Whaddya know? A little more than two weeks after being demoted to the American Hockey League's Binghamton Senators, Nikita Filatov is back up in Ottawa. Although he is not supposed to be in the line-up tonight when the Senators (6-5-0 with five wins in a row) take on the Toronto Maple Leafs (7-2-1), he is back up with the NHL team and is once again receiving a much more lucrative NHL salary.
In seven games with Binghamton, Filatov recorded four goals and an assist and the team put up a 5-1-1 record after having started the season with two losses in regulation time.
According to an Ottawa Citizen reporter, Robin Lehner, who was also recalled from Binghamton and will start in net tonight, said that Filatov "doesn't belong down there (in the AHL)". We'll see if he's right.
One thing is for sure: it will be difficult for Filatov to prove that he belongs in the NHL if he can't play. Many people suspect that he was called up only as an insurance policy in case Zenon Konopka were to have been suspended for his hit "from behind" yesterday. Unfortunately for Filatov, Konopka was not suspended and so Nikita will have to sit in the press box and watch tonight's game. However, now that Mika Zibanejad is back in Sweden, Peter Regin is expected to be out long-term with an injury, and Daniel Alfredsson is injured, don't be surprised to see Filatov play in a game for Ottawa soon. It's worth noting that he played for Binghamton just last night and was driven to Ottawa immediately after the game, so fatigue may be one factor in the decision to make him a healthy scratch tonight.
Here is the expected line-up for tonight's game:
Greening – Spezza – Michalek
Foligno – Da Costa – Butler
Daugavins – Smith – Neil
Konopka – Winchester – Condra
Kuba – Karlsson
Cowen – Gonchar
Phillips – Rundblad
Lehner – Anderson
No comments:
Post a Comment