Matvei Michkov had the puck at center ice with a look straight at an empty net. He hit the post, the Philly crowd groaned, but on a second effort, a bounce off the wall came right back to him. This time he didn’t miss. The 19-year old phenom potted the empty netter with just over a minute left on Thursday night, and with a pump of his fists and a roar, tossed himself into the glass in celebration.
His teammates loved it. No, this wasn’t the clutch-time goal to send the Flyers into the playoffs in April. This was a 2-0 preseason win over the Islanders in late September. But the energy was infectious.
Winger Owen Tippett said after Thursday night’s exhibition at the Wells Fargo Center, “Every time we’re on the bench, he just wants to go back out there. His excitement’s contagious. Other guys want to feed off it, and it’s been fun to have his energy around.”
Head coach John Tortorella said following practice at the team’s training center in Voorhees the day after, “He just likes playing. Scores a goal last night, empty-netter in an exhibition game, and it’s like it’s Game 7. I love that about him, what he brings, and I think it rubs off on the team.”
Look, there’s still a lot for the Flyers to do, and prove, this season and over the next few years. But it’s been tough to deny, the air around the team has felt a whole lot lighter ever since their top prospect arrived here from Russia earlier this summer.
“You get happy for a 19-year old kid, coming from overseas, trying to figure it all out here, spotlight on him a little bit, and he just goes and plays,” Tortorella continued on Friday. “That’s fun for me to watch, to watch a kid be able to handle that.”
Who’s that in goal?
Alexei Kolosov is here. He was in goal practicing with the Flyers on Friday. It’s been a bizarre saga surrounding the 22-year old goalie prospect. He flew in from his native Belarus late last season to get started with the Phantoms in the AHL, went home for the summer amid rumors that he was feeling homesick and wasn’t going to return, missed rookie camp entirely, and then the start of training camp.
But it appears the Flyers kept talks going quietly behind the scenes. How Kolosov is going to factor into the Flyers’ plans now isn’t clear. Local media quickly picked up on a third unknown goaltender stepping out onto the ice Friday in Voorhees and just as quickly put together that it was him, but when Tortorella sat down for his press conference after, he had nothing to say about Kolosov’s arrival.
Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov are the 1-2 NHL combo heading into the season, Cal Petersen is expected to stay down with the Phantoms, and then the Flyers recently signed AHL-level goaltender Eetu Mäkiniemi to a one-year, two-way contract, likely in anticipation that they weren’t going to have Kolosov as the third goalie in line.