This week in our Friday Feature, we’re getting bold. Five times, in fact, with our five bold predictions for the 2023-24 Columbus Blue Jackets.
After a year where the team finished 31st in the overall standings, the season begins with a lot of new hope. They’ll have a new head coach, revamped their defense, and even have a legitimate future #1 center in the works. The future is certainly brighter, and real question isn’t whether or not this team can be a contender – in my opinion, it’s actually, how soon can they contend?
It probably won’t be this year, and that’s fine. Still, they should be a lot more fun to watch this season than they have been over the last couple. The offense should be strong, the defense should be more able to help keep pucks out of their own net; and they’ll have some exciting young players to keep an eye on. With that said, let’s run through our five bold predictions for the 2023-24 Columbus Blue Jackets.
Bold Prediction #1: Elvis Merzlikins comes out of his funk, bounces back and plays like a #1 goaltender…
For anything spectacular to happen with this team, they need better goaltending this season. Last year is one that almost everyone involved with the franchise would love to write off, including Elvis Merzlikins. But it wasn’t entirely his fault that this team surrendered more than four goals per game – he played in only 30 of them.
Which leads me to the main point here: the issue with Elvis last season was not based on talent or ability. The issue with Elvis last season was between his ears, and it’s up to everyone around the team to help pull him out of that funk. How many times did we see him make saves last year, only to give up goals anyways because there was really no help around him? It was more than a few, to say the least. I think that nearly any goaltender would have been discouraged after so long. Combined with the off-ice tragedy that we’re all well aware of, it was just too much for him to overcome.
We can’t fault him alone for last year’s failures. He was part of it, yes. But he didn’t even play in half of the games, so it felt like he could never really gain consistent footing. And it would have been near impossible behind what was, in reality, a low-tier AHL defense corps on most nights. I think he’ll bounce back this year behind a more experience group on defense and new coaching; and establish himself as a middle-tier #1 goaltender in the NHL.
That’s how he’s paid, and that’s really all this team needs to be successful. This is a more talented group that should be able to score some goals and mask a lot of the other shortcomings. There’s no longer a need for an elite #1 goaltender like Sergei Bobrovsky to keep the Jackets afloat in the standings. Elvis doesn’t need to be Bob; he just needs to tune out the noise and be Elvis Merzlikins.