Many eyes were on Matvei Michkov as he made his Wells Fargo Center debut, and he didn’t disappoint with an assist and an empty-net goal. It was clear he became more comfortable as the game went on – he only had one shot attempt and four giveaways in the early going, but in the back half of the game he had three shots on goal and three missed shots with no further giveaways. Those, by the way, are just going to be a byproduct of Michkov trying to make things happen, and the coaching staff will likely be understanding as long as they don’t put the team in dangerous situations the other way.
On his assist, Michkov is able to retrieve the puck and then look up and not only find Cam York trailing to the opposite point, but find a lane to get the puck to him. That’s an underrated play at NHL speed in this situation.
