San Jose Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood dealt with significant injury issues while he was with the New Jersey Devils.
San Jose Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood dealt with significant injury issues while he was with the New Jersey Devils.
San Jose Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood dealt with significant injury issues while he was with the New Jersey Devils.
Much of the reason he was dealt from New Jersey was his inability to stay healthy. Now, with the San Jose Sharks, Blackwood has been the healthiest he's ever been in his career.
"When I first got hurt in New Jersey, I never really treated it properly in terms of waiting till I was fully healthy to start trying to play and play a lot again," Blackwood said on February 26th. "It just compiled. I did my ankle, and I did my groin, and then I did my other side just because everything is just overworking each other, right? So I never really waited long enough for my body to be ready to handle a full 82-game workload."
Blackwood revealed he is dealing with a minor groin injury that made him leave the game against the Devils.
"It wasn't terrible, but it was enough that I don't want to make it worse," Blackwood said today. "[It's] just a little groin [tweak], but it's not very bad. Very mild. It's almost healed."
Blackwood said he was pissed because it happened against his former team but eventually saw the irony of it.
"The fact that it happened that game which involved them, it's just kind of laughable," he explained. "I was feeling good. Got a lot of comments for after whistles from those guys over there too. It was one of those games where you're feeling good, and you're trying to play spoiler on your old team. It's obviously a little bit frustrating, but I'm just happy that it's not a very serious long thing."
Blackwood then revealed more information about how his injury situation was handled in New Jersey. He explained that he and the training staff discussed returning from injury. Blackwood explained that while dealing with his ankle injury, the Devils were struggling, and he was asked to play despite not feeling ready.
"At the time when I had my big ankle thing, they were struggling, and you know, I wasn't ready to play," Blackwood said. "I thought I wasn't ready, but they thought it was fine."
Blackwood's numbers plummeted after having .918 and .915 save percentages in his first two seasons in the NHL, and his injury issues spiked. Last season, Blackwood only played 22 games and had a .893 save % and a 3.20 GAA.
"I'm not saying anything. It's just one of those things where I think if I could have hindsight, I would have waited a lot longer," Blackwood said. "If you play on something that's not 100% comfortable, you start compensating, and everything else falters. I'm wiser and older now. The older you get, the more you can kind of put your foot down and suit up. I don't think I'll have that situation ever again."
As for if he had control in New Jersey:
"It was conversations. We talked about it together. Obviously, you can always say no," Blackwood explained. "It was one of those conversations we had where it's probably not going to get worse if you keep going, but it might take longer to get back to 100."
He confirmed that taking longer to get back to 100% is exactly what happened. He knows that if he ever gets hurt again, like he is now, he will wait until he is fully healthy, regardless of what is said to him.
Sharks head coach David Quinn said Blackwood wouldn't be out much longer and is on track to be activated from IR this week. Blackwood echoed the same message.
Blackwood returned to the ice yesterday and took shots for the first time today.
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