GDT: Your New Jersey Devils @ Boston Bruins, 7 PM, MSG+: A Birthday Ode to Nico

[My3Sons]

I really think Blackwood is not as bad as he has been this season. The over reliance on him now that Bernier has been out, plus it is obvious his heel injury is not fully healed, and constantly playing him as we have no alternative...is no recipe for success for anyone.

He's playing as badly as others have noted. I think the real issue is why. Has he just lost all confidence? That happened to Hart last season and he bounced back this season. Is his heel getting worse since he's being driven like a sled dog in the Iditarod? Are both true at this point? Has he lost all his talent as some have suggested? What's clear is NJ needs to figure this out and get another goalie. If they are unwilling to play Schmid or Gillies then make a trade and get someone they are willing to play. They aren't helping themselves or Blackwood at this point.

 

[Eggtimer]

team needs to target a young goaltender with solid fundamentals that we can further develop in a trade. zacha + boqvist + foote + picks are all on the table to get it done. blackwood has been given every opportunity to be the guy here but he just doesnt look like he has what it takes. guy is a mental midget.

Vladar would have been a good option. We should look to see if there is a similar situation this off-season as last season with Vladar. Not sure what the Canes we’re doing but the Redwings got a good young goalie off of them for cheap.
We just got to hope we can do the same ourselves. Hopefully Fitz realizes that maybe Blackwood is not the 100% core piece he thought he would be and considers looking for another young goalie. I however can see them just getting another stop gap like Bernier and keep seeing what they have in Blackwood and the kids in Utica

 

[My3Sons]

Vladar would have been a good option. We should look to see if there is a similar situation this off-season as last season with Vladar. Not sure what the Canes we’re doing but the Redwings got a good young goalie off of them for cheap.
We just got to hope we can do the same ourselves. Hopefully Fitz realizes that maybe Blackwood is not the 100% core piece he thought he would be and considers looking for another young goalie. I however can see them just getting another stop gap like Bernier and keep seeing what they have in Blackwood and the kids in Utica

With Daws injured and Schmid sitting on a bench the young guys aren't going to develop. At a minimum they should return Schmid to Utica to get him in more games.

 

[Auto Pilot]

team needs to target a young goaltender with solid fundamentals that we can further develop in a trade. zacha + boqvist + foote + picks are all on the table to get it done. blackwood has been given every opportunity to be the guy here but he just doesnt look like he has what it takes. guy is a mental midget.

Devils should be thinking of throwing cash at Campbell if he makes it to free agency.

 

[RSeen]

Anyone else hear Blackwood's comments post game and see a total lack of accountability? More I hear from this guy, the less I want him on the team. His on ice play recently certainly hasn't supported him being any good.

 

[Triumph]

Anyone else hear Blackwood's comments post game and see a total lack of accountability? More I hear from this guy, the less I want him on the team. His on ice play recently certainly hasn't supported him being any good.

I excuse this because this is how goalies have to keep themselves mentally sharp. Brodeur gave up maybe one bad goal in his career, every other one was someone else's fault, but that's just how he had to look at things to be excellent.

Jack Campbell is the only guy I can think of who really takes losses on his shoulders consistently.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Watched it 12 more times. I mostly agree with you, but will have to respectfully disagree this time. Smith could have prevented the goal simply by standing still and giving Pastrnak nowhere to go. But for a reason which absolutely escapes me, Smith decided to block off the back of the net, which was the safest place to steer Pastrnak once he'd beaten McLeod. Instead, Smith rolled out the red carpet for Pastrnak to go to the most dangerous scoring area, right in front of the Devils goal.

As far as McLeod, he was beat by Pastrnak, yes. But he was physically beaten by a proven NHL superstar. I am not hating on a bottom 6 center for this. The reason I keep banging the drum for Smith to be sent down to the AHL was his mental decision -- which you can see in the goal clip provided by @SteveCangialosi123 -- to give Pastrnak the highest-danger scoring area possible so he could block off the back of the net, which was where any coach would tell Smith to steer his man.

He wasn’t trying to block 88 behind the net. To me he’s following Hall and then puts a stick out to block a potential pass to Hall as it looks like McLeod has an angle on 88 and is closing on him. McLeod had a really good angle on 88 and just got beat and there’s no way he should’ve. There’s no reason for Smith to assume McLeod is going to play really soft D and get beat. Smith shouldn’t have taken the route behind the net and would’ve been in a better position out front but Hall was rightfully his focus. There was no way for him to know McLeod is gonna get beat and it happened at the very last second. He didn’t give him that lane to the net. He was focused on another player and taking away the passing lane to him. McLeod gave him the lane to the net.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

You literally have no idea what you are talking about. Smith got smoked by Pasta cutting to the net. I don't give a shit that McLeod lost him, Smith got beat, badly on that play.

Smith wasn’t defending against Pastrnak. He was following Hall and then putting his stick out to block a pass to Hall because it looked like McLeod had a good angle on 88. And then last second McLeod gets beat and there’s no time for Smith to recover. He had bad positioning and took a bad route behind the net but McLeod is the one who got burnt.

 

[NJDevs26]

I excuse this because this is how goalies have to keep themselves mentally sharp. Brodeur gave up maybe one bad goal in his career, every other one was someone else's fault, but that's just how he had to look at things to be excellent.

Jack Campbell is the only guy I can think of who really takes losses on his shoulders consistently.

Cory took great pains to hold himself accountable, it probably made things worse at times during his slumps but it’s not like Blackwood absolutely taking his playing time for granted is helping him either

I excuse the macho crap when you play like Marty, not when you’re playing worse than crap

 

[Brovalchuk]

Smith wasn’t defending against Pastrnak. He was following Hall and then putting his stick out to block a pass to Hall because it looked like McLeod had a good angle on 88. And then last second McLeod gets beat and there’s no time for Smith to recover. He had bad positioning and took a bad route behind the net but McLeod is the one who got burnt.

For me, there is less onus on the guy who "was in the right spot but got beaten by a legitimate NHL superstar" than the guy who "made a bad IQ choice, where a better choice could have saved a goal against". The defensive IQ issue with a main piece of our core is more of a problem than a bottom six defensive role player being beaten by a better player.

Wouldn't you agree?

 

[Bleedred]

Cory took great pains to hold himself accountable, it probably made things worse at times during his slumps but it’s not like Blackwood absolutely taking his playing time for granted is helping him either

I excuse the macho crap when you play like Marty, not when you’re playing worse than crap

The first time Marty had a stretch like this (at least a prolonged one) he literally benched himself.

Wish we could find those articles, but they went to HTML hell about a year or two after Tom left the Record.

Maybe one of the ones from Chere/the Ledger exists somewhere?

Marty went and told the coaches that Hedberg is the best option right now and he keeps getting blown out and he's not giving his team the best chance to win and he's gonna sit on the bench during games and work with Chris Terreri during practice.

It only lasted about a week before he was back in there, but outside of a continuously slow glove hand, he started to play well and I don't think he got blown out again until his last game of that season, which was like 3 months later.

 

[haak84]

blackwood is clearly a journey man goalie on his first team. he's going to bounce around from team to team every couple years and show flashes of number 1 potential. eventually settle into a backup role behind a clear number 1 in his late twenties and be out of the league by 32. shame really.

 

[Bleedred]

blackwood is clearly a journey man goalie on his first team. he's going to bounce around from team to team every couple years and show flashes of number 1 potential. eventually settle into a backup role behind a clear number 1 in his late twenties and be out of the league by 32. shame really.

Goalies tend to be about as recycled around the league almost as much as head coaches these days, so usually when a goalie probably should be out of the league by 32, they seem to get another opportunity. Take Martin Jones for example. I can't believe he was signed to an NHL deal after all those bad years in a row in San Jose.

And then you see guys like Mike Smith and Craig Anderson, who are around 40 and you really think they're done getting deals and then BAM someone signs them and sometimes they even get two years at 39 years old. *Cough* Mike Smith *Cough* Ken Holland sucks *Cough cough*.

 

[billingtons ghost]

He wasn’t trying to block 88 behind the net. To me he’s following Hall and then puts a stick out to block a potential pass to Hall as it looks like McLeod has an angle on 88 and is closing on him. McLeod had a really good angle on 88 and just got beat and there’s no way he should’ve. There’s no reason for Smith to assume McLeod is going to play really soft D and get beat. Smith shouldn’t have taken the route behind the net and would’ve been in a better position out front but Hall was rightfully his focus. There was no way for him to know McLeod is gonna get beat and it happened at the very last second. He didn’t give him that lane to the net. He was focused on another player and taking away the passing lane to him. McLeod gave him the lane to the net.

Smith made a Godawful decision. You don't care about players receiving passes behind the net and allow an all star free access to cross in front.

 

[NjdPass]

ummmm Listen this team just cant pull out a full performance. We are never fully clicking, our team looks a little better but still losing men in the D zone and leaving Blackwood to dry....It also doesnt help that our goalie is just awful at the moment.

Something needs to happen. I just dont know what , Johnsson and KUK just arent doing anything on the ice and need to consistently produce. Our "3rd" line produces absolutely nothing on a consistent basis. At this point I would just play our prospects.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Obviously this has been a pretty rough stretch but as team goalie apologist I really don't think he has been that bad. Like most goalies do when the team plays like ass in front of them for an extended period of time, he's suffering from a dearth of confidence and he's starry to cheat to try to catch up.

That first goal is a perfect example. He's pushing to try to get across because Boqvist plays the 2-on1 like a forward, instead of getting in position to take away the pass (his only responsibility) he tries to force the shot. The Bruin looks to pass and ends up lobbing it on net. Blackwood lifts his stick and it squeezes thru.

He's got to keep his stick down. That's cost him a goal on deflections goal #5 too.

The overplaying is a lack of confidence. He's like 3 weeks lagging the team. He will be fine if we keep playing like we are playing and he gets some confidence back.

He just isn't sharp.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I'm as disappointed in Mac as everyone else, but I think it is rash to cast him aside the way that some are. He has shown stretches of strong play in the past to go along with these stretches of poor play. I do believe there is a good goalie in there.

Like it or not, the circumstances for him in the past two seasons have been beyond imperfect. People can claim it's an excuse (a favorite pasttime for some on these boards), but he was never supposed to be the guy we rode for the majority of games. He has supposed to have been in a 1A/1B situation last year and this year. As we well know, Crawford retires before the season starts and we're forced to use a disgusting cacophony of Wedgewood/Comrie/Dell to spell him. This year, Bernier starts out really well but then triggers a lingering issue that turns out to be detrimental enough to end his season (and who knows about his career). Couple that with a nagging injury of his own, and we're forced to ride Mac once more into the ground when he clearly is not capable of it right now.

And it's tough to fault the organization. They had plans that backfired on them. And even this year, we have young goalie depth in the AHL but one of them is also hurt.

Right now, you can just tell his usual confidence is missing and he is fighting things. And because of that, both physically and mentally, he is slipping up on plays more than he ever previously had. I don't think he's a guy who lacks this much awareness, I think he's overthinking and not going off his reactions/instincts.

 

[Nocashstyle]

Obviously this has been a pretty rough stretch but as team goalie apologist I really don't think he has been that bad. Like most goalies do when the team plays like ass in front of them for an extended period of time, he's suffering from a dearth of confidence and he's starry to cheat to try to catch up.

That first goal is a perfect example. He's pushing to try to get across because Boqvist plays the 2-on1 like a forward, instead of getting in position to take away the pass (his only responsibility) he tries to force the shot. The Bruin looks to pass and ends up lobbing it on net. Blackwood lifts his stick and it squeezes thru.

He's got to keep his stick down. That's cost him a goal on deflections goal #5 too.

The overplaying is a lack of confidence. He's like 3 weeks lagging the team. He will be fine if we keep playing like we are playing and he gets some confidence back.

He just isn't sharp.

I get what you’re saying, and Blackwood has also made some great stops…but he’s sitting at a .895 save % and 3.32 gaa for the year. Regardless of any other factors, that’s simply not good enough. Those numbers are closer to third string call up numbers than #1 NHL netminder.

 

[billingtons ghost]

I get what you’re saying, and Blackwood has also made some great stops…but he’s sitting at a .895 save % and 3.32 gaa for the year. Regardless of any other factors, that’s simply not good enough. Those numbers are closer to third string call up numbers than #1 NHL netminder.

Not for our team. Put anyone in and you'd get the same numbers unless you think we can get Vasilevsky tomorrow.

 

[Camille the Eel]

You do hear that goalies should be square to the puck - or anyway to the shot. On neither goal 1 nor goal 3 was Mac square to the shot. Okay on number one he didn’t expect it to be a shot. So that crossed him up. But I do think that if Blackwoods fundamentals could be cleaned up he has the tools to be a number one.

This is his chance to play himself out of this. To finish his technique while playing continuously. I think it presents a great opportunity for him.

 

[Nocashstyle]

Not for our team. Put anyone in and you'd get the same numbers unless you think we can get Vasilevsky tomorrow.

I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I’m not doing a deep dive, but Mac has worse numbers than basically every starter on the teams around the Devils in the standings. He’s got even worse numbers than Dustin Tokarski. Sorokin, Hart, Merzlikins, Fleury, Anton Forsberg…all these guys have better numbers than Mac. Hell, Mac had better numbers last year and the year before on arguably worse teams and for sure worse defenses in front of him.

Right now Grubauer is the only one I saw Mac is ahead of.

 

[Saugus]

Not for our team. Put anyone in and you'd get the same numbers unless you think we can get Vasilevsky tomorrow.

Not really. What you're describing is literally the definition of replacement level and Blackwood is currently turning in a performance worse than that.

The only reason he hasn't been replaced by the proverbial replacement level guy is because we don't have a replacement level guy ready to step in. The goalies who would most likely be the replacement are currently either injured or too inexperienced.

 

[britdevil]

Not for our team. Put anyone in and you'd get the same numbers unless you think we can get Vasilevsky tomorrow.

I sincerely doubt that.

Go back and watch the highlights from the last 4 games. Blackwood is shitting the bed, several times a night.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Median High Danger SV% in the league for goalies with +600 mins is .839%. Blackwood is dead last at .757%. Next closest is Samasonov at .770% He's also the only goalie in the league with the same criteria allowing over 2 HD goals per game on average (2.15 HD GAA), next closest is Dustin Tokarski at (1.85 HD GAA).

And before you say "BuT iT's ThE dEfEnSe!" - he's 22nd out of 39 goalies in terms of High Danger shots faced. The only goalie who has faced more High Danger chances than him with a HDSV% <.800 is Jake Allen. He actually has the 5th best average shot distance faced in the league, meaning he's getting a lot of shots from the outside.

Other goalies are finding ways to make saves and Blackwood just simply isn't. He is letting everything past him, even low danger chances. I spent years making excuses for Marty and Cory when they weren't playing well but even I'm fed up with Blackwood's play. He is the single biggest problem with this team.

 

[MadDevil]

Part of the problem too is our other options in goal are pretty much all AHL goalies, so we can't just sit Blackwood for a stretch of games, so we have a struggling goalie with the added pressure of being the only real NHL goalie on the roster and being trotted out there game after game.