Cole Sillinger has already played in 332 NHL games coming into Saturday night’s big Metropolitan Division game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He will already be on his fifth NHL head coach.
Sillinger made his debut to start the 2021-22 season when Brad Larsen took over the head coaching duties from John Tortorella. Since then, the coaching cycle has gone Larsen, Mike Babcock, Pascal Vincent, Dean Evason and now Rick Bowness.
As we recently talked about with Adam Fantilli, going through multiple coaching changes can be a lot. While Fantilli has remained positive throughout all the change, it still takes time to learn the coach and their systems.
For a player like Sillinger, who has a role in multiple positions in the lineup as needed, it’s another chance for him to make an impression on a new coach. The Hockey Writers caught up with Sillinger on Saturday morning to get his thoughts on the coaching change, how he views his role and much more. Bowness also spoke on how he sees Sillinger in the early going.
Sillinger will have every opportunity to fill an important role.
Sillinger Discusses Recent Change
“I just think from a player’s perspective, any time there’s a switch made like there was, you treat it as kind of a new opportunity, a new kind of day one of work so to say,” Sillinger said. “The change happening goes to show the management believing in our group and believing that there’s still a lot of opportunity with the amount of remaining games and where we are in the standings. That’s uplifting for sure.”
“Now it’s up to us players to dig a little bit deeper and look in the mirror a little bit more and bring more out from each other. Bring more from yourself and continue to keep this thing going that we have. Just with a guy like Bones coming in and his attitude, his resume and everything aside, he gains respect of us players right away and his philosophies on how he wants us to play, I think fits really well in the structure of who we have on our team.”
As for Sillinger’s role, many thought he would be among the center depth the Blue Jackets would have. While he still might eventually do that, he’s being asked to play on the wing all over the lineup.
Sillinger played with Charlie Coyle and Mathieu Olivier on their third line, one trusted to play against the opposition’s best. Of late though, Sillinger has been given a chance to play on the top line with Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko.
Sillinger believes his game can fit a variety of roles, no matter what he’s asked to do.
“I believe I’m the type of player that can complement anyone,” Sillinger said. “Whether it’s Fants (Fantilli) and Marchy (Kirill Marchenko) tonight or whoever that may be, I see myself as a guy that can play against other team’s top lines who can produce and be hard to play against. I think that’s every time I get on my skates, I don’t want to make it easy on their team.”
“I believe I have the skills to play with top players and to complement their games but also have the hardness and drive on my game to play a little bit more simple and shut down the game. It’s nice for me personally. I feel like I have a role on the team and I know my role whether it looks like that or not, I’m not really too concerned about that.”
Coach Bowness sees the early potential in what kind of player Sillinger can become. What does he think that is right now?
“I think he can be a very effective player,” Bowness said. “He’s played in the league long enough now. I’ve got to get to know his strengths and where I have to push him on. But he’s a very reliable player. I think there’s another level there where I can help him get to. But he’s certainly not doing anything to hurt the team. He’s doing a lot of good things.”
“It’s only two games so I’m still trying to figure some of these guys out exactly. You get into a 10-game stretch, after 10-15 games you get a really good feel of each individual player. But I haven’t seen anything negative about Cole at all. I thought he’s been very solid.”
First Big Test Under Bowness
It might be only Bowness’ third game as the Blue Jackets’ head coach. But Saturday night against the Penguins is a huge game in the division. Considering what happened the last time these two teams met, there was no shortage of drama.
The Penguins recovered from a 4-1 deficit to win in overtime at Nationwide Arena. That game was cited as part of the reason that Evason was fired.
With the Blue Jackets now playing a different system under Bowness plus their recent bump from the coaching change, it makes for an interesting matchup against a team that has dominated the Blue Jackets especially in Pittsburgh.
What is the key from Sillinger’s point of view against the Penguins?
“I think for us, when they have the puck, they want to have time and space to be able to make plays especially with their top guys,” Sillinger said. “It’s putting pressure on them and making sure they don’t have time whether it’s in the defensive zone, through the neutral zone, protecting the middle of the ice, early box outs in the D-zone and just making sure it’s harder on them to make those little plays that they can make. The more we do that, the more we’re going to turn the puck over and have the puck on our stick and be able to make plays on the other end.”
“I think that playing them in the past, that’s something that we would get up (with the score) and maybe sit back a little bit and play not to lose, so to say. I loved our pressure in the last couple of games. It’s not easy to play against. You can see that on the film. I just think we have to keep relying on that tonight.”
Game Lineup
The Blue Jackets will start Elvis Merzlikins for a second consecutive game after making 30 saves in a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
There will be two changes. Egor Zamula will play while Jake Christiansen comes out. Meanwhile, Zach Aston-Reese will play while Danton Heinen sits. Bowness said these changes have nothing to do with performance. “We have extra bodies and we want to keep them all involved in the game.”
For the Penguins, according to Josh Getzoff of Sportsnet Pittsburgh, Arturs Silovs will start against the Blue Jackets. It will be an all-Latvian affair in net.
The Penguins will be without defenseman Erik Karlsson as he continues to recover from a lower-body injury. He’s on injured reserve and was expected to miss around two weeks.
Saturday’s game marks the fourth and final meeting of the regular season between the Blue Jackets and Penguins. The first three games all went to overtime with the Blue Jackets winning in a shootout in Pittsburgh and the Penguins winning twice in overtime at Nationwide Arena.
If things go well on the scoreboard, the Blue Jackets could end Saturday trailing a playoff spot by just three points. They have to take care of their own business first if they hope to do that.
