Devils-Canadian | Jake Allen: Different cloakroom, same impact

The goalkeeper’s stereotype “in his head”, which we don’t want to disturb too much, who sees the world in his own way, has a hard rind. It must be said that specimens like Ilya Bryzgalov, Tim Thomas and, more recently, Jordan Binnington, helped maintain him.

Jake Allen rather enters the category of those who “normalize” this position. In New Jersey for barely 10 months, he is already leaving his mark in the Devils locker room.

“He has a lot of ideas, he has a good voice in our locker room, but it is not exaggerated either,” said the head coach of the Devils, Sheldon Keefe, in the optional training of Devils on Saturday, In the Bell Center. Sometimes you see him doing strengthening one by one with a player.

“Guys like Ondrej Palat, Brenden Dillon, Brett Pesce helps, but to have leadership of the goalkeeper position, that’s good and it’s rare. Often, the guards are in their own world, because their position is so unique, ”continued Keefe.

A few minutes earlier, in the Devils locker room, Curtis Lazar essentially unpack the same version.

“A calming influence,” said Mr. Lazar. He’s a real pro, he takes care of his body. He will have several departures now [en l’absence de Jacob Markström] And we know that he will do his job.

“Our two older players are our guards,” added Lazar, with accuracy. These are excellent communicators. They make us feel at ease. It seems that Jake was appreciated here (in Montreal), he has been smaller with lots of guys [vendredi]. »

The organizer

Saturday evening, Allen will face his former friends for the first time since the Canadian exchanged him at the Devils on March 8. During the only duel between the two teams since, November 7, it was Marksröm who defended the net of the Devils.

Cole Caufield is not part of the contingent that has been smaller on Friday. “I left him in plan for the Hughes brothers,” joked the elite shooter.

“I have friends at the Devils and they see it in the same way. Wherever it goes, it is respected, it is always calm. But people sometimes forget his skills in front of the net. It is a goalkeeper who does his job. »»

This bout-tall resists the test of the facts less well. His global statistics are not naughty, compared to Marksröm.

• Jake Allen: 6-8-1, average of 2.66, efficiency of, 904
• Jacob Marksröm: 21-9-5, average of 2.20, efficiency of, 912

Except that after a convincing first month, “while Jacob was looking a little,” said Keefe, Allen shows a 1-6-0 sheet, an average of 3.17 and an efficiency of, 882 to his last seven games . It is the third season in a row that Allen has an average of higher and an efficiency below his partner. Even that last year, during the famous three -house household in front of the CH net, it was he who presented the worst statistics of the trio.

Outside ice, its assessment is however impeccable. “He was fantastic,” recalls Arber Xhekaj. When you are a recruit, you don’t have many friends, but he joined us and he organized team activities.

“He made sure that the team is gathering once a month or in the two months, so that we do something other than training, because here is our work,” continues Xhekaj. We found ourselves on the road, just a little meeting before supper, to have a drink, talk about something other than hockey. »»

Kaiden Guhle arrived in the NHL in the fall of 2022, at the same time as Xhekaj. “We had the same agent [Allain Roy]so he presented it to me. I got to know him a little. We had the three guards last year and he was still in a good mood anyway, he still organized group events. It was hard to lose it. »»

When Allen had signed a contract extension with CH, at the 2022 training camp, Martin St-Louis had marked the spirits with one of his formulas more worthy of a life coach than of hockey. “You need guys ready to plant trees knowing that they will never sit in the shadows,” he said.

Following this logic, it is clear that Allen stuffed many days in the burning sun, during the reconstruction of CH. However, the successes of the last two months are funny in the shadows of which St-Louis spoke.

“He left a fine example to young people, to show how to sail through the league, how to behave. We were lucky to have veterans like him, Sean Monahan, Tanner Pearson, “said St-Louis.

By exchanging Allen and Monahan, the Habs cut the cord, and sometimes last fall, it was easy to believe that their contribution would have helped Montrealers get out of the slump.

“If you always bring veterans to fulfill this role, can it slow the growth of other players?” Asked St-Louis. Yes, our start to the season could have been more smooth if we had had more veterans, but would our young leaders have grown as much? It comes with growth thrusts. I liked how our young leaders have progressed through it. »»

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