Kraken 4, Devils 3: Close but no cigar

The Devils were able to erase another early deficit and grind out a point. Unfortunately, they couldn't get two.

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A few observations following New Jersey’s streak snapping loss in Seattle:

Blackwood earned the Devils a point

The Devils elected to give Vitek Vanecek a night off and started Mackenzie Blackwood in the final game of their road trip. Admittedly, my expectations were low.

The Seattle Kraken – a strong 1st period team coming off two big losses in a row – were likely to overwhelm a Devils team in a Get Home spot, and I wasn’t sure Blackwood would be up to the task. I was wrong!

I thought Blackwood put together a mostly fantastic performance and was especially strong in the opening 20 minutes. The Kraken came out flying and – similarly to San Jose last time out – spent the vast majority of the opening frame peppering New Jersey’s goaltender with quality looks.

In the 1st period alone the Devils conceded 15 chances, six Grade A looks, and 1.71 expected goals.

Seattle put forth the kind of effort that, at times, can be enough to put the game away before you even get to the meat of it. Blackwood prevented that from happening.

While the Devils did not play as poorly over the final 40 minutes, they still gave up at least 1.08 expected goals – and five high-danger chances – in each of the remaining periods. Blackwood was consistently tested and simply wouldn’t allow for the game to really get away from the Devils.

Through 60 minutes he realistically couldn’t have played much better. The Devils didn’t show up early, they were second best for the majority of the game, and he helped drag them to a point anyway. Hats off for that.

The overtime goal was a big yikes, though. I don’t care that he was bumped into 15-20 seconds prior – Oliver Bjorkstrand was trying to elude Jesper Bratt and lost an edge; it wasn’t a penalty! – and I don’t care if Jesper Bratt’s stick hit Andre Burakovsky’s as he was shooting.

At the end of the day, it was a low, mid-range shot directly at a goaltender who was ready and squared up to the shooter. It can’t go in.

I stand by my tweet Thursday night that said Blackwood is the main reason the Devils picked up a point *and* the main reason they didn’t get two. No matter what mistake anybody else made, it’s the goaltender’s job to clean them up. Blackwood was more than ready and in position to do so. You expect a save there every time and the Devils didn’t get it.

Overall, it was still a strong start but perfectly sums up Blackwood as a whole. Even when he’s on, you know the backbreaking softy is always just around the corner.