Ahead of the puck dropping between the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues, goaltender Jacob Markstrom was honored in front of 16,043 fans at Prudential Center.
On Nov. 21, Markstrom played his 500th career game against the Carolina Hurricanes. He now sits third all-time for Swedish-born netminders behind Tommy Salo (526) and Henrik Lundqvist (887).
On Wednesday night, the organization held a small ceremony that began with a video montage of Markstrom’s career that began at Prudential Center when he was a member of the Florida Panthers.
His mother Lena, wife Amanda, and son Clark were ice level as Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Ondrej Palat took turns awarding their goaltender with a watch, couple of plaques, and a bottle of wine.
The ceremony’s highlight was when team executive Martin Brodeur, who faced Markstrom in the Swede’s first career NHL game, awarded the netminder with a silver stick. Seconds later, Jake Allen skated to the Markstrom family to give Clark a mini silver stick that matched his father’s.
The game did not go the Devils way as the Blues shut them out, 3-0. Markstom allowed three goals in the first period and finished the game, making 17 saves on 20 shots.
“It is not often you get to share the ice with family. It is special for sure,” Markstrom said after the game. “I obviously wanted a different outcome and different start of the game. This is a day you look back and don’t remember the game but remember before the game.”
The 34-year-old is the eighth active goaltender who has played in 500 or more career games.
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