Wilson and Filatov See a Reversal of Fortunes

Today was a memorable one. I attended the Blue Jackets practice at Nationwide, sat with the media folks and was granted an interview with Kyle Wilson (for the The Fourth Period). In fact, it was almost a perfect day.

Almost. The interview went great from what I recall. Unfortunately, my recall of the interview is all I have. I only hit the Record button on my digital recorder once instead of twice, which means the interview did not get recorded. (And bloggers wonder why they aren't taken seriously!) Luckily I had backup -- a good old-fashioned pen and notepad -- and was able to get most of what Kyle said committed to paper shortly after I left the locker room.

A reversal of fortunes: Wilson is up, Filatov is down.

Kyle Wilson is a very likable dude. He's warm, engaging and humble. His smile is genuine and infectious, the kind of smile one would expect to see on a rookie whose team just told him that he'll be staying for a while and to "get a place."

The AHL's Hershey Bears won back-to-back Calder Cup Championships the past two seasons and Wilson was a major contributor, averaging 26 goals and 56 points for each of those teams.  But when you play in the Washington Capitals organization, putting up consistent numbers and winning championships might get you all of 2 games with the big club like it did for Wilson. After spending four years in Hershey, he has finally earned an extended shot in the NHL and it is at once apparent that he is enjoying every minute of it.

Sitting right next to Wilson as I conducted the interview was Nikita Filatov. He smiled as I introduced myself  and joked that all questions for Wilson would have to go through him first. But his smile seemed tentative, much like his play on the ice of late. Just a few hours later, the Blue Jackets would announce that Filatov was being sent to Springfield.

According to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, GM Scott Howson had this to say about Filatov's demotion:

"Nikita's strength as a player are his speed and his ability to create offense and score goals," Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson said. "We haven't seen any of those things in the last two or three weeks. His confidence has suffered."

"It's time for him to get to a place where he can regain his confidence and rediscover the strengths of his game."

"The message was to play well and play consistently," Howson said. "He’s like a lot of young players, especially from Europe. He’s figuring out what the North American game is and what it isn’t.

"He hasn't been a hindrance defensively. But offensively he's really struggled, and he needs to get his confidence back."

The irony here is thicker than my grandmother's fruit cake. There I was interviewing a guy that had toiled in the AHL for four years, a guy that had played well and played consistently there, a guy who seemed to be happy with himself and confident in his abilities, yet a guy from whom so little is expected. Sitting next to him was a very young man upon whose shoulders sat the great expectations of a NHL city desperately in need of his talents, a player who has been rushed along in his development (by both himself and his team) and consequently seems light on confidence, a player who is about to spend some quality time in the AHL to learn how to "play well and to play consistently". Just like Kyle Wilson did.

The good news for Filatov is that he isn't in the Washington Capitals organization. He won't have to put up four years of solid numbers before he earns his next chance. He might only have to put up four weeks worth. At least we should all hope so. And when he does return, I hope he's wearing the kind of smile that Kyle Wilson is wearing, not a tentative one.