The NHL has hit the Olympic break, and the American Hockey League (AHL) is hitting its All-Star Break. One player who wishes the break wasn't coming is forward Georgii Merkulov. To say that he is on a heater entering the break is an understatement.
The Baby Bruins closed out their pre-break schedule on Saturday night with a 2-1 shootout win over the Hartford Wolf Pack. The 25-year-old undrafted free agent out of Ohio State, Merkulov, recently became the P-Bruins' all-time leader in points. Now, as he enters the break, he is making the case to be a player called up to Boston should injuries continue to mount for the Black and Gold.
Merkulov enters the break through 42 games for Providence, which has won 10 in a row, with 16 goals and 19 assists for 35 points. He had a plus/minus of plus-12 and was on a five-game point streak entering Saturday night's game. I know a lot of people don't care for that stat, and he closed out the pre-break with the game-winning goal in the shootout win over Hartford.
What does the future hold for Georgii Merkulov with the Boston Bruins?
The AHL All-Star Classic will take place in Rockford, Illinois, from Feb. 10-11 before play resumes next weekend. The 5-foot-11 Merkulov is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to getting to Boston.
In Boston, head coach Marco Sturm is loaded with bottom-six forwards, and he is asking some of them to play higher than that out of necessity. Currently, Pavel Zacha is out injured, and he'll miss the Olympics for the next couple of weeks with an upper-body injury. Elias Lindholm, who is on injured reserve in Boston before the break, missed the last couple of games like Zacha, but Matthew Poitras was brought up in their place for the Florida trip against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers.
As for Merkulov, could he be moved at the trade deadline next month if Boston general manager Don Sweeney starts wheeling and dealing? We'll see, but he clearly is doing everything he can to prove that he deserves a shot in Boston.