It has been one heck of a month for Kirill Marchenko, Dmitry Voronkov, Sean Monahan, and Zach Werenski in the scoring department for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Each of the aforementioned skaters has been at, or near, a point-per-game scoring pace since the beginning of December for the CBJ (Voronkov just missed the PPG cut with 14 points in 16 games in December). Kent Johnson is also not far off these totals, as he has 21 points in 24 games since returning from injury near the end of November.
Despite decent scoring from their de facto top line and #1 defenseman, the CBJ had a tough December. Between December 3rd and December 18th, the team had one win in nine games. However, they are at the NHL's definition of .500 with a 16-16-6 record heading into January 2nd's game against the Detroit Red Wings.
So, what went wrong during the losses? A few things are easily pointed to: poor goaltending, ill-timed turnovers, and a team that is still clearly trying to find its consistent identity and effort on a nightly basis. The team's lack of winning both of any back-to-back sets this year speaks much to the final piece in that list.
However, one thing that may have flown under the radar to the public is that the CBJ have not consistently scoring out of their second, third, and fourth lines for some time. So, what's happening? Let's look at two of Columbus' recently-struggling forwards to understand why.
Adam Fantilli has struggled this year...
Columbus' star prospect had a December to forget as he put up a 2-1-3 line in 16 games during the month. Fantilli himself has spoken about his struggles this season with the Athletic:
"I have to be a guy who can help his club offensively, and, in my opinion, I haven’t been doing that a whole lot."Adam Fantilli
Adamo has a high-ceiling skill set. As I recently discussed, his skating ability helps him continue to profile as a franchise talent-level forward for Columbus. Still, when observing his recent games, his struggles become instantly apparent: he's having difficulty effectively integrating himself into the team's offensive scheming.
Per our friends at Moneypuck, When Mo is on the ice, the CBJ generates a team-forwards-low 1.44 high-danger shots for over a 60-minute game, a second-to-last team expected goal differential of -10.2 and a dead-last -1.7 effective rebounds above-created total.
From these numbers and my observations, Fantilli is fighting the puck a bit too much, putting him into poor creation situations when he's on the ice. Dean Evason's system is quite different than anything Fantilli has played under in the past, as shown by his results this year.
As I said, there's no need to panic for the 20-year-old forward. These numbers can be overcome with decent coaching, which Evason has undoubtedly shown the ability to do for other young forwards on the roster. It's only a matter of time before Fantilli comes around.
Cole Sillinger started hot, but has struggled since October...
"Silli" had a brilliant start to the year in 2024-2025, scoring 8 points in 9 games during the first month of October. He's had other stretches this year with decent scoring outputs, but they've been inconsistent. From November 1 to November 14 and December 18 up to at least the January 2 game, he's gone pointless. His shooting percentage so far this season sits at a team-forwards-low 6.7% (minimum 400 minutes TOI).
Part of this seems to be a lack of puck luck. Per Moneypuck, his shooting % above expected on unblocked shots in the negative at a -1.7%, which puts him second-to-last on the team ahead of Zach Aston-Reese. This partially contributes, at least, to his team-last -10.4 expected goals differential while he's on the ice.
It's difficult otherwise to hammer down a statistical issue for his lacking sub-3.0 high danger shot attempts for per 60 and contributing stats. The only other thing we can point to is that Sillinger hasn't played with a combination of teammates aside from Kent Johnson and Mathieu Olivier, for more than 50 minutes this season.
He's been placed in a bit of a meat grinder with linemates aside from the previous combination since October up until recently. Despite Cole's high hockey IQ and compete level, it'd be difficult for any young forward to generate momentum for himself when placed under those same circumstances.
The bottom line for both young men is that with continued time and development from the coaching staff, I'm confident they will find their scoring ways soon and contribute offensively where the team needs them most.