Merzlikins learned a lot from ups, downs of CBJ season

Finally, it appears, Elvis Merzlikins ran out of steam.
The Blue Jackets goaltender played in 17 of the last 18 Blue Jackets games, then started each of the first three games for Latvia at the World Championships earlier this month.

Playing for his home country is one of Merzlikins' biggest points of pride, but unfortunately he left Latvia's penultimate game in the round robin and did not return to game action or practice. With the country's solid performance in the Worlds now in the books, Merzlikins can turn his attention to the offseason.
But looking back on the campaign, it was a learning experience, full of ups and downs but one the CBJ goaltender will likely remember as one of the most important seasons of his life. For the first time as an NHL goalie, he carried the load, placing tied for sixth in the league with 59 appearances.

"That was amazing experience," he said of being the No. 1 goalie. "I'm really grateful to have lived this experience. I feel (like) completely a different goalie right now. I learned how to handle the back-to-backs. I learned a lot. I learned a lot how to handle the pressure and how to rest and all that stuff. That's huge."
The season-ending jaunt was the feather in Merzlikins' cap, as with Joonas Korpisalo and Daniil Tarasov out injured, the Latvian goalie carried the mail down the stretch. It was a challenge from head coach Brad Larsen, and Merzlikins responded, posting a .917 save percentage in his 17 appearances down the stretch to go with a 2.85 goals-against average.
That was more than 1,000 minutes of hockey in just over a month, but Merzlikins didn't want it to stop once it was over, he said on exit interview day.
"Even this morning with Lars, I said I could go even tonight," he said. "If we had to play a game tonight, I've played two back-to-backs, 40 shots, whatever. I don't care. I'm ready to go."
That had to be to be music to the ears of Larsen, who wanted to test his goalie's mettle down the stretch. Should the Blue Jackets make the Stanley Cup Playoffs next year or find themselves in a down-the-stretch race, there is a good chance Merzlikins will be asked to go just about every game if his play dictates it, so Larsen wanted him to experience firsthand what it's like to have to prepare and play on a nightly basis.
Even when the head coach did give Merzlikins a break in the season finale at Pittsburgh a night after an emotional win in Nationwide Arena, it worked out that he had to come in in a relief role, as Merzlikins did just that and stopped 40 of 42 shots off the bench.
That was appearance No. 59 of the season, one short of what Larsen views as sort of the gold standard for a starting goalie in the NHL.
"Yeah, 60 (appearances) -- at least 60," Larsen said after that game. "That's generally what starter is looking at here -- 60 if you can. I think it was good he got to get in (vs. the Penguins). ... I told Elvis before he game, just be ready just in case. This isn't a night off. You could go in, and the circumstance happened right away, so there he was back in there. I thought he was really good for us. He had to come in and do it a different way.
"I think 60 games is right where he should be. If we had one more, it would be great."
That workload nearly doubled Merzlikins' NHL appearances to that point, as in his first two seasons -- both shortened by the COVID pandemic -- he totaled 61 showings between the pipes while splitting time with Korpisalo.
"I think that splitting the games my first two years, it's a completely different feeling," Merzlikins said. "I would say you don't have that much responsibility, maybe. It's just short-term because you play two games and then you have off. Here, you have big responsibility. You know that you're going to play the next one and maybe the next 10.

"This year I learned a lot. It was hard. I would say it was hard to go through this thing. It's like you want to jump from the cliff the first time, it's super high. You're gonna be scared. But when you do it once, you're not afraid anymore. You're gonna jump and jump and keep jumping. Now I feel the same way. I'm ready now."
Korpisalo has re-signed a one-year deal with the Blue Jackets in hope of regaining the form that made him one of the top goaltenders in the 2020 playoff bubble. The two have worked together for three years now and have developed a strong rapport despite the competitiveness that is inherent when there's two goalies and one net.
But going into next year, Merzlikins has the experience to feel like he can jump back in and be ready to take his game to the next level.
"I can tell you I'm ready for next season to play however many games I'm gonna play," he said. "And I'm excited. I'm really happy and I would say proud, as well, of myself, that I could handle that pressure. The bad games and the good ones -- forget about good ones, forget about bad ones and just keep going.
"Before, I was playing the teams. Now, I don't care. I just play hockey games. I don't care which team it is, what the players are and who are they. You just go. They're all good. This is the best league in the world. They're all good. There are no bad teams. There is no big difference with the gap in the standings. They're all good teams. They're all dangerous. You just go and play hockey."