Say it with me, “pre-season hockey is finally here!” With it comes the annual reminder to please not read too much into a veteran player’s performance. Don’t get too caught up in line combinations and defense pairs. Try to remember that a player’s usage during the pre-season may not be totally indicative of how they will be used once the games actually mean something. And PLEASE, don’t let yourselves get too high or too low based on how your team or some of its players perform.
Sunday night, the New Jersey Devils hosted the New York Islanders in their first of seven pre-season contests and the final score of 4-2 in favor of the Isles is no reason to panic.
In this game, New Jersey trotted out their shiny new goaltender, Jacob Markstrom, who was acquired from Calgary during the off-season. Markstrom’s two-period, 17-save performance – on 19 shots faced – was perfectly acceptable for what it was – a pre-season affair.
“He was excellent,” Devils Head Coach Sheldon Keefe said. “There were a few times where we made it a little bit too easy to get to our net. In the first period, I thought he was outstanding, and showed his athleticism, his size, and his ability to clean up our mistakes. So that was good to see. I was hoping we didn’t have to utilize him as much as we did. But, overall, I thought he did a really nice job. So it was a good day to get him 40 minutes; get him out healthy and clean and get ready for the next game.”
Were there flashes of what he brings to New Jersey’s net after how much their netminders struggled last year? Yes. Were there some small things he needs to iron out before the team heads to Prague for two season-opening games against the Sabres? You bet. And being the veteran he is, Markstrom will surely make those adjustments. He was semi-screened on the first goal he allowed but likely could have made the save if he’d gotten himself into a better line of sight. On the second goal, the puck was redirected past him not far from the front of the net, so definitely not his fault.
Other than that, Markstrom was as advertised in his Devils’ debut. He was positionally and mechanically sound and showed the ability to be steady in the face of high-danger chances.
“(He’s) very, very solid,” Captain Nico Hischier said after the game. “I think he played a really good game and you could see he’s confident back there. It gives us confidence as well.”
“I thought he played great,” added Jesper Bratt. “I mean, first game back in a long time. I know for a goalie it’s kind of a different game with everything. I thought he played well. He had some very big, key saves that we really needed, in some desperate times of the game. And we know he’s just gonna keep getting better and better too.”
You may find yourself asking, “Why did the Devils play their starting netminder in the first preseason game?” Well, New Jersey’s pre-season will be more condensed than most teams because of their aforementioned trip to Prague that will see them square off with Buffalo overseas on Friday, October 4th, and Saturday the 5th. So, the Garden Staters need to get the kinks out and get themselves into regular-season mode sooner rather than later.
In Sunday night’s contest, New Jersey managed to take an early 1-0 lead when Captain Nico Hischier scored a power-play goal 2:20 into the game on a shot from between the hash-marks that beat goalie Marcus Hogberg high, over his blocker.
Markstrom’s first “test,” if you want to call it that, came moments after Hischier’s goal when he turned aside one-time Devil, Kyle Palmieri’s shot, for his first save in a New Jersey uniform. The save was routine, but it still drew a nice hand of applause from the Devils fans in attendance as an acknowledgement of what they went through last year and how they feel about their new netminder.
His second test was certainly more difficult as Samuel Bolduc fired a shot on the net. Simon Holmstrom and Brock Nelson then combined for a dangerous attempt at the side of the net. Markstrom reached back with his blocker, fell back, and kept the puck out of his net; again drawing a hearty hand from the crowd.
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All told, Markstrom made eight saves in the first period, with his stop on Bolduc, Holmstrom and Nelson standing as his most impressive and most difficult. As Devils’ TV Play-by-Play broadcaster, Bill Spaulding pointed out on the MSG Networks telecast, you saw Markstrom’s strength in defending high-danger chances on that attempt.
The second period was when things kicked into a different gear as Anders Lee sniped a semi-screened shot over Markstrom’s glove 8:16 into the frame to tie the game 1-1. However, the tie didn’t last long as Jesper Bratt broke in on Hogberg 32 seconds later. Bratt’s shot scooted through Hogberg’s five-hole and went into the net to give the Devils a 2-1 lead. Then, Julien Gauthier re-knotted the score at the 17:05 mark of the period as he deflected Maxim Tsyplakov’s shot-pass past Markstrom’s glove – 2-2.
Nico Daws replaced Markstrom to start the third period and performed okay. Before anybody worries about Markstrom, remember, it’s pre-season. Starters don’t usually play the entire game so early in the exhibition schedule. On the second shot Daws faced, he allowed Camden Thiesing to score the go-ahead goal and give the Islanders a 3-2 lead 2:47 into the third period. Holmstrom finished off the scoring with an empty-net goal with just over five seconds left in the game to hand the Devils a 4-2 loss. In total, Daws made saves on seven of the eight shots he faced.
Overall, the Devils started the game strong and then showed signs of fatigue late as their rigorous Training Camp workouts, coupled with this being their first game, conspired to hand them an undesirable end result.
