Six days after being named NHL rookie of the month for October, Matvei Michkov will be a healthy scratch.
The prized rookie winger is not in the lineup for the Flyers' road game Thursday against the Lightning (7:30 p.m. ET/ESPN+, Hulu). Anthony Richard, who was called up Wednesday, will play in place of Michkov.
It felt like John Tortorella's decision was brewing for at least a week. Last Thursday, the head coach didn't like Michkov's first shift of the game and sat the 19-year-old for his next three shifts. Michkov finished the game with a season-low 13:56 minutes.
"There are going to be some major struggles with him 5-on-5. We expect that," Tortorella said after the Flyers' 2-1 win over the Blues. "Where I'm going to have to teach, and in that teaching moment, I'm not going to tell you what it's all about, but if we keep on seeing the same mistake and he just is not totally concentrating on a certain part of the game, that's when — and I've been very honest with him about that — he's going to miss some ice, he's going to watch the game.
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"That's the way it's going to be. He may miss games, who knows. I don't know what's going to happen. But that's part of the development of a 19-year-old kid."
Michkov played only 2:52 minutes in the third period of the Flyers' 6-4 loss Tuesday night to the Hurricanes. It was a 4-4 game against the hottest team in the NHL, so Tortorella shortened his bench. There's clearly a lack of trust right now in Michkov's play away from the puck and defensive responsibilities.
The Flyers knew they were going to have to work with him on those aspects.
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"Are we going to beat him over the head with it? No, because we are starving for the type of plays that he can make, the instinctive plays that he can make," Tortorella said in September. "I do not want to overload him. We're certainly going to teach him along the way, especially situational play. ... We're not going to try to stifle him in any way as far as his creativity."
Michkov earned the NHL rookie of the month honor for October after putting up nine points in 11 games. His 10 points (four goals, six assists) through 13 games are the second most on the Flyers, behind only Travis Konecny's 14, and he leads the club with seven power play points. He has a minus-8 rating, but he's not the only player to struggle on a team that is surrendering 3.85 goals per game. The Flyers have been outscored 36-19 at 5-on-5.
But with Tortorella, no player is exempt from sitting. He benched his 31-year-old captain twice last season in the heat of a playoff race.
"That's one of the things that I'm most excited about, too — the chance for Matvei to learn from a coach like Torts," general manager Danny Briere said in July. "I know he's going to coach him the right way, just like he does everybody else. He's going to be tough on him, he's going to be fair and he's going to teach him the right way."
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