The Columbus Blue Jackets remain in the thick of the playoff race in the Eastern Conference as the calendar is about ready to flip to February. Several individual performances are worth noting as to why the team is in the hunt.
But perhaps one of the biggest reasons why the Blue Jackets are right there is because they are getting more from their goaltending specifically Elvis Merzlikins.
Since the game that Merzlkins stopped every shot on goal from the Devils’ Jack Hughes, he’s 9-2-1 in those 12 starts. His season numbers are now to a point of respectability after a tough start.
Merzlikins’ save percentage of .894 is just under the league average of .895 and his GAA is under 3.00. The progress he’s made of late is just as important a factor as any in seeing why the Blue Jackets are hovering in the wildcard race.
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But most importantly, Merzlikins is happy. After a tough last couple of seasons, he’s been able to put the past behind him and focus on the task at hand. In the process, he’s earning the respect of his teammates as a growing leader in the Blue Jackets’ locker room.
Merzlikins spoke exclusively to the Hockey Writers on Tuesday after practice to reflect on his recent journey and why he’s in a much better place now.
Shutting Out the Noise
Perhaps the biggest thing Merzlikins has done going into this season was shutting out all outside noise. In turn, this has helped free him mentally.
“I worked really hard. I had a great summer but it was more about I really don’t care,” Merzlikins said of the outside noise. “Right now when I play, I really don’t care what’s going on outside. I don’t care about the noises, the talks, the other stuff. I really don’t care. When I go out there, I just want to play my 60 minutes of National Hockey League where I am and give my best and do my best. If I get in early 3 goals, I don’t care about it. I’m not gonna break. This is the NHL here. Things can turn around really quickly really fast. You can win the game in the last second. So everything can happen really quick and fast. It’s just mentally, I feel free. I just wanna enjoy and play and have fun with the guys on the ice.”
Merzlikins is having more fun this season around his teammates. To get to that point, he made it a priority in the offseason to let the past remain in the past. Along with hard work, he came into the 2024-25 season in a much better place.
Merzlikins remembered what he felt walking out of the locker room for the last time in the 2023-24 season. It was clear what he wanted to use the offseason for.
“I wanted just to get out of here which was a good thing for me mentally I think,” Merzlikins said. “I went to the (Latvian) National team. I saw my old teammates and players with who I grew up with. We had amazing time in the World Championship. So it was kind of change of scenario, I would say, more like a different locker room, different guys, different energy. But then the offseason, I was more focusing on getting stronger where I where I felt I needed and try one more time because that was already two or three summers that you were thinking what went wrong during the season. This time was another time where you were thinking, where you could do better, what you could do better, what are the things that you should change. That was the main focus of (the offseason.)”
Thanks to input from his wife Aleksandra, she’s helped him with how he approaches different things.
“She’s definitely the one who helps direct me on the right path and on the right way,” Merzlikins said. “Obviously, she doesn’t really know how the locker room works. But she still tries to help and she sees things differently. Sometimes those different things help you. She’s been really close to me. All these bad seasons are in the past, and even now when it’s good, she’s still there for me and she’s with me and she cares. There was a lot, mental directions, a different way of how to approach things and it just helped.”
Evason’s Influence
Going into last offseason was full of unknowns for everyone on the Blue Jackets. GM Jarmo Kekalainen was fired midseason. The biggest story of the offseason was who would the new GM and head coach be.
First came Don Waddell. Then eventually came Dean Evason. What would the impact of these decisions be? Merzlikins knew right away that there was something different about Evason. All it took was the first conversation.
“I felt that from the very first time when I saw him, he’s going to be different. It’s going to be different,” Merzlikins said of Evason. “Everything is going to be different. You could see different energy from him. You can’t really mess around. He’s different and he’s an open coach. That’s the awesome thing. You can easily go talk, have a conversation with him and there will be no lies. There is sometimes people say something and then they do the opposite. Dean is great. He’s an awesome coach and I really love it and enjoy playing for him.”
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Evason postgame Saturday night called out Merzlikins’ calm when talking about what is working recently. That calmness has spread to his teammates during games. No matter what’s going on in the game, there is a calmness up and down the bench.
Not only is Merzlikins excited to play for Evason, he’s excited to play for his teammates. He’s still also very excited about being a Blue Jacket.
There was some confusion last season about if a trade request was ever made. Despite the confusion, his excitement for the Blue Jackets never wavered.
“I’ve always been excited. This team had faith in me. They drafted me. They chose me. It’s become my second home. My kid was born here. We had really tough years. Right now, we are having this small, tiny success, I would say it’s awesome. It’s an awesome feeling. It’s unbelievable. It’s a great feeling because we were fighting for the past 2-3 years, and now things are finally going like we wish it and like we want it to. We worked hard. We literally all together changed with a lot of things here and we never give up. Right now still, we don’t want to slip this away. It’s really a good feeling. We just want to keep having this good feeling.”
Growing Leadership
Not only has Evason been impressed with what he’s seen from Merzlikins, his teammates have been too. That calmness referenced by Evason is a sign of growth as a leader of the team for Merzlikins.
This has caught the attention of Zach Werenski.
“He’s embraced really being a team guy,” Werenski said of Merzlikins. “He’s been awesome this year. He’s embraced that starting role he’s in right now playing every game. He’s battling every night. You’re seeing his skill set show this year. He’s won us a lot of games. He’s kept us in a lot of games. There’s a lot of confidence right now. He’s fun to be around. I’ve seen him take huge strides everywhere to be honest. It’s been fun to see. We’ve had a lot of guys step up this year in leadership roles and he’s definitely one of them for sure.”
The Blue Jackets came into the 2024-25 season having to answer an important question. Who would be their number-one goaltender? At least so far, thanks to some key changes to the approach, Merzlikins is playing the part. He’s now showing what he’s capable of and what many thought he was capable of.
If he’s able to maintain this level of play consistently, this could become of the most important developments for the Blue Jackets’ in a season already full of good ones.