Prediction #3: Cole Sillinger emerges as this team’s top line center…
*Looks around the room* … did we jinx him? Maybe. Cole Sillinger stunned us all when he made the team as an 18 year old for the 2021-22 season. Playing with a confident swagger, he scored 16 goals and 31 points for the Jackets, while providing them with surprisingly strong two-way hockey and doing a lot of the little things perfectly.
With this team’s lack of depth down the middle, this was honestly one of the predictions I felt best about. Cole seemed like he had the right attitude, and with his overall upside being that of a good two-way center with some skill and a great shot, why wouldn’t he be an ideal fit alongside Johnny Gaudreau?
Unfortunately, he fell flat on his face this season, scoring just 3 goals and 11 points in 64 games before being demoted to Cleveland to finish out the year. Still, the potential here is obvious, and a fresh voice behind the bench may be exactly what the doctor ordered to get Cole back on track.
Prediction #4: Some records fall, but the team still falls short of a playoff berth…
On this one, I can say I was absolutely 100% correct, and there’s nothing you can do to prove me wrong! Of course, the records that fell, just weren’t the ones that I predicted. But, records were broken, and the team did fall short of a playoff berth, so by general terminology, score one for the good guys.
The 2022-23 Jackets surrendered more goals (330) than any other iteration of the team, which shattered the old record by a full 30 (set just one year prior). They were essentially out of playoff contention by mid-November.
As for the specific records I predicted? Well, let’s just say that nobody came close to setting the franchise record for goals in a season. Kent Johnson was fairly close in rookie scoring (40 points, just 8 points shy of Pierre-Luc Dubois); and Gaudreau’s 74 points might have been on enough of an arc to set the record, if anyone else on the team had stayed healthy and productive.