Who’s the man right now in the Blue Jackets goal?
That’s the question our own Ed Francis asked just about a month ago to the day.
If you were asking that question then, or even a week ago, you might not even know what to say. You would probably expect Daniil Tarasov to be in the AHL playing with the Cleveland Monsters and continuing to develop. Instead, he’s been tasked with playing large minutes for the Columbus Blue Jackets in goal several times this season and especially over the last week.
Despite just a 2-6-1 record across nine starts and 10 appearances, and 3.03 goals against average to go with a .915 save percentage, he’s done a pretty good job with his opportunity.
After being recalled from Cleveland last week, Tarasov has made three consecutive starts for the Blue Jackets, starting with last Thursday’s more tightly contested 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning than the score indicates, a 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, and a 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday night.
"He's very calm," head coach Brad Larsen said following Saturday's game. "Even the moments where (the opposition) coming at you and they start putting some pressure. His size helps him, where he drops, he's calm, positioning he seems pretty sound, and a lot of pucks hit him, too, even if he's not ready.
"I thought it was another good game from him."
It hasn’t exactly been a three-headed monster for the Jackets in goal, but Joonas Korpisalo (4-5-1, 3.53 GAA, .903 SV%) (0.2 goals saved above expected, 5v5 — MoneyPuck) performed admirably throughout most of November and a few December starts before going down with a lower-body injury on Dec. 9, ultimately necessitating Tarasov's recall.
Elvis Merzlikins’ struggles (4-8-0, 4.68 GAA, .864 SV%) are well-documented and he’s last among all goalies (79, min. one start) to suit up this season with a -16.9 GSAx per MoneyPuck. Due to the inconsistencies and injuries in goal, this is why Tarasov has seen his NHL workload increase this season after getting the chance to test the NHL waters last year, before requiring the same season-ending hip surgery as Korpisalo endured.
Under more ideal scenarios, maybe Tarasov is playing for the Monsters right now and honing his craft instead of playing robust playoff contenders like the Lightning, Bruins, and Stars. That might imply Korpisalo is healthy or Merzlikins is progressing instead of regressing. But obviously, this has been far from a season of ideal proportion. And Tarasov has shown the ability to hang with the big boys, possessing a 3.9 GSAx in 5v5 situations this season.
Like in a performance against the Florida Panthers that saw him make a career-high 47 saves in a surprising 5-3 win on Nov. 20.
In Saturday’s loss, Tarasov’s GSAx was 0.16 according to MoneyPuck. It was 0.36 against the Lightning and that includes a bad first goal—Pierre-Edouard Bellemare's only goal this season—that made its way past Tarasov, and one he'd like to have back before he locked it down through 40-plus minutes of 1-1 hockey.
#GoBolts Bellemare goal pic.twitter.com/IgriaQCZA2
— Coby Maeir (@CobyMaeir) December 16, 2022
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Evolving-Hockey
nuts #CBJ pic.twitter.com/9Jx4X1CyCF
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) December 16, 2022
Tarasov was on his game on Monday against the Stars and only looks more confident with each passing start.
Tarasov has been that guy for Columbus lately. #CBJ pic.twitter.com/GP32MydWX9
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) December 20, 2022
In his latest effort during Monday's loss, Tarasov made 32 saves and had a GSAx of 2.96 according to MoneyPuck.
With Korpisalo's initial injury diagnosis said to be 1-2 weeks, and he's now entering the second week of that timeline, Tarasov could be headed for Cleveland before too long, although it's hard to deny who should be getting the bulk of starts in Columbus right now.
Tarasov is shielding Merzlikins who has simply not been right this season.
ESPN analyst and former NHL goaltender Brian Boucher and former NHL goaltender Marty Biron said Merzlikins needs to get back to basics in an attempt to simplify his own game and regain confidence as Aaron Portzline wrote in The Athletic. Merzlikins is in year one of a five-year extension signed prior to the start of last season.
With news that Merzlikins is unavailable for Tuesday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers due to illness, Jet Greaves is on his way back to Columbus. Greaves was originally recalled by by the Blue Jackets on Dec. 10 when Korpisalo was placed on injured reserve but Greaves never appeared in a game. Greaves was sent back to Cleveland on Dec. 12 and Tarasov was recalled.
Tarasov gets the rare back-to-back nod tonight.
