The Devils Should Play Jake Allen More Down the Stretch

Between Jacob Markstrom’s recent struggles and the mathematic impossibility of Jake Allen reaching 40 GP at this point, the Devils need to play the best players they can at the moment

Let’s have some fun with blind resumes for a second.

Player A: 5 games, .927 save percentage, 3-2 record

Player B: 5 games, .828 save percentage, 1-4 record

Given that you clicked on this article, you don’t need a PhD to figure out who the two players are.

Player A is Jake Allen since the Devils returned from the Four Nations break.

Player B is Jacob Markstrom since he returned from injury.

Are we talking about relatively small sample sizes? Absolutely. Five games is not a big enough sample size to make sweeping judgments about either player, particularly two well-respected veteran netminders like Allen and Markstrom. Although if you want a larger sample size, there’s this.

No goaltender in the league has more goals saved above expected than Jake Allen in the last 20 games. For full disclosure, Markstrom is 29th on that list with 4.0 goals saved above expected.

Regardless, going back to our not-so-blind resumes for a second, five games is enough to at least take a step back and look at what you’re doing as a coaching staff. It’s enough to justify a mental break or reset for a 35 year old goaltender coming off a serious knee injury. And given how Markstrom hasn’t looked quite the same since he returned from said injury, the Devils would be smart to consider playing Jake Allen a little more down the stretch as they try to accumulate as many points as possible and inch closer to clinching a playoff spot.

That’s not to say that Markstrom should be replaced as the starter permanently. That’s not to say that he should be traded this offseason. That’s not to say that he shouldn’t be given an opportunity to try to play his way out of this recent funk (within reason). And I’m not necessarily suggesting that Jake Allen should be the unquestioned starter moving forward.

But if the idea is to try to win as many games as possible down the stretch, and if the idea is for the Devils to accumulate as many points as possible, who gives the Devils a better chance to win a hockey game right now?

Who should the Devils have more confidence in right now given their recent bodies of work?

Who do you think the Devils players have more confidence in between the pipes right now?

Publicly, the Devils will say they have confidence in both players, as they should. In games like Saturday’s against Pittsburgh where Markstrom gets shelled, they’re going to say they need to be better in front of him. And they’re right…..they do need to be better. Simon Nemec needs to clear the puck from the defensive zone when he has a chance. Dawson Mercer needs to not let a bouncing puck get past him for a scoring opportunity. Brian Dumoulin needs to not get beaten as badly as he did on the Rickard Rakell goal. The newly minted $20M defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic needs to not have a turnover that directly leads to a goal. By now, you get the idea though….that’s just 4 of the 6 goals that Markstrom allowed on Saturday (the seventh being an empty netter).

Juxtapose that to a game like what we saw on Monday against Columbus where yes, the skaters made fewer glaring errors in front of the goaltender, but make no mistake. The Devils won that game because of the brilliant play of their goaltender.

At this moment, Allen is clearly the better option.

That doesn’t mean the Devils are going to bury Markstrom, publicly or privately, just because he’s hit a rough patch coming off an injury. But there’s also nothing wrong with giving Markstrom a bit of a breather and letting him gather himself.

Markstrom should get a run of games at some point between now and the end of the regular season to get an opportunity to regain his confidence, regain his swagger, and be in a position to help the Devils win hockey games come a Best-of-Seven series. But you can give him that kind of workload while simultaneously playing the more consistent goaltender now and giving yourself a chance to win now.

The truth of the matter is that the Devils will need BOTH goaltenders to get where they want to go. The Devils aren’t going to be consistent enough offensively to win games in that matter come playoff time, so they’re going to need the guy in net to give them a chance to win more often than not. It’s not ridiculous to suggest the Devils ride the hot hand, especially when we get to the point where we’re in the middle of a playoff series and every game is a must-win. If one guy has it and the other doesn’t, they’d be foolish to continue forcing the guy who doesn’t have it into the lineup.

The Devils haven’t really had a goaltending controversy during the season, in part because Markstrom and Allen have both played well. But the Devils still gave Markstrom a starter’s workload and Allen a backup’s workload. I’m not saying they were wrong to do that because they both gave them a chance to win more often than not, but it’s also easy to remember that the outstanding trade stipulation from last year’s deal with Montreal was a factor to some extent. You know the one, where if Allen appeared in 40 or more regular season games AND if Allen’s team qualified for the playoffs, the 2025 3rd round pick the Devils owe Montreal becomes a 2nd.

With Allen at 26 games played and only 13 regular season games remaining, it is mathematically impossible for Allen to hit 40 games in the regular season.

The Devils have the luxury of having two goaltenders who have had very good seasons this year (three if we count Nico Daws in another relatively small sample size). There’s no reason for them to be stubborn and try to force one when one of them hits a rough patch.

Markstrom will get his opportunity to shine at some point, and I have little doubt that he’ll find his footing and get back into a groove like we saw before his injury. But for now, there’s nothing wrong with getting Jake Allen a little more run.