Philadelphia Flyers star Matvei Michkov did not have a spot in the team’s top four forward lines during practice Sunday, leading to speculation he could be a healthy scratch for Monday’s Game 5 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Flyers lead the Penguins 3-1 in their series, having squandered a chance to sweep their archrival with a Game 4 loss at home Saturday night.
Michkov skated with Garrett Wilson and Carl Grundstrom while forward Alex Bump skated with Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster. Bump, a rookie, has yet to appear in the series.
“We just wanted to try some stuff out today,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said of Bump. “Whether he’s in tomorrow, we’ll find out. But he looked really good in practice today. After last game, I think we need some energy.”
Michkov, 21, was tied for third on the Flyers in scoring in the regular season with 51 points, including 20 goals. But he has been a nonfactor in the playoffs with zero points in four games, skating to a minus-1. The Flyers are getting only 32.2% of the shot attempts when Michkov is on the ice at 5-on-5.
Tocchet said Sunday that Michkov is part of a “young group” that can sometimes plateau.
“I think it’s OK to evaluate them once in a while, give them a rest,” he said.
After the Game 4 loss, Tocchet indicated that changes to the lineup were under consideration.
“I just think we had some individuals … I don’t know if it’s [being] complacent, but we didn’t do the little, small things. I think they were a little more desperate at times,” he said. “We did fight back, so that’s the good part of it. We’ll look at some video, and we’ll figure out who we’re going to get in the lineup for the next game.”
The relationship between Tocchet and Michkov has come under scrutiny in the Flyers coach’s first season in the role. The second-year star’s ice time dropped from 16:41 as a rookie to 14:50 this season, while his point production declined by 12. Tocchet was candid about what he believed were conditioning issues for Michkov.
“Matvei did not come into camp in shape, and it’s hard to play yourself into shape,” Tocchet said in February.
