‘Crap. I knew I was in trouble’: When goalies leave the empty net too early

Mike McKenna
Mike McKenna(MikeMcKenna56)
‘Crap. I knew I was in trouble’: When goalies leave the empty net too early

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Elvis Merzlikins, I feel your pain. Because I have also fallen victim to a coach calling me off the ice prematurely.

Late in Tuesday’s game against Pittsburgh, with Columbus trailing 3-1, the Blue Jackets netminder was caught out of position trying to get off the ice for an extra attacker.

Merzlikins did everything he could to keep the puck out of the net – even going so far as to throw his stick. Which isn’t legal in the first place. But to no avail: Penguins forward Teddy Blueger finally deposited the puck in the back of the net with 3:27 remaining to make it a 4-1 game.

Yeah, yeah. Elvis was just about to leave the building. The joke wrote itself for the Penguins social media team. Cheeky. But funny. And I hope waking up today, Merzlikins is able to laugh about the situation. Especially considering how absurd it was.

Problem is, I’m not sure he will. It’s been a tough year for the Latvian puck stopper. Tuesday’s matchup was the first time Merzlikins had stepped foot in the Blue Jackets crease since Nov. 15. And his .866 save percentage is a far cry from the .910 he has posted in 130 NHL regular season games.

As soon as I saw Blueger’s goal, I had an immediate flashback to the 2006-07 season. I was playing for Calgary’s AHL team in Omaha, Nebraska on a $27,000 (prorated daily) Professional Tryout agreement. The team was called the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. Which was goofy in the first place. And home attendance was atrocious.

Truth be told, I think the team was pretty excited to be on the road and play in front of solid AHL fan bases out East. And when we left Nebraska, I knew that I’d probably get my first start in goal for the team.

I’d been a member of the Knights for about a month at that point and played a grand total of two periods in a relief effort against the Chicago Wolves. I was just a warm body on the bench in case of an emergency.

I wasn’t under contract to the Flames. There was no plan for me within the organization. At one point, Calgary GM Darryl Sutter asked me if I should be paid by the game. Which was pretty surprising considering he’d signed the PTO clearly outlining the terms of compensation. I knew at that point I was an afterthought.

In any case, I had a feeling that I was going to get a start. Curtis McElhinney had logged so many minutes and needed a break. And sure enough, head coach Ryan McGill tipped me to play against the Rochester Americans.

So I skate out for warmups in my ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers gear, and at the other end is Craig Anderson tending goal for Rochester. He was ripping up the AHL. I was pretty excited to play against him.

But Craig was frustrated. Eddie Belfour was job-blocking him in Florida. And it’s so funny now, because Craig is 41 years old and playing in his 20th NHL season. But I remember us having a conversation at the red line in warmups. And Craig said this about his situation with the Panthers: “let the young guys play.”

LOL.

How ironic, right? It’s hilarious to think about 15 years later. And knowing Craig, I’m sure he’d laugh about it now.

Anyway, on a personal level, the game went really well from a puck-stopping standpoint. I stopped the first 32 of 34 shots faced, including 17 in the first period.

But other things happened that weren’t fun. I took a delay of game penalty at the 14:33 mark of the second period for shooting the puck over the glass. The Americans scored on the ensuing power play and took a 2-1 lead into the final frame.

Our team pushed, throwing 13 shots on goal during the third period. But we couldn’t beat Anderson. So with two minutes remaining, I started looking toward the Knights bench, waiting for McGill to call me off the ice for the extra attacker.

I’ll never forget what happened next. The sequence of events is forever burned into my memory.

Rochester dumped the puck deep into our defensive zone. And my teammate, defenseman Tim Hambly, picked it up and started skating. I look over and McGill is staring at me. His hand is in the air, holding me in the crease.

By the time Hambly gets to the near blueline, McGill starts waving furiously at me to come to the bench. So I take off in a full sprint, and much like Merzlikins, I’m about 15 feet from the gate when I see Hambly turn the puck over in the neutral zone.

Crap.

I knew I was in deep trouble. Not just because the puck was going to end up in our net, but also because McGill was already screaming at me for trying to get off the ice. I tried to get back to the net but, like Merzlikins, it was too late.

Patrick Kaleta scored for the Americans. Anthony Stewart was the first star of the game. Anderson was the second. And McGill, who waved at me to come off, was staring daggers in my direction.

Maybe I went a little early. Maybe McGill was right. I can handle criticism.

But what really hurt was that I was credited with allowing a goal against, despite being almost 30 feet away from the net. I was on the ice. And that goal submarined my statistics with the Knights.

In two games played, I had an .889 save percentage. Had I not allowed that extra goal, it would have been a .907 during my time with Omaha. It may not seem like a big deal, but for a callup goalie on a PTO, statistics are everything. And a sub-.900 save percentage didn’t look good.

I was pretty sure my career was over in the American Hockey League. Without being able to stick a full-time job at the AAA level, the dream of one day suiting up for an NHL game seemed impossible.

Turns out I was wrong. I ended up with the AHL’s Portland Pirates the following season. But I really wasn’t sure it was possible after what happened that night in Rochester.

Watching Merzlikins get the call from the bench, then have to double back towards his net and try to make a save was so familiar. It’s such a helpless feeling.

I give Merzlikins a ton of credit. He tried as hard as he could and nearly came up with a stop on Blueger. I pretty much froze like a deer in headlights. And got an earful for it after the game.

Hopefully for Merzlikins it’s the low point of his season and he can turn things around. After a goal like that, it can’t really get much worse.

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