Quick Hits: September 12, 2023
1) The Flyers posted their 2023 Rookie Camp roster and schedule yesterday. The roster includes 13 forwards, 10 defensemen and two goaltenders. Later today, there will be a preview article on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com focused on players who are either first-time attendees at Rookie Camp or are newly turning pro in North America this season after attending previous September camps in Voorhees.
2) After the Flyers Rookie games against the New York Rangers prospects at the PPL Center in Allentown on Friday (7:05 p.m. EDT) and Saturday (5:05 p.m. EDT), Rookie Camp will continue at the FTC in Voorhees with practices on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings. The focus will then turn to NHL training camp.
3) Congratulations go out to Brian Boucher for being named as the primary color analyst for Flyers home games on NBC Sports Philadelphia this season. Boucher was recently also hired as a national A-team broadcaster. His dual roles will mirror those of Keith Jones before "Jonesy" stepped down to accept the Flyers president of hockey operations position this summer. On dates where there's a conflict between a national broadcast and a Flyers game, Scott Hartnell is available to go from studio pregame/intermission/postgame duties to pinch hit for "Boosh" in the booth. However, Boucher should be available for the decided majority of Flyers non-national games on top of his national duties for TNT.
4) There has not been a final decision yet on the radio broadcast analyst side, as the Flyers search for a successor to the recently retired Steve Coates. From what I've heard, the preference is to hire a former player or perhaps a rotation of retired former players. Tim Saunders will continue to handle play-by-play duties.
5) 3) SKA St. Petersburg has loaned Flyers 2023 first-round pick Matvei Michkov to HC Sochi for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. Michkov is still SKA property through the 2025-26 season. Last season, Michkov posted 20 points (9g, 11a) in 27 KHL games for Sochi after dressing in three games for SKA but never receiving more than 6:45 of ice time. Through the first four games of SKA's 2023-24 regular season, Roman Rotenberg -- SKA's CEO, president of hockey operations and self-appointed general manager and head coach despite having never played professionally or coached professionally before 2022 -- scratched Michkov in three games and played him just 6:14 across 11 shifts in the other.
Rotenberg claimed that the 18-year-old player hadn't "earned" KHL ice time so far. That was a downright ludicrous statement given Michkov's 20-point partial KHL season for Sochi last year and his strong start to the 2023 preseason with points in each of the first five games (excluding a 3-on-3 tournament in which Michkov was named MVP) while mostly playing center instead of his normal right wing slot. Michov even held his own defensively -- not known as the strong suit of his game -- in most of his preseason games at center. He had one bad period, was dropped to the 13th forward role late in the preseason and then scratched or barely used in the regular season to date.
According to reports, Michkov requested that SKA loan him to another club but he preferred not to go back to Sochi. That's because Matvei's 51-year-old father, Andrei, died in Sochi on April 2 under
mysterious circumstances. The teenage prospect reportedly wanted an alternative destination because Sochi brings the still-fresh pain and grief right back by constantly reminding him of what there earlier this year.
At least in Sochi, Michkov will get the opportunity to play for a qualified professional head coach in Dmitri Kokorov and he'll likely go right back to the team's top line, where he finished last season. Sochi is a weaker and much less wealthy team than the Gazprom sponsored SKA club (note: Rotenberg is vice president of Gazprombank and a higher-up in the Gazprom Export chain). Michkov won't be surrounded by the same caliber of established KHL talent in Sochi as he would for SKA, but at least he will get a lot of ice time with a traditionally trained head coach behind his team's bench.
It could have been much worse from a hockey standpoint. SKA could have dispatched Michkov back to the VHL (minor league) as they did for part of last season. They also could have loaned Michkov to a KHL club such as Red Star Kunlun, which plays some if its home games in Beijing (they also have a "home" rink in the Moscow suburbs) and has been a perennial doormat.
HC Sochi returns to action on Wednesday, playing on the road against Severstal Cherepovets.
6) Happy heavenly birthday to Gord Brooks (1950-2020). Brooks, nicknamed "Road Hog" was my favorite childhood non-Flyers player in the years he suited up for old Philadelphia Firebirds. He only played 70 NHL games (7g, 18a, 25 points) but the right winger was a prolific minor league scorer. Brooks excelled for the Firebirds at both the NAHL (roughly equal the ECHL nowadays) and AHL levels, with three seasons of 40-plus goals. He was way too skilled for the rough-and-tumble North American League (the circuit portrayed in "Slap Shot" as the Federal League), racking up 65 goals and 124 points for the Firebirds in 1976-77. One year earlier, he was a driving force in the Firebirds' Lockhart Cup championship (including 15 goals and 32 points in 16 playoff games). At the AHL level, he topped out at a 98-point season for the Firebirds in 1977-78.
Many years later, my wife surprised me on my birthday with a Mitchell and Ness jersey of Brooks with the Firebirds (home whites). To this day, it's stil one of my absolute favorite jerseys in my collection.
I don't know if younger-generation Flyers fans can relate to the era when Flyers tickets at the Spectrum were a tough commodity to come by if you didn't have season tickets. Every game was sold out during the height of the Broad Street Bullies years when the club reached the Cup Final three straight years and got at least to the semifinal in a remarkable six straight years (1973 to 1978). The Firebirds were a much cheaper alternative with ample tickets available at the old Civic Center but a rabid cult following. As a kid, I loved the Firebirds nearly as much as I adored the Flyers.
To this day, whenever I hear "The Hustle" on the radio or at a wedding, I instantly think of the Firebirds. That's because it was their pregame warmup song at the Civic Center. I've always had a soft spot for my favorite Firebirds of yesteryear -- Brooks, American forward Bob Collyard, Ray Schultz, Dale MacLeish, goalie Reggie Lemelin, etc. -- and recall the Lockhart Cup season almost as fondly as some of my favorite Flyers memories from those years.
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