Another one bites the dust: Jacob Markstrom will miss "weeks" with lower-body injury

The New Jersey Devils have dealt with a laundry list of injuries that somehow keeps growing. Luckily for Tom Fitzgerald and his front office, teams didn’t target them on waivers, allowing them to keep their depth. Already so far this season, Luke Glendening was signed after we learned of Stefan Noesen’s injury, Zack MacEwen came into the lineup when Evgenii Dadonov broke his hand, Brian Halonen was called up when MacEwen suffered his own injury, and Simon Nemec has been in the lineup with Johnny Kovacevic on the shelf. 

On Wednesday, we learned that more reinforcements are on their way. Nico Daws was called up from the Utica Comets after Jacob Markstrom was injured on Monday night. We originally learned of an issue with Jake Allen, who started the game. Then, Markstrom came in relief in the third period when Allen suffered cramping. 

He played well, keeping the Blue Jackets off the board until there were 20 seconds left in the game. The Devils had a two-goal lead at the time, so it didn’t seem like the biggest deal that they scored. Then, Markstrom had trouble getting up.

The puck hit off the post, hit Markstrom in the back, and went in. Markstrom twisted himself trying to get the puck, and defenseman Brett Pesce tried to dive to keep it out of the net. The chaos in front of the net clearly injured Markstrom. He was slow to get up, but he did get up and finish the game. 

Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said this was "good news" as it could have been much worse. Many will recall that Markstrom suffered a lower-body injury last season after a player crashed into his net in a game against the Boston Bruins. He returned and took some time to ramp up, but he was great in the playoffs.

This is unfortunate, but the Devils did get good news on Jake Allen. He should be fine after the cramping issue knocked him out of the third period last game. Thank goodness for small miracles.