Devils trade Blackwood to San Jose

    With the NHL draft one day away and the New Jersey Devils still lacking a first-round pick, the Devils still found a way to make some news with two minor trades.

The bigger of the two saw the one-time Devils goaltender of the future end his future with the Devils as Mackenzie Blackwood was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a sixth-round pick in the upcoming draft.

New Jersey used their second-round draft pick in 2015 (forty-second overall) on Blackwood, who was the second goaltender drafted and the first North American netminder selected.

Blackwood played in twenty-two games for the Devils last season, finishing 10-6-2 with a GAA of 3.20 and a save percentage of .893.

This past season was the third season in a row that Blackwood allowed over three goals a game as Blackwood authored a disappointing end to a tenure that started well in New Jersey.

Blackwood's first two seasons were strong ones for a bad team with an even worse defense in front of him, as he won thirty-two games over those seasons, finishing at .500 in his rookie year and 22-14-8 in the second season, finishing both years with a GAA under three and save percentages of over ninety-one percent.

But Blackwood never seemed to recover following the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown as his game fell into a decline that he was unable to reverse.

Blackwood suffered from illness, injury, and battles over the Covid-19 vaccine as Blackwood first refused to take the vaccine, and after taking it, playing even worse.

Blackwood was a restricted free agent and when you consider that the Devils were unlikely to make a qualifying offer of over four million dollars for a third goaltender that has struggled for years, Tom Fitzgerald did well in getting a sixth-rounder, which isn't anything to leap into the air about but it is literally better than nothing.

New Jersey also made a minor trade with the Boston Bruins as the Devils added forward Shane Bowers from Boston for defenseman Reilly Walsh.

The best part of this trade is the two teams swapped two players from the 2017 draft and the two have each played one game in the NHL.

Bowers was the first-round pick of Ottawa in 2017 and played his only NHL game for Colorado last season.

Bowers spent the rest of the season playing in the American Hockey League for fifty-seven games split between Colorado and Providence, where he combined for eight goals and seventeen assists between the two teams.

Walsh was taken by New Jersey in the third round in 2017, and played his lone game for New Jersey in 2020-21, finishing with an assist.

Walsh played last season for the Utica Comets in the AHL, finishing with nine goals and thirty-two assists in seventy-one games.

Both players are likely to play for their teams' respective AHL affiliates with a possible emergency callup.

Islanders dominate Devils 4-1

   The news started badly for the New Jersey Devils before their game against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum when Mackenzie Blackwood was placed on the Covid-19 protocol list as a precaution.

The game was even worse as the Devils were not very good, to be kind, as the Islanders dominated the game in a 4-1 win that had the feel of a contest that was not that close.

Nathan Bastian scored (1) the only Devils goal in the second period sandwiched in between the four Islander goals.

The two teams will rematch Sunday on the Devils ice in Newark.

Hell Raisers

1) The word before the game that Mackenzie Blackwood had been placed on the Covid-19 list came at the worst possible time- before the Devils could activate Aaron Dell.

While being placed on the Covid list doesn't always mean that a person may have it,  the Devils and their fans are waiting with some trepidation until they know the status of Blackwood, who played so well in the first three games of the season.

2) While the Devils weren't exactly comfortable with Scott Wedgewood being the fallback option at goaltender, Wedgewood wasn't awful in this game, and although Wedgewood did allow four goals, one of those was a sharp angle shot that happened to hit the right angle with the other three not east saves either.

3) The Devils penalty killers are emerging as a problem with the Islanders scoring both of their third-period goals on the power play. 

I don't have a solution, but the situation is getting worse and worse every game.

4) For the third time in four games, New Jersey was called for too many men on the ice.

Can that be attributed to sloppiness, laziness, or players still adjusting to a new coach's system?

Could be any or all of those reasons, but that is an abnormally high number for only four games.

5) The Devils need more performance from Kyle Palmieri and Nikita Gusev have each struggled mightily in these four games.

Palmieri has only two assists, Gusev doesn't have a point at all, both appear lost at times and both have appeared badly out of sync.

Both are playing without their regular line partners currently and that likely is much of the problem, but for what the Devils need from the two offensively, they had better hope that can be rectified by the return of their usual linemates.

Hughes hits Rangers, Devils win 4-3!

   Jack Hughes scored two goals (1 & 2) and added an assist to support Mackenzie Blackwood's 47 saves as the New Jersey Devils held off a strong third period rally of the New York Rangers and grab a 4-3 duke at Madison Square Garden.

Travis Zajac scored (1) seconds into the game for the Devils first goal and Miles Wood scored the Devils final goal (3 Power Play) in the second period for the New Jersey goals.

The Devils will travel to Long Island on Thursday in the first of two vs the New York Islanders before hosting the Islanders on Sunday.

Hell Raisers

1) Jack Bleeping Hughes!

Not only does Hughes have points in each of the Devils three games, and not that Hughes scored two goals in this one, and not even that he scored all of his points in the second period- it's like this young man just hit the power switch and stated- now it's time to show just what kind of player I am.

2) Watching this game was one of those games that you can see the player growth burst out of the cocoon as a different level of player than they were before.

You don't see that very often and sports and when you do, it's a special night. 

I'm aware that it is just one game and I'm aware that I could look like a jerk if Hughes just had a good night, but I really have the feeling that Jack Hughes moved to a new level and still has room to grow.

3) SO, you thought I was finished with Jack Hughes- Hughes could have scored another point as his pass from around that net that resulted in a P.K. Subban goal was waved off after a Rangers challenge because Kyle Palmieri was offsides bringing the puck into the zone.

It was a close call, but a justified reversal.

4) The calls did even out because on the Myles Wood goal, the Devils may have gotten a break because it did appear that Myles Wood may have had kicked the puck into the net or at least his foot was moving forward in a "kicking motion".

5) I've so busy gushing over Jack Hughes that I haven't added just how good Mackenzie Blackwood was in the victory.

47 saves, 50 shots and likely twenty more that weren't officially counted as shots with Blackwood's play saving this game against a relentless Ranger attack in the third period.

Blackwood has been facing so many shots in these first three games that even though Lindy Ruff wouldn't prefer to rest Blackwood until Aaron Dell arrives/clears protocol, he may decide to play Scott Wedgewood in one of the games against the Islanders, likely the road game.

6) I still have major concerns about the penalty killers with the Rangers scoring two of their three goals against the Devils PK team.

The Devils have already allowed four goals in three games with a man disadvantage and although the sample size is small, I wonder just how long this will be tolerated before a defensive shakeup is in order.

Photo Credits: Bruce Bennett Getty Images  

Sharangovich beats the buzzer! Devils beat Bruins in OT!

   Yegor Sharangovich (1) beat Jaroslav Halak with just under two seconds remaining in overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins Saturday afternoon at the Rock in Newark.

Kyle Palmieri grabbed the puck around the Devil net, passed it to Damon Severson across mid-ice and Severson hit Sharangovich with a no-look backhand to set up the one on one and the game-winning goal.

Myles Wood scored the other Devils goal (2) in the first period when Wood re-directed a Ty Smith shot past Jaroslav Halak.

The win gives the Devils a split of the two games against the best regular season in the league last season.

The Devils return Tuesday with their first road game of the season at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.

Hell Raisers

1) Yegor Sharangovich's first career goal couldn't have come at a better time for the Devils.

With less than two seconds remaining, there would have been no time for a rebound and the rookie had to be perfect and it was almost so.

Jaroslav Halak caught a piece of the puck, but not enough to keep the puck from going into the net.

2) I know it's easy to get caught up in excitement over a win and there have been plenty of players to have fast starts and fizzle out, but something tells me that the Devils have found themselves a real player in Yegor Sharangovich.

In the two games, the guy seems constantly around the puck and has a smoothness about his game that yet doesn't suggest a player skating at half-speed.

3) The goaltending in this game was stellar by both Mackenzie Blackwood and Jaroslav Halak.

While Blackwood was playing for the second game in a row, Halak was almost his equal in his first game of the year.

As good as Blackwood was, Halak's game goes to show how much the late retirement of Corey Crawford is likely to hurt the Devils with the steep drop from Blackwood to backup Scott Wedgewood.

Boston can rely on a strong backup to give Tuukka Rask a break, right now the Devils cannot say the same.

4) Ty Smith now has a goal and an assist in his two games as it was his shot that Myles Wood redirected past Halak for the Devils' first goal.

Smith looked better on the defensive end than he did in the opener and gives me a little hope.

5) The Devils did give up a shorthanded goal when Boston's Patrice Bergeron scored in the second period.

The Bergeron goal saw Kyle Palmieri pushed off the puck by Brad Marchand and the Bruins took advantage.

It's the second game that Palmieri has been pushed around and that's unusual for him as he's never been a shrinking violet in the past.

Something to keep tabs on.

6) The Devils knew that Boston was likely to go after Myles Wood early after the altercation involving Wood in their previous game, but they may not have expected the game to begin with Wood scrapping with Kevan Miller.

Miller did what his team needed him to do, Wood gave and took what he expected was coming to him and when it was over, the game moved on- I wish more teams and referees would allow these things to play themselves out.

7)  Jack Hughes assisted on the first goal and it was Hughes that passed to Ty Smith on the first goal.

Hughes had two big chances in overtime and I have yet another feeling that Hughes is sitting on a breakout year.

Hughes still needs to get stronger and he can be pushed around, but I'm seeing flashes of what the Devils expected and he's getting closer and closer to busting out.

It's coming and maybe sooner than later.

Devils lose Opener to Bruins

   Brad Marchand scored the only goal of the shootout to give the visiting Boston Bruins a 3-2 victory at the Rock in Newark and send the New Jersey Devils down to an opening night defeat.

New Jersey trailed twice in the game, with Myles Wood scoring on a breakaway in the third period to tie the game at one and after Boston regained the lead at two to one, rookie defenseman Ty Smith scored his first NHL goal to force the shootout.

Jack Hughes assisted on both goals for the Devils, who did earn one point in the loss.

Mackenzie Blackwood was stellar in net with 35 saves for New Jersey, who will host the Bruins in a Saturday 1;00 matinee' after taking a day off.

Hell Raisers

1)  Give almost all the credit for the one point that the Devils earned to Mackenzie Blackwood. 

Blackwood literally willed the team to their hard-earned point with several spectacular saves with stops against about every offensive situation that you could think of and without a lot of help from the Devils defense.

2) Myles Wood's goal was a beautiful sight as he broke into open ice and beat Tuukka Rask for the Devil first goal of the season.

Wood can be such an exciting player with his free-wheeling aggressiveness and willingness to crash the net.

3) Myles Wood also showed the need to control some of that aggressiveness and how it can affect the team with two goaltender interference calls.

It's such a fine line between aggressiveness and recklessness and Wood doesn't always walk that line.

Until he does that better, Wood might not become the player that he is capable of becoming.

4) The pleasant surprise was Yegor Sharangovich, who seemed to be all over ice and spent time playing on the top two lines.

Some of this may have been due to the missing Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt, but his play was very strong for the 22 year old from Belarus.

It's only one game, but I was impressed by his play.

5) Ty Smith scored his first NHL goal but his pairing with Matt Tennyson is going to be very weak, at least for a while.

Tennyson is playing because the recently re-acquired Sami Vatonen hasn't been able to get into the country due to signing late in camp and the Covid-19 crisis, so that pairing will not last long for that reason only.

Still, they were not good for most of the evening.

6) I've said before for all of my dislike for many of the gimmicks in sports, the best recent change in the game has been the NHL's installation of 3 on 3 overtime.

I love it- it creates scoring opportunities and excitement and it's much more like real hockey than the shootout.

I only wish the NHL would expand it to ten minutes so even more games would be decided and never make it to the shootout.

7) Due to a recent personal change (with work/Covid-19), I'm not sure how much I'll have time to write for the next 2-4 weeks.

It's very possible that I could be posting more content and just as likely that I may be writing less.

At this stage, I just don't know.

I am hoping to sometime next week do a Devils preview.

With all the hubbub right now, I just ran out of time...

Devils sign Corey Crawford

   Late into the evening of the first day of the NHL free agency period, the New Jersey Devils had an opening for the secondary/backup goaltender slot after the previous day's release of Cory Schneider and as several goaltenders moved off the board and signed with new teams, the Devils finally found someone that fit the suit in veteran Corey Crawford, formerly of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Crawford signed a two-year contract worth just under eight million over the two years, which is over a million dollars a year less than he was earning with Chicago.

Crawford, who will turn 36 on New Year's Eve, spent his entire career with the Blackhawks and it's only been the last two years that Crawford's stats fell off a bit, but the Blackhawks had arguably the league's worst defense in front of him and his numbers are still reasonably solid, as James O'Brien of Pro Hockey Talks states.

Chicago was interested in having Crawford return, but Crawford wasn't able to agree on the salary number to reach an agreement.

Crawford played in forty games last season for Chicago, winning sixteen with a GAA of 2.77 and a save percentage of .917 for the Blackhawks, who slid into the expanded playoffs as the final seed in the Western Conference and upset Edmonton in the mini-series before being eliminated by top-seeded Las Vegas in five games.

Crawford was the main goalie for Chicago in the most recent two of the Blackhawks three Stanley Cup victories in the last decade, so he has plenty of experience to lend to Mackenzie Blackwood, and Crawford holds the Blackhawks franchise record for a goalie, which was a mild surprise as I would have thought that Tony Esposito still would have held that title.

I really like this signing.

Crawford doesn't seem to have a problem working with Mackenzie Blackwood and his play is at a higher level than Cory Schneider and at a cheaper cost per season (not counting the spread out extra two years on the cap for the Schneider buy out) as well.

Crawford's old enough to accept not playing as much, but he's not washed up that he would kill the Devils in case he has to play more than expected in the event of an injury to Blackwood.

The Devils have clearly upgraded in net with a Blackwood/Crawford pairing compared to a duo of Blackwood/Schneider and not at an awful cost either.

New Jersey will likely spend on a few more players, but if anyone will be a player that could make an impact, the Devils would likely do so via trade from a cap-struggling team as they did Thursday night in trading for Ryan Murray from Columbus.

Devils waive Cory Schneider

The New Jersey Devils waived Cory Schneider yesterday in the official changing of the guard as the teams' number one goaltender.

Mackenzie Blackwood has performed so well and Schneider so poorly in the first month and a half of the season that not only is this decision the correct one, the argument can be made that it was a bit over overdue.

Schneider's five starts this season ended without a victory (0-4-1 with a 4.59 GAA and .852 as his save percentage in those starts) and although Blackwood's numbers are a little higher than in his rookie season, Blackwood has rounded into form over his last four starts and the Devils were finally comfortable enough to make this move.
The thirty-three-year-old Schneider is unlikely to be claimed by any team at his salary (six million dollars each for this year and the next two), so he'll be assigned to the Devils AHL affiliate in Binghamton, where the Devils will hope to see his play improve.
In the perfect scenario, Schneider would play well for the B-Devils and some team would be interested in acquiring him and although under those circumstances, New Jersey would still be picking up the lion's share of Schneider's remaining contract, whatever could be saved under the salary cap could be better allocated.

Cory Schneider was often a polarizing figure to many Devils fans.
Schneider was acquired from Vancouver as the future successor to Martin Brodeur for the Devils first-round pick in the 2013 draft, which Vancouver used on their current captain Bo Horvat.
Schneider wasn't interested in being groomed behind the aging Brodeur as he was leaving a situation with the Canucks that had seen him sit behind another veteran in Roberto Luongo.
Because of the cost paid for Schneider and the respective ages of both goalies, Schneider was going to be the player that was staying in the organization and after a tension-filled first season, Brodeur was forced out with Schneider signing the seven-year contract that the Devils are paying for to this day.

In many ways, it was that first year with Brodeur that set the stage for Cory Schneider to never truly be accepted by Devils fans and Schneider played very well in the first two seasons of his extension.
In those first two seasons, Schneider's play ranked with the best in the game and even those frustrated with how Martin Brodeur was treated had to concede that Schneider's play was top-notch.
In 2016-17, Schneider's numbers worsened a bit, but he appeared to be bouncing back early in the Devils playoff season of 2017-18 before a groin injury sidelined for much of the remainder of the season.
A hip surgery before the start of last season appears to be the dividing line for Schneider as his performance after that surgery has never approached his previous level,

I don't see where the Devils had a choice in this situation.
Cory Schneider has never been a player that was able to handle not being the top goaltender whether to an all-time great in Martin Brodeur or to a younger player such as Mackenzie Blackwood and as time moved on, I could foresee a difficult situation for the two netminders and the organization.
If Blackwood is the eventual number one goalie and with Schneider playing so poorly in his starts, the team simply didn't need the tension.

It appears that Cory Schneider might be remembered by Devils fans with mixed memories, but he did perform well for the first two seasons and it may turn out that the hip injury that Schneider has never seemed to have recovered from cost the Devils value on their seven-year contract and Schneider arguably what could have been the best days of his career.

I'm planning on covering tonight's game with Boston as long as I am available to watch.

Devils ground Jets in shootout win!

Terrence Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The New Jersey Devils shuffled the lineup for the shootout and it paid off in spades as the Devils first two shooters scored and were backed up by two Mackenzie Blackwood saves to win a shootout as quickly as you can and defeat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 in Winnipeg.
Nikita Gusev and Jesper Boqvist each beat Connor Hellebuyck in the shootout and give the Devils a huge two points at the start of their Western Canadian road trip.
Nico Hischier scored the only Devils goal (2) in regulation in the first period and Mackenzie Blackwood finished the night with 32 saves in net.
New Jersey will be in Calgary on Thursday and Edmonton on Friday for back to back games against the Flames and Oilers.
No coverage for those games due to the late start conflicting with work.

Hell Raisers

1) Mackenzie Blackwood was the first star and it was a well-deserved one.
Blackwood made several strong saves and from has been shown from the Devils first thirteen games, it's Blackwood that deserves to have the lion's share of playing time over veteran Cory Schneider.
Blackwood's play is going to force the Devils to make a decision on Schneider and I still believe that the acquisition of Louis Domingue last week was to be ready for an eventual move with Schneider.

2) Give John Hynes credit for changing the shootout order and giving new blood a chance.
Taylor Hall has always struggled and Kyle Palmieri isn't an ace at the shootout either, so changing the lineup around made sense and particularly with the selections of Nikita Gusev and Jesper Boqvist, both of whom are the type of players that you would suspect would have strong skills in the shootout.

3) I also thought the defense played well and that is something that I don't always say.
Andy Greene played well and Sami Vatanen continued his recent run of good play.
If the Devils are going to get back into the race, the defense will have to continue to improve.

4) Winnipeg's Bryan Little took a slap shot from Jets teammate Nikolaj Ethers to the side of the head and went down like a shot.
Little has been dealing with concussion issues over the past few years and while you never want to see someone take a puck in that manner, Little was especially vulnerable to such a hit.

5) The play of Nikita Gusev has been a question among the Devils fan base.
Sure, he's weak on defense and many offensive standouts are, but it's a process and the Devils would be better suited to worry about how to shelter his weaknesses, rather than bench him and take away the offensive talent that's only going to improve with ice time.

Sorry so short, but things to take care of- I'm going to try to return from the road office with a short preview of tomorrow's early morning World Boxing Super Series bantamweight finals from Japan.