Matvei Michkov has scored in eight straight games, and the Philadelphia Flyers finally have something to hold onto after Sunday's 6-3 win over Utah.
His 10th goal of the season came against the Mammoth, and it gave Rick Tocchet's group a lift it needed. Michkov is the main reason the Flyers snapped a three-game skid.
NHL watcher flagged the run on Monday, pointing to 8 goals in his last 8 games.
It didn't take long for others to notice. BR_OpenIce asked whether this was his 8th goal in as many games.
The timing matters. We wrote yesterday about Matvei Michkov answering his critics, and the player backed that up with another goal on the ice.
The team around him tells a very different story. The Flyers sit 27th in the NHL at 4-8-4, with a -19 goal differential that shows how much trouble they've had keeping the puck out of their own net.
Michkov leads the club with 10 goals and 12 points. Five of those goals have come on the power play, and one was a game-winner.
Michkov's streak and the Flyers' bigger problem
The one blemish is his -8 rating. He is producing offense at a pace nobody else on the roster is matching, but the team is still giving up far too much when he's on the ice.
That's what makes the streak so important. A 21-year-old who was drafted 7th overall in 2023 is carrying a team that hasn't given him much help in the standings.
The Flyers shared Michkov's reaction after the game, and he made sure to credit his teammates.
"This is not just my work, this is teamwork," Michkov said in the team's post. He played 15:31 on Sunday with 2 shots on goal and a +1 rating.
Don't expect the rest of the schedule to make it easy. Minnesota arrives Tuesday, and the Wild are 10-3-3, third in the NHL, with a +16 goal differential.
Philadelphia is 1-5-1 on the road but 3-3-3 at home, so Tuesday is a chance to build on Sunday. Whether Michkov can stretch the streak to nine games against one of the league's best teams is the story to watch.
