Blue Jackets’ Sillinger Embraces Community By Hosting Q&A With Fans – The Hockey Writers Columbus Blue Jackets Latest News, Analysis & More

Second time was the charm.

The Columbus Blue Jackets originally were going to host a night with fans for an open Q&A with Cole Sillinger in November. But an injury caused the event to be postponed.

The Q&A was rescheduled for Wednesday night at the Sonesta Hotel in downtown Columbus. It was a first of its kind event in the sense that the Blue Jackets had never done something like this before.

The event was free and open to the public. Sillinger joined Blue Jackets Radio Network host Dylan Tyrer for about a 30 minutes of fun and questions about anything. After the initial few questions were answered, it was the fan’s turn to ask the questions.

Sillinger answered every question thrown his way. Afterwards, he signed autographs for everyone who came and took pictures with those that wanted it.

After the event was over, Sillinger stopped by to talk with the Hockey Writers about the night and its importance. The one theme that came from the night was the importance of the fans. On multiple occasions, he not only mentioned how important the fans were, but how important connecting with them is.

Sillinger Reflects on the Event

Usually, teams like the Blue Jackets will host autograph sessions among other events to help fans connect with the players. This Q&A was different in that anyone could come into the hotel lobby and partake.

Sillinger heard the idea from the team and embraced the moment.

“Todd Sharrock (Blue Jackets VP of Communications) brought it up,” Sillinger said. “We had it scheduled a different day. The day didn’t work out with everything that was going on. So it changed to today. Just the idea to be more interactful with fans and just for them to hear more personal things from you. I think when they’re watching the media, it’s always pretty generic answers or answering questions about hockey or the game. So it’s nice to talk about my family or Christmas or a holiday and just ask questions about some of the guys on the team. I think that goes a long way. And fans, you can connect with them in that way and relate with them more.”

Sillinger believes nights like this are important because it does present the players in a different light than what many fans are used to seeing. Don’t be surprised to see more of these kind of events with different players in the future.

“Not everyone gets to see that, and it’s important for them to build a deeper connection with you. At the end of the day, we’re all ‘just normal people.’ We have a job and our job is to play in front of 20,000 people on any given night and we’re super fortunate. We’re super lucky for that.”

“At the end of the day, one of my favorite things to do is to go to the grocery store and hang out, be a kid as well. For me to just give off that perspective of myself as well. The connection grows deeper and hopefully they become bigger fans not only of myself but of the Blue Jackets in general knowing and appreciating that away from the rink, we’re just people as well.”

Sign of Leadership

Sillinger making himself available for something like this points to strides being made not only from a leadership perspective, but also embracing the community he plays in. The Blue Jackets have a young core. Seeing this kind of progress is an important step for him to be one of the faces of the team in future seasons.

“We have a great, young core and we want to take it upon ourselves and eventually, we want to help the Blue Jackets a Cup to Columbus,” Sillinger said. “That’s the goal. If that’s not the goal, then what are we doing here? We’re very fortunate to be able to play with each other. We don’t want to keep getting these first-round picks all the time because that means this season is not going good. So there’s got to be a time where we take it upon ourselves and we feel like that time is now. It’s starting to come.”

“We’re gaining more experience on the cie. We’re developing better chemistry with each other and I think it’s translating. We have more to give and more to learn and more to grow. But just recognizing the situation, for our team to have success, our young guys have to take it to the next level and we’re working towards that.”

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Sillinger said the night went well. It was never about evaluating himself in the moment. It was an opportunity to have a fun night with fans in a different setting.

“I was 100% myself and I was happy with that,” Sillinger said.

It was an enjoyable night for the 25-30 people that came out to see him. Walking out of the event, I couldn’t help but notice the number of smiles from fans as they were leaving. The night meant something to them. They hope that more events like this happen in the future.

Based on talking with Sillinger, it seems these kind of things could be the start of something special in Columbus for the Blue Jackets and their fans.