The New Jersey Devils and fans alike got their first glimpse of newly acquired goaltender Jacob Markstrom in game action on Sunday evening against the New York Islanders.
There was certainly an excitement in the Prudential Center air, brought on by just the presence of the Swedish netminder on the ice. When Markstrom led the Devils to the ice for warmups, there was a decent roar from Devils fans in the three-quarter filled arena. And when Markstrom was announced as the Devils’ starting goaltender over the PA system, he received quite the ovation.
The Devils and their fans haven’t had a goaltender of Jacob Markstrom’s caliber tend their twine in a long time.
In the 4-2 loss to the Islanders on Sunday, Markstrom allowed two goals in the first 40 minutes before he was pulled during the second intermission to give Nico Daws some reps.
Aside from the two goals he allowed, the Swedish netminder stood tall, stopping 14 of 16 pucks he saw. He also certainly stopped a puck or two that was meant to cross the goal line.
Despite his positive performance, Markstrom claims he’s still absorbing his new teammates, alluding to the fact that he will be even better.
“I feel there was a little bit more information, especially with the new D-man and new players in front of me,” Markstrom explained. “When you know your D-men, you kind of know where in the game where they’re going. But, I’m picking up a lot of information just by playing today through two periods. It was really good for me. Learning about how they like it, and what they like to do and stuff like that. So, I got a lot of information today.”
On Markstrom’s performance, the players in front of him felt the boost from the backend and were impressed with his timely saves.
“I think he played a really good game, and you can see he is confident back there. It gives us confidence as well,” captain Nico Hischier said.
“I thought he played great, I mean, first game back in a long time. For goalies, it’s kind of a different game with everything,” Jesper Bratt said. “So, I thought he played well. He had some very big, key saves that we really needed in some desperate times, and we know he’s just going to keep getting better and better, too.”
Key saves in desperate times, Bratt says?
Well, that certainly aligns with Markstrom’s season in 2023-24, when he led the NHL in high-danger save percentage (HDSV%). The Devils’ goaltender accrued a .857 HDSV% last season when the league average was .788. What’s more impressive is he did so while under fire quite a bit with the Calgary Flames. Last season, he made the fifth-most high-danger saves in the NHL.
Even head coach Sheldon Keefe beamed while reflecting on Markstrom’s performance. He explained the play in front of Markstrom wasn’t as tight as he’d hoped. According to Keefe, Markstrom kept the game closer than it should have been.
“He was excellent. Like I was saying, there were a few times there, I thought we made it a little too easy to get to our net in the first period. I thought he was outstanding,” Keefe explained emphatically. “He showed his athleticism, size, his ability to clean up mistakes. So that was good to see. I was hoping we didn’t have to utilize him as much as we did. We didn’t give up much in the first period, but when we did, they were getting in pretty clear and free at our net. So that’s something we’ll talk about, for sure. But overall, I thought he did a really nice job. A good day to get him 40 minutes, come out healthy and clean, and get ready for the next game.”
Markstrom displayed some aggressive and athletic goaltending on Sunday. He was unafraid to challenge shooters by standing above his crease. When shooters closed in to high-danger areas, the former Vezina runner-up displayed explosive lateral movement and athleticism to keep probable goals from entering the net.
The Devils have a goaltender. Rejoice, Devils fans.
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