The Devils announced Friday morning that goaltender Jacob Markstrom underwent imaging on Thursday that showed an MCL sprain suffered Wednesday night against Boston that will sideline him for 4-6 weeks.
It’s obviously a blow for the Devils. Markstrom has played his best hockey of late. He was named the NHL’s Third Star of the Month for December after going 8-1-1 with a 1.30 goals-against average and .937 save percentage and two back-to-back shutouts for 139:35 minutes of shutout hockey. And he carried the load lately, starting seven of the past eight games for New Jersey, including six straight starts.
“It is what it is. You have to take these things as they come. It’s a reality of the league,” Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Pretty much every team deals with it in some form or another.
“I’ve talked about this from the start of the season, we want to be the type of team that no matter what happens we can pick each other up and the structure can take care of itself, and the collective group can be better to help out.”