New Jersey Devils: This Season’s 10 Truly Bizarre Moments

5. A toothless Mackenzie Blackwood:

One of the few real bright spots of this past season was the play of Mackenzie Blackwood. The kid is a flat-out gamer and legit stud goalie in the making. After wowing us with highlight-reel save after highlight-reel save, Blackwood proved he was tough as nails too.

The 23-year-old netminder took a Ryan Pulock slapper to his facemask. The impact of the shot knocked several of his teeth out. Yet, he stayed in and finished the game, making 37 stops in a 4-3 OT loss to the Islanders. A few days later he would find himself in dental surgery for several hours to repair the damage caused by the shot. It was the most bizarre thing most of us have seen happen to a goalie since the Clint Malarchuk incident – Probably.

4. Another meltdown at home:

The Devils opening night loss was bad, but at least they earned a point. (I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy.) That said… since the opening night meltdown, the Devils had dropped four more in which they were embarrassed a few times and shut out twice.  Then came the Monday matinee at home versus the Florida Panthers. The visitors struck first 16 seconds into the game, but the Devils fought back scoring the next four goals to grab a sizable three-goal lead. Surely, they would not blow this one too, would they? You can bet your bottom dollar they would!

The Panthers scored two late goals in the second followed by another in the opening minute of the third to tie the game. All told they would rattle off five consecutive goals en route to a 6-4 victory and another gut-wrenching loss. It was New Jersey’s sixth consecutive loss to open the season, leaving them buried in the league basement and mired in a deficit they would never overcome.

3. Damon Severson’s overtime winning goal – for the other team:

Coming off a 7-1 victory in Chicago, the Devils headed home to face the Toronto Maple Leafs feeling pretty good about themselves. They battled Toronto hard throughout the game, even finding themselves heading into the third period with a 4-3 lead. But, as per the usual, the opposing team would eventually even things up sending the game to overtime. That’s when things got interesting.

Maple Leaf forward William Nylander stripped the puck from Jack Hughes and moved in on Blackwood before losing control of it. A backchecking Severson attempted to clear the puck behind his net and instead inadvertently flipped it past his goaltender.  Nylander was given credit for the goal. Severson had never scored an overtime goal before this and I’m pretty confident that in his wildest dreams he never envisioned it being one as memorable as this.