Mackenzie Blackwood passed his first test as the Colorado Avalanche’s No. 1 goaltender, and his coach did, too.
The Avs and coach Jared Bednar made it clear during training camp that Blackwood is the No. 1 guy in Denver, even after Scott Wedgewood’s remarkable 2025-26 season. Bednar pointed to Blackwood’s work this offseason and outstanding camp.
Still, Blackwood allowed four goals on opening night, albeit in an easy 8-4 win. Bednar could have given Wedgewood the start Saturday night against a tired St. Louis Blues team.
Had Wedgewood stopped 25 of 26 shots in a 6-1 win over the Blues, there might have been some “here we go again” start to creep in. Instead, Bednar stuck to his affirmation and played Blackwood in a spot where teams play a No. 1 guy instead of falling back into a rotation.
And Blackwood responded.
“Whenever the coach gives you an opportunity like this, to kind of the take the ball and the coach wants to see what you can do and believe in you, that’s pretty special,” Blackwood said. “Not a lot of guys get that chance. You don’t take it for granted, and you do what you can.”
It certainly could be far too early in the season to read too much into anything, but if this was a test for Blackwood, he passed it with ease. He was a defensive breakdown from a shutout against St. Louis and looked completely in control of his net.
Blackwood also wasn’t “bad” against the Kings, either. The raw stats — four goals allowed on 31 shots for an .871 save% — don’t look great at first blush.
He made several sprawling saves, including three on Los Angeles breakaways. Former Kings coach D.J. Smith noted that his team didn’t get a single breakaway in four games after the Avs swept them out of the playoffs last year, but Colorado was far more loose on defense in front of Blackwood on opening night.
“Because we had good rest,” Bednar said of why Blackwood got back-to-back starts. “I liked him against the Kings, especially early in the game. He probably wants the (Joel) Armia short-handed one back. The wrist shot looked like it surprised him a little bit … great shot. But he made so many big saves in that game, especially early on when we were sloppy.
“I liked his performance.”
The expectations are higher for Blackwood this season. He wasn’t bad for the Avs last year, but Wedgewood was better and began the 2026 postseason as the club’s starter. Blackwood said he wasn’t happy with his 2025-26 season, even though “The Lumberyard” won the Jennings Trophy for fewest goals allowed.
Blackwood spent the summer leading into 2025-26 rehabbing an injury that also cost him the first 12 games. This offseason was much better, and everyone noticed when he arrived for camp.
“Other than the obvious (not rehabbing an injury), you get to spend a lot of time working on little details in the summer and getting on the ice a lot more,” Blackwood said. “You’re trying to iron out the little kinks in your game.”
Blackwood , so doing the work necessary to get his body in a better place is nothing new for him. It’s the work on the ice, trying to harness his elite athleticism, that could lead to the breakout season observers have been waiting years for.
“You can really analyze and get into the details of the way you move and stuff,” Blackwood said. “It’s kind of a cool part of the year where you can get into the laboratory and refine stuff.”
There have been flashes. He had a strong first full season in the league, and finished sixth in the Calder Trophy voting. Blackwood is beloved in San Jose, because he helped a very bad Sharks team look competent some nights and helped keep the energy from going sour despite a lot of losses and long nights.
His first partial season in Colorado was solid. He went 13-1-1 to start last season after returning from the injury.
There’s a level in there that Blackwood, at 29, is still trying to find. It’s a longer, consistent run of the best version of him. That level is someone who ends up in the Vezina Trophy discussion and makes the Avalanche an even more formidable foe in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The older, more mature Blackwood has embraced using video to break down his game in the offseason in a way the younger version of himself never would have. He has always been such a great athlete that trying to max out his ability to make highlight-reel saves was a focus.
Now, he’s trying to fine-tune the simple stuff, and it might unlock a career year.
“(Using the video) is my favorite thing to do now. I was working harder, not smarter,” Blackwood said. “Obviously you work hard, but now it’s like why am I doing what I’m doing?
“When you get into a game and things are fast, you just revert to what’s natural. There are times when I do something and I think it feels awful, but then I watch it on video and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty nice.’ It’s like training new patterns into your body. It’s kind of fun.”
