There is some good news for the San Jose Sharks, their starting goalie has been found and his name is Mackenzie Blackwood who was signed to a two-year deal in the off season. Now if there was only an offense and defense.
Blackwood was spectacular in the shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night, which was also his first career start in San Jose. He saved 51 shots and early on got help from his defense specifically Matt Benning and Jan Rutta who thwarted great chances.
Yet the lone goal he surrendered late in the third was hardly the fault of Blackwood. His defense failed him and all it took was losing sight of the puck. Still that is what good teams do, take advantage of the slightest mistake. Cale Makar scored the game tying goal with relative ease. As for the Sharks, their only goal came in the first period from Thomas Bordeleau which was also his first career NHL goal.
In the shootout, the Sharks looked tired, and hardly made Alexandar Georgiev work for any of the saves. Blackwood did make the first save of the shootout on Nathan MacKinnon yet the second one he could not as Mikko Rantanen picked his spot and did not miss.
For Blackwood the 51 saves were one off his career-high of 52 which was done during the 2019-2020 season. He also won 22 games that year with a goals against average of 2.77, and he recorded three shutouts.
With the performance tonight though, Blackwood should earn a majority of the playing time as goalie over Kaapo Kähkönen who allowed four goals in the first game of the Sharks season on 32 shots and last season in 37 starts his goals against average was 3.85.