970x125
The New Jersey Devils suffered a shocking 9-0 defeat to the New York Islanders on Tuesday. In a surprising outcome, the Devils’ offense had 44 attempts on goal while scoring none, while Jacob Markstrom let in nine on 24 attempts by the Islanders.
The Islanders scored thrice in the first period through a Matt Barzal opener and two goals from Anthony Duclair. Barzal scored his second at 3:29 of the second period before Simon Holmstrom put the game virtually beyond the Devils’ reach with New York’s fifth.
Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe decided to keep Markstrom out on the ice for the third period. The period saw three new goal scorers for the Islanders, Casey Cizikas, Tony DeAngelo and Calum Ritchie, before Duclair completed his hat trick.
Markstrom spoke to reporters during his postgame press conference. He said it wasn’t his decision to be out on the ice for the full 60 minutes.
“I’m a goalie. I love being out there, not a good game,” Markstrom said. “That’s a question for someone else.”
The goalie dropped to a 10-10-1 record with an .878 save percentage and a 3.48 Goals Against Average for the season.
“It’s embarrassing and we want to apologize to the Devils fans,” Markstrom added. “I got to be better and stop more pucks. We put up 40 plus shots and they put up what 20 scored nine in that. I’m embarrassed on myself and towards my teammates and the team and defense. So it’s not good enough. I got to be better.”
Sheldon Keefe admits leaving Jacob Markstrom was part of the though process
In his postgame press conference, Sheldon Keefe said that he felt that the team’s defensive decisions let them down. He felt it would have been unfair to backup goalie Jake Allen to come into a game where the team was letting down their goaltender.
“I didn’t like the quality of chance that we had given up and Marky has been playing quite well for us,” Keefe said. “I thought he deserved the opportunity to stay in through the first period and decided to go back out with him again in the second.
“once that next one goes in, for me, now it’s just he’s just got to own it and he’s just got to battle through the rest of the game… A lot of it was just the quality of the chance that we’d given up, then the mistakes that were made leading up to that chance and I don’t think it would be fair to just put it on the goaltender in that case.”
The Devils have five losses in their last eight games. They have earned five points in that spell. Their -19 goal difference is the worst in the Eastern Conference.
Edited by R. Nikhil Parshy
