John Tortorella makes an unexpected change to his lineup against the Leafs.

Tortorella isn't talking.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
John Tortorella makes an unexpected change to his lineup against the Leafs.
Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times/Zuma

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella may have just thrown his first curveball at the Toronto Maple Leafs and we are still several hours away from the puck dropping for the start of Game 1.

On Sunday when speaking with reporters in his pre-game press conference Tortorella was asked whether or not he would be willing to reveal his starting goaltender for the evening, and the Blue Jackets bench boss was surprisingly willing to give a response. Tortorella confirmed that it would be Joonas Korpisalo that would be starting in goal for the Jackets, a very surprising move to many considering how the latter stages of the regular season had played out for the Jackets with Latvian goaltender Elvis Merzlikins having his breakout out season in the National Hockey League. As a result many expected Merzlikins would be a heavy favorite to earn the starting job out of training camp, but we now know that will not be the case. 

Tortorella was asked to elaborate on the decision but he refused to do so, stating "I'm not explaining it so don't even go there," when asked by a reporter to expand on the decision to go with Korpisalo. He did however state that he credits both goaltenders for giving the Blue Jackets to be in the opportunity they currently find themselves, and did admit that he feels having two capable goaltenders could potentially give him an advantage here in the postseason. 

I think it is safe to say that the reaction to this move from the Blue Jackets fan base has been mixed, with most believing that Merzlikins should be the one getting the start here over Korpisalo. It makes sense given the recency bias, Merzlikins outplayed Korpisalo during the regular season there is no question about it. Merzlikins made 33 appearances for the Blue Jackets and posted outstanding numbers with a 2.35 goals against average and a .923 save percentage and there was no doubt that he had earned the starting role by the end of the season, meanwhile Korpisalo posted a 2.60 goals against average and a .911 save percentage over 37 games. I have to stress however that these numbers reflect the performances of these two men from several months ago and there's no way of really knowing just how much the mid-season stoppage impacted each goaltender. I don't believe even for a moment that Tortorella would start Korpisalo if he did not believe that Korpisalo gave him the best chance of winning on Sunday.

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