Ride the Michkov Heater. Then Get Alex Bump Real Minutes.

On paper, this was a loss. Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen were all out. Four players came up from Lehigh Valley in two days. Colorado walked in at 5-3-1 and scoring 4.5 goals a night.

The Flyers won 3-2 anyway. It’s their second straight win after an 0-6-3 start.

My take is simple. Matvei Michkov is on a heater and you ride it. The kids who came up held their own against one of the best teams in the NHL. And Alex Bump earned a lot more than 10:53.

What happened

Michkov opened it on the power play at 7:41 of the first. Trevor Zegras put a slap pass toward the net, it hit Denver Barkey in front, and Michkov buried the rebound from below the right circle. Colorado challenged for goaltender interference and lost.

He made it 2-0 at 12:23 of the second. Noah Cates stripped Nathan MacKinnon, and Michkov worked around the net away from Cale Makar before beating Mackenzie Blackwood through traffic. Martin Necas got one back late in the second, three seconds after a power play expired.

Noel Acciari tipped an Oliver Bonk point shot at 6:34 of the third for his first goal as a Flyer. T.J. Hughes cut it to 3-2 at 14:40, and Joseph Woll closed the door the rest of the way. Woll finished with 24 saves on 26 shots. Zegras had three assists.

Rick Tocchet summed it up after the game: “I just saw a lot of buy-in tonight.”

Michkov: ride the heater

Two goals on 0.37 expected goals. That’s a shooter finishing well above the looks he was given, and that’s exactly what a heater is.

He wasn’t just lucky, either. InStat had him with five shot attempts in 14:55. That’s 20.1 per 60, second among Flyers forwards. He had three scoring chances, tied with Zegras and Acciari for the team lead. He also got 1:55 on the power play, tied with Porter Martone for the most on the team.

He has goals in three straight games and four goals in that stretch. He has six goals through 11 games. It took him 22 games to get to six last season.

Here’s what bugs me. His 14:55 ranked sixth of 12 Flyers forwards. Acciari (18:31), Christian Dvorak (17:45), Zegras (17:43), Sean Couturier (16:48) and Barkey (16:31) all played more. InStat had Michkov in the defensive zone for 6:26 and in the attacking zone for 3:28. His line with Cates and Martone was together for 8:14 at 5-on-5 and was out-attempted 10 to 6.

I wrote last week that the lines need to be built around Michkov. Nights like this are why. When your best shooter is defending for twice as long as he’s attacking, that’s a deployment problem, not a Michkov problem.

Will he keep scoring two goals on 0.37 expected goals? No. Nobody does. But you don’t manage a heater. You feed it. More minutes, more offensive-zone starts, and keep him on the top power-play unit.

The call-ups held their own

Let’s be honest about the puck. Colorado had it. InStat had the Avalanche with 75 shot attempts to the Flyers’ 48, so the Flyers had 39% of the attempts. Every one of the four regular Flyers forward lines finished under 50% at 5-on-5.

Now look at where those shots came from. Colorado had 18 outer slot shots and only seven from the inner slot. The Flyers had 10 inner slot shots. The Avalanche defense took 35 of Colorado’s 75 attempts, and those 35 added up to 0.80 expected goals. Makar alone had 10 attempts worth 0.23 expected goals.

The Flyers blocked 29 shots, and Travis Sanheim had eight of them in 27:53. They won 34 of 58 faceoffs. Colorado finished with 4.47 expected goals to the Flyers’ 3.54. That’s a gap of less than one goal on a night they were out-attempted by 27. That’s a team that gave up the outside and protected the middle. With a lineup full of AHL guys, that’s how you beat Colorado.

None of the four call-ups was on the ice for a goal against.

Jacob Gaucher was the quiet winner. He played 13:05 on a line with Couturier and Michael Bunting, won 7 of 10 faceoffs (5 for 5 in the neutral zone), and his 47% shot share was the best of any Flyers skater. His net expected goals was +0.16. For a guy who has spent most of his career in the AHL, that’s a really good night against Colorado.

Hunter McDonald played 9:11 with four hits and three blocked shots, and the Flyers were +0.08 in expected goals with him on the ice. Not flashy. Didn’t need to be.

Bonk wasn’t part of this round of call-ups, but he deserves a mention. He played 24:48, had the primary assist on the Acciari goal, and the Flyers were +0.29 in expected goals with him out there. I said in my Bonk film breakdown that they should let him keep playing. Still true.

One thing on that chart. Michkov’s line shows zero goals because neither of his goals counts there. The first came on the power play, so it isn’t in the 5-on-5 line data. The second came at 5-on-5 right after a change, with Zegras and Cates on the ice, so it’s credited to that trio instead of his regular line.

Cole Knuble finally gets his night

This one was cool. Cole Knuble is Mike Knuble’s son, and his dad played 338 regular-season games for the Flyers over two stints. He took his rookie lap with his parents in the building, and he said he’s been a fan of this team his whole life. A homegrown kid wearing the same crest his dad did. That doesn’t happen often.

It also took a while to get here, and that’s the part I like most. Knuble went undrafted in his first year of eligibility, mostly because of his skating. The Flyers took him in the fourth round in 2023. He went to Notre Dame for three seasons and put up 90 points in 106 games. Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr has said his skating went from a weakness to a strength.

That’s what the NCAA can do for a kid. He got three years to get stronger and faster before he turned pro, and it shows. Some players take longer to develop. That’s fine. He looked like he was flying out there. He was on pucks first on the forecheck, he set up Bump for a look in the second period, and he drove the net for a chance in the third.

I’ll be straight about the numbers, though. InStat had him at a 26% shot share, the lowest on the team, and the Flyers were -1.38 in expected goals with him on the ice. His line with Bump and Barkey was out-attempted 17 to 7 in 8:45 together. They also weren’t scored on. That’s an NHL debut against Colorado. I’ll take the pace and the motor and let the rest catch up.

Give Alex Bump top-six minutes

Bump came up after scoring seven goals in five AHL games, two of them into an empty net, and he was named AHL Player of the Week. He told reporters he was overthinking it in his first stint, when he went scoreless in three games. He did not look like a guy overthinking it Monday.

He led every Flyers forward in shot attempts per 60 at 22.1. He had two scoring chances in 10:53, which works out to 11.0 per 60. Only Michkov (12.1) and Bunting (11.8) were higher. He also got 43 seconds of power-play time.

And he played the second-fewest minutes of any Flyers forward. Only Bunting played less.

I get why Tocchet kept the kid line away from MacKinnon and Makar at home. That’s a fair matchup call against Colorado. But if you call a guy up because he’s scoring every night, put him somewhere he can score. His shot is the one thing this lineup is missing with Konecny, Tippett and Foerster out.

The AHL stint did two things for Bump. First, it got his confidence back. Second, it might have shown he’s too good for that league. Seven goals in five games will do that.

That’s why this is the window. While Konecny, Tippett and Foerster are hurt, the minutes are there. Use this stretch to find out if Bump can handle top-nine NHL minutes on a consistent basis. When those guys come back, you change it up.

And getting those guys back and playing well matters for more than the standings. Get their trade value back to where it should be, then see what’s out there on the market for any of them. If Bump has already shown he can handle the minutes, that’s a much easier call to make.

What I’d like to see moving forward

1. Feed Michkov. Get him to 17 or more minutes, start him in the offensive zone, and keep the Drysdale, Zegras, Martone, Barkey and Michkov power-play unit together. It has scored in back-to-back games.
2. Bump in the top six at Buffalo. Use the injury window to find out if he can handle top-nine minutes every night. Put him on the right side with Zegras and Dvorak. Acciari scored and played his best game as a Flyer, but he was up there out of necessity. Slide him back down to center Knuble and Barkey, which gives that line a veteran conscience.
3. Keep Knuble up as long as the injury list lets you. One game isn’t a verdict. Give him steady linemates and a few more nights.
4. Fix the volume. A 39% shot share won’t win many nights. Woll and 29 blocked shots covered for it here. That’s not a plan for 82 games.

Here’s how I’d line it up Wednesday in Buffalo:

• Zegras, Dvorak, Bump
• Martone, Cates, Michkov
• Bunting, Couturier, Gaucher
• Knuble, Acciari, Barkey

What did you see from the kids? Let me know on X @BroadStBreakout.

Sources and data notes

Game tracking data, including shot attempts, scoring chances, inner and outer slot shots, expected goals (xG), blocked shots, faceoffs, zone time and line combinations, is from InStat Hockey for Flyers 3, Avalanche 2 on Oct. 19, 2026. Team totals are summed from InStat individual skater data across all situations. Line data is 5-on-5. Shot attempts per 60 are individual attempts divided by total ice time. Shots on goal, goal times, saves and records are from NHL.com. Michkov’s season pace is from NHL.com. Bump’s AHL numbers and the Tocchet deployment note are from NBC Sports Philadelphia and NBC Philadelphia. Knuble’s draft, Notre Dame and development background is from NBC Sports Philadelphia.