Jacob Markstrom’s Heroics Key New Jersey Devils’ 3-2 Win Over Seattle Kraken

New Jersey snapped their four-game losing streak thanks to their goaltender, and will head back east with a feel-good win

This past offseason, general manager Tom Fitzgerald talked of going “Big Game Hunting” for a starting goaltender. It made all the sense in the world, considering poor goaltending had sunk his team in every season but one since he took over for predecessor Ray Shero. Eventually, Fitzgerald landed on his man and swung a trade with the Calgary Flames for Jacob Markstrom. Fast forward to tonight (this morning?) and Fitzgerald’s big game acquisition was the reason the New Jersey Devils defeated the Seattle Kraken 3-2 on Monday night.

It was a much needed victory. New Jersey entered the contest on a four-game losing streak. The offense had dried up, the defense was uncharacteristically leaky, and the goaltending, while solid, hadn’t been able to bail them out. Tonight, Markstrom finally had enough. His raw numbers look strong (21 saves on 23 shots for a .913 Save%) but nothing spectacular. And according to Natural Stat Trick, Markstrom only saved 0.11 Goals Above Expected this evening. But this is a night where you throw every stat out the window. Of Markstrom’s 21 saves, it seemed like at least half of them were five-alarm stops. Forget .011, Markstrom saved about 4 goals tonight. Simply put, the Devils’ losing streak would have easily reached five games if not for Markstrom’s performance.

I mentioned the defense being uncharacteristically leaky recently, and while tonight was a step in the right direction, the Devils still gave up far too many golden opportunities. In the first period alone, Dougie Hamilton committed a bad turnover in the neutral zone that set Seattle up for a shift where they flew all over the Devils’ zone and peppered the net with shots…Andre Burakovsky managed to break away behind Hamilton and the Devils’ defense for a premium scoring chance…and Seattle somehow got a three-on-one that ended with Oliver Bjorkstrand ripping a shot all alone about 10 feet in front of goal.

And Jacob Markstrom was there every time.

New Jersey did clean it up as the game went on, but the high danger chances against still weren’t done. In the third, Shane Wright set up Eeli Tolvanen who was inexplicably left uncovered on the back door. It was a tap-in goal, but incredibly, Markstrom said no:

Granted Tolvanen redirected that a little bit back into Markstrom’s glove, but that’s still amazing stuff. Then late in regulation with the Kraken hunting for an equalizing goal, Matty Beniers had himself a golden chance with Markstrom down and out of position. But Markstrom’s athleticism saved the day again:

Somehow, someway, Markstrom whacked the floating puck away with his stick as he was falling to the ice. That was the last big save of the game for Markstrom, as the Devils salted away the rest of the clock and closed out their first win of 2025.

After four very lackluster games in a row, this was a better effort tonight. Timo Meier and Nico Hischier did some great work to set up a Dawson Mercer rebound goal in the first period for the opening score of the game. Paul Cotter worked hard to get lucky on a forecheck goal with about 30 seconds left in the second period. Ondrej Palat wired a brilliant shot home off a Jack Hughes feed for the game-winner early in the third. And the defense, while still bleeding more chances than they should have, did just enough to secure the victory.

All is not entirely cured with the Devils, but for tonight at least, they can feel good about themselves as they get back in the win column.

And they have their Big Game acquisition to thank for that.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of the NHL’s website

Quick Hits

Apologies for the brevity of this section, but it is very late as I write this. So we’re going to do this quick hits style. Here are some other takeaways from the game:

• We’ll start with the absence of Erik Haula, who looks like he’ll miss some time:

Hopefully it’s nothing too serious. In the meantime, Justin Dowling took Haula’s place centering the third line tonight. I thought he was fine, and did his job as well as anyone could have hoped for.

• Dougie Hamilton giveth, and Dougie Hamilton taketh away. Tonight, he created the zone entry and collected and assist on the Ondrej Palat goal. He made a great setup for Curtis Lazar for a dangerous chance off another zone entry. And he put four shots on goal, second only to Jack Hughes on the Devils tonight. But he was also victimized on the Andre Burakovsky breakaway, the Eeli Tolvanen chance that Markstrom bailed him out on, and a brutal turnover in the first period led to an extended shift in which Seattle bombed away at the Devils’ net. The offense Hamilton produces is incredible. But the defense is plays is…well…also incredible, just not in a good way, Tonight was the full Hamilton experience.
• Another game where the Devils are not granted a power play by the officiating crew. To be fair I’m struggling to think of instances where I thought the refs missed a call, so it’s not like this is a complaint. More of an observation. Calling Brett Pesce for a fighting major when Brandon Montour mugged him and Pesce didn’t even drop the gloves was insane though. One day the Devils will benefit from officiating going their way, but this road trip has been lousy with bad officiating breaks.
• If not for Markstrom’s heroics, we might have been looking at another goalie-ing suffered for the Devils. Philipp Grubauer, who has been dreadful this season, played a very strong game himself. The numbers don’t bear that out, but he had to make his fair share of premium saves as well. New Jersey faced Grubauer in both games against Seattle this season, and in both games Grubauer was surprisingly strong, but the Devils won anyway. New Jersey has been on the receiving end of some shockingly good goaltending performances lately, so it was nice to see them overcome one for a change.

Next Time Out

The Devils return from the west coast, and basically come all the way home, but not to play a home game. They’ll battle the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden to close out the road trip on Thursday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Your Take

If you stayed up to watch this game, what did you make of it? How impressed are you with Jacob Markstrom? What do you expect as the Devils return east? What else needs to improve for this team in your eyes? As always, thanks for reading!