thinking about how matvei's father was his first coach. thinking about how a year and a half after his death, he played his rookie season under a coach who disliked him and didn't hide it. who constantly benched him for every mistake, every mishap, every blind spot, refused to play the first round young star. and the next season, just over two years after his father died, rick tocchet (who doesn't look terribly dissimilar) became coach of the flyers and publicly criticised matvei to the media, benched him, scratched him, insulted him, made passive agressive comments about him to the press, loudly disliked him. how after his death he said he dreamt of winning a stanley cup for his father. how whatever achievements michkov makes, whatever he does, his first two years with his team that he went first round to will always be marked by coached who hated him. how his father was his first coach and now he's made it to the show, the final dream, and his coaches have never, ever given him grace. matvei you're going to get six stanley cups and win them all without a coach who drags you down #manifest

I do appreciate Tocc's commitment to the bit where he doesn't talk to the training staff about injuries until after he's done the press conference that way he's technically not lying