Every kid growing up dreams of scoring their first NHL goal. It is typically rushing down the wing, battling through traffic or dangling through opponents, and then hitting a rocket or sniping the puck right over the opposing goaltender’s shoulder.
Matvei Michkov might have been doing that every year of his life, but in reality, it came in the grimiest and weirdest way possible.
During the first period of the third game of his career, in Edmonton against the Oilers, the Flyers were on the power play due to a Too Many Men minor penalty, what appeared to be a nonchalant entry into the zone and Owen Tippett gliding through the shorthanded unit, ended with a bang.