Matvei Michkov scored against the Utah Mammoth today, and the Flyers needed a bright spot badly.
Philadelphia and Utah are in the first intermission as this goes up, so the outcome is still undecided. Nobody should be writing the final chapter on this one yet.
What we can say is that Michkov's season line is loud. He has 9 goals and 2 assists for 11 points in 15 games, and five of those goals came on the power play.
The goal also works as an answer to his critics. A young player who gets questioned tends to respond the same way, with the puck in the net.
The team around him is the problem. The Flyers are 3-8-4, sitting 30th in the NHL, and they came in having lost three straight after Sean Couturier's blunt reaction to the Capitals loss.
Michkov's own ledger has an ugly side too, a -9 rating. That tracks with a team sitting at a -22 goal differential, and it's why one scorer can't fix this alone.
Here is how his recent games have unfolded, one night at a time.
The career numbers add context. Michkov has 55 goals and 125 points over 176 NHL games, so the offensive ability was never really in question.
Can one scorer rescue a 30th-ranked Flyers team?
Rick Tocchet has been searching for answers. Philadelphia is 2-3-3 at home and 1-5-1 on the road, and the goal-against total of 51 is far bigger than the 29 goals the team has scored.
That imbalance explains why the lines keep moving, as with Trevor Zegras getting center time in the latest shuffle. Scoring isn't the only thing the Flyers are trying to fix.
B/R Open Ice highlighted Michkov's run of goals on Sunday, and the winger gave the account plenty to work with.
The next test comes Tuesday, November 3, when the Flyers host the Minnesota Wild. Michkov will try to keep scoring, and Tocchet needs the rest of the lineup to catch up.
