Nikita Filatov

[Pavel Bure]

I\'m looking for a breakout game out of Filatov. It could be tonight or it could be next week, but I have a feeling he is going to introduce himself to the u.s. very soon.

[Pavel Bure]

and canada duh.

[rticinelli]

Pavel Bure wrote:

I\'m looking for a breakout game out of Filatov. It could be tonight or it could be next week, but I have a feeling he is going to introduce himself to the u.s. very soon.

I think it will happen tonight (see my \"Modin on IR, FILATOV to stay in Columbus\" thread).

Honestly, I know two points is a stretch at this point, but I do actually think it\'s possible. This kid is better than most people realize (think Kovalchuk\'s skill level with a great attitude and work ethic), and Vancouver has allowed 21 goals in five games.

edit: In case you didn\'t see my BOLD prediction on the other thread, it\'s two points in just under 11 minutes of icetime.

[ross10019]

Halfway through the 3rd period and Nikita is firmly bolted to the bench. 4:51 playing time on 6 shifts, mostly in the 1st period.

I freaking hate Hitch, almost as much as I hate Trotz for doing the same damn thing to Radulov and inciting him to go to Russia.

Play the kid!!

[enfuego]

ross10019 wrote:

Halfway through the 3rd period and Nikita is firmly bolted to the bench. 4:51 playing time on 6 shifts, mostly in the 1st period.

I freaking hate Hitch, almost as much as I hate Trotz for doing the same damn thing to Radulov and inciting him to go to Russia.

Play the kid!!

i completely agree, ross. i was coming here to post the same thing. it\'s freakin ridiculous! didn\'t they learn after completely ruining the early part of brule\'s career. why even bother having him up when you\'re not going to play him, nobody gains anything. especially when you\'ve got a guy like chimera playing on the 2nd line. i know chimera\'s a big body and defensively responsible, but you can\'t tell me that he\'s better than filatov, even given filatov\'s age and experience level.

ARRRRRGH!!!

[rticinelli]

Yes, this is getting frustrating, indeed. A few things could be said, though...

1. Looks like Hitchcock is keeping at least one \"big body\" on the ice with his youngsters for protection (i.e. Chimera with Voracek and Brassard, Picard with Filatov).

2. Bieksa had a massive open-ice hit on Filatov last night, which could be a reason why he got sub-5 minutes of icetime.

3. The silver lining is that I feel the Blue Jackets really want to keep him up in the NHL and will ease him into the lineup. The reason for this is that they could easily recall Sestito to fill out their forward corp. and let Filatov log 18+ minutes a game at Syracuse if they were concerned with him getting playing time. It seems like their primary concern right now is for him to get used to the NHL game and speed.

Again, here\'s to hoping!

[mapletreemarty]

Hahah Picard? He was a great punching bag for Bieksa last night, and I love how he turtled at the end.

It\'s hard to get used to the NHL game and speed when you\'re only out there for 6 or 7 shifts. At that rate he\'s going to learn more playing 18 mins in the AHL and watching NHL games on TV.

[ultrawhiteness]

i know some of you must be watching these games, so i\'m puzzled by the outrage here.

\"nikki\" is puny... as small a player as i\'ve ever seen out there. he\'s great at protecting the puck, but he turns his back on defenders to do so and one day he\'s going to get pasted head-first. also, his play away from the puck isn\'t as highly developed as their other rookies (even dorsett looks better than him in this regard). he\'s got the sniper\'s mentality of just floating around in open space waiting for a feed (sometimes this is great, as we saw in his first goal). but it\'s quite obvious to me that he\'s not strong enough to play in the NHL yet, and he still has lots of homework to do to learn hitch\'s system.

i\'m going to copy this into any other Filatov thread I find today, because i just know that we\'re going to inundated with people being disgusted with hitchcock for not playing him.

the jackets have learned the lesson they were taught in brule. they put him out right away against opponents that were far stronger than him, and it resulted in a broken leg that pretty much wasted a year of development. brule hasn\'t been the same since.

if i was in charge of the jackets, i would play filatov for home games only. then, while the team is on the road, i would have him on an intense in-season bulking-up regimen with defensive coaching while he\'s not pumping iron and running around with parachutes tied to his back.

hitch is showing his savy by slowly increasing the icetime of brassard and voracek (who both got PP time, i saw :cheer: )and partnering them with a hugely underrated vet in chimera. those kids look great out there, and soon filatov will too.

[ultrawhiteness]

enfuego, you need to do some work on your siggy... its too wide for the page.

[Dakkster]

I\'m not surprised that he\'s getting very little icetime and I\'m not outraged by it either. I\'m just questioning why they\'re not sending him down to Syracuse to get 18-20 minutes per game. That HAS to be more beneficial to him as it stands right now.

I have to say that your idea of only playing him in home games and having him train hard when the team is away is a very intriguing idea.

But I guess they want him in Columbus right now because they want to teach him as much as possible in practices. I\'m guessing that they go through A LOT of video with him and I\'m also guessing that he\'s absorbing it all since he\'s a very smart kid and eager to learn.

[mapletreemarty]

ultrawhiteness wrote:

hitch is showing his savy by slowly increasing the icetime of brassard and voracek (who both got PP time, i saw :cheer: )and partnering them with a hugely underrated vet in chimera. those kids look great out there, and soon filatov will too.

I agree with a lot of what you wrote except the ending here... Voracek puts up 2 pts. in the first 8 mins of the game so you \"reward\" him by playing him 10 mins??? That\'s not increasing his ice time...let him play 14 or 15 mins.. don\'t cut him back down.

[ultrawhiteness]

mapletreemarty wrote:

ultrawhiteness wrote:

hitch is showing his savy by slowly increasing the icetime of brassard and voracek (who both got PP time, i saw :cheer: )and partnering them with a hugely underrated vet in chimera. those kids look great out there, and soon filatov will too.

I agree with a lot of what you wrote except the ending here... Voracek puts up 2 pts. in the first 8 mins of the game so you \"reward\" him by playing him 10 mins??? That\'s not increasing his ice time...let him play 14 or 15 mins.. don\'t cut him back down.

you\'re right, i spose. i\'ll wait and see, and if he\'s still getting a lousy 10 minutes in january then i\'ll jump on the \"burn hitch\" wagon.

[rticinelli]

Excellent dialogue going on here... that\'s why this board is so much better than any other out there!

[Pavel Bure]

I don\'t agree that he is better off getting more minutes in Syracuse than getting minimal minutes with Columbus. He needs to stay as close to his teammates and coaches in Columbus as possible. Not only will he build chemistry that way, he will learn Hitch\'s system and get comfortable faster. 10 minutes in an nhl game is worth more to him than 20 minutes in an ahl game. Playing him in home games only and working out/bulking up the rest of the time is an intriguing idea. Does anybody know another player that has ever done that?

[gagnerific]

At the same time Pavel, you want him to gain his confidence with the NHL game, if he gets 20 minutes of ice in the AHL, and scores a heck of a lot more, I think it would be very beneficial to his development. As well, it gives him more time to learn his defensive responsibilities as well!

dont get me wrong tho, I love having him getting points for my fantasy team already.