Blue Jackets’ Cole Sillinger leaves game with lower-body injury

The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that Cole Sillinger will not return to Sunday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets due to a lower-body injury.

Sillinger appeared to have suffered the injury late in the second period of the game when he blocked a shot from Jets defenseman Colin Miller. He was seen hobbling to the bench after the play, and after playing a couple of shifts in the third period, he returned to the dressing room and was confirmed to be out of the game shortly after.

Sillinger finished the game with that blocked shot and a hit in 8:44 of ice time as the Blue Jackets went on to win the game by a score of 4-1.

There is currently no confirmation on the specifics of the injury, how severe it is, or how long Sillinger may be out to recover from it. It’s likely that we will learn more details before Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, probably after the Blue Jackets return home from Winnipeg and get a better look at the injury from their medical team.

In Sillinger’s absence, Sean Kuraly replaced him as the Blue Jackets’ third line center between Zach Aston-Reese and Mathieu Olivier. Prior to Sunday’s game, that trio had played 21:48 of ice time together, with not a single goal for or against and a 63.92% 5v5 expected goal share in that span.

Should Sillinger miss any significant time, Yegor Chinakhov and Mikael Pyyhtia were the Blue Jackets’ healthy scratches at forward, and one will likely slot into the lineup in his place. It’s also possible that they decide to run with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, which in that case will likely see Jack Johnson replace Sillinger in the lineup.

Sillinger will hope that it doesn’t disrupt the momentum to his start to the year, as he has 4 goals and 14 assists for 18 points in 26 games. That puts him on pace for a career high of 56 points at this point of the season, which would far surpass his previous high of 32 points set last season.

The Blue Jackets will look to build off of Sunday’s win over the Jets when they host the Flyers on Tuesday at 7 p.m. EST. They currently sit in last in the Metropolitan Division with a 12-12-3 record, although the bottom five in that division is very close, as they are just two points behind the New York Rangers for the final wild card spot.