Devils Lucky To Have Goaltender Jake Allen To Steer Ship In The Right Direction

Like last season, the New Jersey Devils have been hit by the injury bug.

This time around, it got the team's starting goaltender, Jacob Markstrom. Devils' head coach Sheldon Keefe said yesterday that Markstrom, 35, would miss a "couple of weeks" after he sustained a lower body injury against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday, October 13.

“It’s good news, based on what had happened,” Keefe said. “I don’t consider it to be too serious at this point, but he’s going to have to miss a little bit of time.”

Markstrom has been inconsistent between the pipes since joining the Devils last season. He went 26-16-0-6 with a 2.50 goals-against average, a .900 save percentage, and four shutouts last season and in three games this season, he is 2-1 with a 3.89 goals-against average and a .845 save percentage.

While the injury to Markstrom is certainly tough to swallow, especially after what the club went through last season with the myriad of injuries they had to overcome, they are lucky to have a more than capable backup goaltender to steer the ship in right direction. That backup goaltender is Jake Allen.

Allen, 35, is coming off a season in which he was terrific for the Devils. He was 13-16-0-1 with a 2.66 goals-against average, a .908 save percentage, and four shutouts.

He was also terrific in his first start of the season against the Blue Jackets. He stopped 23 of 24 shots in a winning effort, but had to be replaced by Markstrom due to cramping.

There are several reasons why Allen has the potential to put the Devils in a really good spot before Markstrom returns from injury. For starters, he has shown that he can provide consistent enough goaltending to win games over his career.

As of this writing (Thursday, October 16), Allen is 208-184-0-43 with a 2.75 goals-against average, .908 save percentage, and 28 shutouts. He has shown in the past that he can play a lot of games and provide the goaltending that is needed to win those games.

Secondly, Allen plays a very simple game between the pipes. He plays the angles, does a great job of controlling the rebounds, is smart when it comes to playing the puck, and he rarely gets caught out of position.

Lastly, he probably loves the fact that he has the opportunity to show the team that he can still be a quality starting goaltender in this league. If Allen can play well while Markstrom's out, he has a chance to take over the team's net moving forward this season.

Again, this is not a position that the Devils want to be in just a few games into the season. With that said, having Allen in the net should more than help keep this team afloat while Markstrom recovers from his injury.