5.
Let’s talk about Jake Allen.
When Tom Fitzgerald brought him in as an important veteran piece to the puzzle building there are so many layers to that. There’s on-ice play, of course, there’s age and experience, of course, but there’s also the very little things that maybe the camera doesn’t always catch.
Like, during TV timeouts, Jake is always skating over to the bench no matter the situation in a game. If things are going well, if the team is in a tough spot, he’s there. Goalies do all kinds of different things of course, there’s goalies like Ilya Sorokin and Devon Levi who like to be in their own moment during TV timeouts, they're stetching or meditating, each to their own. A lot of the time you see the goalie head over to chat with their backup and have a chat, maybe getting advice on what they’re seeing from the bench.
But what is noticeable about Jake Allen is how much he goes to the bench to talk to his defensemen - his young defensemen no less. He is constantly communicating with them, during play and during breaks, building up that strong relationship, that reliability and helping to stabalize what is a very young defensive core. That's the veteran presence that Fitzgerald has been looking for and Allen seems the perfect fit to embrace that role.
“You’ve got to make decisions in your career," Allen said on Tuesday when asked about his transition over to New Jersey from Montreal. "Sometimes obviously you’ve got to be a little bit selfish and look yourself in the mirror and wonder what’s best for you and your family. I thought this was a good opportunity to come in the rest of this year, play some games, I didn’t play very much this season and get my game back in order."
I also go back to what he said in his first media availability. He wants to embrace this opportunity with New Jersey, all-in and rejuvinate, reinvigorate his career. This could be the perfect landing spot.