Going into the Winter Olympics, conventional wisdom says that Jacob Markstrom was going to Milan to watch the Olympics as a member of Sweden. He’s had a terrible season with the New Jersey Devils, and the other options were coming in ahead of him.
The duo of Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson, coming from the Minnesota Wild, have both been really good this season. They both have save percentages over .900, with Wallstedt stopping 91.4% of the shots against him.
To start the Olympics, Sweden gave Gustavsson the reins. He was pretty disappointing to start. In two starts, including a disappointing outing against Finland, Gustavsson has an .889 save percentage through two games. His goals saved above average is -0.79.
Meanwhile, Markstrom, who has dressed for every game while Wallstedt was a healthy scratch, has a .906 save percentage in one game and almost exactly 0 GSAA. He is stopping exactly the number of goals he’s supposed to.
Markstrom did give up a terrible goal at the end of the Slovakia game with less than a minute left. Sweden still won 5-3, but if he hadn’t allowed that goal, Sweden had a real chance to win Group B. Now, they are the seven seed and are primed for a matchup with Team USA in the quarterfinals.
Sweden has had a strange approach to its lineup, at times benching Jesper Bratt and Filip Forsberg. Head coach Sam Hallam has said he won’t reveal who is going to be the Swedish starter moving forward. However, we have a sneaky feeling that Markstrom is going to get the nod.
He’s the veteran of the group, and he still has had the best performance of the three (although one hasn’t even played a game). We’ve seen coaches like this lean on the veteran, regardless of their trajectory or mistakes.
New Jersey Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom has the inside track to being Sweden's starting goalie moving forward
We’ve seen this plenty of times. The Devils have leaned on Markstrom through thick and thin. They even gave him a contract extension despite his struggles.
Sweden is in a desperate position, and those in desperate positions often go with the safe option. As crazy as it sounds, the veteran netminder is the “safe” option, even if he might not be the best option. We’ll see how it works out (and if Coach Hallam doesn’t throw a surprise).