John Tortorella on Matvei Michkov: “We want to see him cheat to score goals”

While the Montreal Canadiens were having a horrible preseason on several levels, Matvei Michkov was burning up the league in Philadelphia.

In fact, the young Russian prodigy topped the scoring charts in pre-season games with seven points, including three goals in four games.

Obviously, the eyes of Habs fans were riveted on Michkov’s performance, while in Montreal, well, David Reinbacher suffered a serious injury that will keep him out of action for virtually the entire season, or 5 to 6 months.

In short, Michkov has been attracting attention since his arrival in Philadelphia, and that’s because he’s playing his own style without worrying about mistakes or bad decisions.

That’s a good thing, because you have to let a youngster express himself on the ice before correcting him.

However, when you look at who the Flyers’ head coach is, it’s hard to believe that such preferential treatment is reserved for Michkov.

Indeed, John Tortorella has never been known as an open-minded coach willing to let his players make mistakes without punishing them.

But now, with Michkov, Tortorella seems to be a new man, to the point where the Flyers coach has said he wants to see Michkov cheat to score goals.

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You read that right, John Tortorella is willing to let a player cheat, that is, not always be in the right place at the right time in defensive coverage in order to anticipate a future offensive play or simply to recover energy.

It’s this kind of talk that shows just how big an impact Matvei Michkov is having on the Philadelphia Flyers.

Everyone, including John Tortorella, seems willing to make concessions to allow Michkov to shine.

Yet he’s no savior, if we’re to believe John Tortorella’s own words.

In short, the young Russian prodigy wanted to go to Philadelphia, as opposed to Montreal, so Daniel Brière and his team are making sure he’s taken care of.

We want to treat Michkov well, and make sure he benefits from the best conditions to maximize his performance and development.

It’s not every day that Tortorella has such modern things to say about a young player.

Torts has always been a very old-school coach, but you’d have to think that Michkov is making him evolve.

In short, Michkov seems to be in good hands, and that can only be good news for the Flyers, because many believed that there would soon be flames between Tortorella and the young Russian.

But for the time being (and I do mean for the time being), everything seems to be going well.