Bruins 5, Devils 3: Blackwood's struggles prove costly

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Five observations from New Jersey vs Boston:

1. Mackenzie Blackwood was off

I know, I know, nothing new there. Blackwood allowing soft goals on a nightly basis is quickly turning into ‘in other news the sky is blue’ situation. He tends to allow one on his good nights while his bad games…woof.

Last night was certainly one of Blackwood’s bad games. The Curtis Lazar goal was inexcusable. It looked like Blackwood was cheating pass and his stick got caught out of position while preparing to sweep the puck away. Whatever the case, that can’t happen. You can’t allow that kind of goal; especially when it puts you behind the 8-ball against a team that is 32-0-2 when leading after 20 over the last year and change.

Sadly, that was just scratching the surface of what was to come. I’ll give Blackwood a pass on the Oskar Steen goal. It was a strange play and you don’t have much control when the puck is bouncing on top of the net and you have your back to it. But the Trent Frederic goal might’ve been even worse than Lazar’s. At least Lazar’s came from in front of the net. Frederic flat out scored from behind the goal line.

All in all, it was another game where Blackwood was significantly worse than expected based on the workload. New Jersey gave up 2.88 expected goals and five actual goals. Essentially, Blackwood allowed two goals more than expected – and it’s not hard to trace where he could’ve shaved those off. Take away markers from Lazar and Frederic and the Devils have a realistic shot at a point, if not two.

Even undermanned, they really didn’t play that poorly. Blackwood was their undoing.