This is probably just the case that Michkov is not physically ready to play an 82 game schedule. Entirely unsurprising for such a young player with his build. I suspect we'll get to see more of the magical version of Michkov the fewer games he plays this year. I don't think we should have threads on it every time he gets scratched.
For sure, I remember all the times Bedard was consecutively scratched last year after winning Rookie of the Month because his coach was a power dynamics obsessed drama queen who did that kind of shit to players like Frost and Couturier in years past and alienated his team and fanbase because of it
Weird then that he's had such long tenures in Tampa, New York, and Columbus, and that he's loved across the board in Columbus (by staff, players, fans) and had four successful seasons in his six years there. And weird that you hold it against him that the team got bad again after he left.
Yeah, he was great in Tampa back when the Two Line Pass was a thing, wonder why he left. As for Columbus, he was brought to teach them how to be a good gritty winning team with the right culture and develop players. All of that seem to have evaporated the moment he left (even before that) and every player that managed to "develop" under him except Werenski beelined out of there and they had to restart from square one. Given Columbus's history with coaching and management and them thinking bringing Mike Babcock back into the NHL fold was a good idea the fact they bought his performative tuff luv antics hook line and sinker and think he's the best thing that happened to them isn't all that far fetched, nor is it exactly a screaming endorsement. Though it seems they somehow stumbled onto a genuinely good coach in Evason finally.
You think the Jackets would have been a tougher playoff out with a different coach? They took two games of the Caps the year the Caps won the cup, you think a different coach takes four?
And Tortorella's Rangers eliminated your Caps in 2012 and 2013. Maybe you're still bitter about that.
The Caps eliminated the Caps by having Dale Hunter and Adam Oates as coaches during their post Boudreau organizational BPD era when George McPhee was vibing all over the place, trading Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat, and thinking Mike Green was such a good #1 defenseman that they could get by with rookies and #4s filling out the rest of the D. Those Ranger teams immediately got spanked in the following rounds because apparently the hangover from riding 3 lines and 2 pairings and playing the first rounds as if they're game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals hits you so hard that even Henrik Lundqvist in his prime can only do so much. After he left Alain Vigneault immediately took the Rangers to the finals because as inept as he was he still could figure that part out.
Torts' Columbus did make for the perfect warm up speedbump to get the Caps rolling 2018, hard enough to give them a sense of urgency but easy enough to keep avoid any injuries and fatigue