The New Jersey Devils won an important game on Monday night. After looking terrible to end a five-game road trip, including a 6-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers that flabbergasted head coach Sheldon Keefe, the Devils looked much better on Monday night against the Detroit Red Wings. Don’t get us wrong, they allowed too many chances, but it was a high-intensity game, which leads to a ton of high-danger chances.
Keefe went with Jacob Markstrom in net, which worries many Devils fans. Markstrom has been bad this season, and he’s not reliable as a starting goalie.
Going into Monday’s tilt with the Red Wings, Markstrom had a save percentage under .870. He had one game all season where he stopped 90% of the shots against him. He was consistently bad all year. What’s worse is he wasn’t making big saves or small ones. He was letting stinkers get past him.
On Monday night, those stinkers weren’t getting by. In fact, the great chances the Red Wings were getting weren’t getting by, either.
Jacob Markstrom won the game for the New Jersey Devils
Detroit put everything in front of Markstrom, and he was ready for it. Was Markstrom perfect? No, not at all. He still let too many shots turn into rebounds. The Red Wings got multiple shots on net during opportunities, but that’s such a small issue when looking at the grand scheme of things.
Markstrom was confident on Monday night, especially against high-danger chances. It started with a breakaway by J.T. Compher. He just came out of the penalty box after a dirty hit on captain Nico Hischier. It would be dejecting to allow him to score after what he did. Markstrom stoned him straight up.
Throughout the game, the Red Wings would put great chances on net. The Devils took an early lead and tried to sit back and hold onto it. After the Red Wings scored with 10 minutes left in the game, they literally put everything out there. They had multiple chances within the last two minutes, including shots from Patrick Kane and Lucas Raymond, but Markstrom was strong on each of them.
The Devils were messy in their own zone during important moments, but Markstrom showed he could be the team’s last line of defense. This has to be a sign of things to come. With Brett Pesce and Johnny Kovacevic still injured, Luke Hughes being paired with Simon Nemec for a high-energy line, and Jonas Siegenthaler having an off-year, the goalies need to be the best players on the ice. On Monday, Markstrom was the best player.