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New Jersey Devils: MacKenzie Blackwood Era May Be Starting Early

By Nick Villano |
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - DECEMBER 23: Mackenzie Blackwood #29 of the New Jersey Devils (r) replaces Keith Kinkaid #1 (l) in the nets against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the second period at the Prudential Center on December 23, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - DECEMBER 23: Mackenzie Blackwood #29 of the New Jersey Devils (r) replaces Keith Kinkaid #1 (l) in the nets against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the second period at the Prudential Center on December 23, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The biggest reason the New Jersey Devils season has gone south in a hurry thanks to inconsistent play in net. However, a decision could change the Devils fortunes for the future.

It was yet another disappointing performance from the New Jersey Devils as they head into the Christmas break at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. The Philadelphia Flyers were so bad they fired their GM and their head coach. The Ottawa Senators traded everyone good who’s not named Matt Duchene. Our rivals across the Hudson River told everyone that they were rebuilding this season. The New York Islanders lost their centerpiece when John Tavares went to Toronto. The Devils are currently worse in the standings than all these teams.

There are plenty of problems that the Devils have. Their defense can be atrocious at times. They give up big plays way too often. The secondary scoring is extremely inconsistent. Players like Miles Wood and Pavel Zacha have disappeared for weeks at a time on the score sheet.

By far, the Devils biggest problem for now and the foreseeable future is goaltending. Keith Kinkaid already has three shutouts, yet still finds himself with a .903 save percentage. Nobody has played as many games as Kinkaid with as bad a save percentage. Again, this is with three shutouts.

Let’s not even get into Cory Schneider. He’s on IR right now, and he’s been terrible. That’s all you need to know.

That might change. In fact, the Devils goaltending may soon become a strength thanks to one man.

The Devils announced that MacKenzie Blackwood is getting a hard look once the team comes back from Christmas break on Thursday.

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Blackwood came into relief Kinkaid after he allowed three goals on 11 shots. The Columbus Blue Jackets probably didn’t put the full throttle on, but the fact is Blackwood stopped nine shots out of the nine he faced. He also got the first start of his career against the Blue Jackets, and he stopped 36 of 38 shots. One of the goals he allowed was on a penalty shot.

Blackwood has a .917 save percentage in an admittedly short sample size. He’s played in three games and played wall in all three. For some reason, Hynes has only given him one start. In two other games, he was forced to replace Kinkaid after he put up a bad performance.

Blackwood came into the Devils system with a lot of promise. They took him with the 42nd overall pick in 2015. He was ranked as the best North American goalie in the draft. He was the second goalie taken off the board after Ilya Samsonov for the Washington Capitals.

Blackwood had a rough start, which saw him demoted to the ECHL last season. That’s because he had an .882 save percentage after 32 games. Things were looking bleak for Blackwood, how regressed massively.

That all changed this season. He was playing really well with Binghamton, posting a .911 save percentage in 15 games. Is it the best 15 games? No, but it was a much better start than he had last season.

Now that the Devils are going all in on Blackwood, we get to take a look at his place in the pecking order. With Schneider hurt right now, he should get an extended look well into the new year.

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