PHILADELPHIA -- Front office executives in professional sports always say that they don't meddle in coaching/managerial decisions because that's the job of the bench boss.
Coaches and managers always say that they are demure when it comes to roster construction decisions, leaving them in the hands of front office executives alone.
Newsflash, neither is true.
Front office personnel influence coaching decisions. Coaches influence front office decisions. Ninety-five percent of the time executives and coaches are aligned in decision-making be it on the field/court/ice or in the war room.
And here's a little pull back of the curtain for you - management and coaches meet daily. And when decisions are made, unless they are related to a pressing matter - like an injury - they are usually well-planned out and have been discussed for weeks in advance. Sometimes months.
So, for the Flyers, it wasn't like GM Danny Briere, President Keith Jones and head coach Rick Tocchet got together for coffee Saturday morning in Pittsburgh and said, put Matvei Michkov back on right wing tonight.
No, this was a conversation that was weeks in the making.
And it goes back to the decision to try and trade Bobby Brink.
Briere and Jones knew last June, when they drafted Porter Martone, that at some point in the next nine months they would have to make room for him on the roster.
Porter “Hobey Baker” Martone continues to be the best player in all of College Hockey pic.twitter.com/iPBkEdFmdN
When that would be would be dictated by several factors - would Martone come straight to the NHL, or would he go to college first? Where would the team be in the standings, as his arrival time approached? What was the outlook for all of the other wingers stuck in a logjam looking for jobs? Would they be buying or selling at the trade deadline or would this have to be pushed into next offseason?
They let the chips fall where they fell, and it became apparent sometime in late January or early February that they were going to need to look to move a winger to create space at the deadline in anticipation of Martone's arrival.
And while there was internal debate about which winger should be the first to go, the group collectively settled on Brink.
But what would a lineup look like in a post-Brink world? The obvious call-up in the near-term was Alex Bump, who was back from injury and starting to look like the player who many assumed last summer was going to break training camp with the Flyers.
But he's a left wing. Meaning, someone who was playing on the left would have to move back to the right.
So the conversations between executives and coaches continued. And it wasn't just the triumvirate of Briere, Jones and Tocchet. Assistant coaches were included. As were assistant GMs, development staff and analytics personnel.
And for what it's worth - this is a common occurrence in hockey, especially leading up to the trade deadline.
The group plays out every conceivable scenario on a white board. They put a plan together. If we do A, then B. If we do C, then D. And so forth.
Ultimately there will be a consensus. Not everyone agrees. There's a lot of debate. But no one is going to create a stalemate. At some point, everyone gets aligned - even if temporary.
And on one of those white boards it was scribbled that if Brink was traded, Bump would get called up and Michkov would be back on the right side - for now.
If Michkov wants to stay there, he has to earn it by producing because his place on the roster (position-wise) is always going to be determined by what facet of his game outweighs the other.
Michkov can tell Tocchet and management all he wants that he is more comfortable playing on the right than on the left, but if the defensive miscues and neutral zone turnovers add up to a point that they are outweighing offensive production, then he's going to go back on the left.
And again, the wing that you play on only matters for defensive positioning and sometimes on faceoffs. Once play is going and entries into the offensive zone are made, there is no longer a "side" you play. Offense is all about movement and creating time and space in the offensive zone. Players cross and switch and move constantly. Hardly anyone stays rooted to one side of the ice.
So, this is all about the defensive game.
Now, Michkov is an uber-talented offensive player. He can get to a point where some of his defensive flaws are overlooked because he creates enough offensively to look the other way, even if those flaws are chronic and frustrating at times.
Travis Konecny has made a living that way for the Flyers. Jake Voracek used to be a similar-type player in orange and black as well.
But you need a little gravitas in the league first before that longer leash is given.
Michkov should ultimately be a better offensive player than both of them. But it doesn't mean he should eschew team play at 21 just to prove it.
In Monday's abysmal 6-2 loss to the cellar-dwelling New York Rangers, Michkov was a minus-3 along with linemates Noah Cates and Denver Barkey.
On two of those goals against, Michkov was an unfortunate recipient of a minus. On the first Rangers goal, Dan Vladar, who had a rare off night in goal for the Flyers - mishandled a shot that led to a loose puck and a slam dunk goal from in front of the net by Noah Laba.
Then, on the last Rangers goal, Tye Kartye ripped a shot from the blue line that Vladar didn't see and it blew past him to make it 6-1.
Michkov received a minus on both, but didn't do anything inherently wrong to impact the goal.
But the second New York goal, one of two scored by Mika Zibanejad (of course), Michkov was supposed to be defending the right side of the ice and, well, he got caught watching the play:
Mika Zibanejad scored a goal against the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team.
2-0 NYR. pic.twitter.com/fpjFuZc6ez
You can't just skate into the circle and not have the awareness to pick up a man, or be on the outside of a play being made to the seam. It's plays like this that frustrate the coaches because they happen far to often.
Now, Michkov would make up for it, getting a gritty power play goal by being willing to go to the net and take a beating in the process while working to corral a rebound and slip it past Rangers' goalie Igor Shesterkin.
So, in this game, it was even - he produced one goal for and directly impacted one goal against.
At worst, he's going to have to stay even, but he's likely going to have to be on the plus side if he wants to stay on the right wing.
Whole shift was beautiful from Michkov. The play on the entry, the tap to get it back to Jamie, and the eventual insane tight area play to bang it home.#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/t6uzomRIVU
That's because Martone is coming - as soon as Michigan State's season concludes, expect Martone to arrive. It may only be for the last game or two of the season if the Spartans go all the way to the National Championship game, but he's coming.
And when he does, someone will have to shift back to the left.
It won't be Konecny, as he's proven in the past he's brutal on the left side.
So, it'll be either Michkov or Owen Tippett.
And if Michkov can prove that he belongs on the right, then it could be Tippett, instead, who switches sides.
Or becomes expendable in the offseason.
Teams reached out to the Flyers about Tippett at the deadline. Briere wasn't ready to pull that trigger, yet. But he could this summer if this late-season shift back for Michkov pans out.
Tocchet told reporters after practice on Sunday that "he has thoughts" about Michkov back on the right, but will see how it works out before he shares them.
And while Tocchet would be wise to just not say anything at all that can even be taken as the least bit incendiary about Michkov (a simple, "We're going to give him a shot back on the right and see how it goes" would have sufficed), his "thoughts" which he let us all know he has, even if he's keeping them to himself for now, were basically spelled out above.
Produce more than you screw up - and you can stay there, otherwise, you're going back.
For better or for worse, either way.
