New Jersey Devils Need Mackenzie Blackwood To Fix His Issues

The New Jersey Devils got miserable news on Tuesday. Nico Hischier and Dougie Hamilton will be out for an extended period of time. Jonathan Bernier will be out for the season. Pavel Zacha and Yegor Sharangovich have been added to COVID protocol. It was bad news after bad news after bad news.

The Bernier news was expected. The team told us about his hip injury last month, and the rumors swirled that he needed surgery and he could be out for the rest of the season. Tuesday’s announcement was just an extra confirmation on that. The Devils have had issues with their backup goalie for what seems like a decade. Even going back to the Martin Brodeur-Cory Schneider pairing, it seemed like they just couldn’t get a decent one-two punch since the peak of Brodeur-Johan Hedberg pairing.

The real reason this is a problem this season is Mackenzie Blackwood has been pretty bad this season. Only three goalies this season have worse goals saved above average than Blackwood’s -6.91. So basically, Blackwood is playing seven goals worse than an average goalie. Scott Wedgewood is actually one of the goalies who is playing worse than Blackwood, so losing him isn’t really devastating.

His actual save percentage is under .900 again. That cannot happen for Blackwood. He needs to be a .910 goalie at a minimum. Being a goalie with a save percentage under .900 is unacceptable. Blackwood actually had dreams of playing for Team Canada in the Olympics. That is out the window now with the NHL pulling out of the Olympics because of the COVID pandemic. He wouldn’t have much of a chance even without it.

Blackwood has a propensity to make at least one ridiculous save per game, but he also has a problem with giving up too many of his high-danger shots against. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up as many goals as Blackwood this season (in a lot more games), but when we look at the underlying numbers, it shows the difference. According to Natural Stat Trick, Vasilevskiy has allowed 31 high-danger goals on 170 high-danger shots against. Meanwhile, Blackwood has allowed 33 HDGA on just 112 HDSA. Blackwood’s high-danger save percentage is .772. That cannot be that low.

If the Devils are going to get anything at all from this season with all these injuries, it’s up to Blackwood playing like a superstar. Maybe he doesn’t have that in him with the heel injury he’s still dealing with. Maybe it’s not possible with where he is as a goalie, but if he does have that within him, he has to find it. The Devils season depends on it.