other than for the obvious reason that he’s on the Jackets and I’d like to see all of our guys do well, it would be very nice if Sillinger broke out and put an end to the shit talking. I don’t know if he can do it, but I really hope so. Reminds me of when this board gave up on Matt Calvert and David Savard at early parts of their career, however I will admit both of them had far fewer games under their belt and were more unproven.
Shit talking I suppose is a rather large umbrella term then, since it seems to encompass every possible critique of a player, including in this case mentioning actual on-ice results, which I've linked to.
I was a Savard and Calvert defender so I'd like to be left out of that comparison.
And my issue isn't whether to give up on Sillinger, it's what do we do when he isn't performing? So far the answer is ignore it and keep him at center, which to me is giving up on the team.
Honest question. What changes your mind about Sillinger moving forward? What do you need to see? I want to look for this because, as we both know, you and I have very different positions on him. I'm not looking to debate with you, just want to know what success looks like to you when it comes to Sillinger.
I suppose lifting off of 44% xG would be nice. We're just much more likely to be stuck in our zone with Sillinger, it's been the same number three years in a row. If he changes it, that would be great, I'm more upset with how it's handled when he doesn't change it - so far the answer seems to be just keep playing him as 3C and his linemates (KJ, Chinakhov, etc...) get the short end of it.
I have a somewhat lower long term projection for him because of his bottom end skating and passing ability, but this isn't a long term discussion, it's about where he's at now. Putting him on the wing or the 4th line seems anathema to many, including the team management. So much so that solid centers with positive results like Jenner and Voronkov are getting put on the wing instead.