Blue Jackets HC Pascal Vincent: "The Plan was the plan"
The Columbus bench boss was asked about how he was going to handle the rotation now that Elvis Merzlikins has come out publicly about requesting a trade. Vincent responded with "Well, we have three goalies. You know what? Im not aware of this. That was a little bit of a surprise to me. My job is to coach the players that are here. I know there were some conversations with Jarmo and his agent and Elvis. Those conversations happened and Elvis mentioned a scenario change, but you know what? What I know is, he likes playing in Columbus, he likes his teammates, he was really good, and he is going to be at practice this morning, and we're going to continue. Business must go on, the show must go on, and that's how we're going to approach it."
Vincent also went on to say about Tarasov, "The plan was the plan. We need to see Tarasov, the guy hasn't played, not many games in a row. We want to see what he has, what he's got. We have three goalies, we'll have to make some decisions."
With Elvis coming out saying that he requested a trade, all everyone can hope is that this doesn't poison the locker room. Also, one has to wonder what the relationship between Elvis and his coaches will be. It's obvious the relationship between Elvis and the CBJ front office has soured, and hopefully, that hasn't happened, or won't happen between Merzlikins and his teammates.
You can listen to the full interview below.
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