Is Montreal’s Masked Man More Doctor Jekyll or M. Hyde?

The Canadiens’ crease outlook is not shining bright, especially compared to the club’s sterling history.

De-facto starter Jake Allen, a former junior star with the QMJHL’s Montreal Juniors, has put up strong numbers in a backup position with the NHL’s Blues (8 wins, 2.21 GAA and 0.926 SPCT) but without securing more starts with the Blues, or a trade to another team willing to take a chance on him as a starter, Allen won’t be a long term solution.

The picture behind Allen, at least at the pro level is not much better.  Aaron Dell has been about league average for a backup with the struggling Sharks, Michal Neuvirth has not played professionally in close to a year and while Max Lagace and Matt Tomkins are fine enough in the roles as AHL starter and backup respectively, neither will be making the jump to NHL any time soon.

Yet, if you squint hard, you can see some light start to shine from the prospect list.

Drafted 91^st overall in the 2019 EHE Entry draft, 18 year old Hugo Alnefelt has put together an impressive season, leading Sweden to a bronze medal showing at the WJC with a 2.12 GAA and a .926SPCT in 6 games and currently has an impressive 2.33GAA and .912SPCT in the SHL, Sweden’s top professional league. 

But it is the other name on the prospect list that generates the most interest… a man named Elvis.

Elvis Merzlikins is an older prospect who has finally made his way to the NHL after dominating in the Swiss league and it would fair to say we have seen two sides of Elvis.

In his first 3 months in te NHL, Merzlikins struggled through a 10 game stretch with a record of 0W-4L-3OTL, carrying a 3.41 GAA and a .900SPCT.  It did not help that his partner in the Blue Jackets’ crease, Joonas Korpisalo, was off to a stellar start, but then Korpisalo got hurt.

All of a sudden, the weight of the world was on a struggling goalie in his first pro-season in North America.  Merzlikins advised the media that he would no longer speak with them in order to focus entirely on his play on the ice and has started realeasing press releases after games in lieu of taking questions… and he started to play well.

 Since the injury to Korpisalo, Elvis has gone 9W-2L-0OTL with 3 shutouts, a 1.64GAA and an astounding .953SPCT.

The question is, which is the real Elvis?  The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, closer to his combined numbers for the entire season (2.39GAA and .926SPCT) but you would have to think that even if he “cools off” to that level, the Habs will be plenty happy to have him on the roster moving forward.