New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe says what we all see with Jacob Markstrom

Jacob Markstrom isn't healthy. He returned from his pretty serious knee strain on March 2nd. That was about six weeks since then-Boston Bruins forward Justin Brazeau went full force into Markstrom's lower body, causing his leg to get stuck on the post and stretching his knee in the wrong direction. The Devils were lucky it was only a strain.

Since Markstrom has returned, he's had one good performance. In his return game, he stopped 22 shots on 24 attempts in a loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. While it did add one to his loss column, Devils fans were more than happy with a .917 save percentage in the game. Since then, Markstrom has not had a save percentage over .852 in a game.

Against the Flames on Thursday, Markstrom was looking pretty good. The Devils deserved credit for keeping shots away from Markstrom, but he was stopping the ones coming his way. He had only given up one goal in the first two periods, and the Devils entered the third period with a 3-1 lead. This one should have been in the bag.

Then, Markstrom let up a soft goal to start the third period. The Devils were still leading. But with less than five minutes remaining, Daniil Miromanov scored his second goal of the year to tie the game. A minute later, a terrible play by Johnathan Kovacevic put the puck right on Jonathan Huberdeau's stick, and he did not miss with the eventual game-winning goal. It was officially a collapse by the Devils.

Markstrom couldn't do much to stop Huberdeau, but he probably could have had the second and third goals. He's just not seeing the puck very well right now, and that might be due to rust, or it could be because he's still injured. That's probably the case, and it was basically confirmed by Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe after the game.

Four words hold a lot of weight. "He's not there yet," tells us he's not 100 percent. Our eyes also tell us that about Markstrom. A knee injury takes time to heal, and being ready for hockey games doesn't always equate to "ready for NHL games."

The Devils are pushing for a playoff spot. Luckily, the Rangers, Blue Jackets, and Senators all lost on Thursday night, so this loss won't hurt them too bad in the standings. They are still on track to make the postseason, but they have a very important decision to make in net. Is it time to get Jake Allen ready for real? Is he the playoff starter going into their first-round matchup? At this point, it seems like an easy choice.