The NHL’s advanced statistics suggest Tuesday night will go down as one of the darkest statistical performances ever by a goaltender. Jacob Markstrom’s performance for the New Jersey Devils against the New York Islanders is currently considered the worst single-game performance in NHL history in terms of goals saved above expectations. And the entire time the match played out, a goalkeeper who is all too familiar with conceding nine goals watched.
Markstrom wasn’t taken out of the crease, despite seeing that almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Islanders goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin rubbed salt in the wounds and delivered one of the best performances of the season, finishing more than 4.49 goals above expectations. The Devils fired 45 shots but were completely shut out.
Markstrom was embarrassed, and who knows what comes next
Markstrom allowed nine goals on 24 shots and finished with a .625 save percentage. The question of whether he should have been withdrawn arose early on – and only grew louder as the goals piled up. Then it was about whether he was pulled down late and whether he would be humiliated if he was pulled down at seven or eight o’clock.
After the match, Markstrom owned his performance and bore the shame of a terrible outing as a professional.
“We would like to apologize to the Devils fans,” Markstrom said. “I have to be better. We made more than 40 shots and they made 20 and scored nine. I’m ashamed of myself. Not good enough.”
That Patrick Roy was the coach on the other bench as things unfolded is the ultimate irony. Watching a goalie give up nine goals to Roy — a coach who once suffered a famous 11-1 defeat before being pulled and then demanding a trade from Montreal — had an eerie, round feeling.
It was a night to forget for Markstrom and the Devils. The hope is that Markstrom doesn’t suffer the same fate as Roy – that something like that would sour the relationship between the two parties, preventing them from working together.
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