Columbus Blue Jackets fans were probably already frustrated that the NHL season needed to pause right when their squad was torching the competition, but that vexation briefly turned to anxiety during Thursday’s Winter Olympics matchup between the US and Latvia. The underdogs pulled out goalie Elvis Merzlikins at the start of the third period, leaving people to invest on his condition.
Fortunately, the 31-year-old Latvian is feeling effective. The change needed to do with the complexion of the sport quite than anything health related. Merzlikins fully supported the choice.
“He said himself it was to vary the energy and he agreed,” NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reported after Latvia’s 5-1 loss. “So nothing to be frightened about Blue Jackets fans.”
Columbus is 11-1 since Jan. 11 and is now only 4 points behind the Boston Bruins for the second Wild Card slot within the Eastern Conference. Recently appointed head coach Rick Bowness, who has sparked this unexpected revival, surely wants to keep up as much roster continuity as possible coming out of the Olympics break. He also wants his netminder to be sharp.
Merzlikins allowed 4 goals on 32 shots versus Team USA. Two successful challenges took two more off the board and prevented the damage from being worse. Latvia will trust him to shake off the rough showing and rebound against Germany on Saturday. When the worldwide showdown concludes, the Blue Jackets (29-20-7) hope they’ll have a healthy and locked-in goalie to play behind the young and impressive Jet Greaves.
Elvis Merzlikins is 11-8-1 with an .888 save percentage and three.49 goals against average this season.