NHL: Washington Capitals at Philadelphia Flyers - Source: Imagn — John Tortorella talked about challenges coaching 19-year-old Matvei Michkov (image credit: IMAGN)

"It's been a little difficult for me" - John Tortorella makes eye-opening remark on early issues coaching Matvei Michkov

Modified Nov 21, 2024 14:32 GMT

Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella shared his challenges with coaching 19-year-old Matvei Michkov due to language barriers. Michkov was drafted seventh overall in 2023 and joined the Flyers in the 2024-25 NHL season after terminating his contract with KHL club SKA St. Petersburg.

During an interview on NHL on TNT on Wednesday, Paul Bissonnette asked Tortorella how he coaches Michkov. Tortorella confirmed that the language barrier is the biggest obstacle.

"It's been a little difficult for me, because the way I like to coach is, if something happens, I'm hitting that right away on the bench in practice, whatever it may be," Tortorella said. "It's spontaneous coaching. I can't do that with Mich because he just doesn't understand."

He added that Michkov often doesn’t fully understand his instructions.

"I tried it on the bench one night, there was a situation that I'm trying to explain, and he's like ‘Yeah, yeah,’ but he really doesn't know what I'm saying," Tortorella said.

To improve communication, the Flyers set up weekly meetings with Tortorella, Michkov and interpreter Slava Kouznetsov. Initially, defenseman Egor Zamula helped translate during games but it affected his play. The Flyers decided it was better to let Zamula focus on his own game.

"So what we've done here is we started using Zamula, but Zamula’s game started going downhill, so we just left him alone as the interpreter," Tortorella said. "We just wanted him to play. What we're doing here now is once a week that we have an interpreter, and we sit down in my office and we go over things, and I want to listen to him, he has to listen to me and it's easier that way."

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Michkov has performed well in his first NHL season, with six goals and nine assists in 24 games. Still, adjusting to Tortorella’s coaching style and the league remains a work in progress.

Matvei Michkov was scoreless in the Flyers' loss to the Carolina Hurricanes

The Philadelphia Flyers have a record of 8-10-2 and are sixth in the Metropolitan Division with 18 points. The division is led by the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils.

The Flyers lost 4-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday. Ryan Poehling scored the Flyers' lone goal in the second period, tying the game briefly. However, Carolina dominated the third period with three unanswered goals.

The Flyers were outshot 37-19 and struggled in face-offs, winning only 44.2%. Matvei Michkov had two shots on goal in 17:20 minutes of ice time.