Game 2 of my 12 game season ticket package brought my friends and I to the Wells Fargo Center as the Flyers took on the San Jose Sharks. Before I dive into my breakdown of the night, I wanted to give some credit to Comcast Spectacor. Monday night’s game was Military appreciation night and the Flyers organization once again did a phenomenal job honoring all members of America’s armed forces. There were several beautiful tributes, many hometown heroes were honored, and a lot of money was raised for the Flyers wounded warrior charities during this game.
Heading into tonight’s game the Flyers had left the state of Florida with 3 of a possible 4 points in the standings etching out some overtime hours against both teams. The Flyers were able to get Goaltender Ivan Fedotov his first career win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the shootout on Friday night. The team was then able to come back and force overtime against the defending Stanley Cup Champs Saturday earning a point against the Panthers in a tight shootout loss.
The most notable story coming into the Sharks game was that rising superstar Matvei Michkov did not play in either of the Florida games as a healthy scratch. While many including myself were startled to think it was ever possible someone of his caliber would be kept out of the line up it did happen, as ice time is always Tort’s favorite weapon of choice for a lesson to be learned. The 19-year-old phenom spent time in the press box to observe his teammates while Coach John Tortorella kept things private regarding any criticisms of his process plan with Michkov. The Sharks would be sending out their own two future stars with 2024 #1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini and 2023 fourth overall pick Will Smith set to play the Flyers for the first time. Anytime two young players of Celebrini and Michkov’s caliber face each other it’s bound to be a bit of a measuring stick game, and this one would not disappoint.
1st Period- Right out the gate this game got off to a hot start for the Flyers! A minute and 40 seconds into the first period and we had already witnessed a nasty snipe from none other than…Erik Johnson??? Vitek Vanecek would not have a fun night in Philly and it started off by getting sniped from 1 of the oldest players left in the league. A beautiful feed during a 2 on 1 rush from Anthony Richard sees the old man light the lamp and the place is rockin! Immediately after scoring, that ensuing faceoff we see Givani Smith trying to start trouble with Matvei Michkov. Goal Scoring phenom Erik Johnson races over and tries his luck in a fight with Givani Smith! It was a pretty one sided affair, but EJ deserves major credit for immediately coming to the aid of our young superstar. Nobody doubts that Michkov has the stones to fight, but we need those hands to keep scoring silky goals not throwing knuckles. There were several other super close chances over the next 10 minutes that probably should have went in, a common theme this game. The Flyers would get in their own way more than a few times, this game should have easily been 3-0 early on if they could have converted.
Late in the period the Flyers would get their second powerplay and make good use of it. By my eyes, this would be the third chance generated by Matvei Michkov with a quick split decision play that the Flyers would actually convert on. Emil Andrae and Matvei Michkov both seemed like they were shot out of a cannon tonight just all over the puck. The boys would get set up in the zone and start cycling, lots of movement for a change. Emil Andrae would skate it down, shoot a pass over to Matvei Michkov right in the slot who would immediately send it back to Travis Konecny for a Laser shot! Tic tac toe and the Flyers scored what has to be one of the prettiest powerplay goals i’ve seen in years. The building was rocking in utter disbelief of the magic they just created together and on the power play no less! The first period ends with a 2-0 Flyers lead and the crowd was loving every minute of it!
2nd Period- The second period begins and the Flyers get back to it. Lots of pressure early on with chances coming from both sides. There was a surprising amount of giveaways from both teams in this game that led to a few odd rushes for either side. One such giveaway would prove lethal for the Sharks, 5 minutes into the 2nd period Egor Zamula would strip the puck from Will Smith. The last thing you want to see as an opposing team, Ryan Poehling sends the puck down the ice to Matvei Michkov all alone. Michkov scores on the breakaway all alone and the game is 3-0! It’s been some time since i’ve been apart of a crowd that excited at the Wells Fargo, even if it is against the lowly Sharks it felt great.
If you’ve been a Flyers fan long enough, you know you can’t ever be comfortable with a lead. The 3 goal lead curse continues to be real as the Sharks would end up scoring twice towards the end of the 2nd period bringing the game within one. The 1st goal from the Sharks would come off 1 of Bobby Brink’s many turnovers this evening (more on that later) in the offensive zone. The Sharks would head down on an odd man rush and the puck would go in off Jack Thompson’s skate. There seemed to be a little bit of deliberation down at the bench as they took awhile talking with Torts before dropping the puck again. Several of us in the crowd obviously felt there was enough of a kicking motion to call it back but no challenge was made goal stands. The second Sharks goal is the one that bothers me a little more. I’ve written about it many times but once more the Flyers failure to win a defensive zone draw results in a goal by the opposing team. Right after winning the faceoff the Sharks set to work around the perimeter of the right side of the net. The Sharks would even get an extra helping hand on this goal as Rasmus Ristolainen perfectly screens his own goaltender. Sam Ersson would never even see the puck fired from the corner as it rips into the net with ease.
3-2 Sharks.
Winning that defensive zone draw doesn’t guarantee the goal isn’t scored, but the scoring opportunity is assuredly less likely if you clear the zone. This team is hurting at Center, a fact that continues to haunt the team during the sort of rebuild. (stares painfully at Nolan Patrick and Quitter Gauthier) You have to be able to trust your guy to win that draw and get you out of a jam, the Flyers simply don’t have that right now. One can only hope that Luchanko masters his craft with the Guelph Storm to help us out moving forward. Period 2 ends 3-2 still in favor of the Flyers but things were not looking good.
3rd Period- The Third Period saw the Flyers amass 16 shots as they tried desperately to put away the Sharks. Emil Andrae would continue to have himself a fantastic game, giving chance after chance to his teammates to score. Travis Konecny would miss an open net not once but twice in this game for the easiest tap in goals. The thing about luck is eventually things are gonna go your way, and if you’re the Sharks that’s exactly what happened. The Flyers had every chance in the world to put away the game, and they just could not convert. If you keep leaving the door open like that someone is gonna come right through it. With less than 3 minutes to go the Sharks would press hard in the Flyers zone on a forecheck. With some serious effort they would get the puck back out to the blue line, a pass attempted towards the center of the ice would get deflected, and Barclay Goodrow would rip home a shot to tie the game. The wind was sucked out of the sails of everybody in the stands. It was such a typical thing to happen to the Flyers but this game felt so one sided at times it was embarrassing to see them fight back to tie the game. The first period alone felt like it should have been 4-0 Flyers so to see Overtime at all was just baffling.
The final 30 seconds of the period Celebrini and Mickov would come together in the Flyers offensive zone. I’m not sure if this was shown on the broadcast but while jostling against each other Celebrini would slash the stick out of Michkov’s hands. Now Michkov has already shown us he is not afraid of anybody out there and certainly not a gifted child on skates like Celebrini. Matvei would grab him by the jersey after the Slash was not called and punch him in the face twice. This would land Michkov in the penalty box for the start of Overtime but it was worth every penny to see that happen. Refs would only call the retaliation by Matvei putting the team in a dangerous spot to start OT.
Overtime- The Flyers need to thank their goaltender for this one plain and simple, this game should have never gone to overtime to begin with. Samuel Ersson isn’t to blame for missing 3 or 4 open nets with bumbled passes in their own skates or just completely missing an open net 2 feet in front of them. He is to blame for the Sharks being unable to score in overtime while Michkov was in the penalty box for punching Celebrini. Erss would stand tall making a few big saves while the Sharks pressed them with all that open ice. Neither team would score, but a shot did ring off the post from the Sharks during their man advantage.
Shootout- As a Flyers fan in attendance of this game I am thankful that I got to witness poetic justice in it’s peak form. As the Sharks mounted their comeback, there were 2 Sharks fans sitting behind us that were delighted to see their team come crawling back despite being out-chanced the entire time. Seeing Matvei Michkov be the sole teenage wonder sent to the penalty box at the end of the Third period scuffle would set up a tasty dish of revenge.
Flyers would lead off the Shootout with Owen Tippet who of late has finally been heating up. Tippett would appear to have an opening with his move to score but shoot just wide of the net. Remember that dish I was talking about a few moment ago? This was where things started to fall into place. Macklin Celebrini is the first skater to go for the Sharks after Tippett fails to score. Macklin would try some shifty moves on his way down but would ultimately fail to really even get a solid shot off. As if foretold by some odd fate, Matvei Michkov would take the ice as the Flyers next shooter the moment Celebrini failed to score. The Sharks fans behind us were crushed to see their golden boy fail to score, we were chanting for Michkov to show em’ how it’s done and he delivered! The crowd held their breath on the edge of their seats as Michkov started to stride down the ice. He swings wide with speed comes down towards Vanecek forehand backhand forehand and tucks it behind him! Michkov would have the last laugh against Celebrini and the Flyers would win. Samuel Ersson would continue to be dominant in the shootout something Flyers fans are not ever going to get used to.
Final takeaways- I wanted to finish my summary before mentioning but I could have spent half this article just talking about how incredible of a game Emil Andrae had tonight. The young man single handedly is going to be responsible for Jamie Drysdale never seeing Power Play time again at this rate. Andrae was LD 1 top pair with Travis Sanheim tonight and looked absolutely fantastic out there. He was calm and decisive with the puck, handled a few odd rushes himself to kill any scoring chances and just looked so confident with a mix of intensity out there. I will never really understand what causes a player to finally break through and figure things out to realize their potential but it appears that Emil Andrae is here and if he ever finds himself down in Lehigh Valley again we will riot.
Matvei Michkov shocker to nobody is really really good at hockey. He was completely electric out there tonight, it was almost embarrassing at times how under prepared the rest of the team was for his brilliance. Multiple quick plays were created by his hands and only once did someone convert, TK’s powerplay goal. At times it feels like Michkov is able to see the plays happening before anyone around him knows what’s going on. I eagerly await to see his continued growth, and desperately hope some of the upcoming Flyer prospects are able to keep up with his talents. It feels like he’s just league’s ahead and his own teammates are struggling to keep up with his pace. I wasn’t a fan of him ever sitting out games this year but superstar or not we have to remember even the greatest of players all have to start out somewhere and earn their spot. I will go out on a limb to say I hope he never sees the press box again for the rest of the year but i’m not asking for Torts head over 2 games, it is what it is.
Bobby Brink had himself another rough night and I would not be shocked to see him scratched for Morgan Frost to return to the ice against Ottawa. Couple of costly turnovers one of which resulted in a goal for the Sharks, took a bad tripping penalty as well, he just didn’t seem to have any luck tonight. I would not be shocked if the young forward finds himself grounded for a game or two.
I want to give some flowers to Erik Johnson for the role he has played on this team thus far, the 37 year old veteran has been fantastic. He has brought such a calm veteran presence to this team and done wonders with some of the younger defenseman. Amidst Cam York’s injury and the arrival of Emil Andrae, EJ has seen more ice time in less of a rotational role. From my observations on the season thus far, when Cam York returns Egor Zamula should be the team’s 7th defenseman in rotation. Erik Johnson will need some nights off given his age, but he’s played quite well this year and Zamula has not impressed in the slightest. My opinion, when York and Drysdale return Zamula should be sent to the AHL before Andrae is ever looked at for that decision ever again, you just can’t send him back down.
With that said, I’ll be back at the WFC next Monday for the Flyers game against the Colorado Avalanche, we’ll see how things play out!
Written By: Anthony Spotts
photo credit: Getty Images
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