Columbus Blue Jackets' Cole Sillinger on slump: 'Are you just going to roll over and quit?'
Great anticipation created the play.
Late in the first period of the Blue Jackets’ 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken Friday at Nationwide Arena, Eric Robinson and Cole Sillinger teamed up for a breakaway. Robinson chipped a loose puck past Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn to center ice. Sillinger, reading Robinson’s eyes, turned on the jets and batted it forward to win the race by a couple of strides.
The only thing between the Blue Jackets’ 19-year old center and his first goal since Nov. 17 was goalie Philipp Grubauer, who first made a chest save on a shot Sillinger intended for the top right corner and then soaked up a follow-up wrister three seconds later.
“I couldn’t seem to settle it down,” Sillinger said. “I tried to pick the top right corner and it rolls right over my stick and goes, basically, right into his chest pad.”
That’s mostly how it has gone for him this entire season, beginning with an upper-body injury just 20 minutes into the first practice of training camp. Missing all but two preseason games, Sillinger got off to a slow start and still hasn’t stopped a sophomore slump from snowballing into a massive ball of frustration.
Sillinger hadn't scored in 41 games, and his breakaway against Seattle, one of several recent eye-rolling missed opportunities, vividly stands out. It’s the freshest.
“I wanted to go up top with it, high glove … just a little flick, kind of what Johnny (Gaudreau) does, right?” Sillinger said. “I think I have that shot in my bag. So, it is frustrating and all that, but what are you going to do? Are you just going to roll over and quit and say, ‘I can’t do this anymore?’ ”
Columbus Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger keeps slump in perspective
Sillinger’s maturity is one of his biggest strengths.
Physically, he’s got the body of an established NHL player. Mentally, despite the goal drought, Sillinger is doubling down on his self-confidence. As a rookie, that trait helped him become and remain the NHL’s youngest player, after the Blue Jackets selected him 12th overall in the 2021 draft.
“I’m 19,” Sillinger said. “I’m not too worried about it. I’m confident I can score goals and I know I’ve produced at every level. Last year, I had 16 (even-strength) goals and I know I can get back to that level.”
It’s an outlook that impresses his older teammates, coaches and the team's front office.
Despite “papering” Sillinger to the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League last week and recalling him before the NHL trade deadline, a move that makes Sillinger eligible for the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs, the Blue Jackets have refrained from assigning him to the minors.
One reason is related to a shortage of NHL centers caused by a season-long spate of injuries. The other is a belief that Sillinger will grow from what he’s experiencing.
“He’s a teenager,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “We keep forgetting that. We may look back on this, three or four years from now, and go, ‘This was the best thing that could’ve happened to this kid.’ Nobody wants to go through this, but it’s how you handle it. I think ‘Silly’ has handled it very well in a tough circumstance.”
Columbus Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger shooting less, missing more
Looking at Sillinger’s two NHL seasons, there are similarities.
His usage is about the same, skating 13-plus minutes a game and starting in the offensive zone more than 55% of the time. His faceoff percentage has dipped slightly, about 1%, but still hovers around 45% at even-strength.
The biggest differences are in goals, assists and points plus a range of secondary stats like shots on goal, attempts, shooting percentage and shots-through percentage — which measures attempts that aren’t blocked or miss the net.
Through 57 games, Sillinger had two goals, six assists and eight points while posting a paltry 2.5% shooting percentage that’s 8.3% below his rookie level (10.8%). He’s also averaging 2.8 attempts per game, down from 3.2, and his 47.3% shots-through percentage at even-strength is 10.1% lower than his rookie level of 57.4%, a direct correlation of missing the target more.
According to Hockey Reference, Sillinger missed the net 53 times on 254 attempts last season (20.8%) and has missed on 40 of 161 attempts this year (24.8%). In other words, he’s shooting the puck less and missing the net more.
“Things haven’t gone like this before for me,” Sillinger said. “I feel like last year, most things I shot went on net. This year, I could shoot it more, especially in these times.”
Columbus Blue Jackets support Cole Sillinger through ‘sophomore slump’
Sillinger doesn’t need to look far within the Blue Jackets’ locker room to find a similar player who’s gone through scoring droughts of his own.
Captain Boone Jenner’s locker stall is right nearby, just like former Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno’s stall was next to Jenner’s the first eight years of his NHL career. Jenner also learned a few tricks of the trade from Brandon Dubinsky, one of the NHL’s top faceoff guys during his career.
“I was lucky to have guys like that,” Jenner said. “You’re trying to learn the ins and outs of everything from them.”
Now that Jenner wears the ‘C’ on his jersey, he’s open to tutoring players like Sillinger and Kent Johnson — whom the Blue Jackets took fifth overall in 2021.
“It’s something I take pride in,” Jenner said. “Being here as long as I have, I can draw on my own experiences. It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was in their shoes, the first year or going through a first full 82-game season, so I definitely try to help them out that way.”
Jenner scored his single-season high of 30 goals in 2015-16 during his third NHL season. In the five years that followed, he didn’t score more than 18 and totaled 19 over 111 combined games during the two years prior to getting the ‘C’ from Larsen.
He broke out offensively last season, scoring 23 goals in 59 games before a back injury ended his return to 30, and Jenner is now leading the Blue Jackets with 19 goals.
His advice to Sillinger?
“It’s tough to go through that for the first time in your career,” Jenner said. “I just bounce that off him. It’s going to happen throughout your career. You’re going to go through it a few more times, you know? If you grow from it now, then you’re going to know what to expect next time.”
In a way, it’s like talking to a younger version of himself.
“He’s a great kid and it’s obviously not a year he wanted it to go like,” Jenner said. “But he works hard every day and he’s doing the right things. It’s going to go for him. You can see it lately. He’s getting a lot of chances, so it’s coming.”
Columbus Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger focused on rebound
The look on his face and tone of his voice betray his words.
Sillinger doesn’t want to be assigned to the AHL, even if it’s for the Calder Cup playoffs and even if it means becoming teammates with his older brother, Owen, for the first time ever.
He sees himself as an NHL player and he’d like to turn things around in the NHL by staying in Columbus. That said, he doesn’t have a lot of say in the matter and, ultimately, is a team player who’ll make the best of it in the AHL, if asked.
“Hopefully, they make the playoffs,” Sillinger said of the Monsters. “That’d be a pretty good experience for me if they do make the playoffs. I think I have six playoff games in my life, when I was 15-years old in Medicine Hat (Alberta), and then COVID shut down every other playoff run for me. Any playoff run for a young guy who’s still learning is obviously a good experience.”
As Sillinger noted, Cleveland has work left to qualify for the postseason. The Monsters are last in the North Division, four points behind the Laval Rocket for a playoff spot. Should they qualify, Sillinger will likely head to Cleveland for a chance to finish the season on a more positive note.
Until then, he’s focused on ending his skid.
“I know I can score goals,” Sillinger said. “It’s just a year of learning. If everything were to go well all the time, then when you’re in the playoffs or something, and have some adversity, you won’t know how to handle it. Now, I’m a little more level-headed. It’s obviously a little humbling, but I believe in myself.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger staying confident
