After saying how he wanted more playing time, Joonas Korpisalo is proving it big time.
Thursday night's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets was a completely different and more confident Korpisalo compared to the one the Bruins' fans watched before Christmas.
Korpisalo is standing on his head for the Bruins
In his last 7 starts, Korpisalo is 5-0-2, sporting a .969 save percentage and a 2.28 goals against average, which is better than Jeremy Swayman over the same time frame. If it were still December, there would be a much different conversation happening. Just like the Bruins are one of the hottest teams since January, the tandem of Swayman and Korpisalo is also getting hot.
Korpisalo came up big in Thursday night's game against the Blue Jackets, even though he missed six minutes due to a hit that made him get checked for a concussion. He made 36 stops on 38 shots against, 19 coming in the first period alone. Michael DiPietro made his NHL league debut in 2022, while Korpisalo was getting checked out by the doctors, even though he was confused about why he was called off the ice. This happened when he collided with Blue Jackets forward Miles Wood. He came back into the game and only allowed one more goal on the way to the 4-2 win.
Koripsalo is showing he deserves playing time and is not just a full-time backup, even though at one point this season, there was a question mark next to his name. Now he is getting hot, and it comes at just the right time, as the Bruins begin the push to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Bruins have some big games coming up in the next 25 days. If the Bruins want to make it to the playoffs, they will need Korpisalo to continue to play as he has been.