(Editor's Note: This story was posted prior to the announcement that Joonas Korpisalo would miss the entire season with a hip injury.)
Can Korpi turn back the clock in his last remaining games as a Blue Jacket?
Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins left in the third period of the Blue Jackets' eventual win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday with tightness in his back. That left Joonas Korpisalo to finish the game as he led the team the rest of the way to a 5-4 victory.
The news came out a couple of days later, on March 21, that Merzlikins would be "out for a little bit" according to GM Jarmo Kekalainen. The GM also stated that the injury to their starting goalie factored into the decision not to deal Korpisalo at the deadline, possibly a signal that Merzlikins will be out for a while.
By all indications, Korpisalo will get several starts in row, thus giving him a chance to change the perception that he is no longer a goaltender a team can lean on. This could be an audition, so-to-speak, for a job elsewhere this coming fall.
Unfortunately, Korpi's chance at redemption got off to an inauspicious start against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. While he did save 32 shots, he also gave up five goals for a .865 SV% and was badly out of position for several of those goals. He will likely get another opportunity to start and hopefully change the narrative Friday night against the Winnipeg Jets.
This entire season has been one to forget for the 27 year-old Fin, with the exception of his first start, back in October, in which he saved 41 of 43 shots. Sadly, it has been all down hill from there as he has posted a career-worst .877 SV% and 4.15 GAA on the year; both are also good enough for lowest in the NHL this season, for anyone who has started at least 10 games.
A deeper look at the numbers doesn't help very much either. Korpisalo ranks in the bottom five or ten of almost every advanced goaltending metric, out of the 69 goalies that have played more than ten games this year. To be fair, his defense has not helped him out a lot as he has faced the sixth highest percentage of unblocked shot attempts out of that same group of goalies. However, he also has the second worst SV% and SV% above expected on low danger unblocked shots.
Translation: a lot of easy shots have slipped past him this year.
Things have not always been this bleak for Korpisalo though. Two years ago, during the 2019-20 season, the CBJ netminder posted his highest save percentage since 2015-16 (his first in the league), saving .911% of the shots he faced. He also tied his career best with a 2.60 GAA, as well as having a win-loss percentage of 61%, better than any of his other seasons in the NHL. Korpisalo was named to the NHL All-Star team that season, though missed the game with a torn meniscus.
He was even more impressive in the postseason that year, starting with the first series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. In four games, he blanked them twice on his way to stopping 109 out of 114 shots for a SV% of .956, leading Columbus to its second-ever postseason series win. Overall, in both that series and the next one against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Korpi had a .941 SV% and 2.11 GAA, proving he could play at very high level when it most counted.
However bad this season may have been for Korpisalo, the evidence is there that he can be a starting goalie at the NHL level. The only question now is whether or not he can take advantage of the opportunity presented to him and once again provide above-average play between the pipes.
His career may depend on it.
