When Scott Wedgewood suddenly left Tuesday’s game with an injury, it didn’t feel as disastrous as it probably should have for a team to lose a goalie with a 13-1-3 record. After all, Wedgewood is traditionally a backup, albeit he has been an excellent story this season and is more than that now for Colorado.
But when the guy coming off the bench is Mackenzie Blackwood, it doesn’t sound as bad. Blackwood entered the game in relief and stopped all 10 shots he faced the rest of the way. He’s 6-0-1 with a sparkling .930 save percentage and two shutouts.
That relief appearance was the first time all season that Blackwood played in consecutive games. But the Avs have a goalie here that they know they can trot out for six, eight, or even 10 straight games. This was something they did so regularly last year.
Wedgewood’s injury isn’t serious, and he’s on the trip with the Avs. But this is why the team has a luxury with its tandem. It’s Blackwood’s crease for now. He’ll take the reins until Wedgewood is ready to go, just as Wedgewood did when Blackwood started the year on the shelf.
#Avs coach Jared Bednar said Scott Wedgewood is day-to-day, but worked out this morning and could play on this road trip.
Mackenzie Blackwood will start tonight on Long Island. Same lineup otherwise.
— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) December 4, 2025
Blackwood and the Avs are on Long Island to take on Patrick Roy and the New York Islanders for the second time this season. The Islanders aren’t that same red-hot team they were three weeks ago. They enter the matchup with a 2-3-1 record and just eight goals in their last six games.
Meanwhile, the Avs are riding a 5-0-1 run in their last six, and have allowed just five goals in that stretch. The offense is on fire with 19 goals.
Despite already starting the season on fire, the Avs weren’t getting the most out of their middle six. But even that has now changed.
Brock Nelson and Gabe Landeskog have 12 and 10 points, respectively, over their last 10 games. The third piece of that line is Ross Colton. His 14 points in 26 games also have him on pace for a career high. That line working as well as it has been allowed Jared Bednar to insert Valeri Nichushkin onto the third line when he returned from injury on Tuesday.
Nichushkin is playing with Jack Drury and Victor Olofsson.
Trent Miner will back up for Blackwood, who looks to his personal winning streak to seven games.
Nelson is making his return to Long Island for the first time since New York traded him to the Avs ahead of last season’s trade deadline. He was drafted in the first round in 2010 by the Isles and spent 15 years in that organization. On the ice, Nelson was a key piece of that team’s lineup for 12 seasons.
