His Calgary Flames teammates, though, rushed to his defence after Wednesday’s bizarre 9-6 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their second round playoff series.
Allow six goals, and you’re going to be the target of criticism. That’s inevitable, and Markstrom is notoriously his own harshest critic. He will not be thrilled with a game in which he stopped only 22-of-28 shots.
The rest of the Flames locker room isn’t sweating his performance, though.
“He said before the third period ‘you guys keep doing your thing, I’m going to shut the door for you’ and that’s exactly what he did,” said Wednesday’s hat-trick hero, Matthew Tkachuk. “He’s been our MVP all year and it’s on us for pretty much every goal that went in earlier, whether it was turnover or just not working or mental mistakes.
