Goalie isn’t one to miss his Marks
Canucks goalie put body on line Monday to stamp out Stars scoring opportunity
Jacob Markstrom remembers being a kid, in his room and sobbing. It was Christmas.
“I had just lost a hockey board game to my brother,” he said.
He wasn’t smiling when he recalled the story either.
Board games were no joke in the Markstrom household. Just imagine how he was in a real game.
Vancouver got a taste of it Monday against Dallas. It was an audacious moment that could turn out to be a signature turning point in his relationship with the city and its hockey fans.
Markstrom launched himself into a foot race for a puck, sliding ferociously into a wall, risking his legs, arms and hips to win a board battle. So pretty much everything important to a goalie’s livelihood. Base jumpers have more fear. Skaters in the Stanley Cup final have less heart.
Sven Baertschi called it “guts.” Sam Gagner scored the goal that play helped set up. He said “you don’t often see that kind of compete level from a goalie,” and pointed out that it showed Markstrom’s “will to win.”
That “will” is why the play didn’t surprise Travis Green, Markstrom’s coach both now and in Utica where together they helped guide a team to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup final.
“When you’re playing to win, you don’t really worry about what’s going to happen to yourself and your body,” Green said.
“You don’t usually see that out of a goalie. But he felt he could get the puck and he made the right choice.”
Markstrom is always playing to win. The yearn for Ws crawls in his
skin. It’s one part of the reason he’s a goalie. The main one is because it runs in his family. His mom played goal for handball teams, while his dad and older brother were soccer goalies. But his choice wasn’t just DNA. Growing up, Markstrom split his time as a skater and a goalie, which goes a long way to explaining how he’s the best puck-handling netminder the Canucks have had in a decade or more.
He settled on playing net because it gave him more control over games. The goalie never left the ice. The goalie is the one who nearly every game is either the hero or the goat.
“I hate losing. I almost hate losing more than I love winning,” Markstrom said. “I don’t like losing at all. I don’t care if I had a good game or bad game.
“If we lose, I’m going to feel the same way.”
He said it’s become easier to deal with losses now. He’s worked to control his mood swings.
His personality is blossoming, too, even though he’s in a battle for playing time with Anders Nilsson, which will likely last the entire season.
“It’s a super healthy competition both in practice and off the ice in the gym, even though he’s got about 30 pounds on me,” Markstrom said. “In the gym, he’s been winning every time. But I told him, ‘I’m coming for you.’”
Markstrom is increasingly more comfortable in the limelight. Good thing because goalies in Vancouver never seem to escape it.
A big reason for all of this is that he’s playing more. It’s helping him get over nights like Monday. The team lost, but he played well. Not that long ago, Markstrom struggled to see the “played well” component of the equation.
“I had to learn that,” he said. “Because when I wasn’t playing too often, maybe one game a week or one every 10 days, when you lost a game, you knew you weren’t going to see the net in so long. You kind of dwelled on it for a lot longer time.
“I’ve heard the same tip from many good people. They tell me if you win or lose, if you have a good game or a bad game, no one should be able to tell the next day or two days after. You have to let it go.”
I hate losing. I almost hate losing more than I love winning ... I don’t care if I had a good game or bad game.
Asked about that play along the boards, Markstrom downplayed it. He was legitimately surprised so many of us were fired up about it. Did it feel gutsy?
“No,” he said. “I thought about it in the morning. In soccer there are a lot of 50/50 challenges. When guys are on a breakaway, the goalie will come out, challenge and slide.
“If a player gets a puck and it’s not too far away, I’m going for it. I figure if I can just break up the play there, that’s way better than letting him have a breakaway.”