New Jersey Devils Injuries Continue | Markstrom Out “Couple of Weeks”

New Jersey Devils Injuries Continue | Markstrom Out “Couple of Weeks”

Well, folks, when it rains, it pours. Another day, another New Jersey Devils injury. Oh, welcome back, Devils fans. It is your host, Ace, here on Running with the Devils, where we are talking New Jersey Devils hockey all year long. Please hit that subscribe button, smash the like, share with a friend. Thank you very much. And guys, you can’t make this stuff up. The injury plague that haunts this team simply will not go away. Over the past few seasons, we’ve seen injuries to everyone, including star players, impact players, uh, everyone in between. For whatever reason, this team continues to get injured and it is super painful. Uh, obviously in the last game in Columbus, a hard-fought New Jersey Devils road victory, improving the record to 2-1. Beautiful outing for the boys, but we saw Jake Allen leave the game with cramps after two periods. Marky comes in and in the closing seconds of the game with Columbus trying to make a push to tie it. Marky gets injured. No one really knows what. There was maybe something with his hand. And then after the game, we see him kind of rush off the ice and then, you know, the JFK level analysis of the video of him leaving the ice, we see that he’s kind of favoring a leg. people start speculating is the MCL thing again and we don’t know anything from yesterday obviously off day for the team and then today we were all waiting for some news and the first kind of tip of the cap if you will or showing of the hand was this announcement Devils were called Daws Mchuan placed on IR the New Jersey Devils announced today that forward Zack Mchuan has been placed on injury reserve with an upper body injury we all thought that was coming stemming from that Tampa game. Terrible loss. I mean, it looked like he was going to be a good fourthline player for the Devils. I liked his energy. We talked about him a lot, but Mchu went into the IR. No really surprise there. The Devils also recalled goalender Nico Daw from Utica. Daw 23 has appeared in one game this season with the Comets, allowing just one goal on 27 shots for a 1.03 goals against average and a 963 save percentage. And then they give us stats for last year, which weren’t great on Udica because they struggled. But that’s the first thing we see. So then people are speculating, oh, okay, Daw is coming up. Could it still be Allen? Maybe Marky’s fine. And the whole time you’d have to believe that if the cramps thing was true that clearly the injured goalie was going to be Marky. And sure enough, uh, after practice a little while ago, we get the update. Markstrom out couple weeks. Devils goender Jacob Marstrom will miss a couple of weeks, very vague there, with a lower body injury. I called that, per Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe. He’s going to miss a couple of weeks probably. Kef said, “I consider it good news considering what had happened. I don’t consider it too serious at this point, but he’s going to have to miss a little bit of time. Mark appeared shaken up in the final minute of New Jerseyy’s 3-2 win in Columbus on Monday night, though he finished the game.” And so, here we go. Essentially exactly what I predicted that the update was going to be week to week, a couple of weeks essentially is the same thing. Lower body injury. Bang. It is what it is, right? Is it the same injury as what he suffered last season? Is it something related? is completely different. We probably will never know. But in the end, it is discouraging that this team could just not stay healthy. And for a team that was kind of in a perilous way in terms of goalending for years and years where everybody was like, “We need a steady goalie, we need a steady steady goalie.” Obviously had the goat in Martan Brod for years and years. And since then, outside of Corey Schneider, there really has not been any sort of legitimate number one net minder in New Jersey until, and Cory Schneider, Cory Schneider, mind you, shout out to him. He had some amazing seasons on on Bad Devils teams. But after him, it’s it was a rotating door of kind of journeymen and career backups. The position never was solidified in New Jersey. Finally, Fitzy had enough. He went out, he got Marstrom. I love the deal. Many of you did, some had complaints, whatever it is. But the reality is the net was solidified last year. The marquee tandem uh Marky Allen tandem was very good was very good for this Devils team and was unexpectedly the tandem coming into this season. Now it seemed like we were going to have Marky and a young guy. Most people thinking Daws obviously was the logical choice at the time given that there was going to be so much interest in Jake Allen in free agency and no one expected him to sign the absolute teamfriendly gift that he did. And again, I can’t say it enough. Shout out to Jake Allen. What a deal. He signed 1.8 times 5 years. Teams were reportedly going to offer him four and five million bucks a year. But here we are uh after three games, more injuries, including to Marky. Who knows if he ever comes back the same. Hopefully he recovers and he comes back and can perform at a high level. But I think a lot of people were kind of nervous about him heading into this season because we we don’t really know. I do think the injury may have been throwing him off his game a little bit stemming back to last season. He was never quite the same after the injury as he was before. Although I will say he did have an amazing playoff run for the Devils or if not amazing, very good uh for the Devils when it mattered the most. But here we are, Marky out. So now Jake Allen’s going to have to carry the load. He did so last year. He did it admirably. And that’s why you need a good tandem because when the top guy goes down, you you have to have a guy that’s capable of carrying a starter load for at least a period of time. I do believe Jake Allen is that guy. He proved it last year. I do think he’ll prove it again this year. Which brings us to now his backup, Nico Daws. A lot of people are like, “Oh, season’s over.” You know, again, the the extremists are are commenting and talking about all these things about Nico Daws. I believed that the tandem for this season because of what we were hearing about Jake Allen, I really thought he was going to leave in free agency. I didn’t think there was any chance the Devils brought him back. I fully expected him to be gone and I thought Daws would be in the tandem with Marky and I was completely fine with that coming into the season if I’m being honest. A lot of people have been down on Daws or they say Daws isn’t ready. Um, the reality is I was perfectly fine with that tandem coming into the season. And if I’m being honest, I still am for the time being. And here’s why. Because we look at the stats of Nico Daws now, it’s crazy. He’s already played 52 games in the league over over those past three seasons. But you look at his record last year, his numbers, I guess, from last season. Still only 24 years old. Last year, he played in six games going three and one or sorry, three wins. Uh, where’s the losses? I got to go back down here. Uh, yeah, 3-1. 3-1 with a shut out, a 1.6 goals against. Insanely good. And a.939 save percentage. Obviously, a very small sample space. I’m not going to start lighting off fireworks and such. But for anyone who believes that Daw is like this incapable goalender at this level, I think you’re sadly mistaken. We look at the year before 23-24, the season that got away from us. He he played a lot. Played in 21 games. He started 20. He went 9 and 11 with a 315 goals against and an 894. Again, end of season numbers, not that great, but as you recall, that team did have their fair share of struggles. And there were outings that he had where he looked pretty damn solid. And then we go the year before, 2122, which is basically ancient history. Two years before, sorry. He didn’t see any time in that miraculous 22 23 season. In 21-22, he started 23 games. He went 10 and 11 with a 311 uh goals against and 893 save percentage. That’s a non-playoff team. Again, hard to put too much stock into that. But I will say I do firmly believe that the New Jersey Devils defense is good enough to where any average cap just capable average NHL goalending level play from a goalender will give the Devils a decent chance to win night in and night out. I firmly believe that. the defense is very good. And so for a guy who in his most recent campaign last year went three and one with a shut out and a 1.6 goals against in a 939 save percentage, I think you guys should, you know, wait a couple games that he plays. And again, he’s not going to play a ton, but he’s going to have to play some. You know, Jake Allen’s not going to play every game. And so if Marky’s out for a few weeks, you’re probably going to see Nico Daws at least three times in that time span. And I think he’s going to do fine. I really do. I have no worries about Nico Daws. Hopefully whenever we see him for the four we have we have backtobacks coming up. Hold on me. I didn’t My bad. I didn’t have it pulled up. There’s a backtoback coming up and I he will 100% get one of those. Yeah. Tuesday uh at Toronto and then Wednesday home against the Wild. He will see one of those games for sure. And so we’re going to see what he has. But I I have faith in the kid. I I don’t think it’s the quite disastrous situation that some people are making it out to be. The defense is good and that that brings you a long way. And so I do think in the limited time we see Daws, I think he will prove to be a capable NHL goalender and hopefully he gets some wins for this club. But another day, another Devils injury. um you know for those for those keeping track at home just to and not even all the guys were on the uh the thumbnail there that I put up. Those are just some of the more the more recents but homie I have the list right here. Yeah. So coming into the season obviously we knew Johnny Kovvich on LTIR recovering from his situation. So obviously down uh top six defenseman to start the season. We knew that going back from last season. Then training camp starts. We find out on the opening day of training camp that Stephan Nason had a procedure. He’s recovering. He’s out for an undetermined amount of time. We don’t still to this day don’t know when exactly he’s coming back. And then in preseason and training camp, Ju Lamo, one of our summer signings, a guy that was expected to compete for 4C, he gets injured. He’s weak to week. They love the week to week. So Lamo out. So, that bottom six piece potential gone. Sheamus Casey gets injured with a lower body injury. Unbelievable stuff there. Uh Mark McGlaclin, another guy that was expected to compete for potentially 4C injured. So, he’s out of the running. By the way, this all this all really paved a nice path for for Glenn Denning. And I like Glen Denning. I think he was a a nice veteran bottom six ad coming off the PTO. Shout out to Glenn Denning for earning that contract. Um, some Mlaughlin. Okay, then we have uh Donov gets injured. The guy that we all thought was going to be a bottom six guy, but turns out Fitz was going to plug him in with peanut butter and jelly on that top line with Brad and Jack. He’s injured. Then Zack Mchuan gets injured against Tampa. We’re like, “Oh, we finally may have found a nice uh fourth line guy. Bring some energy, bring some size, bring some of that tenacity.” He gets injured against Tampa. and now Marky. And so, you know, I I don’t want to make excuses. I don’t want it to sound like, you know, whining or whatever, but the reality is, and I couldn’t find this easily on the internet, and I’m too lazy to do a deep dive, but the Devils have have to be towards the top of the league, if not number one, in man games lost over the last few years. I mean, this is an unprecedented run of injuries. Uh, I’ve never seen anything like this. I do like Marky. I did think our best chance to go on a deep playoff run was with Jacob Marstrom and net. I still do. I just hope that after this the injury last season and now this one that he comes back and can get to that high level again. I mean, he obviously had a little bit of a state a shaky start this season and I thought, you know, he would settle in as time went on and now we’re kind of hitting the reset button. He’s going to be out for however long and it’s going to be, you know, the whole kind of getting acclimated process all over again. And so, here we are, guys. Uh, it is what it is. Hopefully, this team just continues to go with the next man up mantra and just continue to win games and not worry about it because in the end it seems as though this team may never play a game with their entire lineup or their entire optimized lineup. It’s pretty crazy. But we get to the comments. Stickfigs, what’s going on? I blame RWJ Barnabas. Their primary customer has been away for four months. They needed to make up the balance sheet. Terrible, terrible, terrible. And then he says, Stick Fig says, “Just noticed the thumbnails. Marshmall’s new mask, his face in a Viking helmet. I like his new masks, but I hope he doesn’t mean he’s retiring his old mask. They were too good.” I think he’s he just likes he’s very into it, it seems. And so we might just see a constant rotation of masks from Marky. Anthony Garcia, okay, the Devils are cursed. They haven’t completed a full regular season yet. Yeah, it’s insane. When it rains, it pours, guys. And the injury plague is just haunting this team. Critical Chronicles, Markstrom is washed, so I don’t really care. As long as Allen and Daws are good enough, we will be fine. Uh, I disagree that Marstrom is washed. I have to disagree there. I don’t think he is. And we see we’ve seen some some big time saves from him in the first couple games. I don’t think he’s washed, but I do agree on the fact that as long as Allen and Daws are good, we’ll be fine. Now, you know, god forbid something happens to Allen and Daws has to be, you know, the carry the starter load. That would make me a little apprehensive. But in the end, because of what I just said a couple minutes ago about how good I do think the defense is, I think in that scenario, which again hopefully doesn’t happen, if Dawze has to play the majority of games for a few weeks, I think he would weather the storm and do just fine. I don’t want to see that theory tested and hopefully nothing happens to Allen. But I I have full confidence in Daws on this team with this defense. A lot of you will not, but let’s see what this kid does when he finally gets his first start and it should be next week in one of those two backtobacks. Pro Bowl forever. I’d rather see Malik over Daws to be honest. Yeah, I’m rooting for Yaka Malik. I think he’s going to be an NHL goalie somewhere someday. Hopefully in a tandem maybe with big Mike Yaggorov here down the line, but I I can’t say that I would prefer him over Daws at this point just because he has not started an NHL game and we have seen a decent body of work from Daws and what he could do and so I do think it’s a little bit of a safer play. Critter Chronicles, I’m all in on Allen after seeing him last game. I mean, yeah, but how can he maintain that? Uh, and hopefully he wouldn’t have to maintain that. He was getting pelted. Lots of rubber came Jake Allen’s way. He looked like an absolute brick wall. And if it wasn’t for Allen, I do believe the Devils would have been down, you know, two or three goals early on in that game with all the power plays. Allen was just getting absolutely pelted and he rose to the occasion. He didn’t give up a goal until finally on that breakaway. Um, Caleb says Allen is dayto-day right now, too. I He’ll be He’ll be suited up for tomorrow. I just don’t see how he wouldn’t be. They would have had to call up another another goalie. He’ll be fine. Critic Chronicles maybe seeing what Malak has would be better than Daws. Well, I think they want to see what Malak has at the AHL level. I don’t think they want to, you know, throw him out there in the regular season and kind of experiment at this juncture unless their hand is completely forced and and thus far it it’s not. You know, they have a guy in Daws who we’ve seen before. We we’ve seen what he can do, maybe inconsistently, but when he’s at the top of his game, he’s he looks pretty damn good. And he was one of the best players for the Devils in that stadium series game a couple seasons back against the Flyers at Metife um Metife Stadium, the outdoor game. Pro Bowl for Forever Daws was too inconsistent. I could see that. Probolt says maybe Bennett would be a good number three goalie. He’s he’s far away. Trenton Bennett’s only like 19, I think, but he’s a monster kid. Yeah, he’s 19 years old. If you haven’t seen it, I have a video of him at um development camp this summer. If you if you’re interested in seeing anything with him, check it out. But uh that’s on the channel. Jeffrey says, “PVO boys, thanks to Fitz. We have Allen. It’s early and N is almost back as well. Great job on the channel, by the way.” Thank you, Jeffrey. Appreciate that. Um yeah, I mean it’s really more so thanks to Allen that we have we have Allen, honestly, because you know, credit to Fitz, too, but it’s primarily Allen leaving that meat on the bone, guys. Allen leaving that meat on the bone to stay in New Jersey and it’s already coming into play way sooner than any of us would have ever wanted to see. Colobby says, “Easy win for Jersey tomorrow. Terasav will be in goal for us and home opener.” There’s no easy wins in this league, Colobby. Like I’ve said millions of times on this channel, any team could beat anyone on any given night. And so I’m not counting anything as a as an easy win, especially against the back-to-back champ Panthers that have proven they know how to win. collect records. What’s up? All on Fitz in my opinion. I like Allan and Marky, but Fitz snoozed on legitimately fixing goalending, then scrambling to find these two old guys. His lack of business sense is sickening. I mean, that’s a bit strong. I could totally understand that viewpoint. Um, I did have videos out multiple times about how I wanted uh when the the Predators were supposedly shopping Ascarov. I was super interested in him uh and would have loved to see the Devils get him to have a stud goalie, you know, at a very young age who could have maybe been the next franchise goalie. Water under the bridge, it didn’t happen. I would have loved to see it, but it seems as though big Mike Igor, our second round pick from a couple years ago, very well could be that guy. very well could be that guy looking to have a big season under head coach Jay Pandalfo at Boston University. Sarendas, why isn’t Lance up? I guess because they prioritized Halanin. I do like Halin too, but Lance is like my guy my guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy guy. I I’ve been rooting for him for a while. Uh again kind of fell in love with him watching him at BU while watching Yorov and I think Leance is eventually going to be a great bottom six piece for this team and maybe we do see him get his chance this year. Jeffrey says, “Who was out there for Fitz to get unlimited free agency market collect records?” I think he’s probably going back from a couple years ago. Um, let me try to catch up a little bit here. You guys are very chatty. What’s going on? Pyro Dubs like says, “Big Mike is at least three years away.” Maybe only two, but it could be up to three. I I could see it being sooner, but I guess a lot of that depends on what else is going on in net for the organization. And the other thing that sucks for Marky is that, you know, the team was, it seemed like the team was kind of waiting to see what he was going to look like before offering him an extension, which he’s publicly voiced he was looking for. It’s unfortunate he didn’t get it because now who really knows right now there’s another injury thing kind of attached to him. How’s he going to play? And so I do think he will be able to extend his NHL career somewhere if not New Jersey. But I I do think that kind of throws a hiccup into the whole equation in terms of him getting an extension. I don’t think the team’s going to be in any hurry to to give him that now given that he was just injured again. Maria says, “Who’s our Ebug, Marty?” I’m not even sure who it is. I It’s probably like someone who played at the college level or something. I meant to look into that because the Ebug was on the ice today. Fentanel, two 35-year-old goalies. What could go wrong? Again, I’m not a medical professional, but I I don’t know if these these and they haven’t confirmed what it is, right? If it is an MCL injury, I don’t know if that is necessarily correlates with age in any way. Like he’s 34. If he was 28, is his MCL less likely to get injured? I I don’t know enough about it, but it seems kind of silly to me based on the age thing. I just think it’s more of the kind of wear and tear and demands of the position and moving kind of in not so usual ways perhaps, but I’d be curious to hear what a doctor would say, but I I can’t blame that on age. Antino says, “Devil signed Cory Crawford.” What an interesting story that was, right? Yeah, I was I think he made it to like one practice before he was like, “My heart’s on in this. I’m out.” Dubs is like says in my book they will never live down picking holtz over Ascarov. I mean yeah a lot of people will point back to that is obviously a a miscue in terms of drafting but and a lot of people you know uh some people are using hindsight to do that obviously but I do remember a good amount of people kind of complaining about that in the moment right after and so it’s not hindsight for everybody. Some people did have that view back then so it is a fair point for many. SST says Markstrom is a has been frankly last two seasons were bad. trade him at the deadline and get a top six forward. I mean, I obviously disagree with that. He he rose to the occasion in the playoffs. I’m a marquee guy and so I think that’s extreme and I don’t think they will be trading him at the deadline. Uh and Markstrom alone certainly is not going to fetch a top six forward. Yeah, I just talked about that. Josh Fly Sports talk says, “Thank God it was only cramping for Allen. Hopefully that’s the real story. I mean, it probably is, but you never know with injuries. Everyone keeps things close to the vest and you’re always kind of wondering what the legitimacy of some of these reports are. But as long as Allen’s out there tomorrow then all as well and we’ll see how it goes. Sarendas Devils would be nuts to sign Marshion for multi-year deer. Body is breaking down. It could be. It could be. Um hopefully that’s not the case. That would be unfortunate. But you know, a lot of goalies at this age do start falling apart based on again the wear and tear of the position. I just want to see something here. So Allen is better than Marky at this stage. I mean, we’ll find out. We will find out. And Fly Sports, I meant to say that too. Uh, back to the whole tandem coming into the year. Yeah, a lot of us thought Daws was going to be traded as a result of Allen resigning. I’d imagine Fitz probably put some feelers out on the market to see and there was no takers. Clearly, there was no and no one interested in trading for him because when he did go on waivers, he cleared waiverss and so there was no demand for Daws at that juncture. Um, and now we’ll have to see if he there’s a threshold. I think it’s uh I forget how many games. Someone they someone posted it earlier, but if he’s here for a long time, there is a scenario where he may have to clear waiverss again uh to go back down. And depending on what he does in the National Hockey League, there’s a chance that he might not. I’m skipping ahead here. Jeffrey says, “Daws will be fine for a start or two until Marky comes back.” I completely agree. What’s going on, Devil Dog? Dubs is like, “Dah can go back without hitting waiverss as long as he plays under 10 games.” Uh I I did see the 10 games thing, but then I meant to get clarification. If he’s here for 10 games, but doesn’t start like because I’d imagine the 10 games is across the board, right? So, if he’s here for 10 games but only starts two, does that count or or for a goalie is it 10 starts? That’s what I’m not very clear on and it was hard to get clarification via the interwebs on that as well. Yeah, Nason’s already started skating, but a lot of guys can skate and still be quite a bit away from returning, unfortunately. So, I’m not going to put too much stock into that. Hopefully, he’s back soon because this team is better with Nason in the lineup and heavier, edger, more violent, a very, you know, necessary, if you will, element to win in this league. My buddy Goody was watching uh or sorry, watching Ace while at work is not something I had on my bingo card back in middle school circa 1996 when I went to my first hockey game where the Devils played against the Mighty Ducks. Go Devils. Oh, that’s great, man. I remember the old school the Mighty Ducks before they just became the Ducks. Uh Zay says, “Just got out of class. Hate this is the news I see.” Yeah, it’s super unfortunate. Super unfortunate, but here we are. Uh, Devil Dog says they hired this data scientist with Greg Arian from the Seattle Mariners who figured out kept their pitching staff healthy and now everyone gets injured as soon as he gets here. So, I will say, and I’ve said this for weeks now, for everyone blaming, you know, trainers and and and conditioning coaches and things for these injuries, I think it’s ridiculous. How are you going to blame a strength and conditioning coach or anyone else other than just fluke, bad luck, and curse, a curse that’s hovering over this team that, you know, Marky bends his leg a weird way and gets hurt or Dadov gets hit in the hand with the puck. Like, there’s nothing these strength and conditioning guys can do that is going to prevent this stuff. And so to blame them, I just think is kind of lazy. And looking to point the finger at somebody, I mean, it’s nobody’s fault. It’s just super unfortunate. And we’ve had the worst luck ever. Yeah, Hunter says ESPN reported lower body injury. That’s what they all are. Everything’s a lower body injury. LJ says, “I wouldn’t jump off the marky train yet. Also, if I were Fitz, I think you got to push that top six winger move to support whatever goalies in net.” I don’t think that would happen anytime soon, but I do think if this team is looking like a legitimate contender as we approach the trade deadline. I think a top six winger is obviously going to be at the top of Fitz Fitz’s wish list and hopefully something he could pull off. Rob says, “I got to burn my Cole Chuck jersey. This team has been cursed since I bought it. It’s the only thing I could think of as to why bad things keep happening to this team. Bought it after the 2012 cup run.” Yeah. Uh, it’s possible. Maybe your Kobe jersey is bad luck. Snow Devil, what happened? Uh, whatever happened with Romanov? Uh, the Devils didn’t sign him. He was on a PTO. They didn’t sign him. And I believe he signed with St. Louis. Ryan says, “Give Marky time. Everyone was forgetting the crazy saves he made last year in the playoffs. Just get him to the postseason.” That’s kind of my thoughts. Um, and hopefully, like I said, Marky has a speedy recovery and he comes back and he’s dominant. Nico is king. Speaking of goalies, Big Mike has Boston ranked number one in the nation. They’ve got a big game against number four Michigan this weekend. Very nice. I’m gonna see if I could catch one of those. I do think big Mike is the real deal and I think he is the next franchise goalie, but I think Malak could be in the mix as well. Let’s see what he could do in the A this year. But big Mike is going to be the truth. We can can’t wait for Yorov to get here. Time to win is now. Yeah, that is true. We need to win with whoever we have now. It is nice to talk about nice goalenders and things in the future, but that ain’t helping us win a cup anytime this year or next. Van Whan just waiting for the mid-season keep hate that will be incoming. Hope you had a great summer ace. Oh, it it might be coming even sooner than that depending. I mean, everyone has something to complain about Van Whan, but my summer was all right. It seemed very long. A lot of ups and downs personally, quiet news for the Devils. And we’re finally here. Season opener tomorrow. A home opener tomorrow. The Four Directions. Very excited for a home opener. I’m expecting these guys to buzz. Honorable mention to Dylan. has been stellar in our end so far. Love me some Dilly. I always like to see praise from other people. Uh Dilly, Dilly is just a complete workhorse veteran kind of guy you need to win cups as well. I know a lot of people have been down on him for whatever reason. I don’t know why. The guy is just a throwback animal. You need guys like Dilly and I I was so excited when we signed him and hopefully he continues to have a big year for this team and leads them in the playoffs on a deep deep run. Yo Holmes, yo, Ace just able to pop in. What’s the deal with Marky? I know he hasn’t been the same since he hurt his knee vers last season and now this. Yeah. Uh, you know, he was trying to get back to that elite level we saw from him for a few weeks earlier last season and here we are with another setback. It’s super unfortunate. He’s probably super bummed. My heart goes out to Marky because he’s a guy that loves the game, loves to play, wants to win, wants to help the boys, and this is probably really just messing with him. I’m sure he’s probably pretty pretty bummed right now. Putts monkey injury bug has been leaguewide this October, not just the Devils, surprisingly. Yeah, well, it’s it’s it’s been with the Devils for the past couple of years, but yeah, obviously other teams have have seen some significant losses as well. Yo, Holmes, he’s going to take pictures from the section where we saw them win the cup in 03, section 211. Oh, nice. Very nice. Chazzy Chaz, after the long off seasonason, I’m ready to do a number on the club scene drinking tenders tomorrow. Oh, yeah. There’s nothing like uh you know, feasting feasting at a hockey game. They just it just seems so right to be back in the building. And I will say obviously I did go to a couple of pre-season games, but the preseason it just it’s it’s just not the same. It’s not even close to the same to be honest. And I’ll always go to preseason because you know I love this team and I’m a hockey junkie and so any hockey I could get I’ll gladly take. And that, you know, begins roughly, was it like I forget the date of the first one, but I guess like the preseason’s like three weeks or so before the regular season. And so, you know, going to games in shorts, it’s a beautiful thing during the summer. Love it. But now we’re here where the games count and the boys are opening up tomorrow night against the defending back-to-back Cup champ Florida Panthers. Hopefully, they find a way to keep their win streak going. They’ve won two in a row now. Look out. Could that elusive four be on the horizon? Matt, if only this team had prime Corey, easy cup contender, such a dog during the dark years. Absolutely. Cory Schneider, I mean, it can’t be stated enough. He was an absolute force for bad bad Devils teams. And it it did seem like just wasted years of a prime goalender. And unfortunately, it all kind of fell apart for him towards the end of his career. But if we got that Cory Schneider level, those years level of goalending now, this team would definitely be a cup contender in my opinion. Woodson, this is what you get when you bank on players 35 plus years old. And why didn’t they get and why they didn’t get rid of Daws? Well, Woodson, you can’t really credit them for keeping Daws because essentially they were they risked losing him. It just did not happen, but they were all in on the Marky Allen tandem, which I I can’t blame them, but uh Daw is still is only still here because of kind of luck that no one claimed him on waiverss. Michael says, “I’m not worried about quality goalending. Allen and Daws will be fine. My concern is losing Daws on his way back through waiverss. And if he plays well, maybe they’re forced to trade him or maybe teams inquire about him. Uh if he comes up, ends up playing well in the few starts that he gets and then we put him on waiverss and he gets claimed. That would be a tragic ending to the whole Daws kind of saga in my opinion. Stick figs must be uh nice to be able to feast during the regular season. I may have missed my only chance to feast during the preseason. There’s always chances. Kungs, I really think Daw is a dud. The fact he didn’t get picked up with waiverss when other teams needed an extra backup says enough. Uh, I’m not going to put too much stock into that. Perception is not always reality. And so while what you’re saying could be the perception around the league, I mean some of the starts that he’s had and even more specifically his small body of work from last season would suggest otherwise. Crumbs and especially behind this defense, but we’re going to find out next week. He’s going to play one of those games. Ryan, when Nason is back, a Nason Brown gritsuk line, it would be dangerous if he can play like the start of last season. Yo, the reality is Ryan, any line with Gritsuk on it will be dangerous. I fully believe that. I think I could be a 15 goal scorer in the league playing with Gritsuk. He’s that good. And for a guy who everyone kind of hyped up his shot, the release, all this, he has shown to be capable of making elite play like elite playmaker. Some of the passes he’s been making are insane. Insane. His first one may have been the easiest one, but it was a great heads-up play where he threw it across the net mouth and Brown deflected it up. But the drop pass to Brown showed a lot of intelligence and that beautiful saucer on the power play to Dawson Mercer was a thing of beauty. Put it right in the wheelhouse. Nice sauce over the defense and Dawson just teed it up. I mean look the the hands on this kid are phenomenal. I do think the sky is the limit for Gritsuk and it’s going to be exciting to watch him continue on this season. Woodson says Dawa is definitely gone if he plays well. Putts Monkey Devs and Cats are pretty equally injured. No excuses for tomorrow. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, I would say that their injuries are are way more damning than ours are. You know, they’re they’re without Barov and Matthew Kachchuck. I mean, there’s no comparison. We’re down N. I mean, if you’re talking about roster players, you know, we’re down Marky, um, Nason and Kovase. I mean, our defense honestly shouldn’t skip a beat without Kovich. And so far, it seems that way. Obviously with the abundance of riches the Devils have on the blue line, the Kovvich injury is not going to be felt too badly. Nason, I think we could feel that a little bit. But again, with this revamped bottom six, we’re looking like the balanced team we all wanted to see. And so for me, the Cats are are way more injured than we are because two of their best players are out in Barov and and Matthew Kachchuck. Woodson says they knew no one would claim him. He didn’t show anything great in the big leagues last year. I mean, I could I could agree to the fact that Woodson maybe they thought no one would claim him, but I don’t see how they could ever know anything like that. I mean, you’re you’re leaving it to chance. I could say, you know, given whatever intel they had, they thought there was a good chance he would clear. That’s fine. But to say, you know, I don’t think you could ever know anything like that. Fitz played that hand well. Although, I think Malak might be better than Daws. And that very well may be the case. Uh, time will tell. I do think Malik is going to be is going to be a good one for sure. Um, let me just see. Did he get his second start yet? It’s so hard to find AHL stuff. Michael says, “Daws isn’t a stud. Uh, isn’t a dud. He’s been solid. two years ago, he only started to have a dip in performance after playing every game in backtobacks fresh off hip surgery. Yeah. I mean, he was he was thrust into the fire sooner than ideal because of the circumstance the Devils were in. They didn’t really have a choice. Obviously, not great for his development and less than ideal for the team obviously, but you know, sometimes circumstances dictate these sort of things and Daws kind of got thrown to the wolves. Kron after watching Daws get lit up during the preseason just has me concerned he was letting warm-up level shots in. I mean, that could happen. I don’t put too much stock into the preseason. Just like a lot of people point to his numbers in Utica, he had way better numbers in the NHL because he was playing behind a better D. Udica had all sorts of problems last year and as a result had a terrible season and no one that played goal for them had any sort of decent numbers. Meanwhile, Gold was over 4,200. That’s a random uh stat there. Yeah, Crumbs now is pulling up the minor league stuff. 893 save percentage, 316 goals against Putts Monkey. Man, I miss Cory Schneider was never the same after his groin injury though. Yeah, I mean big-time injuries to goalies often kind of is the end. I mean, in terms of them playing at the same level you saw prior to the injury and that I’m hoping it’s not the case, but you if you’re being realistic, you have to realize that it is a possibility that may be the case with Marky. I hope it’s not and hopefully he recovers and he comes back better than ever, but it’s a major setback. Um, you know, and now we’re a potential Allen injury away from Daws having to be the guy, which again, I think for a small stretch, I think he could survive. I I do have that much faith in RD and him, but it’s not ideal. Kungs, that was 24-25 season. Before that, he had a 890 and a 289. And I agree with you, Udica is a mess. He just hasn’t had a great last two seasons like implied. You can’t rely off a handful of NHL games to make that decision. No, I’m talking about what he looked like when he looked good in the season before as well. I’ll I’ll put way more stock into what I’ve seen of him in the NHL than what his AHL numbers are on a bad team. I can’t really put much stock into that at all, quite frankly. And as a kind of analogy, if you look at uh big Mike Yaggorov’s numbers before he transferred to BU, he was playing on a bad Omaha Lancers team in the USL and his numbers weren’t good because the team was awful. He eventually gets out of that situation. He goes to BU a year earlier than he had thought and he plays like a monster. And so you have to kind of peel back the curtain a little bit when you’re looking at these numbers and say what what is going on here? beyond what I’m just looking at on the paper because I do believe that Daws is better than you would imagine looking at just his AHL numbers. The team was the team was bad. It was a bad team. Snowevil grits has been a bit shy in taking shots when he has a chance to pass it and he’s shown elite playmaking ability. Hope he finds his groove and confidence with his release soon. Exciting to watch. Yeah, he’s been setting guys up beautifully. when he starts burying goals. I think it’s going to be an exciting time when we now have Gritsuk just setting guys up, ripping pucks into the net. Hopefully, I would love to see him score uh his first NHL goal, regular season goal that is obviously his first NHL goal at home either against the Panthers or the Oilers would be pretty cool. And I hope he and and I’m sure it’s only been three games, but I’m sure it’s something he thinks about. So, I do think uh it’d be nice to see him get that out of the way sooner than later. Um Hoage, who knows how Dolls will do. Basically, just have to sit and wait. He has some good games. Uh he has some good games last season and a couple games for the Devils. Let’s go slap the Panthers around on Thursday. Yeah, it’s uh it is crazy though. I mean, hopefully we get through the next couple games with no more injuries, but the depth has been paying off, guys. It really has. I have to give it to Fitz. Um, you know, people were like, “Oh, why is he getting this guy? Why is he getting that guy?” We just cannot stay healthy. And I’m not going to blame any strength or conditioning coaches whatsoever. This is this goes way beyond that. There’s there’s almost no words for it. Um, and it’s unfortunate, but Daw is the next man up. We’ll see what he could do in the limited work he’s going to get for this Devils club. He’s definitely going to get a game next week for sure. one of those two backtobacks and hopefully everyone else stays healthy. I mean, this is just crazy now. But, uh, does anyone have anything else? I wasn’t planning on this. This was kind of like a midday uh just jump on here and talk a little bit real quick about this this the state of these injuries and the goalending, but he’s is basically a full-time streamer at this point. Not yet. crungs. Though I will say Jake the Snake will make missing Marstrom look like it’s not a big deal. I mean hopefully I mean listen hopefully Allen stands on his head and looks like the guy we saw last game in Columbus for two periods before he left with cramping. He was a brick wall. All kinds of saves coming out for Jake Allen and he looked phenomenal. And then and then we see in the third period Marky comes out and everyone’s like what the hell? Like this guy stood on his head for 40 minutes kept the Devils in the game. And they easily could have lost that one. Hopefully he’s not relied on to that level in any game anytime soon. I mean, he was under siege. Putts monkey going to catch the home opener tomorrow. I don’t care who starts net. Expecting a big win from the boys against the defending champs. I think we all are. And that’d be a three-game winning streak and a three in one record on the season. It would be pretty nice. Anyone have anything else? Uh yeah. Anyone else going to the opener? For those that live local, love the home opener. Something magical about home openers and especially when the team is good or or supposed to be good. Like I went to the home opener in some of those dark years and while it was still fun, it didn’t it didn’t have quite the same luster. Some of those opening nights I sat in the stands and I was like, is this is opening night what? right now. Right here, right now. Is this going to be like the highlight of the season? And for a couple of those years, I think it may have been. I really think it may have been. Krunk says, “I think something really clicked with him last season after Marstrom was out. He really hasn’t had a terrible game since.” Yeah. Well, maybe maybe, you know, he’s a guy that with more time gets in a better rhythm and flow of the game when he’s playing regularly. And that obviously was the case when he was the guy when Marky was out. Crumbs can’t make the opener, but I got pure tickets for the next few games. First one is the Wild. Nice. Love the Pier. Love the Pier. One of the many clubs with some nice amenities uh in The Rock where you could just Oh, yeah. That’s a bad That’s I mean, I guess there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that eating healthy is out the window for your boy A’s tomorrow. I am in fact going to be in a club and I have no self-restraint, guys. No self-restraint, no willpower. So, I will be stuffing my face. But I guess the good news is you guys are going to see some food reviews in the vlogs. It seems like a lot of you like that. Uh, and I do think there will be some different stuff from the preseason to the regular season. And this is a club I haven’t been in in a in a little bit. So, uh, be looking for that. There’s going to be some food reviews in the opening game blog for the opening game blog for sure. Jesse says Jake Allen sabotaging Marky so they can take the starting goal position. Got to laugh to stay sane. At least we got this injury out of the way early. Yeah, well maybe. Hage ace talking about the past years like they were in the dark ages. I remember the dark times of yester year. No, it wasn’t that long ago. I mean, you know, in those, you know, 18 to 21, there was a couple other funky ones in there like the 13, 14, you know, all those years were just kind of Jesse says, “Jake Allen is about to slide into my fantasy team.” That’s for sure. Uh, if he’s already not on someone’s roster, that was pro as soon as this news came out. I mean any Devils fans who pay close attention to the team who play fantasy should have picked him up probably after last game to be honest. It was it seemed pretty obvious that Markstrom was injured and going to miss some time. And so I do think again with this amazing defense the Devils have adding uh Jake Allen to your fantasy team would have been probably pretty smart. Kungs, listen, we work out in the summer to cover our eating during the NHL season. I mean, I try, but man, uh it’s it it’s it’s quite it’s quite bad. I mean, if I’m being realistic, like people people that don’t understand, I guess, the capabilities that I have when I’m just in that environment, like I I mean, I’m trying to scale it back somewhat. But at the peak of my um face stuffing mode, I would say I do think in the clubs over the course of a game, it is very easy, not very easy, but it’s fairly easy for someone like myself and I’m sure many others to consume a literal 10,000 calories. Like it sounds crazy, but I think it happens quick. Like I think a 10,000 calorie hockey game is pretty easy. uh for sure because even without the food, if we’re just talking about full fullbodied, fully flavored sodas, a couple of those you’re probably at 400 calories easily probably 800 calories in the ice cream. So, you’re talking about you already got 1,000 calories, 1,200 calories in uh ice cream and soda. And that doesn’t count, you know, pizza, cheeseburgers, French fries, uh you know, pasta station, hot dogs. Uh, it’s pretty bad, but you’re gonna all you’ll see the destruction in the vlog. It will be it will be chronicled. Maria says we’ll be stuffing my face, too. Ace. Yeah, I’m gonna have to uh I don’t know. I don’t know what the plan here is. Maybe maybe I have to punish myself after these games and do like extra intense uh workout sessions of some kind. Crown says, “Funny enough, I’m usually the opposite. I get butterflies in my stomach when I go to a game and I can’t eat too much. It comes from playing sports as a kid. Oh, that never happens for me. Crumbs, I wish I wish I could develop anything that would, you know, anything normal. Obviously, I don’t want to be ill or anything, but anything that would prevent me from eating too much because that just does not happen. I It’s a bottomless pit. I I don’t really know what it’s like to be full. Grungs, I still eat like a monster though. Nice, Fay. It’s going to be interesting. I don’t have anything else. this little midday injury report. Man, one day this team will be healthy. One day, one day hopefully we could see our full optimized lineup. The playoffs would be a beautiful time for it to happen. It It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be happening anytime soon in this regular season. Just hope no one else gets injured because it’s been a it’s been a rough go for this team, man. Hage, I pray the Devils win on Thursday or that food about to be in real trouble. The stress eating could be real mad real quick. Yeah, I get it. All right, guys. That’s it. I got stuff to do. I figured I’d jump on here for a little bit. I might come back later tonight. I’m not sure. Maybe. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe I’ll be back later tonight. But, um, what a what a day. What a day of more injury news. It doesn’t it doesn’t end. It does not end. Marky injured. At least a couple of weeks he will be out. familiar face Nico Dawze called up from Utica. I don’t think the world’s ending like many of you. I think Daws will be fine in whatever games he plays. And in Jake Allen we trust, guys. In Jake Allen we trust, he’s going to carry the starters load and hopefully we don’t skip a beat. He looked amazing in 40 minutes of play last game. Hopefully he picks right up where he left off before the cramps of that game. And hopefully the boys find a way to win both of these games at home uh against the Panthers tomorrow night and against the Oilers on Saturday afternoon, which if they are able to accomplish that feat, your New Jersey Devils, my New Jersey Devils, our beloved New Jersey Devils would in fact have their first four-game winning streak in nearly three calendar years. Oh, I hope it happens. I hope it happens so bad. But I’ll be back soon, guys. Probably tonight, maybe. We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes. But thank you all for watching. I love you all. Like, comment, subscribe, and all that jazz. Until next time, friends. Let’s go Devils.

The New Jersey Devils have been dealt their latest injury blow.

Goaltender Jacob Markstrom will be out for a “couple of weeks” per Sheldon Keefe.

Nico Daws has been called up to the NJ Devils from Utica and will backup Jake Allen.

The injury plague rolls on for this team…

See our other videos for Devils Coverage!

Subscribe for more Devils content to come!:
https://www.youtube.com/@runninwiththedevils?sub_confirmation=1

Follow us on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/7BYmvZzdWiRfnEZzZA8RJd

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/runninwiththenjdevils/

Follow us on X:
https://x.com/runninwithnjd

Follow us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/people/Runnin-With-The-Devils/61560358358234/

Shop Fanatics:
https://fanatics.93n6tx.net/PyXnOq

Shop My Devils Favorites on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/runninwiththedevils

Cash App:
https://cash.app/$RunninWithTheDevils

Venmo:
https://venmo.com/u/RunninWithTheDevils

#newjerseydevils #njdevils #jacobmarkstrom #markstrom #devils #nicodaws #daws #nhl #hockey #njdevilspodcast #newjerseydevilspodcast #devils #njdevilspostgame #njdevilsliveshow #runninwiththedevils #runninwiththedevilslive