GDT: Game 9 | Boston @ Columbus | 7 PM EST | Welcome home Foligno!

[stevo61]

I feel perfectly fine about the state of things - we are not ready for the post season and this year’s draft is deepest in years. Let young guys get experience, let’s not worry about the standings just yet

I dont think anyone is worried about standings, the issue is how it actually looks on the ice. The goaltenders arent bailing them out, the defense is weak and the forwards which should be our strength isnt scoring at a rate at which they should. The whole team looks lost and out of sync.

 

[ViD]

I dont think anyone is worried about standings, the issue is how it actually looks on the ice. The goaltenders arent bailing them out, the defense is weak and the forwards which should be our strength isnt scoring at a rate at which they should. The whole team looks lost and out of sync.

Yeah, the defense is complete garbage, we are again #1 in allowed goals.

Possibly it’s time to completely replace the coaching staff, goalies and special teams are very underwhelming too

 

[CBJWerenski8]

“I thought that I played good today, I do,” Merzlikins said. “The fourth goal, it’s on me. I lost mentally, I’m going to be honest.

“I got mad. Really mad. Because, you know, the feeling when you are playing in your own building and your fans are booing you? I get it. We deserve it. But it’s not a nice feeling. It’s not a really nice feeling. But, again, we deserve the booing.”

Merzlikins’ said he was out of sorts by the time Boston’s David Pastrnak scored late in the second period. By the start of the third, he was out of the game. Coach Brad Larsen called it a “coach’s decision.”

“I’m totally good (coming out of the game),” Merzlikins said. “The team tonight definitely needed a refresh or a restart, whatever you want to call it. We needed it. I’m not even going to blame myself.

“First goal was tipped. Second goal was on our power play. How come on our power play they score? We are five (men), they are four. We did mistake there. Breakaway. There were three breakaways on our power play. Three breakaways.”

Merzlikins was OK with his performance Friday, but he acknowledged that it hasn’t been a great start to the season.

After stopping 25 of 29 shots Friday, he has an .863 save percentage. Among NHL goaltenders with four or more starts this season, he’s ranked 35th (out of 37) in both save percentage and goals-against average (4.31).

“I’m honest: It’s not about me,” Merzlikins said. “I don’t care about me. I did not have the start of the season how I wanted it. I don’t need anybody else to tell me what to do. I know what to do. I’m trying to figure out what to do. I sucked, I know that.

“But right now, it’s all about us. We need to get out of this together. It’s not about goaltending. It’s not about defensemen. It’s not about forwards. It’s all about us, together.”
“We are playing too soft right now, but we are together in this,” Merzlikins said, “I’m pretty sure we’re going to get out of this. I hope as soon as possible because then later it’s going to be too late.

“I believe in my team. I believe we can get to the playoffs. We are a playoff team. If you don’t believe me, it’s up to you. But I do believe in my team. I believe in my guys. I know we can play hard and we can play good. We’re going to get to that point.”

Elvis Merzlikins sounds off after latest Blue Jackets loss: 'I got mad. Really mad'

The Blue Jackets goaltender was pulled after two periods in Columbus' 4-0 loss to the Bruins.

theathletic.com

 

[Marioesque]

Elvis Merzlikins sounds off after latest Blue Jackets loss: 'I got mad. Really mad'

The Blue Jackets goaltender was pulled after two periods in Columbus' 4-0 loss to the Bruins.

theathletic.com

Holy shit, trade this guy now.

 

[I3LI3]

Elvis Merzlikins sounds off after latest Blue Jackets loss: 'I got mad. Really mad'

The Blue Jackets goaltender was pulled after two periods in Columbus' 4-0 loss to the Bruins.

theathletic.com

oh boy. some juicy quotes. some delusional thinking, as well. gulp.



for those who want to feel his emotions even more and see facial expressions, elvis is interviewed after kuraly.

“I thought I played good tonight”

i’m sick.

 

[Marioesque]

oh boy. some juicy quotes. some delusional thinking, as well. gulp.



for those who want to feel his emotions even more and see facial expressions, elvis is interviewed after kuraly.

“I thought I played good tonight”

i’m sick.

This is not self aware at all. You sucked dude, own up to it.

Jeezz

Please just trade him and a high pick for Chycrun or something. Use his corpse to fertilize the soil.

 

[thebus88]

Forget Korpisalo, Elvis makes me miss Bobrovsky.

People might say it’s just me, but there’s seemingly a weird “vibe” the way Larsen speaks, or holds back speaking, about Elvis. Don’t like the “tone” of Elvis, the way he speaks about the team, either.

Dude seems overly arrogant, and that his tattoos match his personality perfectly.

 

[I3LI3]

apparently giving up 4 goals when the other team was expected to have 1.46 is “good”.

low standards huh.

 

[thebus88]

. Use his corpse to fertilize the soil.

Buddy, we have a clear path to putting the Laine stuff behind us….

As long as Laine starts scoring some actual goals…

 

[Marioesque]

Forget Korpisalo, Elvis makes me miss Bobrovsky.

People might say it’s just me, but there’s seemingly a weird “vibe” the way Larsen speaks about Elvis. Don’t like the “tone” of Elvis the way he speaks about the team.

Dude seems overly arrogant, and that his tattoos match his personality perfectly.

He makes me think of Jamie Tartt in "Ted Lasso", an ahole who got everything cheap and expects to be treated special. Except Jamie grew up and became a valuable member of the Team. Elvis needs to grow up and take responsibility.

 

[thebus88]

He makes me think of Jamie Tartt in "Ted Lasso", an ahole who got everything cheap and expects to be treated special. Except Jamie grew up and became a valuable member of the Team. Elvis needs to grow up and take responsibility.

Jarmo deserves blame for giving him that ridiculous contract.

And I guess JD deserves even more blame for not adding any extra goalie “insight”.

 

[Marioesque]

Buddy, we have a clear path to putting the Laine stuff behind us….

As long as Laine starts scoring some actual goals…

Yeah I totally agree, he needs to. I have no doubt he will though.

When it comes to personal responsibility, Elvis us like "it's not me bro, it's the team" and Laine is like Silas Self Flagellation GIF - Silas Self Flagellation The Da Vinci Code - Discover & Share GIFs

 

[Finner]

Elvis to Toronto? Jarmo make the call. They need a (good)goalie. They can think Elvis is a good goalie like they think Murray was a good goalie. Really dont care what comes back just get rid off that contract

 

[majormajor]

Elvis Merzlikins sounds off after latest Blue Jackets loss: 'I got mad. Really mad'

The Blue Jackets goaltender was pulled after two periods in Columbus' 4-0 loss to the Bruins.

theathletic.com

A simple way to help this would be to execute any fans that boo their players. It's clear that players play worse when the boo birds go after them. But since that is illegal, you pretty much have to just listen to them. And the team will probably be bad for a while, so these players need to find a way to get used to it.

 

[thebus88]

apparently giving up 4 goals when the other team was expected to have 1.46 is “good”.

low standards huh.

Goal 1 should have been stopped. That speed of a shot from that distance with no screen should be a save. The change from the “tip” or “deflection” from that distance is not an acceptable excuse. He’s off his angle waving his glove wildly, as usual.

Coyle/SH goal is more a 50/50 goal, however you lean to wanting a stop there. Backhands are hard to read and he was closer to the net, but, it wasn’t much of a shot either. Short side, off his angle and deep in his net AGAIN, as usual.

Hard to fault a guy for a breakaway goal against, but could it have looked ANY easier for the shooter?? Tons of room up top. WEAK GLOVE.

Goal 4, is what it is. Gavrikov doesn’t do much of anything to help either. I think goals 1 and 2 are worse than goal 4.

 

[NotCommitted]

Elvis has sucked, but I'd never read too much into what a goalie thinks about his game in an interview. We know he sucks at the moment, I'm pretty sure he knows it as well no matter what he says. I don't really care how he handles the media or if he "owns up" in public. IMO it's all part of the mental game for a goalie, owning up is nice but only if it leads to better play in the future. He seems to be going for the collective responsibility "team game" route and I'm fine with that, if you score 0 goals you're not gonna win a hockey game.

That said this team needs some kind of goaltending from someone, another 5-6 games like this from Elvis playing starter and the season outlook starts to get pretty bleak - for the record my expectations for this season are low, I'm not hung up on making the playoffs, but I do think for this team at this stage it would be best to be trending upwards, not looking like they are tanking for another draft pick.

The saving grace is after Korpisalo gets healthy (soon I hope), they have 3 goalies who should at least be NHL worthy, I think they just need to play the goalie lotto until one of them puts together a string of decent games, or even better, gets hot. In that vein, Tarasov really should start the next one.

 

[VT]

Jarmo deserves blame for giving him that ridiculous contract.

And I guess JD deserves even more blame for not adding any extra goalie “insight”.

Find a good goalie. Only from prospects.

Buddy, we have a clear path to putting the Laine stuff behind us….

As long as Laine starts scoring some actual goals…

It will be soon. Maximum in Finland.

Jarmo deserves blame for giving him that ridiculous contract.

And I guess JD deserves even more blame for not adding any extra goalie “insight”.

I agree with his ridiculous contract but every GM did it sometimes.
Nobody trade a good goalie.

Toto si vôbec neuvedomujete. Nasral si chlape, priznaj si to.

Jeezz

Prosím, len ho vymeňte a vyberte si za Chycruna alebo niečo také. Použite jeho mŕtvolu na zúrodnenie pôdy.

Chychrun is again injured.

 

[Halberdier]

Again when playing against one of the top teams on NHL, CBJ is good in the 1st period and folds in 2nd. Happened against Carolina and Tampa Bay already. Nothing new here.

Not that Johnson played good game overall, but I just love to watch his game. They need to try him with big boys.

Laine had like "dozen" shot attempts, mostly from good or very good spots, yet scored none of those. Also fanned some 2-3 shots, which is very atypical of him.

Elvis is either bad or just really unlucky.

 

[VT]

Again when playing against one of the top teams on NHL, CBJ is good in the 1st period and folds in 2nd. Happened against Carolina and Tampa Bay already. Nothing new here.

Not that Johnson played good game overall, but I just love to watch his game. They need to try him with big boys.

Laine had like "dozen" shot attempts, mostly from good or very good spots, yet scored none of those. Also fanned some 2-3 shots, which is very atypical of him.

Elvis is either bad or just really unlucky.

Johnson showed he can play against tough teams like Boston so I think he could be tried. But I can bet the castle Karlštejn that nothing like that will happen.
I repeat, just try.

 

[Halberdier]

apparently giving up 4 goals when the other team was expected to have 1.46 is “good”.

low standards huh.

Sometimes you are just really unlucky, but as these keeps piling up, my hopes for a good come back season for Elvis vanishes. It's still possible that he gets back to the form he had just a year ago, but I am no more a believer.

Korpisalo is back soon, but as he has been more or less injured for some years now, chances to get a good goalie out of his beaten up body aren't that great.

Fingers crossed that Tarasov is THE guy.

And Elvis needs to cut the crap off about having to play a lot of the games in a row. He is not in that position right now.

 

[I3LI3]

Sometimes you are just really unlucky, but as these keeps piling up, my hopes for a good come back season for Elvis vanishes. It's still possible that he gets back to the form he had just a year ago, but I am no more a believer.

Korpisalo is back soon, but as he has been more or less injured for some years now, chances to get a good goalie out of his beaten up body aren't that great.

Fingers crossed that Tarasov is THE guy.

And Elvis needs to cut the crap off about having to play a lot of the games in a row. He is not in that position right now.

‘fingers crossed’ that Korpisalo is THE guy.

i’m suuuuch a believer in young tarasov.. the rangers win, made me declare him as the future.. that’s how good he was. but the arizona game.. made me step back for a sec. he’s young.. suuuper young. I get it. inconsistency is going to come. but Korpi has to be salivating at the opportunity he has. obviously he’s probably bummed our team is getting crushed but he knows he’s the next man up, officially (let’s be real).

 

[Halberdier]

‘fingers crossed’ that Korpisalo is THE guy.

i’m suuuuch a believer in young tarasov.. the rangers win, made me declare him as the future.. that’s how good he was. but the arizona game.. made me step back for a sec. he’s young.. suuuper young. I get it. inconsistency is going to come. but Korpi has to be salivating at the opportunity he has. obviously he’s probably bummed our team is getting crushed but he knows he’s the next man up, officially (let’s be real).

Though in Arizona game I think Tarasov was not that much to blame. I think in comparison Elvis let in easier goals against Boston.

 

[NotTooWideArena]

Like a lot of us, I find this team's performance disappointing and frustrating. I generally don't boo players unless they do something overtly despicable, but had I been in Nationwide last night I would have been sorely tempted.

But I think we need to hate the play, not the player. Yes, Merzlikins has played poorly by any standard. And yes, his most recent comments sound like he is avoiding responsibility.

But young goalies are notoriously streaky - it's not like he's playing poorly on purpose.

It's easy for an athlete to sound off-putting when trying to express complex emotions in a language he's still learning. And there's some truth in what he's saying - the rest of the team has been bad, too: We can't blame EM for the disaster which is our power-play, our constant lapses into formless scrambling instead of organized tactics, all the other issues this team has.

Merzlikins is going through some tough times right now. Let's not make it worse by over-reacting to a handful of post-game comments. He can regain his form - I don't know how (if I did, I'd call somebody and tell them) but I've seen it happen with other athletes. Venting our frustrations by making it personal strikes me as counterproductive.

 

[majormajor]

At one point Torts banned Elvis from doing interviews because he thought it was distracting for him. I wouldn't mind if they try that again. Being candid is nice but I can imagine what it is like to struggle. I don't need him to tell me anything.

Like a lot of us, I find this team's performance disappointing and frustrating. I generally don't boo players unless they do something overtly despicable, but had I been in Nationwide last night I would have been sorely tempted.

But I think we need to hate the play, not the player. Yes, Merzlikins has played poorly by any standard. And yes, his most recent comments sound like he is avoiding responsibility.

But young goalies are notoriously streaky - it's not like he's playing poorly on purpose.

It's easy for an athlete to sound off-putting when trying to express complex emotions in a language he's still learning. And there's some truth in what he's saying - the rest of the team has been bad, too: We can't blame EM for the disaster which is our power-play, our constant lapses into formless scrambling instead of organized tactics, all the other issues this team has.

Merzlikins is going through some tough times right now. Let's not make it worse by over-reacting to a handful of post-game comments. He can regain his form - I don't know how (if I did, I'd call somebody and tell them) but I've seen it happen with other athletes. Venting our frustrations by making it personal strikes me as counterproductive.

There are going to be morons that boo Elvis and think they're helping.

He said a while back that he was grateful to the fans of Columbus for not booing him when he struggled in his rookie season. I'd say he is particularly afraid of it but then again it's probably universal for goalies.

 

[Monstershockey]

While nobody is impressed with Elvis at the moment, I don't listen to a word that comes out of Jack Edwards mouth.

I would rather listen to my alarm clock go off for 2.5 hours than listen to Edwards and that other clown he is with. Just awful.