Tortorella “benched” Michkov to send him a message

Dose
Crédit: Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Matvei Michkov has managed to make new friends quickly in Philly.

With nine points in his first ten games in a Flyers uniform, he’s living up to the (high) expectations placed on him.

But Michkov – like every other player his age – isn’t perfect… And his coach sent him a message last night.

The Flyers were facing the Blues, and in the first period, Torts decided to “bencher” his player to call him to order.

The Flyers’ head coach wasn’t satisfied with Michkov’s 5-on-5 performance, and that’s why he made this decision.

Because if Michkov continues to play sluggishly, there will be other consequences:

Where I’m going to have to teach, and I’m not going to tell you everything, but if we keep seeing the same mistakes, he’s going to miss out on playing time. I’ve been very honest with him about that. – John Tortorella

TVA Sports also reported:

For a young player, you have to understand one thing: when you’re on the ice, your mandate is to give it your all.

That said, we know that Michkov has a bad habit of dragging his feet sometimes on the ice… And to make sure it doesn’t happen again, Torts decided to take action.

And he did the right thing.

Matvei Michkov is a very talented player, and everyone knows it.

But just because he’s got talent coming out of both ears doesn’t mean he shouldn’t do things the right way.

That’s part of the adaptation process for a player making his National League debut.

Overtime

– Congratulations!

– That’s exactly it.

– He’s come a long way.

This content was created with the help of AI.