Elvis Merzlikins told reporters<\/a> after the Blue Jackets\u2019 4-1 win over the Canucks on Thursday. \u201cNothing against Dean, his decisions were his decisions. I\u2019m mature enough. [But], with a new coach there is new energy right now.\u201d<\/p>\nBowness joined a Blue Jackets team that had high expectations entering this season after falling just two points short of a playoff spot last year.<\/p>\n
Instead, the team has floundered, sitting tied for the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference at 21-19-7.<\/p>\n
The change behind the bench is a blank slate for the team, who are still trying to figure what the expectations are in a new system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t had one legitimate practice where we can actually learn the new system,\u201d explained Merzlikins. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to jump in on a game day and change things. I\u2019m glad the guys were smart enough to understand what the new coach wants from us and now we\u2019re going to get use to the new system and keep working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fresh start is key for Merzlikins, who has had trouble finding playing time this season. The 6-foot-3 netminder was once considered the primary goaltender in Columbus but has primarily been the backup to Jet Greaves this season.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s win against the Canucks was only Merzlikins\u2019 second appearance since before the holiday break. He has a 7-7-1 record this season with an .882 save percentage and 3.84 goals-against average.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me awhile to win a game and to actually play, so [the win] means a lot to me, and it brings confidence to myself,\u201d said Merzlikins. \u201cTo be honest I haven\u2019t been paying [a lot of] attention to the changes in our system because I need to focus on me. I wasn\u2019t playing a lot, so I needed to find my flow and my confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite not having a lot of time to get used to Bowness\u2019 systems, Bowness said the Blue Jackets have done well adjusting mid-game.<\/p>\n
He is looking for the team to be aggressive, attack, and make sure their opponents are on their heels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want to emphasize that we want to become a pressure team and that\u2019s pressure with the puck, but that\u2019s also pressure without the puck.\u201d Bowness said after the game. \u201cThey get it, man, we want to go at them. We don\u2019t want to give them time and space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being near the bottom of the conference, the Blue Jackets are still only seven points behind the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins for the two wild-card spots.<\/p>\n
They go on the road on Saturday to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins before beginning a five-game homestand on Tuesday, starting with a date with the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n
As the team heads into the Olympic break in February, seven of their next 10 games are against teams that are currently not in the playoff picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Columbus Blue Jackets have experienced a boost in play in the wake of replacing their head coach.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,32986,51709,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-411030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-29","10":"tag-elvis-merzlikins-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8478007","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115905693251511722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}