Vancouver Canucks fans are eagerly awaiting the return of Jacob Markstrom. The 25-year-old netminder looked very good in the pre-season but suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury just before opening night. It’s taken a few weeks for him to recover, but this week, the club assigned him to the Utica Comets on a conditioning stint. Last night was his first game, and he gave up four goals on thirty-five shots. Panic inducing? Unsurprising? Let’s take a look at the goals and find out!

Markstrom tracks TJ Brennan’s carry-in decently well, despite the screen of Travis Ehrhardt in front of him. He’s not able to get down quick enough for Casey Bailey’s one-timer, though it was an absolute rocket – you can see it come out of the net almost as fast as it went in.

This is a tough one for any goaltender, a cross-crease play that didn’t look like it would go the distance, but William Nylander apparently has fairy dust in his stick. Markstrom tries to slide across, appears to get caught and sprawls out upon Kasperi Kapanen’s release.

This one is pretty bad, admittedly. Brennan fires his shot from the corner of the point, and it squeezes through Markstrom. Even he’s visibly disappointed in himself. 

Not as concerning. Markstrom squares up pretty well but has no less than three men in front of him getting in his way, two of them being his own teammates. Nylander’s fairy dust returns again, with an impossibly good snipe that ties up the game.

Markstrom gets absolutely no support from his teammates in the shootout; both Linden Vey and Alex Grenier’s attempts are easily stopped by Toronto’s Garret Sparks. Still, the Marlies recognize that Markstrom is having issues going down to the butterfly, and both Mark Arcobello and (once again) William Nylander go five hole.

You can tell that there’s a reason that Jacob Markstrom is getting a few games in with the Comets before coming up. His lower-net mobility was lacking at times in this game, as proven by the many goals that were scored five-hole. But other than that, he did have some bright spots throughout the appearance, including six saves in 3-on-3 overtime.

Vancouver isn’t expected to keep him down for long. They need somebody to take some pressure off of Ryan Miller, and nobody trusts Richard Bachman. Jim Benning has mentioned that Markstrom could join the Canucks as soon as Monday if they feel he’s ready. A game like this doesn’t instill a ton of confidence, but he’ll have another opportunity to prove himself tonight, as the Comets take on the Providence Bruins. Providence has been near the bottom of the league in shots per game, but near the top in shooting percentage, so this could make for an interesting second take.

If tonight’s appearance gives further pause, the Canucks can keep Markstrom down for up to 14 days.