Flyers reminisce their rookie laps ahead of Matvei Michkov and Jett Luchanko’s NHL debuts: ‘It’s special’

VANCOUVER, British Columbia ― The Flyers could have a pair of teenagers hitting the ice for their NHL debuts on Friday night against the Canucks.

The big question going in is: How will the rookie lap go? Will it be Matvei Michkov or Jett Luchanko? Will they do it together?

That twirl around the ice, usually solo, is a special moment as all eyes are on the newest member of the NHL fraternity. Joel Farabee is happy he kept the helmet on when he did his rookie lap on Oct. 21, 2019. Looking back, Morgan Frost is probably happy he did too.

“No mistakes on the rookie lap,” Frost said about his lap on Nov. 19, 2019, at the Florida Panthers arena. “I do remember watching it on video afterward though, and when I went on the ice, I knocked over pucks, and I could see on the video how close I was to stepping on one. In the moment, I didn’t notice it, I just knocked and stepped and I still have anxiety about that to this day if I would have fallen.”

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Regardless of how the twirl around the ice goes at Rogers Arena, a few guys on the team will be a little jealous. Erik Johnson didn’t get one. Neither did Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, Sean Couturier, or Scott Laughton, but it doesn’t take away from the moment.

“You almost blackout,” said Laughton, who played his first game on Jan. 19, 2013, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. “It’s a crazy feeling. I just remember stretching at the red line in warmup, looking over and it was [Sidney] Crosby and all these guys that you kind of watch growing up, and how cool it was.”

With it being opening night Luchanko and, especially Michkov, knew they were going in well in advance. Frost was out for dinner with some of his fellow Phantoms when he got a call from Scott Gordon, who was the coach for Lehigh Valley, the night before. Farabee got a call from Brent Flahr, the Flyers assistant general manager. “He was just like, ‘You ready to play?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah. [Heck] yeah.’”

Sanheim went out for a bag skate that morning in Los Angeles because he thought he was an extra again. Flyers goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh told Sanheim that he was suiting up and the defenseman rushed back to the hotel for a team meeting. He did not take a nap that day.

“I think it hits you when you step on the ice and you’re looking around and you see who’s out there, who you’re with, the atmosphere,” said Sanheim, who made his debut on Oct. 5, 2017. “Trying to sit back and realize that you’re playing in an NHL game. Just a very cool experience.”

Ryan Poehling,then with the Montreal Canadiens, didn’t know whether he would be playing when his head hit the pillow the night before. He was suiting up only if the team was eliminated from the postseason — and it was. His family got there in time and he went on to have one of the most memorable debuts, notching a hat trick — and the game-winner in a shootout — against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the season finale.

“Super special. I think the biggest thing for me was just that my cousin married Ryan Suter, so I was really close with them. As a kid growing up, I’d always go to Nashville for spring break, and he was a D partner with Shea Weber for forever,” Poehling said about that day in April 2019. “And so when I walked in the locker room, and I was going to be playing a game with Shea Weber, I thought it was pretty crazy.”

» READ MORE: Five things to know about Flyers rookie Jett Luchanko

The time Garnet Hathaway had between finding out and suiting up was even shorter. He was sitting in the Wells Fargo Center stands on trade deadline day on Feb. 26, 2016. He arrived very early because he got the time wrong for the start of the game, but maybe it was a good omen because a late trade went through and the Calgary Flames were short a forward.

“It’s special, though,” Hathaway said about his full circle moment. “I think that the longer you play in this league, and guys that you get to play with that have had long, successful careers, they try and just teach you that, hey, it’s the gratitude that you have to be here and to be able to play in this league. To have friends and family who can watch you and support you, and that’s what comes to mind.”

Sam Ersson’s first NHL game was one he’d prefer to forget — after the puck dropped. It was the second night of a back-to-back for the Flyers, and he allowed five goals on 30 shots. “A tough game,” he said about that Dec. 23, 2022, night in Carolina, but it was still “obviously very special.”

“You only get one of those, right?” he said. “Something you’ve been dreaming about for a long time. So I think it’s very special, but it’s also, it’s kind of hard to take in the moment because you’re trying to get so ready for it. But, obviously, looking back, it’s one of those things, you’ve got to pinch yourself that you get to play at this level.”

Ersson’s family didn’t get a chance to make that game; they first watched him in person last December. Johnson’s family said they were 20 minutes late for his debut with the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 4, 2007, because of traffic in Phoenix and missed his first shift.

For Michkov, it’ll probably be the home opener when his family will see him play under the lights of an NHL arena. When asked in Russian, he said his mom and brother would not be at the game on Friday in Vancouver (10 p.m., NBCSP).

But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a memorable moment. For Flyers captain Couturier, his first game in orange and black was Oct. 6, 2011, the night the Boston Bruins raised their 2011 Stanley Cup banner. Couturier remembers he had to remain focused despite facing guys like David Krejčí and fellow French Canadian Patrice Bergeron.

So any advice for the new kids?

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“Soak in the moment,” Couturier said. “Try not to think too much about it. I know it’s hard, you dream about that moment your whole life. Just enjoy the moment, I guess. Get your first shift out of the way, try to get your legs going, and go from there.”

And that’s exactly what Seeler did.

“I wanted to get a hit early just to get into the game, or just do something, touch a puck,” recalls Seeler, a Minnesotan making his debut in a Minnesota Wild jersey. “It was probably a very short shift. I probably couldn’t wait to get off, but I just wanted to get that first one out of the way and then just go play. I was nervous but one step on the ice, it’s just like what you’ve been doing for your whole life.”

For the record — and it should come as no surprise to Flyers fans — what Seeler did to get into that game on Feb. 13, 2018, against the New York Rangers was block a shot.

The Flyers arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday and headed up to Whistler, British Columbia, for a few days of team building and bonding. One of the things they did up there was golf, competing in a scramble. Couturier said he “did all right.” Per Laughton, “Me and Beezer won the overall.” … Seeler was missing again from practice at the University of British Columbia on Thursday. Per a team source, the Flyers will be recalling a defenseman, most likely Emil Andrae, from Lehigh Valley and he will meet the team in Calgary for the game on Saturday night against the Flames. Seeler, a defenseman, blocked a pass late in the second period of the Flyers’ preseason game against the Boston Bruins on Oct. 1. He did practice the next day and told reporters afterward that he was dealing with numbness in his leg from blocking the puck. He has not practiced since and is day-to-day per coach John Tortorella.

» READ MORE: History says John Tortorella’s teams break through in Year 3. Will the Flyers do the same?