Takeaways from Flyers’ win over Blues: ‘Teaching moment’ for Matvei Michkov, Bobby Brink battles back

It could have been a nightmare on Broad Street when St. Louis Blues forward Nathan Walker tied things up in the third period on Thursday. But the Flyers were able to stick with it and keep their structure to top the Blues, 2-1, for their second straight win and third in the past four games.

It was a happy Halloween for the apropos Orange and Black.

Here are three takeaways from the win.

At 19, Matvei Michkov is still learning the ropes and is bound to make mistakes. On Thursday he made a few on his first shift of the game.

Tortorella wouldn’t reveal exactly what was wrong on the 50-second shift — although you could see Michkov struggled with his puck support at both ends and turned the puck over multiple times in the defensive zone — but was waiting for him as he got off.

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“I think he‘s beginning to see what the National Hockey League is, as far as the speed, as far as time and space, all the things that come with it. There are going to be some major struggles with him five-on-five, we expect that, where I’m going to have to teach,” Tortorella said.

“And in that teaching moment — I’m not going to tell you what it’s all about — but if we keep on seeing the same mistake and he is just totally not concentrating on a certain part of the game that’s when — and I’ve been very honest with him about that — he’s going to miss some ice. He’s going to watch the game. It’s not me, you know, screaming at him. It’s telling him, this is how it works.”

Tortorella did say that the mistakes were “repetitive” and “situations that we’ve gone over and he still totally doesn’t understand” and that‘s why he sat for a stretch. There‘s a good chance the repetition wasn’t just on that one shift as Michkov has struggled to provide proper puck support and pick up opponents in the Flyers’ end.

Michkov did not go out for his next five-on-five shift, with Owen Tippett getting his spot, but was out there for a power play not long after. He then sat through two more twirls by linemates Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny, with Tippett and Joel Farabee earning time on the wing.

“He’s had some struggles. He doesn’t play four games in six nights over there [in the Kontinental Hockey League]. He doesn’t play against competition like he plays here,” Tortorella said. “So there are going to be some major struggles with this five-on-five game. Power play, I feel very comfortable he’s going to do some things there, so I’m going to have to watch him, and just like any other young player, or really, any other player in that room, he’s going to be held accountable as we go through these games, and we’ll see where it goes.”

Assistant coach Rocky Thompson went over things with Michkov on a tablet during a television timeout in the first period. And at the start of the second, Tortorella patted him on the shoulders.

Michkov skated 3 minutes, 50 seconds across four shifts in the first period. He finished with a season-low 13:56 for the game and now has gone three games without a point after posting nine in the first eight games.

“He wants to do so well but it‘s a lot for him … He may miss games. Who knows?” Tortorella said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but that’s part of the development of a 19-year-old kid.”

Here‘s Bobby! There is no denying Bobby Brink is an offensive player who has struggled in the defensive zone. On Thursday, he, and the rest of his teammates, lost Nathan Walker on the game-tying goal.

But Brink battled back and, like Jack Nicholson swinging the axe through the door in The Shining, crashed the net to notch the game-winner. After Scott Laughton snagged the puck in the neutral zone, the Flyers transitioned and Brink finished off a give-and-go with Joel Farabee.

“Sometimes you‘ll make mistakes out there, but you’ve got to limit those mistakes and know what time of the game it is,” Brink said. “Kind of just think about it a little more when you’re making plays out here.”

Brink had time to think as he watched three straight games — after a plus-minus of minus-2 against the Washington Capitals on Oct. 22 — before slotting back into the lineup against the Bruins. He has been even in the two games back.

“I’m happy for Bobby Brink, he has gone through a little bit of an up and down with me as far as the defensive part of the game, but the puck follows him,” Tortorella said. “When he scores the goal, I think the play before he scores the goal is in traffic, and he just pushes it wide and goes to the net, it’s a really good offensive play.”

Like using an Ouija board, the Flyers have conjured up something many thought was long buried: blocking shots. After averaging 16.4 blocks across the season’s first nine games, they ate more than 20 for the second straight game.

The total was 24 on Thursday after 28 shots were blocked on Tuesday. And, yes, blocking pucks was a takeaway for the win against the Boston Bruins too, but it seems that when the team does that, they succeed at other aspects of the game.

“It shows that you’re in the right spot at the right time, which is nice,” said Ryan Poehling, who went end-to-end, splitting the defense before feeding Garnet Hathaway for the opening goal.

“And I think that you see one guy do it, and I think it shows no one’s good enough for it right? So I think it’s just a contagious thing that we’ve been good at and it does help us with our structure, staying in those lanes and stuff.”

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According to goalie Sam Ersson, “They‘re blocking the right shots too. They‘re not trying to get in front of everything. They’re knowing what shots they can leave to me.”

“You can kind of sense it, when we’re blocking shots, when we’re doing the small things right, you can kind of feel it on the bench and on the ice that we’re rolling,” he added. “I think that gives us confidence and we know that we’re a very good team when we play like this.”

Defenseman Nick Seeler led the way with six, including taking one off the hand in the first period saying postgame, with a smile, that it was sore and “appreciated it” when the fans appeared to give him an ovation after it.

“That’s the way we have to play. We have to outwork teams. We have to block shots. We have to sometimes play an ugly game,” Seeler said. “[Noah Cates] with a huge block at the end there, and you can see the bench get up for him, and that’s kind of what this team’s about. We stick together and it wasn’t always pretty tonight, but we got the job done.”