Feb 19, 2021
One Hockey Player per Team (Chosen by You)
Columbus Blue Jackets - Elvis Merzlikins (27.3%)
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One Hockey Player per Team (Chosen by You)
Columbus Blue Jackets - Elvis Merzlikins (27.3%)
Hockey Player Coat of Arms - Elvis Merzlikins
Pick a Player (Hockey Science with @lulucanwrite):
Joonas Korpisalo vs. Elvis Merzlikins
Let us preface this by saying this: goalies are weird, and that’s a factor we have to consider. But unfortunately, we don’t have a stat for swagger or how weird the superstitions are. If you asked which goalie we would want in net tomorrow for a game with zero practice time and zero prep, we’d go with Korpisalo. The guy has experience, and when he’s on, he is on and ready to go. But if you asked who we would want to build a goalie tandem around and consider the key part of a four year projection, we’d go with Merzlikins.
So, let’s break it down.
SV% (save percentage) is the stat everyone thinks about when they think of a goalie, and Korpisalo stands at .905 vs Merzlikins .920. Yes, we should consider the fact that one has six years of experience (and 147 starts) and the other is still on his ELC (with 54 starts) but even with this difference, the gap between the two goalies on this datapoint is a margin worth looking at. More illuminating however is the percentages when broken down by special teams performance. Your goalie has to be your biggest PK and PP player and their performance during a PP or a PK can make or break a game. This is where the comparison gets interesting. On the PP, SV% comes down to .857 for Korpisalo and .878 for Merzlikins and on the PK, it is .891 and 1.00 respectively. This means that in two years in the NHL, Merzlikins hasn’t let in a short handed goal in the regular season. The mere thought of this gives us goosebumps, holy god. Add in that about 12% of his games played have been shutout wins and you definitely have our attention.
For Goals Against, this is where things get a little interesting. Korpisalo has a GAA (Goals Against Average] of 2.90, Merzlikins at 2.54. Pretty respectable numbers for both, as far as career numbers go. Even with their respective struggles last year, Merlikins kept his numbers in a respectable range of 2.77. What stands out the most to me however is his QS% (Quality Start Percentage), which basically means a goalie doesn’t allow more goals than expected and goes into the game with at least a league average SV%. Merzlikins’ sits at .574, Korpisalo’s is at .483 (the league average is .530). All in all, more often than not, Merzlikins is playing in a way that gives his team a chance to win. This doesn't mean it will be a perfect game, but it does mean if the team in front of him does their thing, especially the team he’s with now, they have a decent shot at winning, night in and night out. And that's all you can ask for from your goalie, especially a young one. So for this one...we gotta go with Elvis. His numbers indicate a high ceiling in the right conditions and we can't wait to see how he develops over the next several years.
(requested by @markusnutivaara)
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A Player per Team (as chosen by you!): Columbus Blue Jackets Version
Each week, I will create a graphic per player per current NHL team, and you get to choose! Anyone can answer the survey (link is in the source and image description) as many times as they want for as long as the survey is open, but please be aware that spam will only equal 10 votes! Please reblog this post after you take the survey so others can choose!
The survey will close at 11:59pm, February 15th, graphic will be released Friday, February 19th!
NHL Teams as Country Flags: The Columbus Blue Jackets
The cannon and stars are powerful symbols to draw upon. Both touch upon connections to military action, while also being intimidating in drastically different ways. The colors are connected to the region as well, familiar to the people. The red acts as a warning to outsiders that the citizens are not to be trifled with. The silver represents the intuition and ingenuity of those from the area. Finally, the color of deep blue, steeped in history already, symbolizes the loyalty that is a key value to the citizenry.