New Jersey Devils: 5 Things That Must Happen To Make Playoffs

1. Mackenzie Blackwood Gets Back To Dominance

The New Jersey Devils fall from the standings started when Mackenzie Blackwood went down with COVID. He was one of the first to fall last season, and he admitted that it impacted him for months afterward. Blackwood has been a player that hasn’t found a way to be consistent over a full season, but it hasn’t exactly been a normal career for him so far. He played out of his mind when Cory Schneider went down and Keith Kinkaid couldn’t handle starter duties in his first season. He then made the roster full time as Schneider’s backup, but Schneider got hurt in the very first game which threw Blackwood into the starter’s role before he was ready. He was supposed to play in a 1A-1B situation last season, but Corey Crawford retired before the season even started, and then he got the aforementioned coronavirus.

Enough bad has happened with Blackwood. It’s time for a little luck to go his way.

Last year was truly terrible for Blackwood. He had the first negative goals-against above average of his career. All the traditional stats and advanced stats showed he was terrible even when considering how bad the defense was (this was according to Hockey Reference. He wasn’t negative on Natural Stat Trick.) He just couldn’t save the Devils.

This year, he has to bail his team out. He had a few amazing saves, including the best save of the season against the Boston Bruins, but overall his GSAA on high-danger opportunities was -4.03 at even strength. That was the only one on the team that was negative, and it was really negative.

This season, Blackwood needs to be much better. It helps that Jonathan Bernier is here, but he’s not carrying this team to the postseason. He is here to take some of the load off of Blackwood. The star of this show in net is number 29. He needs to show that he’s able to carry the Devils.