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Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips November 3-4, 2019 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 05 The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets | Merzlikins kept busy in home debut PAGE 05 The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets vs. St. Louis Blues | 3-2-1 breakdown PAGE 02 The Columbus Dispatch: Jackets call up New Albany’s Kole Sherwood PAGE 03 The Columbus Dispatch: Flames 3, Blue Jackets 0 | Another bad start sends Blue Jackets to loss PAGE 05 The Athletic: Portzline: 10 observations from the Blue Jackets’ loss to Calgary, including slow start, scoring chances, Sherwood plays PAGE 05 The Columbus Dispatch: Flames 3, Blue Jackets 0 | 3-2-1 breakdown PAGE 05 The Athletic: A passion beyond pucks: Blue Jackets’ Seth Jones is a budding art collector Cleveland Monsters/Prospects NHL/Websites PAGE 10 The Athletic: DGB weekend power rankings: Just how worried should Maple Leafs be right now? 1 The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets | Merzlikins kept busy in home debut By Brian Hedger – November 2, 2019 ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Elvis Merzlikins finally got to hear the Blue Jackets’ cannon go off at ice level. That, if anything, is his most vivid memory of making his Nationwide Arena debut Wednesday in relief of Joonas Korpisalo in the Blue Jackets’ 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. “It was fun, obviously,” the 25-year old Latvian rookie goalie said Friday, prior to facing the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center. “I heard, on the ice, the cannon too, so that’s the good part. It’s pretty loud, especially when you are on that side of the (rink), so it was fun.” Otherwise, Merzlikins was busy in that game. He didn’t allow a goal in 19 shots against the high- powered Oilers and earned his third start of the season – all on the road – against the Blues on Friday night. “I didn’t have time to think about playing at home and the fans, because I had to get, as soon as possible, into the game,” Merzlikins said. “So, I just deleted everything that was outside of myself and tried to catch the puck.” He took the same approach into St. Louis, which was actually his second experience playing against the Blues. Merzlikins also faced them here in the preseason and took a loss against a team that had most of its NHL players in action. His play against Edmonton combined with a solid showing in Chicago in a 3-2 overtime loss Oct. 18 at the United Center were enough to earn this outing from coach John Tortorella. The relief job against the Oilers was the first time in six years Merzlikins had come into a game in that regard, after starring as the No. 1 goalie with HC Lugano in Switzerland. “Obviously, if you get into the middle of the game, you go in with a free mind – especially in that game, because (we) were 4-0 down,” Merzlikins said. “So, you go in and fight for the win because you never know what’s going to happen at the end of the 60 minutes.” Merzlikins, who continues to adjust to smaller rinks and better players in the NHL, was seeking his first NHL victory going into the game against St. Louis. He had impressive stats in his previous two appearances, though, including a 1.89 goals-against average and .942 save percentage. “I think players, when they overthink, they paralyze themselves,” Tortorella said. “So, certainly, when you just get thrown into (a game), is it ideal for a young guy at that position? I don’t know. I think sometimes they need some time to think about their work, but sometimes they overthink it. But he played well, so it worked for him.” The Edmonton blues The loss to the Oilers on Wednesday stuck with Tortorella for multiple reasons. Their response to coughing up a late 4-2 lead last Saturday in Philadelphia in a shocking 7-4 loss wasn’t what he anticipated, they played slow against a lightning-fast team and they were handled easily, again, by Edmonton – which has now won its past three games against Columbus by scores of 4-1, 4-1 and 4-0 dating back to a two-game series sweep last season. 2 The Jackets’ bench boss was still agitated by the latest one prior to the morning skate Friday and summarized his team’s effort against the Oilers as only Tortorella could. “Whether it was the six minutes of penalties in the first period threw us off and we’re down 2-0, I don’t know, but it’s unacceptable how we went about our business against Edmonton,” he said. “We have played four, just, lousy games against them. Our last four games against Edmonton have been a dog’s breakfast. I don’t know why, but we just … that’s not us and I just want us to understand who we are.” Harrington plays Tortorella still has defensive depth to use despite Ryan Murray being on the shelf for a few weeks with a broken hand. He dipped into it against the Blues, opting to dress both of his “depth defenders” and scratch Markus Nutivaara. Dean Kukan and Scott Harrington both played in St. Louis despite Nutivaara being healthy enough to play. Tortorella said Nutivaara, who returned from a two-game injury absence Wednesday against the Oilers, was a healthy scratch. Nutivaara participated in the morning skate and took extra work with skills coach Kenny McCudden and forward Markus Hannikainen, who was also scratched. Chasing ‘Rusty’ Three guys are close to passing Rostislav Klesla’s 41 goals for the franchise record in career goals by a defenseman. Zach Werenski tied Klesla on Wednesday with his third goal of the season and 41st of his career, while Seth Jones and David Savard have 40 each. Werenski reached 41 in 249 games, or 266 fewer than Klesla, while Jones played his 282nd game with Columbus on Friday and Savard logged his 502nd game – all with the Jackets. Hannikainen sits Hannikainen was scratched after being recalled Thursday from the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. Hannikainen, who was previously with the Blue Jackets Oct. 12-19 without playing, has yet to play this season. The 26-year old forward has four points in five games on a goal and three assists for the Monsters and has 15 points on eight goals and seven assists in 91 career games with the Blue Jackets. Cannon fodder Milano is still feeling the effects of being clipped in the mouth by a stick at the end of the Jackets’ loss in Philadelphia last Saturday. No penalty was called on the play because it was judged to be the follow through of a shot that hit him. … Those wondering why Oliver Bjorkstrand shaved his usual facial hair earlier this week, the reason was the Jackets’ Halloween party. Bjorkstrand dressed up as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, which required a clean look aside from a fake white mustache. 3 The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets vs. St. Louis Blues 3-2-1 breakdown By Brian Hedger – November 2, 2019 ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The thing to remember about growing pains is they hurt. Otherwise, they’d be called growing pleasantries or growing annoyances. Growing pains aren’t a lot of fun to go through, but the other thing to remember about them is that growth is happening. Still early into this season, the Blue Jackets are going through some big ones, as flashes of brilliance are often swallowed up by an equal and opposite sized cloud of confounding frustration. They score huge goals, beautiful goals, goals that leave opponents with their tongues dangling so perilously close to the ice that one of those “A Christmas Story” moments is bound to happen eventually. Then, they commit silly penalties. They put themselves in bad spots and make a few poor decisions to undo all the good stuff they just did. The most recent evidence was on display Friday at the Enterprise Center, where the Blue Jackets outplayed the St. Louis Blues – the defending Stanley Cup champions – and still lost, 4-3, on David Perron’s power-play goal just eight seconds after the puck hit the ice to start overtime. Sitting in the penalty box was Sonny Milano, who was called for his second offensive-zone penalty of the game (hooking) with just 1:52 left in regulation. The Blues had already capitalized on his first one, an interference call in the second period, when Brayden Schenn cut the Jackets’ lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal that preceded Oskar Sundqvist’s tying tally by 26 seconds, but the second one was the bigger issue. It led to Perron’s winner and made coach John Tortorella debate, once again, the merits of keeping the highly-skilled forward in the lineup. Milano also scored his third goal of the season at 5:41 of the second period to give Columbus a 2-1 lead, which turned into 3-1 on Oliver Bjorkstrand’s power-play goal five minutes later. “He’s frustrating, because he’s probably one of our best offensive players tonight,” coach John Tortorella said. “It’s frustrating that he continues putting himself in that world.” It’s frustrating to go through growing pains like this, with Milano and others, but there was growth in this game, too, along with the searing pain. After back-to-back duds against the Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers in their previous two games, the Blue Jackets re-established their identity.

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