G80 New Jersey Devils @ Ottawa Senators: Blackwood's back, alright

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A few notes to get you set for tonight’s game between the New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators:

Return of the Mac

Mackenzie Blackwood is back and expected to start for the first time since the middle of January. The hope is that we see a much different version than we did at that time.

As a refresher, Blackwood couldn’t stop a beach ball and conceded at least three goals in nine of 10 games before eventually being removed from the picture.

Blackwood had been carrying the workload of a top-tier No. 1 goaltender while battling a heel injury that was reportedly never right all season. Suffice to say, the team did him no favors.

The last three months have given Blackwood plenty of time to let his heel, uh, heal and reset mentally following the worst stretch of his career.

It seems safe to assume Blackwood will be better. The question is: how much?

Blackwood will begin to answer just that against a competent opponent tonight. While the Ottawa Senators are not a good team overall, their offense has been good of late. They rank 16th in xGF/60 and have netted just under three goals per game over the last 10.

Headlined by Josh Norris, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and Tim Stutzle, the Senators have a handful of quality young players leading their offense.

This will be a pretty good test for Blackwood.