New Jersey Devils’ MacKenzie Blackwood Earns First Career Shutout
The New Jersey Devils would use the winning lineup from Thursday night’s big win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon vs the Carolina Hurricanes. This lineup is notable for two reasons, one is because the Devils best player is out of the lineup for the second straight game in Taylor Hall, and the other is because young MacKenzie Blackwood is in net once again after a very strong start to his NHL career.
MacKenzie Blackwood not only earned his second career win Saturday afternoon, he also earned his first career shutout, as the Devils defeated the Hurricanes 2-0. He made 37 saves in the effort, and some of the high danger variety. While this performance emphasizes some theories going into the game, it is still early enough in the season to ride the hot hand and make a push.
Something that helped Blackwood have this memorable afternoon is the Devils penalty kill. The Carolina Hurricanes went 0-5 on the power play, so to say the Devils penalty kill had a great game would be an understatement. They played very well and allowed Blackwood to make saves and keep the puck from the high percentage areas on most occasions.
Not only did the penalty kill do well keeping the puck out of Blackwood’s net, they won the game in another way as well. Pavel Zacha found himself on a breakaway short handed and put the Devils up 1-0 and it stayed that way for pretty much the rest of the game, until Nico Hischier found Andy Greene who sent an absolute rocket into the empty net while Carolina had the extra attacker out.
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If you want to succeed in the NHL, the special teams need to be on point, and tonight the penalty kill was strong and the power play generated chances even though they didn’t connect.
Blackwood brings a confidence to the team, at least that is what it seems like. If you get good goaltending, that gives your forwards and defenseman confidence to play their game the right way. It allows youngsters like Pavel Zacha, Blake Coleman and Jesper Bratt to play to their strengths.
Nico Hischier is also a player of note. He gets better and better every single game. His defensive game is always strong because he’s always in the right position, and of course the offense follows when you play the right way. Some people get on Hischier for his pass first mentality sometimes. And sometimes, it is warranted criticism. When he has a clear lane to the net and a less clear lane to his teammate it is the better option to shoot. With that said, Nico is a center and his job is to be a playmaker for his wingers, as he usually plays with some pretty good ones. Nico is a star in the making and it is very fun to watch.
We will see if Taylor Hall re-enters the lineup on New Years Eve vs the Vancouver Canucks for another matinee edition of Devils hockey, and although anything is possible I would assume that MacKenzie Blackwood has earned himself a third consecutive start to close out the 2018 portion of the schedule.