Blackwood/Vanecek/We Really Need to Move On/Goalie Thread

[Bleedred]

My main takeaways from the chart are that the team plays very similarly in front of all of our goalies, and that Schmid has been very good (albeit in a small sample size).

And also that @Bleedred is totally correct to shit on Petersen, Nedeljkovic, and Merzlikins every opportunity he gets.

And it’s so crazy how Nedeljkovic and Petersen have similarities to Blackwood.

Petersen’s AHL career was nothing special, although not as poor as Blackwood’s. He had one pretty bad year there, but nothing as bad as Blackwood’s 17-18 AHL season.

He played well in the NHL in his early auditions. Rob Blake even gave him a contract that seemed to confuse everybody.

And after his first 50-something games of solid NHL play in the NHL, his last close to 50 games have been horrific. Sucks to be them and have him under contract for I think the next two years after this at FIVE million per year? He was just waived a week or two ago. I expect he’ll be bought out after this year if he doesn’t come back before the season ends and perform better.

As far as Nedeljkovic, he was the Canes goalie of the future for a while there. He was supposed to take over for Cam Ward, but he had a horrific AHL season in 16-17 that was almost identical to Blackwood’s 17-18 AHL season. That really hurt his standing in the organization and I’m pretty sure it was coming off of that horrific season that they went out and got Scott Darling and signed him to a 4 year deal.

He became an afterthought outside of a few call ups over the next several years.

Then he somehow had a prominent role with the Canes in 20-21, I’m pretty sure after injuries. He was waived to start that year and nobody claimed him. I’m sure he had been waived before this, but nobody claimed him because nobody really probably knew who he even was outside of the Former Whalers org.

He performed great that year, but Petr Mrazek (an otherwise shit goaltender for years and years now) overachieved enough behind that team to sucker Kyle Dubas into a 3 year contract. Andersen went there after two straight mediocre years in Toronto (where Jack Campbell was outplaying him, yes that Jack Campbell) and somehow looks good again at 30-something years old like his first several years in Toronto. Raanta also posted good numbers the next year there, despite looking washed up and bad in games.

I thought the former Whalers were wrong to trade him. In fact, I still think they may have been wrong to trade him, as he probably performs better there, if not just a little bit. And he’d be much cheaper and doesn’t get hurt as much as the two 33 year old injury twins.

He started out last year in Detroit very well, hence why they hung around the bubble for quite a while last season. He took a nosedive from December onward and still hasn’t recovered. He’s a very SHORT goalie in todays NHL and it’s very hard to have success in the league being that short in modern times. Only Halak and Saros have seemed to fare well and Jonathan Bernier to a lesser extent, out of 6 foot tall or shorter goalies to play in the NHL over the last 15 years.

 

[HBK27]

He was one of a handful of what, close to probably 1,000 people (players, coaches etc) league wide. Lets not act like he was some brilliant hero.

And I will vilify anyone I choose whether you like it or not, thanks. I would want the guy gone SOLELY BASED ON HIS PLAY alone. This just adds to it.

Who said anything about him being a hero? Where was I praising him for his decision? I just don't personally hold that against him like you still do. I respect his decision in the matter, as I think that should be a personal choice, even if it meant harming the team.

Even though I disagree with your stance, I respect that you're honest about it. I know many others feel the same way about it too.

It is rich though that you're hitting me with the "And I will vilify anyone..." quote after your "then why carry on like this, then? Like I said, I just don't get it." stance you took earlier in the conversation. Just so we're clear here, you can dish it out and tell me what I should or shouldn't be commenting on in this thread, but when it comes back around your way...

Also, you find those dates yet on the ~2 month stretch when Blackwood has shown "he's an NHL goalie" yet or you ready to admit you were selling him short?

 

[glenwo2]

And what exactly are you basing using "Genius" in quotation marks for Fitzgerald? What other "stupid mistakes" has he made that makes you believe that he'll bungle this one and not see something so clearly obvious that you and Bleedred among others can see?

I personally have a lot of trust in Fitz and how he will handle the situation.

Jesus...now Fitz is a "FOOL" as well.

Has Blackwood broken you?

Is this a trick question?

Blackwood has broken ALL OF US.

The only way we get fixed is if he just simply.....goes away.


And Fitz isn't infallible. All it takes is one mistake (and this would be a big one).

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Who said anything about him being a hero? Where was I praising him for his decision? I just don't personally hold that against him like you still do. I respect his decision in the matter, as I think that should be a personal choice, even if it meant harming the team.

Even though I disagree with your stance, I respect that you're honest about it. I know many others feel the same way about it too.

It is rich though that you're hitting me with the "And I will vilify anyone..." quote after your "then why carry on like this, then? Like I said, I just don't get it." stance you took earlier in the conversation. Just so we're clear here, you can dish it out and tell me what I should or shouldn't be commenting on in this thread, but when it comes back around your way...

Also, you find those dates yet on the ~2 month stretch when Blackwood has shown "he's an NHL goalie" yet or you ready to admit you were selling him short?

How am I selling him short? Last 3 years- 67 games, .897 SV%. Multiple injuries. He can't be trusted as a player.

 

[MartyOwns]

blackwood lied to the team about his vaccination status and held a maskless fan signing. on top of that, his numbers aren’t great and fitz intimated he wasn’t happy with him (i don’t remember the exact quote). so we know he’s not here for the long haul.

all that said, i would LOVE for him to come back and put up some of the numbers his fellow goalies have, because 1) i’m a devils fan and 2) his trade value is approximately dick right now.

 

[glenwo2]

Not to mention apparently Brodeur and the staff appeared to believe in him coming into the season, but what the f*** do they know, right?

Of course Marty "believed" in him. Did you expect him to say "Hey Mac, just so you know, I believe you suck and I can't wait to get you off this franchise and be someone else's problem"?

I'm just personally sick of the amount of vitriol the guy gets on these boards - again, to the point that we have posters worried that he may perform well this season because of some stupid excuse that our (now idiotic it seems) GM might bring him back next year because obviously management must not be able to see what they see. I can understand him being a whipping boy, but that type of stance is just ridiculous and I can't get on board with actively rooting against a player on this team.


I've already stated that I don't think it's likely that he returns to form, but I guess that's not enough for you either, huh?

Are you upset that I said mean things about Blackwood? Is this where we've arrived at now?

Dude. Blackwood stinks.

It has never nor will ever be PERSONAL.

It's a PERFORMANCE-related viewpoint.

A viewpoint shared by a good MANY here.


You're taking this too damn personally, imo.

 

[HBK27]

How am I selling him short? Last 3 years- 67 games, .897 SV%. Multiple injuries. He can't be trusted as a player.

I was referring specifically to the bolded part below:

Serious question: What has Mackenzie Blackwood shown in his career, other than a ~2 month stretch like 4 years ago, that he is even an NHL goalie? Over his past 67 games played, he is not even a .900 goalie. That is not good enough. That doesn't even take into account his inability to stay healthy.

I just don't understand the stanning for this guy. He sucks.

He was good for more than just a ~2 month stretch those first two seasons.

Since then, certainly he has not been.

blackwood lied to the team about his vaccination status and held a maskless fan signing. on top of that, his numbers aren’t great and fitz intimated he wasn’t happy with him (i don’t remember the exact quote). so we know he’s not here for the long haul.

all that said, i would LOVE for him to come back and put up some of the numbers his fellow goalies have, because 1) i’m a devils fan and 2) his trade value is approximately dick right now.

Did he actually lie to the team about his vaccination status? I thought he told them he was going to get it, then basically backed out last minute. I don't recall him lying about his status - the quick Google search I just did couldn't find anything about him lying.

Did he have Covid when he was at that maskless signing?

I do recall Fitz being frustrated with the whole situation for sure.

 

[HBK27]

Of course Marty "believed" in him. Did you expect him to say "Hey Mac, just so you know, I believe you suck and I can't wait to get you off this franchise and be someone else's problem"?

Are you upset that I said mean things about Blackwood? Is this where we've arrived at now?

Dude. Blackwood stinks.

It has never nor will ever be PERSONAL.

It's a PERFORMANCE-related viewpoint.

A viewpoint shared by a good MANY here.


You're taking this too damn personally, imo.

If they didn't believe in him at all, then they could've just moved him this past offseason. That's what Washington did with their goalies, much to our benefit. I'm sure at least one team would've rolled the dice on Blackwood on a one-year deal at $2.8M given the flashes he showed earlier in his career or NJ could have even retained some salary.

And don't give me this crap about me "being upset" or "taking this too damn personally" - it's a message board and we all comment (or at least most of us) about stupid shit left and right, particularly now when there are two days off between games. I don't really appreciate you trying to spin it like that, but whatever.

I know it's not personal with you and I never accused that of being the case. I get that it's performance related and sure as hell understand why you and many others want him gone. Admittedly, I probably show too much faith in our players at times...I was certainly one of the last passengers here on the Zacha train.

 

[glenwo2]

If they didn't believe in him at all, then they could've just moved him this past offseason. That's what Washington did with their goalies, much to our benefit. I'm sure at least one team would've rolled the dice on Blackwood on a one-year deal at $2.8M given the flashes he showed earlier in his career or NJ could have even retained some salary.

And don't give me this crap about me "being upset" or "taking this too damn personally" - it's a message board and we all comment (or at least most of us) about stupid shit left and right, particularly now when there are two days off between games. I don't really appreciate you trying to spin it like that, but whatever.

I know it's not personal with you and I never accused that of being the case. I get that it's performance related and sure as hell understand why you and many others want him gone. Admittedly, I probably show too much faith in our players at times...I was certainly one of the last passengers here on the Zacha train.

And I don't really appreciate you believing that I'm spinning it at all.

So there.

We done bickering?

 

[HBK27]

And I don't really appreciate you believing that I'm spinning it at all.

So there.

We done bickering?

Yeah, we're good.

Probably letting some other stuff and lack of Devils games get to me today. Only 1 game the past 5 days is not cool - I need my fix!

 

[McDuffz88]

As far as Blackwood is concerned I wouldn't mind if he just never suited up for us again. Just roll with Vanecek & Akira and let Blackwood go kick rocks.

 

[Bad Goalie]

I know your position on Blackwood very, very well.

I'm just not a fan of actively rooting against a guy on the team.

I'm hoping he plays well and that Schmid and Vanecek continue to play well. At the very least, it would build some trade value for Blackwood this offseason or perhaps even sooner depending on their level of confidence in Schmid and Daws.

When Blackwood comes back, Schmid returns to Utica. Schmid could possibly have seen his last game in NJ if Blackwood works out or if the Devils' brass decides they will keep Blackwood going regardless of the results. It was obvious before he went down that was the plan for the season. Playing Schmid was nnever their plan. I am sure they took him because it was Nico's turn coming up. Then the thought was to give daws the reins in utica while Schmid sat in NJ because at the start of this season based upon his work last season, Daws was the intended next in Jersey. No one expected Schmid to sparkle. He was a surprise to the New Jersey hierarchy as well as anyone else.

 

[My3Sons]

Yes, let's continue to vilify the guy for not getting in line and getting a shot that he didn't actually need (considering he had already had Covid and has thus built up strong natural immunity) and had a very small chance of actually harming him because it might've prevented him from from traveling with the team to Canada for a few games (where he could've just gotten the night off anyway, as often happens with goalies). On a shitty team nonetheless that didn't come remotely close to sniffing the playoffs.

As much as I'm sure you think he was selfish in his decision, I think fans were much more selfish in their reaction to it.

Wonder how many would still hold that against Jack or Nico if they had made that decision instead.

I think most would be just as disappointed in Hughes and Hischier. If Blackwood was healthy and playing well the vaccine would just be a weird footnote. It only comes up now because at this point it's part of the long list of things that have just gone wrong for him. Beyond that, I'm not sure why people re-litigate the Covid shot as a stand alone thing. The reality is that people have reactions to all sorts of medicine and virtually every kid has measles, chicken pox, TB, and a few other shots along the way as well. Side effects are a known thing and on balance we as a society have said that's the best way to handle these issues. It's a compromise we make but somehow the Covid shot became political. Again, a bunch of players got the shot for better or worse to allow them to play in Canada or just to avoid controversy. Ultimately, I'm not aware of any NHL player missing a game because of the vaccine.

 

[HBK27]

I think most would be just as disappointed in Hughes and Hischier. If Blackwood was healthy and playing well the vaccine would just be a weird footnote. It only comes up now because at this point it's part of the long list of things that have just gone wrong for him. Beyond that, I'm not sure why people re-litigate the Covid shot as a stand alone thing. The reality is that people have reactions to all sorts of medicine and virtually every kid has measles, chicken pox, TB, and a few other shots along the way as well. Side effects are a known thing and on balance we as a society have said that's the best way to handle these issues. It's a compromise we make but somehow the Covid shot became political. Again, a bunch of players got the shot for better or worse to allow them to play in Canada or just to avoid controversy. Ultimately, I'm not aware of any NHL player missing a game because of the vaccine.

I agree with all this and I don't want to go down a rabbit hole about the vaccine as it is old news at this point.

That being said, I don't think it's an apples-to-apples comparison between vaccines that have been around for decades in which the benefits and potential side effects are well known, versus where we were with Covid shots at the time this all went down with Blackwood. Especially when you factor in the impact of previous infections (which Blackwood had) and changes in variants. There's also the question of just how much benefit NHL players (which are elite athletes) would get from the vaccine. While I'm thankful that no NHL athletes had any severe adverse reactions, that was not the case for all professional athletes so some trepidation (again, despite very little actual chance of something going wrong) was not completed unwarranted.

Bottom line is that there was plenty of unknown at the time and still remains today to an extent. Yes, we knew the risk of a severe reaction was very low at the time given the millions and millions of people that had gotten the shot by that point, but it wasn't zero and nobody had an exact number. The NHL also didn't mandate that players get it - they were given a choice (even though the NHL pushed really, really hard) and I'm personally not going to fault a player's decision to say no even if they were in the vast minority of players to do so.

It's unfortunate that it became political, though I'm not sure that Blackwood decided against it for political reasons. Personally, I got it myself and encouraged others to do so at that point, but I never had a problem with those that decided not to for whatever reason.

 

[My3Sons]

I agree with all this and I don't want to go down a rabbit hole about the vaccine as it is old news at this point.

That being said, I don't think it's an apples-to-apples comparison between vaccines that have been around for decades in which the benefits and potential side effects are well known, versus where we were with Covid shots at the time this all went down with Blackwood. Especially when you factor in the impact of previous infections (which Blackwood had) and changes in variants. There's also the question of just how much benefit NHL players (which are elite athletes) would get from the vaccine. While I'm thankful that no NHL athletes had any severe adverse reactions, that was not the case for all professional athletes so some trepidation (again, despite very little actual chance of something going wrong) was not completed unwarranted.

Bottom line is that there was plenty of unknown at the time and still remains today to an extent. Yes, we knew the risk of a severe reaction was very low at the time given the millions and millions of people that had gotten the shot by that point, but it wasn't zero and nobody had an exact number. The NHL also didn't mandate that players get it - they were given a choice (even though the NHL pushed really, really hard) and I'm personally not going to fault a player's decision to say no even if they were in the vast minority of players to do so.

It's unfortunate that it became political, though I'm not sure that Blackwood decided against it for political reasons. Personally, I got it myself and encouraged others to do so at that point, but I never had a problem with those that decided not to for whatever reason.

It's sort of a winning covers up any ills story. If Blackwood had stayed healthy from the start of the season and had gotten his game together he'd get a pass on whatever came before. Nobody would care. I agree with @Bleedred that Blackwood may have an NHL future but at this point it's probably best for him to get a chance somewhere else. I cannot imagine that his mental state will allow him to flourish with the Devils after so much water under the bridge. I obviously want him to return and play well this season. In a perfect world he's so incredible and plays every game the rest of the season and leads NJ to a Stanley Cup and they can keep him. Of course, I have no faith that he can play well over anything more than a small sample size based on the last few years. I agree that Blackwood is given more grief than a player beset by injuries would ordinarily get. Part of the problem is that goalies are like QBs. They often get too much credit in a win and too much blame in a loss. That brings out the vitriolic comments. To be fair, some of them are pretty funny.

 

[Triumph]

I agree with all this and I don't want to go down a rabbit hole about the vaccine as it is old news at this point.

That being said, I don't think it's an apples-to-apples comparison between vaccines that have been around for decades in which the benefits and potential side effects are well known, versus where we were with Covid shots at the time this all went down with Blackwood. Especially when you factor in the impact of previous infections (which Blackwood had) and changes in variants. There's also the question of just how much benefit NHL players (which are elite athletes) would get from the vaccine. While I'm thankful that no NHL athletes had any severe adverse reactions, that was not the case for all professional athletes so some trepidation (again, despite very little actual chance of something going wrong) was not completed unwarranted.

Bottom line is that there was plenty of unknown at the time and still remains today to an extent. Yes, we knew the risk of a severe reaction was very low at the time given the millions and millions of people that had gotten the shot by that point, but it wasn't zero and nobody had an exact number. The NHL also didn't mandate that players get it - they were given a choice (even though the NHL pushed really, really hard) and I'm personally not going to fault a player's decision to say no even if they were in the vast minority of players to do so.

It's unfortunate that it became political, though I'm not sure that Blackwood decided against it for political reasons. Personally, I got it myself and encouraged others to do so at that point, but I never had a problem with those that decided not to for whatever reason.

The big thing that was known at the time was that a player would be ineligible to enter Canada without the vaccine, and so Blackwood would've been unable to play there without it. Turns out it didn't matter - he got the vaccine, he was awful, the team was awful - but it was just another black mark on the resume of a guy who the implication has been that the work isn't always there even if the talent is.

 

[Bleedred]

I think most would be just as disappointed in Hughes and Hischier. If Blackwood was healthy and playing well the vaccine would just be a weird footnote. It only comes up now because at this point it's part of the long list of things that have just gone wrong for him. Beyond that, I'm not sure why people re-litigate the Covid shot as a stand alone thing. The reality is that people have reactions to all sorts of medicine and virtually every kid has measles, chicken pox, TB, and a few other shots along the way as well. Side effects are a known thing and on balance we as a society have said that's the best way to handle these issues. It's a compromise we make but somehow the Covid shot became political. Again, a bunch of players got the shot for better or worse to allow them to play in Canada or just to avoid controversy. Ultimately, I'm not aware of any NHL player missing a game because of the vaccine.

Bertuzzi must have missed games in Canada. He was the lone player to not be vaccinated, outside of Blackwood, who eventually wound up getting both shots within the first 1.5 months or of the season. Before he could miss any games (at least because of that) and it didn't cause him to not be able to play in Canada.

As I've said over and over, I don't care about the vaccine issue. I'm not vaccinated for covid-19, never gotten a flu shot in my life. I don't think I've gotten any vaccines, other than the ones you get as a kid that are required to start school and all that. It's not that I'm afraid of needles, but I'm not a doctor person (I know you don't have to go to a doctor's office to get these shots), I don't go to the doctor.

At the time the vaccines had just become available, I couldn't have cared less about them. I couldn't have cared less about anything in my life at that point. I'm not even sure if I could have mustered one of these long Blackwood rants back then. Of course I watched the games, I was on here as always, but I'm sure you could tell I was not as passionate at that point. I was even getting PM's and @'d on the forum from people asking if I was okay, as I hadn't been around as much, but that was particularly in the 2021 offseason, as I was still positing daily when games were being played and doing a goals review.

But really I didn't give a shit about anything other than my dog and eating as much as I could. Thankfully, I didn't take a sip of alcohol like I resorted to in 2002-2003, the only other time in my life on par with 2020-2021. Probably OD'd on food multiple times though haha.

Wasn't political reasons for me, although by the time I snapped out of it (October of 2021) I really didn't care to get vaccinated. If they came to my house and gave me the shots I think I would have taken them. Only the first two, I wouldn't have bothered with boosters.

I guess I just don't care enough to get vaccinated, which is fine if you think that. I'll accept that.

 

[Bleedred]

It's sort of a winning covers up any ills story. If Blackwood had stayed healthy from the start of the season and had gotten his game together he'd get a pass on whatever came before. Nobody would care. I agree with @Bleedred that Blackwood may have an NHL future but at this point it's probably best for him to get a chance somewhere else. I cannot imagine that his mental state will allow him to flourish with the Devils after so much water under the bridge. I obviously want him to return and play well this season. In a perfect world he's so incredible and plays every game the rest of the season and leads NJ to a Stanley Cup and they can keep him. Of course, I have no faith that he can play well over anything more than a small sample size based on the last few years. I agree that Blackwood is given more grief than a player beset by injuries would ordinarily get. Part of the problem is that goalies are like QBs. They often get too much credit in a win and too much blame in a loss. That brings out the vitriolic comments. To be fair, some of them are pretty funny.

Yeah, it's just that he plays too important of a position.

It goes both ways really. Goalies get the most shit and blame, but they also sometimes get the most sympathy and the most passes for their poor play.

I've done my fair share of complaining about all the menial trash forwards we've iced over the years, but I don't think any of them are gonna cost you as many points as a goalie that's performing as poorly as Blackwood has since about February 20th of 2021.

And the thing with Blackwood and I'm the only one that points this out, his AHL career was NOT good. It just wasn't. There was LOTS of talk about it in 2018, but then he debuted in the NHL, played well and it went away, until I started bringing it up again maybe about a year ago.

It's not like he was a stud or even solid in the AHL, then came up and had those first two seasons here like he did before plummeting. He had a very mediocre AHL career. To the point where it was looking like we weren't even gonna get performances like those 18-19 and 19-20 seasons from him in the NHL ever. Guys like Keith Kinkaid and Scott Wedgewood didn't even perform that badly in the AHL. I don't even think Jeff Frazee did either, and really none of them were even that good in the AHL. I was really spreading the word that Wedgewood would be nothing by about 2014 or 2015 because his AHL career had been bad to that point, but I don't even think it was as bad as Blackwood's at that point.

His AHL play was a bit of foreshadowing and the only hints we might have gotten about what's happened these last 2 years.

Did he really get that bad because of injuries? Or was he really just never that good to begin with? I'm thinking it's either the ladder or a combination of both. Of course he is injury prone, but did that break him? Or was he possibly just not any good? Maybe he overachieved his first two years in the league and has now been underachieving and he's really somewhere in the middle? Which is still nothing great, but also not nearly the worst goalie in the NHL either. Whatever the reason is, he's definitely hasn't been any good. I don't think we have enough racetrack left to give him a FOURTH year (really a third try) to further delve into what the problem may be here.

 

[JrFischer54]

BUMP


Imagine telling Akira to go back to Utica because we have to play a guy that's been shit for 2 years and counting.

I bet Vitek wouldn't even have a shutout if he weren't injured. The other guy would have started the Colorado game that he got a shutout in (remember, he was nursing a sore elbow but still dressed) and probably would have gotten scored on by Martin Kaut, Dryden Hunt or some other rando AHL player for Colorado.

It’s just the way the league works. Just like broduer coming back and clemmer got sent down not weeks when clemmer was playing amazing. Schmid will get his chance next year and he should.

 

[Bleedred]

It’s just the way the league works. Just like broduer coming back and clemmer got sent down not weeks when clemmer was playing amazing. Schmid will get his chance next year and he should.

You know, I felt bad about that in 2009, but looking back on it, how many games did Marty not play anyway after he came back? I think maybe 2? The game after he broke the wins record and the game that Weekes got injured in, which ended up being the last game of his career in the NHL and Marty came in anyway?

I think at the time I was naive enough to believe that they weren't going to throw Marty out there for 80% of the remaining games and they were gonna ''Ease him in'' and limit his workload to make sure he's slowly inserted back in and fresh for the playoffs.

Now, the only thing that went on longer than ''This goalie is gonna bounce back, he was just hurt'' and ''That goalie is really gonna prove you wrong! Just give him one more try!'' was the meme that ''This is finally the year that Marty won't play 75 games!''. That really didn't come until he started getting hurt long enough to not play that many games or was literally like 39 years old. I'm pretty sure I heard that every year from 2005-2010. And the only year he didn't play 75+ games was when he missed a lot of the season in 08-09 with that injury. He may have played just shy of 75 games in 05-06 when he was injured like 2 weeks early that year, but I'm pretty sure he still played over 70.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

I'm willing to give Blackwood a chance to prove he is capable of the backup job when he returns from injury.

Assuming he won't be back until January, that gives him two months to prove himself before trade deadine.

The interesting thing about our January and February schedule is that we have 3 back to back games in January, which the backup should start in one of those games and only 1 back to back in February.

So potentially Blackwood may only see 4 starts til 3 March 2023. That's probably the short leash we need to determine if he can bounce back and be a capable backup. Or dump him at the trade deadline.

 

[glenwo2]

When Blackwood comes back, Schmid returns to Utica. Schmid could possibly have seen his last game in NJ if Blackwood works out or if the Devils' brass decides they will keep Blackwood going regardless of the results. It was obvious before he went down that was the plan for the season. Playing Schmid was nnever their plan. I am sure they took him because it was Nico's turn coming up. Then the thought was to give daws the reins in utica while Schmid sat in NJ because at the start of this season based upon his work last season, Daws was the intended next in Jersey. No one expected Schmid to sparkle. He was a surprise to the New Jersey hierarchy as well as anyone else.

Then why was he drafted at all if that's the belief?

The Hierarchy should be doing cartwheels that one of the Many Devils Darts thrown at the Devils Goaltender Draft Dartboard (trying say that 3 times fast) may have hit the bullseye here.

I will find it very hard to believe that once Blackwood comes back, it will be "business as usual" as if Schmid never took the ice at all.

Blackwood is, as mentioned, going to be an a verrry short leash.

I won't root for him to fail but the possibility remains high (as there is PLENTY OF so-called "Sample Size") that he continues to struggle. We'll see...

 

[HBK27]

Bertuzzi must have missed games in Canada. He was the lone player to not be vaccinated, outside of Blackwood, who eventually wound up getting both shots within the first 1.5 months or of the season. Before he could miss any games (at least because of that) and it didn't cause him to not be able to play in Canada.

As I've said over and over, I don't care about the vaccine issue. I'm not vaccinated for covid-19, never gotten a flu shot in my life. I don't think I've gotten any vaccines, other than the ones you get as a kid that are required to start school and all that. It's not that I'm afraid of needles, but I'm not a doctor person (I know you don't have to go to a doctor's office to get these shots), I don't go to the doctor.

At the time the vaccines had just become available, I couldn't have cared less about them. I couldn't have cared less about anything in my life at that point. I'm not even sure if I could have mustered one of these long Blackwood rants back then. Of course I watched the games, I was on here as always, but I'm sure you could tell I was not as passionate at that point. I was even getting PM's and @'d on the forum from people asking if I was okay, as I hadn't been around as much, but that was particularly in the 2021 offseason, as I was still positing daily when games were being played and doing a goals review.

But really I didn't give a shit about anything other than my dog and eating as much as I could. Thankfully, I didn't take a sip of alcohol like I resorted to in 2002-2003, the only other time in my life on par with 2020-2021. Probably OD'd on food multiple times though haha.

Wasn't political reasons for me, although by the time I snapped out of it (October of 2021) I really didn't care to get vaccinated. If they came to my house and gave me the shots I think I would have taken them. Only the first two, I wouldn't have bothered with boosters.

I guess I just don't care enough to get vaccinated, which is fine if you think that. I'll accept that.

Yeah, Bertuzzi did not play any games in Canada that season (source: had him on my fantasy team). Honestly, if that were the case for Blackwood or any other member of the Devils, I would have been fine with it. I understand why others wouldn't have been. Glad you're in a much better place now.

 

[Bleedred]

Yeah, Bertuzzi did not play any games in Canada that season (source: had him on my fantasy team). Honestly, if that were the case for Blackwood or any other member of the Devils, I would have been fine with it. I understand why others wouldn't have been. Glad you're in a much better place now.

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

I probably would have been mad about it if he hadn't gotten it done and he had stayed healthy, and was actually playing well on top of that, and we had to ice Gillies or some shit in those games and it was the difference in a playoff spot.

Although, that wouldn't have been fair and would have admittedly have been selfish on my part, as I'm not vaccinated. So who am I to tell him he's gotta be? Just because he's more privileged and plays a sport that I selfishly enjoy?

Miles Wood particularly came to his defense from what I remember, when he was asked about it during camp when it came out that it was Blackwood. I remember there was some mystery for a little while as to who it was. Somebody may have come out and said ''It's an important player on the team'' without actually leaking who it was by name. That's all I remember.

And, that was in September of 2021, so I didn't come back to life until the day before our first game of the season, honestly?

 

[R8Devs]

When Blackwood comes back, Schmid returns to Utica. Schmid could possibly have seen his last game in NJ if Blackwood works out or if the Devils' brass decides they will keep Blackwood going regardless of the results. It was obvious before he went down that was the plan for the season. Playing Schmid was nnever their plan. I am sure they took him because it was Nico's turn coming up. Then the thought was to give daws the reins in utica while Schmid sat in NJ because at the start of this season based upon his work last season, Daws was the intended next in Jersey. No one expected Schmid to sparkle. He was a surprise to the New Jersey hierarchy as well as anyone else.

People say this but Schmid played well in the pre-season (albeit it was only one period but he probably did well in training camp as well). If what you said was true they would have called up Daws right after that western trip ended, no ones going to keep their de-facto #4 goalie up for an extended time if #3 is available. So I don't think there was much separation between the two in the first place.

The Devils are winning now, they're not going to keep Blackwood going within the season if he can't produce results considering how Schmid has played. Blackwood will get a chance but they have options now so it doesn't have to be a long leash. They don't have any long-term commitment to him and will save on the cap next season if they go with a Vanecek and Schmid tandem.