Elvis Merzlikins can almost devote his full attention to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
More: Columbus Blue Jackets’ Elvis Merzlikins takes odd in-game water break
First, the goalie must watch teammate Jet Greaves backstop the Blue Jackets into the league’s Olympics break. Columbus will be looking to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 4 at Nationwide Arena for their seventh straight win.
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Merzlikins handled the Blue Jackets’ net during the team’s sixth in a row, that victory coming Feb. 3 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, where he made 24 saves for his first shutout of the season and 12th of his career.
The Blue Jackets 3-0 win over the Devils on Feb. 3 marked goaltender Elvis Merzlikins’ first shutout of the season.
Barring injury or illness preventing Greaves from playing against Chicago, Merzlikins’ next game will be for Latvia in Milan, Italy. It’s an opportunity he’s dreamed about for a long time.
“Obviously, I’m getting ready for [the] Olympics now,” Merzlikins said on the FanDuel Sports Network’s postgame show. “It was hard today because I already was … mentally, I was one foot that was already there, but I had to dial into this game and win these points because they are really important for us.”
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The Blue Jackets (28-20-7) improved to 10-1-0 in their past 11 games, 9-1-10 since coach Rick Bowness replaced Dean Evason and have clawed their way back into the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. Merzlikins and Greaves are playing key roles in the turnaround, along with a team more dedicated to reducing goals allowed.
The Jackets hunt pucks with more consistency and intensity now, erase shooting lanes from areas where most goals are scored and put themselves in harm’s way to help their goalies. Adam Fantilli showed that dedication by blocking a shot in the waning seconds against the Devils to notch the shutout, risking injury with a three-goal lead.
Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins made 24 saves against the Devils on Feb. 3.
Merzlikins thanked him, effusively, for doing it.
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Four years earlier, in the same building, a different Blue Jackets group with some of the same players preceded a trip to Helsinki, Finland, by hanging Merzlikins out to dry in a 7-1 loss to the Devils, who outshot them by a whopping 53-21.
That was as ugly as it gets in the NHL and former coach Brad Larsen held a lengthy postgame team meeting before reporters were allowed into the locker room. What a difference four years and four additional head coaches can make, huh?
Speaking of coaches, Merzlikins got a hug from Bowness in the locker room celebration, was given the team’s player of the game donkey hat that honors Johnny Gaudreau’s memory and can now, almost, fully cast his attention to the Olympics.
“Obviously, it’s exciting,” Merzlikins said. “It’s a huge honor to play for your country, and especially to see the boys [for Latvia]. There [are] most of the guys who I grew up playing hockey [with], since I was 15, you know? … I keep watching on Instagram the [Olympic] village and all the accounts of other countries, so I’m super excited and pumped. I can’t wait to go.”
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Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets’ Elvis Merzlikins now focused on Olympics