from Jeff Svoboda of BlueJackets.com,
As his summer was slipping away, Elvis Merzlikins could have continued to spend August at his home in Lugano, Switzerland, with picturesque Lake Lugano on one side and the rugged, beautiful Alps on the other.
Or he could have flown to Detroit, a fine Midwestern city in its own right but not exactly overflowing with lakefront palm trees or mountain vistas....
...Merzlikins and Legace were doing a similar form of friendship building on the human side. Trust is perhaps the hardest earned but most important quality in Merzlikins' life, and the goaltender admitted when he first met Legace, it simply wasn't there.
After the time in Detroit over the late summer, it was a totally different feel.
"I started to trust him the last two weeks at his home when I was there," Merzlikins said when he arrived in Columbus this fall. "Now I'm trusting him 100 percent. He's one of my best friends here that I have. I think it's important to build a relationship because this person knows when to push you and when to leave you alone and maybe give you a rest.
"I think this is really important. I had this kind of relationship with my ex-goalie coaches, and it worked really well so I'm happy."
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