Mackenzie Blackwood
There is no other player on this team that is looking at a more important 11 games than goalie Mackenzie Blackwood. It isn’t even close, to be honest. The Devils are hoping this is the goalie of the present and the goalie of the future. He has had flashes of being an elite superstar goalie, but over the entire season, his statistics are not very good.
Blackwood has the fourth-worst goals saved above average in the league. He’s worse than Martin Jones and Brian Elliott. Things aren’t as bad as they are for Carter Hart (who is eight goals worse than the second-worst goalie in the league), but they are still very bad. There are 72 goalies with a better high-danger save percentage than Blackwood’s .770.
Blame the defense, blame COVID, or blame the new coaching staff. It doesn’t matter who you blame, Blackwood has been bad this season. However, there is blame to go around. He clearly thinks he has to make miraculous saves. That might hurt his confidence, which as we saw with Cory Schneider can be a killer for a goalie. He’s too young to be worried for him overall, but putting up five or six really good games over the final few weeks could mean a lot for the confidence the team has in him moving forward.
Of course, Blackwood is out with an injury thanks to Matt Tennyson. So, if he isn’t able to come back in a timely fashion, then that throws a stick in this plan. However, he really needs these games. Despite the defense, he needs to make saves. He’s by far the most important player on this roster right now.