Reviewing Our 5 Bold Predictions for the 2022-23 Blue Jacket Season
We took a leap of faith before last season, making five bold predictions about the Blue Jackets. In hindsight, the entire article was a clear and obvious “miss”. But, even though we failed horribly, lets take a look at our predictions and see how they panned out anyway.
Prediction #1: Erik Gudbranson actually does help solidify the defense…
I can hear Bob Uecker in Major League in my head right now saying “JUUUUUST a bit outside”. Yeah, completely missed the strike zone here, I can admit that. But, lets be honest, it’s an unfair prediction to make a final judgment on.
It’s not that Gudbranson wasn’t very good, as much as it is that he was playing about 4 minutes per game more than he should have been. After the team was decimated with injuries early on, he went from third pairing minutes against lower-tier opposition; to averaging 19 minutes per game against the best players on the other side each and every night. The results were, well, as we would expect.
The fact of the matter is, there probably isn’t a hockey player on this planet who could have salvaged this team’s defense corps last season after the injuries started to happen. It was a group that had a lot of “maybe” tied to it at the start of the season, and it felt like a tough veteran like Gudbranson could help turn a lot of those maybes into on-ice results. Unfortunately, it all fell apart.
Related Story. Five Bold Predictions for the 2022-23 Season. light
Prediction #2: Chinakhov improves vastly, and Marchenko gets Calder love…
You can hate on me if you want, but I’m calling this one a partial win. Marchenko finished third amongst NHL rookies with 21 goals, while playing in at least 22 fewer games than everyone else in the top-5. He didn’t get enough Calder love, but I think most of you will agree that he definitely earned some.
Chinakhov is probably the more contentious of my predictions here, because I’ll actually argue that Yegor was primed for a strong season before he went down to injury. He scored 4 goals and 13 points in 30 games – roughly a 36 point pace over a full 82-game season. He basically matched his totals from last year in half the games, while being a much more noticeable two-way player for the Jackets.
Sheesh, Yegor Chinakhov can really rip a puck. 🥵 pic.twitter.com/J2xPyrxmdW
— NHL (@NHL) October 23, 2022
His -6 rating was the best of any Jacket skater who played in more than 16 games this season, and he was scoring at roughly the same pace as Gustav Nyquist. Quietly, he was emerging as a very good middle-six player, and I’m expecting him to break out in a big way next season.
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.
Prediction #5: Major changes are made to the core of this team, this season…
The core of the Jackets remains pretty much intact after last season, so this one turned out to be completely wrong. In fact, the only real changes to the core of the roster came in trading second pairing defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov away; then replacing him in the offseason. Joonas Korpisalo was dealt in the same trade, but it felt like that decision was made years ago, when Elvis Merzlikins was extended to be this team’s starting goalie.
Adam Fantilli will be coming in next season as a major core piece of this team’s long-term plans … but again, that’s really not a major change to the existing core. In all, this prediction was made with the team making moves to bolster the lineup around Johnny Gaudreau, which didn’t really happen until the offseason. It was a poor prediction, in hindsight.
Overall, our predictions were bold. Maybe a little too bold, but that’s what made them fun to begin with. In the coming weeks, we’ll have some bold predictions for the 2023-24 season, which again will be wild and fun.
Stay tuned to unionandblue.com and our social media channels in the coming weeks – along with our upcoming bold predictions, we’ll preview every player vying for roster spots this coming season. We’ll highlight one player per day (we’ve lined up 27 total) leading up to training camp, offering expectations and where they might fit into the lineup.
To cap it off, we’ll have a comprehensive roster preview for the club, with some thoughts on how the team might be able to perform with Mike Babcock behind the bench. In short, I think next season for the Jackets could be really fun. This team should be in transition and looking to win some games; and with some of the Eastern Conference teams falling off a little bit, a playoff berth may be in the not so distant future.
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