> to his development under Rick Tocchet<\/a> and the head coach’s decision to play him on his opposite wing.<\/p>\n

But three weeks ago, general manager Danny Briere expressed confidence in this all working long term<\/a>. On Tuesday, when asked about Tocchet, Michkov didn’t say anything to dissuade the Flyers’ belief.<\/p>\n

“Very common relationship between the player and coach,” Michkov said through translator Slava Kuznetsov, a Flyers consultant. “Everybody has the same goal \u2014 the coaches and players \u2014 to win, so we’re working that way.”<\/p>\n

Michkov, though, did admit that playing as a left winger \u2014 instead of in his normal spot on the right wing \u2014 has been an adjustment.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always been playing on the right, I was always happy,” Michkov, speaking for the first time since December<\/a>, said. “Now I’m playing on the left, it’s a new role. If the coach sees me there, I have to adapt as quick as I can. For me, on the right, I can create a lot more moments. Now I have to switch everything to the left and do the same thing.”<\/p>\n

Tocchet moved Michkov to the left side to keep his feet moving and help improve his pace.<\/p>\n

“I think he has done a really good job of adjusting to that side,” Flyers assistant coach Todd Reirden said Tuesday. “I think the way he has been able to convert and make plays on that side has opened up some different options for him, something we wanted to take a look at and we’re going to continue to stay with that to start here.”<\/p>\n

Last season, Michkov led all NHL rookies with 26 goals and was tied for second in points with 63. This season, he has 13 goals and 29 points with 26 games remaining. He has played two fewer minutes per game (14:34) than he did last season (16:41).<\/p>\n

“I’ll play as much time as I’ve been given,” Michkov said, “and I have to do my job.”<\/p>\n

It has been no secret that Michkov did not come to training camp in the best physical shape. It’s fair to say that has factored into his minutes and performance.<\/p>\n

“The NHL is hard work,” Michkov said. “If you take a four-month break, it can reflect in your game. You have to concentrate on hockey all the time and you cannot take even a month break. … You have to be smart when you’re training in the break.”<\/p>\n

Over the Olympic break, Michkov went away, but wanted to take advantage of the time. He said he had two workout sessions every day for a week with a personal trainer before the Flyers returned to practice a week ago.<\/p>\n

“I was not planning to rest,” Michkov said. “I was not happy with the way the game was going, so I was working the entire break.”<\/p>\n

After going 19 days without a game, the Flyers visit the Capitals on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET\/NBCSP). Michkov is hoping his work paid off. In the Flyers’ practices during the break, he was on a line with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.<\/p>\n

“The continual reps in the practices I thought were really important, him playing with the same guys, same power play units for the last couple of days,” Reirden said. “I think some of that, getting back into the routine, will allow him and the rest of our team to hit the level that we’re expecting. We expect and we know that our compete level has to increase \u2014 and that’s from top to bottom.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For various reasons, Matvei Michkov has gone through the proverbial sophomore slump. And to no surprise, that slump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,2575,5,4,1467,56,5205],"class_list":{"0":"post-470452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-flyers-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","14":"tag-philadelphiaflyers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116128812342833489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470452","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=470452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}