First things first, the New Jersey Devils do not have a goalie controversy. Many people claim that Jake Allen should be and is New Jersey’s Number One netminder over Jacob Markstrom. Others say Markstrom just needs a little time to find his form. And others say New Jersey should just ride the hot hand game-to-game. 

Wednesday night at Prudential Center, the Devils hosted the St. Louis Blues in a Thanksgiving Eve matchup that pitted two maligned goalies against each other as Markstrom was opposed by Jordan Binnington. The final score, a 3-2 overtime victory for the Garden Staters, was helped in part by the performance of Markstrom, who made 21 saves on 23 shots faced. At the other end, Binnington was 26 out of 29.

There’s no question that New Jersey’s two goaltenders are getting up there in age, with each being 35-years-old. And there’s no denying that Allen has been the more consistent of the two so far this season. However, there are a couple of reasons why that’s been the case. For starters, Allen has been fully healthy this year, whereas Markstrom dealt with a lower-body injury that cost him two weeks back in October. 

Last season, a fair amount of New Jersey’s success was attributable to the play of both of its goalies. Across 49 starts, Markstrom was 26-16-6 with a .900SV%, a GAA of 2.50 and four shutouts. Meanwhile, across 29 starts, Allen was 13-16-1 with a .906SV%, 2.66 GAA and four shutouts. In addition to the counting stats, Markstrom had a goals saved above average of 0.5, while Allen’s was 5.0.

So far this season, Allen is 7-4-0 in 12 starts, to go along with a 2.46 GAA, .908SV% and 3.4 goals saved above average. Markstrom came into Wednesday night with a 6-3-1 record across nine starts, with an .871SV%, 3.75 GAA and -7.2 goals saved above average. Against the Blues, Markstrom certainly brought his A-game, stopping all five high-danger shots he faced.

“It feels good,” Markstrom said about stringing together a couple of solid starts. “It’s a lot easier when we play a really good system game. Blocking a lot of shots. It’s nice to get to play. It was a rocky start with injuries and all that. Those happen and you just try to find a way. With the Olympic break, it’s not a lot of practice time; we haven’t had many practices at all. So when you’re injured and try to find your game and feel good and get back healthy, it’s a little tougher. You almost gotta do it during games, which is, you know, it’s a tough league.”

Against the Blues, Markstrom was outdueled early on by Binnington as St. Louis scored on their first shot of the game. Cam Fowler wired a slapshot from the far wall that may have hit a Devils’ stick before beating Markstrom glove side, 1-0 St. Louis at 2:16 of the first period. 

Timo Meier evened the score at 11:02 of the first when he cleaned up a loose puck to the left of Binnington. “Feeling good, trying to keep it simple,” Meier explained. “Use my physicality and speed to go create a lot of loose pucks for Nico and (Jesper) Bratt so they can do their stuff…(the puck) kind of just landed perfectly. Good job by Dougie (Hamilton) getting it through, I don’t know how many bodies and how it bounced off to me. So, yeah, big goal that got us started. The process, we stuck with it and we got rewarded.”

Then, at 14:37 of the first period, with the Blues on a power-play, New Jersey’s penalty-killers allowed Robert Thomas to get in close and St. Louis’ top center sniped the puck top-shelf, beating Markstrom stick-side to take a 2-1 lead. 

“I felt good from the start,” said Markstrom. “They got a fluky first goal and then their power-play. They got some good players in that locker room over there. It was a nice shot. You just kind of have to move on. You can’t do anything about it after it goes in, so you gotta move on and our guys battle back.”

New Jersey tied the game 2-2 on a power-play goal from Nico Hischier 8:49 into the second period when he banged home the loose puck from the side of the net, putting it right through Binnington’s five-hole. 

As Devils’ Head Coach Sheldon Keefe put it, “Third period kind of felt like both teams were sort of playing to make sure that they didn’t lose the point, which seems to be happening a lot around The League these days.”

Of course, two minutes into that third period was when Ondrej Palat was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking Logan Mailloux, sending the Devils to a four-minute penalty-kill. On that kill, New Jersey buckled down and didn’t allow St. Louis to build any momentum or score. 

“It’s pretty disheartening to get four minutes in a tie game like that in the third period,” Keefe lamented after the game. “But it also has a trickle effect, right? ’cause now you also have a number of guys who have been sitting for a long period of time and they kind of lose their rhythm a little bit. So it takes a bunch to kind of get your game back after a kill like that. But credit to the guys, they’re the reason why we got through.”

After the third period came overtime and while New Jersey initially ceded possession of the puck to the Blues, they eventually got the puck back and essentially never lost it before Nico Hischier drew St. Louis’ defenders his way. New Jersey’s Captain sent a pass over to Simon Nemec, who wired the puck past Binnington to give the Devils a 3-2 win and tie the franchise record (set back in 2016-17) for most consecutive home games without a regulation loss to start the season (10). 

As for Nemec, New Jersey’s new “Mr. Overtime,” became just the sixth defenseman in franchise history to record two overtime, game-winning goals in a single season and the first since Dougie Hamilton in 2022-23. 

“I was just trying to find a spot there,” said Nemec. “And then he (Nico Hischier) followed me.”

“It’s huge for us,” said Markstrom. “Once again, it’s Nemec (who) gets the goal. But I feel like Nico (Hischier), this whole season and all of last year, he puts this team on his back. He’s the hardest-working guy every day. It might not show on the goal sheet, but everyone in this room sees it. So, I want to give him some extra credit.”