GDT: Your New Jersey Devils (50-21-8, 108 Points, 2nd in Metro) @ Boston Bruins (61-12-5, 127 Points, 1st in Atlantic), 8 PM, ABC/ESPN+

[Mgd31]

The whole need to have to praise Blackwood because he had a good game is extremely weird. Bad goalies have good games all the time. Look at Alex Lyon’s 58 saves the other night and the run he’s been on? Is he any good? Is he just one of the best kept secrets in the world and that’s why he’s 30 years old and has been toiling in the AHL?

I’m not gonna shit on him for last night, but pardon me for acknowledging and recognizing one of the worst goalies in the NHL having a good game. Some people act like if a guy were really a bad goalie, he would never have good games or he would get beaten once every 6th or 7th shot and that’s really not true.


Oh wow! Schmid has looked really pedestrian in the 3 games he’s played since he was sent down? And Blackwood hasn’t looked really pedestrian for three years now?

Blackwood was gonna be the backup for the playoffs as soon as he got healthy and Schmid got sent down. I’m pretty sure last night’s game had nothing to do with it.

I shit on Blackwood both here and on Twitter a little too much probably. But he deserves praise for last night giving us a chance to win against the best team in the league and move into first in the division.

 

[Bleedred]

I shit on Blackwood both here and on Twitter a little too much probably. But he deserves praise for last night giving us a chance to win against the best team in the league and move into first in the division.

Fair enough.

 

[Triumph]

How is he not one in the worst goalies in the league based on his last 3 seasons?

I’m only counting the guys that are full time goalies in the NHL. Not call ups like Michael Hutchinson or Alex Lyon. I’m talking the guys that are in the league full time and have been for years now.

And the only guy I can think of that’s definitely worse than him is Jonathan Quick. And he’s ancient and probably needs to retire. And even he had a pretty good game yesterday against Dallas and two shutouts this season.

Granted, Mrazek and Jones are probably two others. Jones has been doing for 5 years what Blackwood has been doing for 3 years.

Because those guys all get into games every year. Blackwood also played most or all of last year while injured. I recognize that sometimes goalies get to a point where they are always injured, in one way or another - I'm not certain Blackwood is there. Nonetheless, he had an obvious injury that needed surgery to repair.

I don't really see much need to parse how good goalie #49 is versus goalie #58. That's overwhelmed by luck. So sure, Blackwood has one of the worst SV%s over the last 3 years, but he's also played for one of the worst teams. He'll have a job somewhere next year, hopefully not here, but he'll play somewhere. I won't exactly be rooting for him but I won't be rooting against him either.

I hope last night is Blackwood's last game here. But he played well, so I don't see why he would be a big topic of conversation after the second period.

 

[forceten]

I have an alternate take on us - I don't think it was lots of individual poor play or few chances in the third and Boston graced us with wide shots. I think we do plenty of wide shots ourselves, last game alone we had three freaking empty nets we didn't hit.

Point is that I think we let Boston's talent, results, and all-world goaltender into our heads and we uncharacteristically over passed. I cannot count how many really nice shots -- with players in a nice position for potential rebounds -- we passed up to pass, and the passes in some cases were dangerous - backward toward the point but in the "no mans land" between the dot and the line, in a bit too far. If we re-read even our posts how many times did we say "[player x] needs to shoot that"?

We overthought it. That's something that comes with experience. Play our game. We believe we can beat Boston, but it's not easy because they're super good. The Bratt goal from Hughes shows that they can be scored on - that was a woof for them in coverage!

As an aside, I was relatively convinced back in Oct/Nov that Boston was scary good but older, slower. They didn't feel super slow to me, they were beating us to pucks a lot - especially some players getting exposed like Hamilton a few times which, I know, isn't uncommon, but it surprised me because I thought they in general were akin to his skating vs our speed demons.

Re: Blackwood, the 2nd goal was beer league bad. I had a goalie on one of my teams when I was living in NJ and he literally played a puck off the side boards by jumping up in the air to try to land on it and it went under him. That goal was ALMOST that, except in the NHL . He was way out of position on the initial shot and didn't control his body coming the other way, so he actually kicked it in himself. Zacha was passing.

But the first goal wasn't good either - his positioning was poor and while everyone wants to say that Zacha deflected it so it was okay, it wasn't okay, it was going in regardless. Zacha may have gently caressed it as it went by but I'm not even sure it did anything but steal a goal from its rightful owner.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I'm not going to place the loss on Mac as he rebounded decently after a horrendous first period. The issue is the ridiculous timing. He clearly is not the starter, we had a layup against CBJ, but you choose to start VV against CBJ and Mac against Boston? And sit Haula? Is Haula hurt or something? It's just completely nonsensical. I don't know if either really move the needle since Boston is that much better, but purposely choosing not to ice your best lineup definitely doesn't help either. It's just really odd.

This is like the third or fourth time in the last couple of weeks Ruff has intentionally not iced the best roster possible against a quality opponent. Despite having a multitude of games against non-playoff teams that could be used for load management if he wished.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm going to assume Haula was a not a healthy scratch, but that whatever is ailing him is not serious enough to keep him out of a playoff game. Wouldn't be surprised if we see him and possible others scratched in the last two games.

 

[devilsblood]

LOL guys have been taking cheap shots at us all year but Timo legally bodychecks someone in a one goal game and it’s classless? As if he can stop on a dime the millisecond the horn goes off or can keep track of how much time is left on a play in the corner. These pundits need to get a life

Imo the McLeod hit played into it.

As did just drawing a line. Yeah, you guys beat us, but go eff yourself anyways.

Meier very easily could have not hit Pasta there, looked a little late to me, or even just not crushed him to that extent.

But heading into the playoffs you do need to take on a bit of an asshole mindset. So whatever negative description someone wants to put on it, "classless", "cheap" or whatever, I say, Good.

 

[NjDevsRR]

How the f*** can you say something negative about blackie. He literally was the reason we were in this game

Uhhh because even in his great games he consistently lets in a f***ing stinker. This isn’t a hard, Bob.

You also cherry picked my comment out of the crowd because you are obsessed with me. I never once blamed him on the loss last night. I literally just said he made a mistake on goal two, thats a FACT.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Blackwood gave up two stinker goals and then the bruins basically shut us down for the rest of the game. He was absolutely a factor in why we lost. We obviously can’t know for a fact how it would have played out if Vitek was in, but we know he’s the vastly better player. There was zero reason to start the backup against a team that is on the cusp of having the greatest regular season in history. Sitting Haula against his former team was equally mind bending stupid. Basically Ruff signaled that he didn’t really give a shit about trying to win this game, which is bush league uncompetitive garbage.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I have an alternate take on us - I don't think it was lots of individual poor play or few chances in the third and Boston graced us with wide shots. I think we do plenty of wide shots ourselves, last game alone we had three freaking empty nets we didn't hit.

Point is that I think we let Boston's talent, results, and all-world goaltender into our heads and we uncharacteristically over passed. I cannot count how many really nice shots -- with players in a nice position for potential rebounds -- we passed up to pass, and the passes in some cases were dangerous - backward toward the point but in the "no mans land" between the dot and the line, in a bit too far. If we re-read even our posts how many times did we say "[player x] needs to shoot that"?

We overthought it. That's something that comes with experience. Play our game. We believe we can beat Boston, but it's not easy because they're super good. The Bratt goal from Hughes shows that they can be scored on - that was a woof for them in coverage!

As an aside, I was relatively convinced back in Oct/Nov that Boston was scary good but older, slower. They didn't feel super slow to me, they were beating us to pucks a lot - especially some players getting exposed like Hamilton a few times which, I know, isn't uncommon, but it surprised me because I thought they in general were akin to his skating vs our speed demons.

Re: Blackwood, the 2nd goal was beer league bad. I had a goalie on one of my teams when I was living in NJ and he literally played a puck off the side boards by jumping up in the air to try to land on it and it went under him. That goal was ALMOST that, except in the NHL . He was way out of position on the initial shot and didn't control his body coming the other way, so he actually kicked it in himself. Zacha was passing.

But the first goal wasn't good either - his positioning was poor and while everyone wants to say that Zacha deflected it so it was okay, it wasn't okay, it was going in regardless. Zacha may have gently caressed it as it went by but I'm not even sure it did anything but steal a goal from its rightful owner.

Our best players definitely tend to pass first rather than shoot first. I agree that will likely change with more experience, but I wish they would be more selfish sometimes.

 

[glenwo2]

Boston is the only team that I think we'd have close to zero chance to win a playoff series against. They are by far the best team in the league and their record shows this correctly. Blackwood played really well with the exception of the 2nd goal, but other than that he was just great. I am pretty sure he is gonna be the backup in the playoffs, Schmid has looked really pedestrian in Utica after being sent down.

Schmid looked pedestrian the last time he was first sent back down to Utica.

Then he turned it around.

What's your point?

 

[Triumph]

Blackwood gave up two stinker goals and then the bruins basically shut us down for the rest of the game. He was absolutely a factor in why we lost. We obviously can’t know for a fact how it would have played out if Vitek was in, but we know he’s the vastly better player. There was zero reason to start the backup against a team that is on the cusp of having the greatest regular season in history. Sitting Haula against his former team was equally mind bending stupid. Basically Ruff signaled that he didn’t really give a shit about trying to win this game, which is bush league uncompetitive garbage.

Ridiculous take all around. Goal #1 was fine, Goal #2 was awful, the Bruins didn't just turtle after that, they put up 30+ shots, none of which went in, and many of which were high quality.

Vitek Vanecek's SV% this year is .11 above Blackwood's, which means that he gives up 11 fewer goals on 1000 more shots. I don't think Vanecek is vastly better than Blackwood - better for sure, vastly better? Not buying it. Maybe Blackwood's getting lucky and Vanecek's getting unlucky. One other thing I'll say for Blackwood last night is that it looked to me like he at least had some control of his rebounds, which has usually been his downfall.

Haula missed practice and is clearly ailing with something; resting guys down the stretch makes sense - the Devils put in either Bastian or Sharangovich as a result, two players who are of simliar quality. They didn't dress Mason Geertsen.

 

[glenwo2]

@Bleedred

Schmid is currently (based on how he had done when he was up with the team) the better goaltender than Blackwood and also going forward as well. (not for the first time I'll say that I can't WAIT for Mac to be gone from this team.)

If Blackwood ever starts a game in the playoffs, opposing teams are going to start tossing shots from long-range knowing that he will eventually let in a weak shot...It's inevitable.

 

[Clam Jensen]

I also can’t get too worked up about losing to the best regular season team OAT by a goal when many of their players are old enough to be the father of our players. This is year 1 of our window whereas they’re a seasoned team of vets who aren’t too much longer for this league.

 

[bigd]

Bottom line, Blackwood didn't lose that game for us. As a team we just weren't good enough last night to beat a great team like the Bruins.

 

[Killing Joke]

Blackwood did lose us the game last night considering the game winning goal was that god awful out of position kicked it in himself goal

 

[devilsblood]

Our best players definitely tend to pass first rather than shoot first. I agree that will likely change with more experience, but I wish they would be more selfish sometimes.

Meier changed that to a large extent.

Hughes likes to shoot too.

Mercer is typically not an over passer but I def thought he should have shot it late there instead of trying the cross ice that was intercepted. Easy to say in hindsight, but Boston was taking away those passes all night, and he had a clear look at the net, with multiple Devils down low.

I also can’t get too worked up about losing to the best regular season team OAT by a goal when many of their players are old enough to be the father of our players. This is year 1 of our window whereas they’re a seasoned team of vets who aren’t too much longer for this league.

People have been saying this about Boston for forever, but you are right.

I do think they are the model of what we hope to be. IE good for a decades.

And yes, I'm not worked up about last nights game at all.

 

[glenwo2]

So nice of Bratt saying that Blackwood has "been good all year for us".

He should become a Politician.

 

[HersheyBob27]

Uhhh because even in his great games he consistently lets in a f***ing stinker. This isn’t a hard, Bob.

You also cherry picked my comment out of the crowd because you are obsessed with me. I never once blamed him on the loss last night. I literally just said he made a mistake on goal two, thats a FACT.

He played well. End of story

 

[Bleedred]

Honestly, even I'm tired of talking about him and hopefully this is the last game we ever see him play for us. If we're lucky it will be.

But the comment right before puck drop by Subban about how ''I think we're gonna see him in the playoffs'' was just really weird. Of all the things he could have said. He could have said he's a great goalie, he's really good. He's a nice guy, he's a great competitor, whatever. But he had to actually go there with the playoffs? What makes him think we're gonna see him in the playoffs? They're probably boys, but that was still pretty weird.

I think it would take a pretty good whooping like Kinkaid got by the Lightning in both games 1 and 2 for Vitek to not start the next playoff game. And even then, it wasn't as long ago that Cory Schneider was still good and even elite, as it's been since Blackwood was last good.

It's never out of the question that he could get a relief appearance if we're out of a game and shut Vitek down to just rest him. Like yanking Marty in the game 4 blowout against Boston in 2003 or game 6 of the 03 SCF.

 

[HughesCorporation]

such a typical blackwood game. gets beat on a screened shot (questionable to the extent of redirect)
then falls asleep, and completely overcommits turning into a horrible goal putting us in a 2 goal hole.
then his excellent butterfly technique keeps us in the game against a top team
seen this too many times. ruff put him in to the spot light, and we got the same ole mckenzie. leaving us scratching our heads

 

[MartyOwns]

blackwood was fine last night. he gave up a bad goal, but that’s not why we lost. the bruins are just really, really good.

 

[Bleedred]

such a typical blackwood game. gets beat on a screened shot (questionable to the extent of redirect)
then falls asleep, and completely overcommits turning into a horrible goal putting us in a 2 goal hole.
then his excellent butterfly technique keeps us in the game against a top team
seen this too many times. ruff put him in to the spot light, and we got the same ole mckenzie. leaving us scratching our heads

He shouldn't have started last night and even if he got a shutout I'm not gonna go back on saying he shouldn't have started, but I don't really care anymore.

He said it was a rotation start and during the interview from the bench in the 1st period Emily Kaplan asked him about it and he said something that would indicate they've had this as a scheduled start for him for a while now.

It seems he's played the last 3 Saturday's in a row.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Have to score more than 1, but you go down 2 against this Bruins team, the game is 99.99% over.

 

[NjDevsRR]

He played well. End of story

You literally proved my point, Bob. His version of playing well still consists of a back breaking goal which has no business of going in at this level. I never said he was the reason why they lost, I literally said he gave up another awful goal which has been consistent with him even when he is playing “well”.

Very well done as always, Bob.