Filly Does Recalls: Filatov Promoted & Da Costa Sent to Bingo

According to the Ottawa Senators’ website, Filly does recalls.

The Ottawa Senators today recalled forward Nikita Filatov and reassigned forward Stéphane Da Costa to the club’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.

Assuming that Filatov plays this afternoon against the Carolina Hurricanes, he’ll be playing in his fourth game in four days so it will be interesting to see how Paul MacLean utilizes him this afternoon.

In the four games that Filatov played in his previous recall, his ice-time progressively got better and he started to see more time on the power play.

• October 30^th vs Toronto: 5 minutes 16 seconds TOI; 2 hits; and 1 shot.
• November 1^st vs Boston: 6 minutes and 34 seconds TOI; 22 seconds of PP TOI; nothing but zeroes on his game log.
• November 4^th vs Montreal: 7 minutes and 18 seconds TOI; 1 hit; and 1 shot on goal.
• November 5^th vs Buffalo: 8 minutes and 51 seconds TOI; 45 seconds of PP TOI; 1 hit; and 1 shot on goal.

Will this trend continue?

Probably not for today’s game. As Twitter follower @BruceCadieux pointed out, “Filly may be too tired to do rebounds.”

Fair point. Mind you, this is the same player who ended last night’s game with a 10-minute major penalty for abuse of an official. So maybe there’s fight left in him yet. However, considering the circumstances, it is reasonable to figure that at least for the interim, MacLean will keep his recent stretch of games and start a fatigued Filatov on the fourth line and use him sparingly on the power play.

With 3 goals and 6 points in his last four AHL games, it’s too bad that the timing of today’s game follows a portion of Binghamton’s schedule that saw them play three times in three nights because Filatov’s been tearing it up of late. I’m sure many of us are hoping that at some point, he’ll receive an extended opportunity to play more minutes alongside some better offensive players during this recall. 

On the flip side of the coin, to make room for Filatov’s recall, the Senators did send down a struggling Stephane Da Costa. While displaying the odd flash of Adam Oates-like brilliance, Da Costa had gone pointless in six consecutive games and scored only one goal in the month of November. Sending Da Costa down isn’t the end of the world. For a player who is young and who obviously looks like he has the skills to contribute in the NHL, this is just a minor setback for him. In Binghamton, he’ll be afforded the minutes and opportunity that any young prospect needs to develop.