When the Philadelphia Flyers meet the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday (beginning at 7:30 PM ET), Matvei Michkov and Rickard Rakell will be two of the most exciting players to watch.

Matvei Michkov finds the back of the net to extend Philadelphia's lead. Facebook; Twitter; Email

Utah Hockey Club right wing Josh Doan (2-4—6 in 9 GP), Chicago Blackhawks center Frank Nazar (1-5—6 in 8 GP) and San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini (2-3—5 in 6 GP) for the honor. Michkov – who previously was named “Rookie of the Month” for October – also led or co-led February rookies in assists (5),

As a young player jumping into the NHL, Michkov has felt the grind of the best league in the world. He maybe needed the 4 Nations Face-Off break more than any other Flyer. Prior t

The Flyers point streak ended with a 6-3 home loss to the Flames on Tuesday night. Sam Ersson was pulled in the first period and Ivan Fedotov stabilized things, but they couldn’t erase the deficit. Matvei Michkov got an assist on the 3rd goal to improve to 45 points on the season,

On a per-60 basis, Konecny and Michkov are on an island when it comes to point-scoring. Among Flyer forwards with 200 minutes played, they are 2.07 and 1.65 standard deviations above the team’s points-per-60 mean.

If there were doubts the Flyers still believe they’re alive in a playoff chase, they pretty much erased those on Saturday afternoon in South Philly. Still a handful of points from a

In Part 2 of our interview with Brière, the Flyers general manager provided updates on several key prospects and how the team plans to address its lack of a No. 1 center.

Hockey fans are passionate folks. And the diehards will defend their teams – and their players – to the death. So when it comes to the Calder Trophy race, it’s easy for a fanbase to be overly emotional and biased toward their own talent.

PHILADELPHIA — Why, yes, the suggestion that Philadelphia Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov, who struggled for weeks going into the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, was gassed from the grind two-thirds of the way through his first NHL season has merit.