[Charlie O’Connor] Tocchet sur le fait que Michkov devienne plus social avec ses coéquipiers : « Ouais, j’ai remarqué ça. Je vais être honnête avec vous les gars… au début de cette saison, (il n’était) pas un ‘solitaire’, mais il était un peu seul beaucoup. Maintenant, il est avec les jeunes. Je pense qu’il représente un énorme développement pour Mich. »
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Cute-Contract-6762
22 Comments
but i heard he was a locker room cancer??
I think I remember seeing videos of Meesh with Bonk and McDonald etc the first summer he came over. I think he bonded with a decent amount of Phantoms guys when he first came to America.
That sounds encouraging. With not a lot of Russian speakers to begin with, and those that are either being shipped off, sent down, or out injured, it did make me wonder how he was fairing fitting in.
Vibes are good
It tracks he gels with bonk considering they were in the same draft class vs the other guys already on the Flyers. He probably met him a bunch of times in the years leading up to the draft playing tournaments, etc.
All the flyers needed was to discover the power of friendship
Im surprised hes not close with Grebenkin.
Gonna be honest, this doesn’t look great on the vets. It sounds like there wasn’t a good enough effort being made to include him in stuff the first half of the season which fits the vibe from last season where people seemingly had a chip on their shoulder due to him being viewed as the saviour by fans.
It’s good that things are better now but this does confirm that the locker room stuff wasn’t fake the first half of the season. Pretty consistent with the Couts comments earlier in the season too.
It’s funny, Michkov’s recent production in big games just goes to show how important it is to support young guys especially from abroad. If the vets want to win their best chance is with Michkov playing to his potential.
tocchet: “not only was he fat, he also had no friends”
He’s welcome to come hang out with us in Camden County. Street hockey tho he could work on the fundamentals Operation Slapshot would be proud
Everyone forgets he is a 21 year old kid, in a different country, with a different culture, and a totally different language. Give him some time.
How much of it was a language barrier thing?
He seems to be fitting in better with the rookies and young guys.
Isn’t it Barkey that Mich was defending and got into his only fight?
Last year we had a couple of other Russian-speaking players in Zamula, Fedotov, and (from time-to-time) Kolosov. This year it was just Grebenkin. I wonder if having people he could communicate in his native language to on the roster helped him as a rookie.
You can see it. Even his entrance to games and events earlier in the season was lonesome versus some other players like Zegras (who he got along with) who jived with the vets and brass immediately. Glad to hear he’s warming up.
Great to hear about Michkov assimilating even more into the team, very encouraging!
“21 year old kid with a language barrier and an asshole coach who had it out for him early in the season had trouble bonding with his teammates for a while, news at 11”
I think many underestimate how hard it is for euros to transition to life in the USA. And I think the Scandinavian guys come in with a little more English. Glad he is making friends. It will help.
Ive actually wondered about this a bit lately. Like you can see certain players bonding with other players, and I sometimes dont see them bond with Mich. I know him and Andrae became friends last year, and you can see them interact a bit more after scores and wins and what not. In fact, I notice Andrae will look for Michkov to pass to in a rush if they are both on the ice. Mich started to get that way with our baby boy Brink before he left.
I heard this from someone close to the team so interesting to hear it from another source but good that it seem to be resolving itself
Here’s to hoping a successful playoff experience will bring everyone on the team closer and forge them into a unified engine of happy hockey mayhem and demolition.
I remember when the entire league absolutely hated playing in Philadelphia. Dreaded it, even. I want _that_ again.
LOVE this.
Can not even imagine moving to a new country, not being really able to speak the language, and being expected to perform at a high level. Good on Mitch!! Him and Marty are the future. Give em time.