SAN JOSE — In a meeting of still-building clubs with hopes of becoming Stanley Cup contenders in a few years, the Philadelphia Flyers rolled to a 4-0 win over the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Tuesday on goals from Nick Seeler, Ryan Poehling, Travis Konecny and Egor Zamula. Sam Ersson got the win in net with 15 saves, but had to exit due to injury at the second intermission, leaving Aleksei Kolosov to complete the shutout and mop up with seven stops in the third.
From the Flyers’ perspective, notching their most lopsided win of the season to get back to .500 at 17-17-4 was encouraging, particularly in that both of their struggling special teams units were effective. Conversely, Ersson having to leave the game after he missed time with groin issues in November and early December was concerning, as the unpreparedness of Kolosov and Ivan Fedotov for NHL-level hockey has been evident all season.
Those details aside, though, there was a broader appeal to this game from those that didn’t have a vested interest in its outcome. It marked the second and final meeting of the season between the two front-runners for the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year: the Flyers’ Matvei Michkov, and the Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini.
Prior to the game, coaches from each team used the same descriptor for the budding rookie star on their roster. “Ultra-competitive,” said Flyers associate coach Brad Shaw of Michkov, while Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said the same of Celebrini.
Neither player got on the scoresheet, although Michkov was much more noticeable, particularly when the game was still competitive. That was at least in part due to the Flyers having the puck more than the Sharks, who lost their eighth in a row and were generally awful, but Michkov helped to drive play on many of his shifts.
He shook off Henry Thrun and set up a Joel Farabee scoring chance about two minutes into the game, and his perfect lead pass sprung Poehling for an opportunity with 12:20 to go in the first. In the second, Michkov’s shot from the circle required a pad stop by Sharks goalie Alexandar Georgiev about a minute in, and on his next shift he got free in a dangerous area before receiving a pass from Morgan Frost on a shot that was blocked by Mario Ferraro. Michkov’s best chance to score came in the third, when he patiently waited for a shooting lane to open in the slot before zipping a shot on Georgiev about midway through the frame that didn’t quite squeak through.
Celebrini had a team-high six shots, but was mostly quiet until the latter half of the third period when it was essentially over at 4-0. With a little more than six minutes to go he got free alone in front of the net, but Kolosov made a stop to preserve the combined shutout.
The end result is that Michkov still holds a slim lead in the rookie scoring race, with 29 points to Celebrini’s 27. Celebrini, however, has his points in 28 games, while Michkov has played 36. Both have 12 goals. Lane Hutson, the Montreal Canadiens defenseman who is also firmly in the Calder race, has 26 points in 37 games.
Perhaps Hutson emerges as the front-runner at some point, but Vegas odds are still strongly leaning towards Celebrini and Michkov as the top two contenders.
And public sentiment seems to be with Celebrini at the moment. That’s probably not surprising, as he’s averaging nearly a point per game while Michkov snapped a seven-game scoring drought on Sunday in Los Angeles. Further, Celebrini is viewed as the more 200-foot player, which was reinforced over the weekend when Michkov was benched for the third period of a Flyers-Ducks game on Saturday.
We reached half a dozen people around the league via text on Tuesday, none of whom are affiliated with either the Flyers or Sharks, for their opinion on who they think will ultimately end up capturing the award.
“Celebrini. Not sure it’s close,” said a Western Conference scout.
Said an Eastern Conference coach: “Close. I think it’s a toss-up right now. Both have been good. (I’ll go with) Michkov.”
“Tough call,” said an Eastern Conference scout. “Celebrini, I’d imagine.”
“Celebrini is a star,” said a Western Conference coach. “I would take him ahead of (Chicago’s Connor) Bedard all day.”
“I haven’t seen much of Michkov,” said another Western Conference coach. “Celebrini is a really complete player for a young guy. Plays an honest game. He’s the real deal.”
“Man, that’s tough,” said another Eastern Conference scout. “I’m going to say Celebrini.”
There’s half a season left for it to shake out.
The win for the Flyers was particularly important in that they’re about to enter a difficult stretch of four straight games against Stanley Cup contenders. They close out the road trip in Vegas on Thursday, visit the Maple Leafs on Sunday, then return home to host Toronto again and the Dallas Stars.
But a potential disaster looms. Ersson looked to be settling in after the Christmas break after struggling before it, including a 32-save performance in the Flyers’ 3-1 win on Saturday in Anaheim. He appeared to get hurt when coming out of his crease to play a puck and collided with the Sharks’ Luke Kunin with less than five minutes to go in the second.
“I think it happened with the collision,” coach John Tortorella said after the game. “What the injury is, I’m not sure. The way it’s gone for Sam, it’s a concern.”
Ersson was seen walking around outside of the Flyers’ dressing room after the game in street clothes without any glaring issues.
“You never want to see guys go down,” said Jamie Drysdale, who had a pair of assists on Tuesday. “I know what that’s like. Hopefully it’s not too long, or hopefully he’s good.”
While Kolosov looked decent in relief on Tuesday, he still has just an .872 save percentage in 14 games this season and allowed five goals on Sunday in Los Angeles. Fedotov, who has an .877 save percentage in 10 games, hasn’t played since Dec. 5 when he was pulled after one period.
The Flyers practice in Vegas on Wednesday afternoon, so perhaps more information will be available then. At the very least, the team will be on a high after its lopsided win over the lowly Sharks, their second victory in three games coming out of the holiday break.
“We’ve got some teams coming up here that are very good hockey teams,” Tortorella said. “Hopefully, we get some confidence from a couple of wins, and bring it to them.”
(Photo of Matvei Michkov and Macklin Celebrini: Robert Edwards / Imagn Images and Kavin Mistry / NHLI via Getty Images)
