{"id":497351,"date":"2026-03-11T01:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/497351\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T01:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:09:15","slug":"avalanche-should-use-march-to-get-goaltender-mackenzie-blackwoods-head-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/497351\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche should use March to get goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood’s head right"},"content":{"rendered":"

The arch of Mackenzie Blackwood\u2019s eyebrow<\/a> was as sharp and sure as the razor in his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re playing well or aren\u2019t playing well, it\u2019s about what\u2019s good for the team,\u201d the Avalanche goaltender told me before Colorado took on Edmonton at Ball Arena late Tuesday night<\/a>. \u201cI think the whole team knows what we\u2019re trying to do, what our goal is, so (it\u2019s about) whatever it takes to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you be insulted,\u201d I asked, \u201cif you weren\u2019t the Game 1 starter a month from now?\u201d<\/p>\n

A pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsulted?\u201d the goalie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

Blackwood, who was sitting at his locker stall, leaned forward and tossed a baseball-sized wad of tape he\u2019d just sliced off his right ankle.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepends how I\u2019m playing,\u201d the goalie continued. \u201cIf I know I\u2019m not playing my best and (Scott Wedgewood) is playing lights out, then you understand. But if I\u2019m obviously playing my best hockey, then I feel like if I\u2019m at my best, I can be as good or better than anybody on any given day. It just depends on the circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think you\u2019re playing your best hockey now?\u201d I wondered.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Blackwood countered. \u201cI mean, I have another level to get to.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he can. The Avs would be smart to use the rest of this month to try to find it. Both for him and for them.<\/p>\n

If the Stanley Cup Playoffs began Saturday, I\u2019m starting Scott Wedgewood in goal.<\/a> Forget metrics. Forget stats, although Scott\u2019s got those in his corner, too.<\/a><\/p>\n

Trust your eyeballs. Wedgewood\u2019s got the hot hand. You ride it. Simple as that.<\/p>\n

But as the playoffs are five weeks away yet, Blackwood, who went into Tuesday night\u2019s start against the Oilers with a 2.36 Goals Against Average and a 91.1% save percentage<\/a>, still has time to make his case.<\/p>\n

The only question is how much.<\/p>\n

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar pulled Blackwood last Friday in Dallas after the net-minder gave up four goals on 11 shots over the first 22 minutes of action. Wedgewood finished the game by stopping all 10 shots he faced in regulation, then blanked the hosts in the shootout to help Colorado snatch a 5-4 victory. Wedgewood hung in at home this past Sunday against Minnesota as the Avs pulled out another big divisional win, taking down the Wild 3-2 via shootout.<\/p>\n

In two playoff-type games against the likely No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in the West, No. 41 strung together two solid, playoff-type performances between the pipes. Which led a reporter to ask Bednar on Tuesday after the morning skate: Given Wedgewood\u2019s efforts against the Stars and Wild, is there more pressure on Blackwood now to step it up?<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope so, yeah,\u201d the coach replied. \u201cI mean, I think \u2026 none (of that is) put on him by me, but I think that\u2019s kind of the mindset of our whole team. If you have a bad outing, you\u2019ve got to respond and help our team win the next night as best you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers are going to go through ups and downs. I thought Mackenzie came out of the Olympic break and was fantastic for us, gave us a good chance to win every night. He played three or four games, and he plays Dallas, he wasn\u2019t that good. (And) Wedge got us a big win in Anaheim, (at) Dallas, at home against Minnesota, and it\u2019s Blackie\u2019s turn to step in and go try and get us a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think that pressure is just kind of internal in our locker room \u2026 \u00a0kind of following the expectations of our group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackwood\u2019s highs are higher. His ceiling is higher. It\u2019s the lows, especially in big moments against division rivals, that can drive you up a wall.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re not bringing Lord Stanley home without Blackie pulling the sled at some point, in all likelihood. Which means it behooves Bednar to try to keep trotting Blackwood out there during this schedule crunch as much as possible, unless he starts hurting your seeding.<\/p>\n

Because, for as good as he\u2019s been, Wedgewood could use the rest. In a perfect world, he probably needs to be on a \u201cpitch count\u201d until the playoffs get underway.<\/p>\n

The best 1B netminder in hockey is having a career year (24-4-5, 2.19) and playing like a 1A. Yet Wedgewood\u2019s already set a new career high in starts (34, the old mark was 32) and is two appearances away from tying his season high in appearances (37; he\u2019s at 35 now) with more than a month of the regular season still to play. Scott averaged 28 games the previous four seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think about the schedule, right? Every other day, you\u2019re traveling,\u201d Wedgewood told me before the Olympic break. \u201c(If) you have a tough situation going on, and you\u2019ve got a (goalie) that\u2019s rested, that could be a big game just to get a guy reset. I remember with (Dallas goalie Jake) Oettinger last year, they pulled him and got him reset, and (then he\u2019s) going next game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we cross the bridge, we\u2019ll get there. I think the team\u2019s confident in both of us. It\u2019ll be a fun time of the year. And I think we\u2019ll be firing on all cylinders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wedge is 33. Like Blackwood, he\u2019s been fighting through an assortment of aches and pains over the last 10-12 weeks himself. He also remains something of a postseason wild card, a comparative unknown on the sport\u2019s biggest stage. Over his career, Wedgwood has appeared in just four playoff games \u2014 three with Dallas in 2023 \u2014 but has yet to make a Stanley Cup start. Blackwood\u2019s got seven under his belt, all with Colorado a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to make it hard for Jared to make that call?\u201d I asked Mackenzie.<\/p>\n

Another pause.<\/p>\n

Another eyebrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, yeah,\u201d Blackwood replied. \u201cI mean, I don\u2019t want to make it easy by going and (stinking).<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you want to play your best. A coach\u2019s job is to make those decisions. And a player\u2019s job is to go do your best on the ice, make them have tough choices. So, yeah. It\u2019s pretty simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The arch of Mackenzie Blackwood\u2019s eyebrow was as sharp and sure as the razor in his hand. \u201cIf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[10988,193,40356,1650,1466,6034,144,5,910,1117,1180,1123,161,1262,4,60,2671,2565,1653,43,350,14,104,718],"class_list":["post-497351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-playoffs","category-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-olympic","tag-avalanche","tag-avalanche-goalies","tag-avalanche-takes","tag-ball-arena","tag-baseball","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-hockey","tag-injuries","tag-jared-bednar","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mackenzie-blackwood","tag-minnesota","tag-more-avalanche-news","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-schedule","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-stanley-cup","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116207875752879463","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}