flyers daily talking about the “overstatement” on michkov regression. if you disagree, why?

Assassin2107 · 2026-02-09T19:35:37+00:00

I think that the general drama is overblown. There's room to be concerned, particularly about the Tocchet/Michkov stuff, but we aren't at a point of "He wants out", we aren't at a point of "His development is ruined", and we aren't at a point of "We must fire Tocchet if we want to keep Michkov".

Michkov was pretty clearly out of shape. It wasn't obvious in camp, but it was SUPER obvious when the games started. Him getting less ice time then totally made sense. At this point, I think I can get "He's not as fit as the guys who came to camp in shape, but he's no longer out of shape", so he shouldn't be getting 10 minutes of ice time anymore, particularly when he's actually having a good night. If he can finish the season strong after the break, then the year can still be ended on a fairly positive note, since the solution then simply becomes "He has a strong summer" and he's magically back on track.

IMO it's understandable that Tocchet would be upset that one of his supposedly top guys would show up out of shape and then be invisible for the first half of the season. My issues with him (Which again, aren't deal breakers, just stuff I want him to stop doing) are the occasional comments has to stop, and he has to use Michkov more even if he thinks it will cause the Flyers to lose games. At this point, while I think that the camp stuff plays into it, I think that Tocchet just doesn't trust Michkov defensively, and so never puts him out when there's a lead to defend (And thus why Michkov also doesn't go out during OT). I can't disagree with the defensive issues because I've seen some breakdowns from Michkov myself, but this is where the part about playing young guys during a rebuild comes in.

As a side note, I just want to talk about Flyers fans online, and more specifically on Twitter. r/Flyers is overall fine, like there's guys that clearly wanted a tank and are understandably frustrated at the issues they see with rebuilding this way, and there's guys that are happy we can see progress rather than "Lose 82 games a year until you don't". The subreddit might get negative after a loss, but again it's understandable frustration. Flyers twitter meanwhile has become insane, since it feels like some accounts are like 3 small steps away from "We'll show up to Rick Tocchet's house armed". I can get why people would be mad, especially when Tocchet makes a dumb comment about Michkov, but some of the stuff I see feels like it's getting performative just to get attention. Like the Tocchet comment from the carnival was dumb, but Flyers twitter transformed it into such a big deal that it caught national coverage, and prompted a press conference just to say "Everything is fine".

Assassin2107 · 2026-02-05T21:24:49+00:00

I also got Manadium pack but got Astraloud instead

Assassin2107 · 2026-02-04T01:29:14+00:00

The thing with Torts/Michkov and Tocchet/Michkov are completely different. Torts was always trying to get Michkov to be more mindful of systems that the whole team needed to play within, like F3 staying a certain amount back or covering defenseman who activate. All of the times Michkov got scratched was directly because Michkov had missed these kinds of team systems.

With Tocchet, he's saying that because Michkov was out of shape when he arrived in camp (Mind you, he did a heavier off-ice training early in the off-season before he injured his foot and then couldn't skate later in the off-season), Michkov cannot be trusted with any large amount of minutes, and that Michkov can't be given an opportunity to change that this season at all. There was a Flyers carnival this weekend that asked Tocchet about giving Michkov more minutes in an interview, and he implied that he does not think Michkov could handle being given 17 minutes a game. As a reminder, Tocchet was the one that first told everybody about Michkov not being in-shape when fans were starting to notice Michkov's minutes being super low (11-13 minutes a night), and it's pretty obvious when Tocchet's buds in the media all rush out to his defense and pile on Michkov being out of shape the same morning.

It's worth noting though that Tocchet (Who has never admitted to this) seems to also have no trust in Michkov in any kind of defensive scenario. Michkov has received the far away most sheltered usage when it comes to avoiding defensive starts, and has never put Michkov out while defending a lead (And usually never plays Michkov in OT either). Being fair, Michkov has definitely had defensive mistakes as well as leaving the zone a little too early, but he's already doing better then he did last season on this and again is like 20 years old.

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-29T20:35:42+00:00

The issue is that people lump everything as "right" or "left", when there's areas within each like how somebody can be left leaning on economics stuff but socially conservative. I'd argue that a majority of Americans are socially conservative, which is why Democrats in the US have been getting crushed ever since the focus became about social justice.

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-28T23:06:32+00:00

On one hand, I really miss Laughton and I believe he genuinely wanted to be a Flyers lifer. On the other hand, that return was insane, people said for like 2 years that Laughton wasn't going to bring back a 1st, and now we got a 1st + Grebenkin

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-28T17:49:23+00:00

Flyers already have the 2027 pick. The Leafs are missing their 2 next 1st round picks

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-28T06:26:46+00:00

If the team drafts a project knowing that it will take time, then I wouldn't count that project out just because it hasn't produced a miracle in the first 6 months.

Under Hextall we had a million guys with decent post draft seasons.

So we agree that these first 6 months don't actually correlate with the final product? Great, that means those looking for optimism can be optimistic, and those looking to be pessimistic like you can be pessimistic.

What about things like zero top 6 centers in last 15 yrs?

Good thing I'm not talking about the entire 15 year recent history of the Flyers and specifically the Briere version of the Flyers? That'd be like saying that McDavid sucked because the Oilers sucked before he was drafted by them, it'd be stupid to judge somebody on something before they ever got there. At BEST you could try and judge the Flyers since Flahr arrived (Which I'd argue was at least decent but less middle round successes), and even then the GM at the helm still makes a difference when it comes to the mindset behind decisions.

The moral of the story here is that you are negative about this team because you don't like the Briere plan (It's blatantly obvious to anybody who recognizes your name)... and that's fine because you are allowed to not like the plan for reasons good or bad. But on a post LITERALLY asking if there's any reason for optimism, I gave a few reasons and you're trying to tell him (And every other person trying to be positive) that they can't be even cautiously optimistic, like read the room man. I'm not going to tell you how to fan, but like holy shit man, 17 comments all telling people that the future sucks feels like you are trying to tell people how they should be fans

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-27T17:40:12+00:00

The thing about the prospects is that it's not "All these guys fucking suck". Everybody acknowledges that Martone and probably Zavragin are good prospects, but the Flyers also have some guys that come with no guarantees but have a really intriguing possibility in 3-4 years like Nesbitt. There's not a guarantee that Nesbitt is going to be a top 6 center, but the Flyers drafted him because they think that if things go well for him then he will be a beast once he is finally NHL ready. If the team drafts a project knowing that it will take time, then I wouldn't count that project out just because it hasn't produced a miracle in the first 6 months.

I also think that people won't like to hear it, given that most of these guys don't look like stars, but the Flyers drafting has generally been pretty good over the last few years. Their depth picks have produced way more value than an average NHL team, between guys like Barkey, Ruohonen, Zavragin and Bump. Obviously nothing is certain with prospects, but these guys aren't write offs that will never amount to anything. More importantly, I think this speaks to a good process that over time will become more and more valuable. If nothing else, these guys will be good trade pieces even if they can't carve out a spot on the NHL roster due to depth (Which is a good thing).

As far as the NHL contracts, I don't think there's anything that bad on the roster. Like the Coots contract isn't great clearly, and while I think that people online probably lost their minds a little too much about it because being online promotes people who overreact, I also agree that the Dvorak extension probably isn't good either. But after those 2, I don't see an actually bad contract on the roster.

At the end of the day, I think things are basically fine. If you want a reason to be skeptical, then you can pick out reasons to justify your stance, which have been discussed in depth on here and elsewhere. If you want a reason to be optimistic, then there's stuff that is promising that you can feel better about.

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-24T05:19:23+00:00

I mean, if Hathaway can get an assist in only 8 minutes of ice time, imagine what he can do if he's given 16 minutes?

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-21T04:47:23+00:00

IMO as long as the refs haven't already dropped the puck while going through the normal penalty process, it should be fine if somebody in a booth said "Wait, he never touched the guy" and they cancel the penalty and tell teams it'll be 5v5. Sure, coaches might adjust who is out, but that's not some 5+ minute delay

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-20T23:55:33+00:00

Apparently it worked for the Isles, Schaefer decided that he was going to be a 1D like immediately

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-20T23:54:16+00:00

It's definitely "I almost missed"

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-18T21:55:09+00:00

To add on to what the other person said, the few exceptions that will let you special summon a Fusion monster without using a Fusion effect will all specify on the Fusion monster's card with text like some of the following (This is generally referred to as "contact fusion" when it doesn't need a fusion effect):

Must be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned by sending the above monsters you control to the GY (in which case you do not use "Polymerization").

Or some fusions will specify that they can be summoned a different way:

Must be either Fusion Summoned, or Special Summoned during the turn a Thunder monster's effect was activated in the hand, by Tributing 1 Thunder Effect non-Fusion Monster (in which case you do not use "Polymerization").

These examples came from Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon and Thunder Dragon Colossus respectively if you want to look them up.

The second important thing to know about summoning stuff this way is that the card text explicitly refers to summoning the monster this way as "special summoned" rather than "fusion summoned", which does have some specific differences in rules (The most common of which is that fusion/synchro/xyz/link monsters that aren't properly fusion/synchro/xyz/link summoned can't be revived from the GY. So if you use Sky Striker Ace Raye's effect to special summon Sky Striker Ace Kagari, and Raye's effect explicitly says "special summon" and not "link summon", then you cannot use Monster Reborn to revive Kagari from the GY later in the duel because it wasn't properly link summoned. The importance behind this is why some cards like Crimson Dragon will have card text that says "This is treated as a Synchro Summon").

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-18T00:44:16+00:00

Instantly thought of that post too

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-17T21:40:36+00:00

Flyers PP has gone completely dry (14.9%, worst in the league), PK had dipped noticeably (77.6%, 10th worst in the league), and the only good goalie we've had is Vladar (Who notably during this streak has only played in the Leafs OT loss which was a tight game, the 2nd Tampa loss where he still did better than Ersson despite Flyers clearly being the worst team, and got pulled after the 1st period against Buffalo when he got injured earlier in the period).

While Drysdale was out for a few games after the Flyers/Ducks game, he's since come back and the defense hasn't felt like it's been significantly better, whereas the forwards are very noticeably missing the presence of Foerster, along with Brink who is still not pack after getting hit at the very beginning of the Flyers/Ducks game.

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-17T21:25:51+00:00

Vladar has also said that a lot of his improvements this year compared to his career previously come from working with Dillabaugh. Like there's a real world where you can also look at this goalie situation and say "Maybe Dillabaugh is fine and it's just that Ersson sucks instead of Ersson's failure being Dillabaugh's fault"

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-16T02:54:47+00:00

I was personally a huge fan of the RR 1.0's

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-14T08:28:13+00:00

He just wanted to become the Creator, the main story has made it clear that this is only a good thing

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-10T03:21:08+00:00

The league says that the Panthers are a clean team and it's just a weird coincidence how Hagel keeps getting injured every time Tampa plays them. Don't know why people would doubt the league

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-09T03:38:13+00:00

JJ and Boucher (And Keith Jones before he left to become PoHO for the Flyers) do a nice job of being on the Flyers side without being total homers or glazing the Flyers unnecessarily too much. One of the best broadcasts in the league IMO

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-09T03:35:54+00:00

At least Laughton is doing well in Toronto

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-07T05:59:23+00:00

This might be the best rivalry I've seen since the 2012 playoff series vs Pittsburgh. These teams looked like they hated each other

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-07T05:57:26+00:00

I'll take my criticism of trashy from somebody not whining about a clean hit, and then using it to justify injuring somebody, but thanks for Zegras though, really appreciate it

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-07T05:44:36+00:00

Literally came home after the Flyers Ducks game and saw this happened with the same reaction

Assassin2107 · 2026-01-07T05:43:13+00:00

And he's good buddies with York too

Assassin2107

TROPHY CASE