Jacob Markstrom suffers scary injury versus Boston Bruins

The New Jersey Devils are in a huge rut right now, but one player who has been as stellar as he’s been all season is Jacob Markstrom. The Devils’ starting goalie has a 9.42 goals saved above average since the beginning of December, which is sixth best in the NHL according to Natural Stat Trick. He’s also made some saves that should be on the Save of the Year rankings in the past month, and he’s keeping the Devils in games despite his offense scoring just one and two goals for most of the stretch. 

On Wednesday night, the Devils' safety blanket went down. Markstrom was preparing for Justin Brazeau to rush toward the net, but he didn’t expect the collision that came next. With Brenden Dillon on him, Brazeau went full speed into Markstrom, and his leg got caught against Markstrom’s, which was wedged up against the post. 

As of this writing, there is no update to the injury, but it doesn't look good. Markstrom was having trouble putting weight on the leg as he came off the ice, and even when he skated away from the help he was getting to test if the leg could hold him up, it looked like he was struggling to get moving. Some have said in the tunnel he couldn't put much weight on the leg at all.

Jacob Markstrom suffers scary injury against the Boston Bruins

This could be an absolutely terrible injury for the Devils. The team has mostly had positive injury luck for its most important players. While the likes of Curtis Lazar, Erik Haula, and Nathan Bastian have gone down, and they had to start the year without Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce, they've largely avoided that strategy-changing injury.

It looks like that might change now. Jake Allen has played well in stretches this season, but he can't be the only one playing. The Devils have Nico Daws in Utica, but they don't have any other veterans in the system that they could call on. There might be a move in the Devils' future if Markstrom is out long term.