{"id":507175,"date":"2026-01-10T22:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/507175\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T22:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T22:56:09","slug":"flyers-finally-put-michkov-and-zegras-together-in-new-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/507175\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers finally put Michkov and Zegras together in new lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Flyers are hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning for a very weird sequence of back-to-back contests but they\u2019re both going to be at home. And it is just perfect timing for the Flyers to lose a whole lot of their talent from the lineup after Bobby Brink, Travis Konecny, and Jamie Drysdale have suffered injuries this week.<\/p>\n

With these injuries, the Flyers\u2019 depth will be tested and of course they are facing a Lightning team that has won their last eight games and have the Eastern Conference\u2019s best point percentage. Peachy. <\/p>\n

Now that those players, and especially those two forwards in Brink and Konecny, will likely be out for Saturday night\u2019s game, the Flyers\u2019 depth will be tested and that fact is extremely evident by the lineup that head coach Rick Tocchet put out there at morning skate.<\/p>\n

Flyers unveil new lineup and some fans might like a certain combination<\/p>\n

It might have taken multiple forwards to suffer some freak injuries either caused by an Anaheim Duck that wanted to bash a winger\u2019s head in, or a random puck to the face, but Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras are playing on a line together and they will be given ample opportunity to work their magic.<\/p>\n

Per The Inquirer\u2019s Jackie Spiegel<\/a> and others, Michkov and Zegras will be flanking Christian Dvorak on the Flyers\u2019 top line. The combination that has stayed in-tact is the second line of Denver Barkey, Sean Couturier, and Owen Tippett; while Nikita Grebenkin gets a promotion up to replace Michkov on the third line next to Noah Cates and Carl Grundstrom with Nic Deslauriers coming back into the lineup.<\/p>\n

Matvei Michkov \u2014 Christian Dvorak \u2014 Trevor Zegras
Denver Barkey \u2014 Sean Couturier \u2014 Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin \u2014 Noah Cates \u2014 Carl Grundstrom
Nic Deslauriers \u2014 Rodrigo Abols \u2014 Garnet Hathaway<\/p>\n

And to take the joyous occasion for a section of Flyers fans who have disliked Tocchet\u2019s limited usage of Michkov so far this season, even further, Michkov will be on the top power-play unit next to Zegras and, well, a collection of other players.<\/p>\n

The Flyers\u2019 first unit will be Tippett, Michkov, Zegras, Dvorak, and with Rasmus Ristolainen at the point; while the second will be Cates, Barkey, and Grebenkin playing in front of a rare two-defenseman unit as both Travis Sanheim and Cam York will be deployed.<\/p>\n

What to possibly expect from this lineup<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be an interesting night, no matter what. With Michkov on the top line and top power-play unit, we wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he surpasses his season-high 18:48 time-on-ice, or at least comes close to it. Plus, it\u2019s coming at a good time to give the 20-year-old winger all the opportunity he can handle.<\/p>\n

The Flyers don\u2019t have a choice with the amount of skill on the sidelines. Even while Michkov is having a very down year compared to the numbers he was able to put up during his rookie campaign, he is more capable of pulling off high-end plays more than any other possible winger they would put up with Dvorak and Zegras, to just try and potentially squeeze out a win with a couple of timely goals.<\/p>\n

It is interesting how Tocchet has decided to somewhat top-load this lineup, though. That bottom six is not one that inspires a whole lot of confidence in some game-breaking way \u2014 even while the third line is three guys we have enjoyed this season, putting them together doesn\u2019t really make it seem like they can score that all-important game at some point on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s hockey though, and we\u2019ll just have to see what happens. Maybe Michkov being handed this massive opportunity is just what he needs to get his season truly started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Flyers are hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning for a very weird sequence of back-to-back contests but…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":507176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-507175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115873276678483908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}