Matvei Michkov, Sick Bastard, Takes Over Round 1 Of The Michkov vs Bedard Rivalry By Burying An Overtime Game Winner
For years leading up to the 2023 NHL Draft, it was always Connor Bedard vs Matvei Michkov. They were the best two players in all the U18 tournaments. They were the best two players at the 2022 World Juniors before that tournament ended up getting cancelled/rescheduled due to COVID. Unfortunately during the time between the originally scheduled 2022 WJC and the rescheduled tournament in the summer, Russia invaded Ukraine and all hell broke loose in the international hockey world. Russia was no longer allowed to play in IIHF tournaments, so we didn't get any more chances to see Bedard and Michkov go head-to-head after that.
Until today.
For the first time in their NHL careers, we had Bedard vs Michkov. A "rivalry" that'll hopefully carry the torch of Crosby vs Ovechkin for years to come. I put rivalry in quotes because it's always going to be more of a media and fan thing. Bedard and Michkov themselves wouldn't necessarily consider themselves to be rivals.
Maybe not rivals in the sense that they hate each other. But both these guys are competitive bastards. You know for a fact that they're going to always try to one-up each other in their careers that are so intertwined. And today Matvei Michkov was able to take the first shot in that battle with he's 2nd overtime winner of the season.
Right before that powerplay in overtime, the Flyers came down on a 3v1. Konecny was carrying the puck with Sanheim and Michkov along with him. The puck went to Sanheim, who went back to Konecny, and nothing came out of it besides the delayed penalty getting called. You could tell how pissed off Michkov hated not getting a chance to put the game away right there. Right in that moment, you knew he was going to get a chance and make it happen.
26 seconds later the puck was in the back of the net. 2 overtime winners in the past 2 weeks. Just 19 games into his NHL career. This kid loves to score goals, and he loves to take over the moment.
Bedard had a few chances today, and got a pretty decent shot off early in the game. But all afternoon, Michkov was constantly the more noticeable player.
He's looking to make something special happen every time he touches the ice. Maybe that'll get him in trouble at some points during his career. But more often than not, he has the skill to make it happen. Or at the very least, he has the skill to almost make it happen which then creates enough chaos for other good things to happen.
It's crazy to think that if Russia wasn't involved in a war over the past few years, there's a chance that Matvei Michkov is a Chicago Blackhawk. At the very least, he'd be a Columbus Blue Jacket. But crazy international affairs just so happened to work out for the Flyers in this one instance, Michkov dropped to the 7th pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, and the rest might be history. We have at least 15 more years of Michkov vs Bedard. Hopefully closer to 20. And if game 1 in that matchup was any indication, this rivalry is going to rule.