SvoNotes: Silly season continues for CBJ rookie standout

When the Cole Sillinger arrived at Blue Jackets training camp, there were whispers the kid had the game and the maturity to stick in the NHL at 18 years old. But whispers are just that; the No. 12 overall pick in the summer's NHL draft would have to go out and prove it.
And time after time, Sillinger aced every test. First came the NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Mich., where the youngster was so good in his first three games there was no reason to play him in the fourth. Then came training camp, where he looked the part both in practices and during exhibition games.

When the final cuts came, head coach Brad Larsen brought Sillinger into his office and told him he had been looking for every reason to get rid of him -- flaws that would lead the Jackets to send him back to juniors, where he would dominate competition his age, or to the minors, where he would get a taste of the pro hockey life -- but couldn't find one. Sillinger had earned his way onto the roster, ready to be the youngest player in the NHL to start the season.
It's a message Larsen also shared publicly, but the real test would come when the Columbus-born son of longtime NHLer Mike Sillinger would play in games that counted against the best players in the world.
And nine games in, Cole Sillinger is acing that test as well.

That's a key number, because per NHL contract rules, players aged 18 and 19 burn the first year of their entry-level contracts once they play in 10 games in a season. As such, the nine-game barrier is a noteworthy gate for someone that age to pass through; it's essentially akin to a graduation ceremony to the NHL game.
In recent days, Blue Jackets brass talked publicly about how the decision to let Sillinger get to game 10 was to be made, but really, there was no decision. A regular since day one, Sillinger wasn't going anywhere, but in case there was any doubt, he erased it with a two-goal, three-point performance in Wednesday night's 5-4 overtime win over Colorado.
Again, the decision had really been made that he'd be sticking around, but Sillinger still delivered an emphatic statement about his worthiness at the top level with his showing against the Avalanche. Not only did he light up the score sheet, he was the team's top-line center for most of the game, taking the ice with standout forwards Patrik Laine and Jakub Voracek.
"It's awesome," said defenseman Jake Bean, who had two goals including the game winner in the victory. "He's incredible. I can't believe that he's 18 years old. It's special.
"I am not making any decisions for anyone, but that's a pretty special ninth game if I was 18 years old."
For his part, Sillinger admitted the NHL level has been a bit of a learning curve, but he also said he feels like he's coming along quite nicely in the early days of his career.
"For me, being here for nine games and two months now, I feel like I've learned a lot and developed," he said. "When you have chemistry with the guys and you know a guy and know everyone on the team, it makes it a lot easier. You can just talk to them and know where you want them to be and stuff like that. I'm not shy anymore, so that's good."
It's hard to imagine Sillinger being shy, as his game is at a maturity level far beyond his age. He's shown no signs of backing down from anyone, whether its being on a line with such notable names as Laine and Voracek or dropping the gloves a week ago against Dallas when the Stars took umbrage to a hit he delivered to veteran Joe Pavelski.
Larsen also sees plenty of maturity in Sillinger's overall game, one reason the center isn't going anywhere.
"I just think he attacks the game," the CBJ head coach said. "He doesn't play shy. He goes to the hard areas. He plays kind of fearless. Again, he's done some really good things here in the early going, and there's still lots to learn for him, there's no question. But I just like his poise, his demeanor. Even on the bench, you know what he's going to give.
"I love that his two things that he hangs his hat on are his work ethic and his competitiveness, and those are two things that will carry you a long way in this league."
Sillinger was a force on this night in a hectic game that may very well go down as one of the most entertaining of the season. He scored twice in the first five minutes of the third period to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead, first expertly deflecting a fantastic pass from Voracek by goalie Jonas Johansson and then perfectly working a give-and-go transition move with Gabriel Carlsson before sliding a shot through the netminder's legs for his second tally.
After picking up the second assist on Bean's OT winner, he played 15:29, had five shots on goal and won seven of nine faceoffs. But on a night that could have been about whether Sillinger was cut out to stay in the NHL, instead the take-home message might be that he was the team's No. 1 center by the end of the game.
"We were clicking in the defensive zone, we were getting pucks out and we were creating some chances in the offensive zone," Sillinger said of playing with Laine and Voracek. "Thankfully we got a couple in the back of the net there.
"They are two amazing players who have been in the league for a long time and well respected by the whole NHL. It was an exciting opportunity for me and I am glad it ended up the way it did."

A Solid Performance

What a game that was in Denver, with plenty of entertainment value and momentum swings aplenty.
It looked like the Blue Jackets, off since Sunday night's shootout win in New Jersey and now two time zones away, were skating in slush in the opening few minutes, taking two penalties and struggling to generate much offense.
But the team's game built and built, gaining momentum as the first went on, continuing to come along despite the Avs taking a 2-0 lead in the second, and cresting with a dominant third-period effort that overwhelmed the hosts. That is, until there were under four minutes left, when Colorado scored a pair of extra-attacker goals to force overtime and Bean's eventual winner.
The biggest goal of the night for the Jackets might have been the first one. After a scoreless first, Columbus played a pretty good second period -- SIllinger quickly clicked with Laine and Voracek, while Boone Jenner did the same with Gustav Nyquist and Oliver Bjorkstrand -- but found itself down 2-0 thanks to an early defensive breakdown that allowed Logan O'Connor to score and a transition goal by standout young defenseman Bowen Byram.
But with 3:05 left in the second, Columbus capped off a string of solid shifts with a momentum-changing goal to get back in the game. Bjorkstrand fired just wide of an open net, but Andrew Peeke recollected the puck and returned the puck to Bjorkstrand, who dropped it to Bean at the blue line. From there, the new CBJ defenseman skated into the right circle and fired through traffic to beat Johansson.
While the Blue Jackets would go to the second intermission down 2-1, they felt they had life thanks to that late goal.
"You're down 2-0 in the second -- I thought we were having a fairly decent period, but you get that one and now you're one shot away," Larsen said. "That's a big difference going into the third period."
Added Bean: "I think going into the third down 2-0, it's sometimes tough to stay alive for that. You don't really know. But we knew if we could get one, we could get two, so it was nice to get that one."
Sillinger then tallied twice in the opening minutes of the third, sandwiching a key stop by goalie Joonas Korpisalo on Gabriel Landeskog, and Jenner made it a 4-2 game with a second-effort goal with 11:04 to go. At that point, it's fair to say Columbus might have been playing its best hockey of the season, dominating the hosts territorially and statistically.
It seemed like a fairly academic closeout until J.T. Compher deflected Byram's shot past Korpisalo with 3:26 to play and then Byram added a second extra-attacker goal with his slap shot through a screen with 52.0 seconds on the clock.
Prior to that, Columbus committed a quartet of icing penalties in a 42-second span -- highlighted by Nyquist's open-net miss with 1:01 to go -- and lost three of four ensuing faceoffs.
"There's not much more we could have done," Larsen said afterward. "Two shots from middle top. I think it's a good deflection on the first. The other one, when you see the angle, there's no way Korpi saw it. It's a perfect shot. We had it on our stick with Gus, he misses the net, of course they score.
"That could be a real deflater, but the guys, they hung in there. These points are big, the extra point in overtime. You have to try to find a way to get those, especially on the road. It was a good win for our guys. I thought they played really hard tonight."
Columbus is now 4-0 on the season in games that go past regulation, including 3-0 in games decided in the 3-on-3. This time, Voracek's second primary assist of the game was a beauty, as the Avs descended on him along the right wall smelling a turnover. But the CBJ veteran quickly spun away from traffic and flipped a pass to the onrushing Bean, who had plenty of time to pick his spot low glove side on Johansson.
"I knew when my guy left me a little bit, he was gonna hit me for sure," Bean said of Voracek. "I had a lot of time, and low glove is a good spot to shoot when you're not too sure where to shoot, so it worked out."

Stats and Facts

• Laine did not skate during the final stretch after appearing to suffer a leg injury, leaving the game with 7:47 to play and not returning. He finished with two assists.
• Per STATS, Sillinger (18 years, 172 days) is the youngest player in NHL history to have a point on three game-tying or go-ahead goals in the third period or later of a game.
• Sillinger also became the third 18-year-old in CBJ franchise history and the youngest in that group to record a three-point game, joining Rick Nash (18 years, 211 days) and Nikita Filatov (18 years, 230 days).
• Bean entered the game with two career goals in 52 games but doubled that total with his output in Denver.
• Defenseman Gavin Bayreuther made his season debut for the Jackets and was solid, skating 19:29 with a plus-2 rating, a shot on goal, two blocked shots and a roughing penalty for a post-whistle dustup with Tyson Jost. The Blue Jackets had 70.9 percent of the expected goals share at 5-on-5 when he was on the ice.
• Rookie winger Yegor Chinakhov had three shots on goal in 9:15 of ice time in his return to the lineup.
• Natural Stat Trick had Columbus with a 2.19-1.40 edge in expected goals at 5-on-5 and a 60-46 edge in shot attempts.
• Bjorkstrand had two assists and now has a 4-8-12 line in nine games, while Voracek's two primary assists give him nine helpers in nine games this season.
• For the second time this year, Columbus did not have a power play in the game. The PK was a perfect 3-for-3.
• Columbus is now 7-3-1 in its last 11 against the Avs going into Saturday's rematch in Nationwide Arena.
• New Albany native Kiefer Sherwood was called up by Colorado pregame and made his season debut, playing 12:36.