Russia’s greatest hockey talent, Matvey Michkov, arrives on loan from SKA to Sochi, a familiar team from last season, although he played in the main team throughout the preseason.
At the beginning of the season, when the Russian nekstvan Matvey Michkov, after the first match with Dynamo Moscow, sat on the bench and no longer appeared in the core of the St. Petersburg club, the patron, and at the same time the coach of the SKA, said in an interview that the country’s top talent must first win the competition against other young hockey players, preferring to keep Ivan Demidov on the ice outside the two boundaries.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
Behind the scenes, as well as in some video blogs, specialists argued that Matvey simply did not have sufficient physical ability to play on the first two lines of the favorite KHL club. Indirectly, Michkov himself confirmed this.
Today, Roman Arkadyevich, explaining Michkov’s loan to Sochi on his social networks, insists that the junior does not qualify in the first two lines and that he has nothing to do in the third and fourth combinations. They say, he lets the boy practice where he will definitely be one of the leaders of the team. It seems that the boy was literally exiled to Sochi. I don’t want to bother, so let them train him at the resort.
Larionov’s chicks inflicted the first defeat on the SKA. Rotenberg was beside himself
“Matvey Michkov will continue the season on loan in Sochi. I think it’s the right decision: Matvey has his whole career ahead of him, now he needs to play a lot with men to toughen up. In Sochi he will have that opportunity. We talked a lot with Matvey and came to a mutual decision that this is the best option for his career. Michkov is a first or second line player, first or second most. We do not want to leave Matvey in reserve, we wish him maximum progress, we will closely follow his game and at the first opportunity we will be glad to see him in St. Petersburg. See you on the ice! “— Rotenberg wrote on his Telegram channel.
Photo source: HC Sochi
True, in Sochi, even without Matvey, everything is excellent now, as evidenced by two away victories over the strong Ak Bars (5-1) and Lokomotiv (5-0). It turns out that the appearance of the St. Petersburg diamond may well cause some confusion in the actions of a well-coordinated team. On the other hand, what coach wouldn’t like to have players for the rotation. On the shores of the Black Sea it will finally become clear whether Michkov is attracted to the KHL or not.
However, there is another way to look at the young Russian striker’s situation. Some representatives of the hockey media in North America believe that Roman Rotenberg, after the league’s conflict over the situation with CSKA goaltender Ivan Fedotov, naturally hides his perspective from the eyes of the Philadelphia Flyers bosses (Michkov was selected by this club in the NHL summer draft) so that, in the event of a complete break in relations, Matvey simply did not set sail for the United States.
This opinion of the foreigner is indirectly confirmed by the fact that Matvey played a full preseason in the SKA, where he played not the last role. So, for example, the striker played four full games in the Sochi tournament, and three more were added in the Puchkov tournament in St. Petersburg. In seven games played, Matvey scored 6 (3+3) points. Honestly, they’re not the worst stats for any decent hockey player. It turns out that the forward really played as a point guard, but in the end he couldn’t withstand the competition. On the other hand, a move to Sochi is unlikely to become an obstacle to escaping to the NHL.
Photo source: HC Sochi
From all of the above, we can conclude that Matvey Michkov has lowered his demands on himself or is inferior to other teammates in terms of sportsmanship. It turns out that the main talent of the generation cannot withstand the fight in conditions of fierce competition. So the question is: is there any point in traveling abroad if Michkov already has such mental and functional problems?
