New Jersey Devils: 5 Things That Must Happen To Become Stanley Cup Contenders

1. Mackenzie Blackwood plays like a Vezina winner

Just pointing out this doesn’t say “Vezina contender”, Mackenzie Blackwood has to play Vezina-winning goaltending for the Devils to truly hit their ceiling. He’s obviously in the headlines for the wrong thing, but when looking at the big picture, his ceiling gives the Devils a much better chance than Jonathan Bernier’s ceiling.

We’ve seen Blackwood go on dominant runs in the past. Over his first five games last season, he went 4-0-1 with a save percentage north of 94%. He was giving the Devils a chance to win on a nightly basis whether his defense came to play or not.

This season, he has a much better defense in front of him. This defense is also very offensively equipped to keep the puck away from him entirely. Sometimes that can lead to a goalie sitting around and then immediately facing a high-danger chance. Blackwood has stopped those in the past. He needs to do it even more in the future.

Blackwood allowed 44 high-danger goals against during 5v5 play last season according to Natural Stat Trick. The only goalies to allow more were Kevin Lankinen, Connor Hellebuyck (on a might higher minutes percentage), and John Gibson. He had a worse high-danger save percentage than all three of them. That needs to change in a huge way, or the Devils aren’t going to even make the playoffs, let alone go far.