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PHILADELPHIA — Mackenzie Blackwood has an excellent memory.
Shortly after helping the Colorado Avalanche defeat the Philadelphia Flyers and logging his second victory in fewer than 24 hours, Blackwood’s best guess was he had played in back-to-back games 10 times in his NHL career.
Upon further review, Blackwood had played in … 10 sets of back-to-backs in his career before this weekend.
“It’s always a grind,” the Avs goaltender said. “The fact that it’s early makes it a little bit easier, but yeah still a grind. It’s hard to get a good sleep. It’s more your brain the second day. Body is OK, but just getting your brain is harder.”
Now, the word “played” is definitely helping him out here. Blackwood had started both ends of a back-to-back five times, but he also made an appearance in both games — once as a starter, once as an injury/performance replacement — five times.
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This was the second time he's done it for the Avalanche. He started Feb. 6 in Calgary and then the next night in Edmonton, helping the Avs sweep through that Alberta trip with a pair of wins.
Blackwood was it again this past weekend, helping the Avs defeat the Rangers, 3-2, in overtime Saturday at Madison Square Garden, and then leading them to a victory by the same score Sunday at Xfinity Moible Arena.
"Well, No. 1, he hasn’t played a lot of hockey this year," Avs coach Jared Bednar said of the decision. "Missed a bunch of time, so he should be pretty fresh. And this is one of those games where we could use him. It’s not like we’re going to do it all the time.
"I kind of felt like (Saturday) was a little bit of a light workload, and coming into today if we played the right way, it would hopefully be a light workload as well. We were really committed on the defensive side of it (Saturday). I just hoped he could give us one more performance before we get a day off. It’s the best option we had, so we went with it."
Blackwood has played all three games on this road trip so far, including a 6-3 loss Thursday night at UBS Arena to the New York Islanders. He's done so because Scott Wedgewood left Colorado's last home game, this past Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks, with a back injury.
Bednar said Wedgewood's back tightened up on him in the middle of the game. The Altitude Sports broadcast showed Wedgewood receiving something from an off-ice staffer during a previous television timeout against the Canucks, and then he exited the game just past the midpoint of the second period.
Wedgewood said it was a muscle relaxer, but his back was still tight so the Avs removed him from the game. Colorado took Friday off and didn't have morning skates on Saturday or Sunday because of the matinee start times, but Wedgewood did go on the ice and take some shots ahead of the game at Madison Square Garden.
The Avs had Trent Miner on this trip to back up Blackwood, but then didn't play him Sunday against the Flyers and sent him back to the Colorado Eagles after the game. That means it is all but certain that Wedgewood will at least dress for the final game of this trip, Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena against the Nashville Predators.
Blackwood is now 8-1-1 this season with a 2.21 goals against average. He and Wedgewood are now tied for fourth in the NHL with a .920 save percentage.
"I knew after the first one (Saturday)," Blackwood said when asked if he knew he'd play both games. "I just figured I would try and rest up as much as I could and get myself ready to go today. Maybe drink an extra coffee."
Blackwood is relatively fresh one-third of the way through the season because he missed the first 12 games after having offseason knee surgery. Wedgewood collected the majority of those starts, but Bednar did go to Miner for half of the only back-to-back during that stretch and he stopped 20 of 24 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss at New Jersey.
One difference back then? Wedgewood had wobbled just a bit after a blazing-hot start before that Oct. 26 game at Prudential Center. He was pulled in favor of Miner on Oct. 23 after allowing four goals on 11 shots, then gave up three goals on 19 shots in a 3-2 loss at Boston on Oct. 25.
Blackwood did allow five goals (on 41 shots) Thursday night on Long Island, but before that he had allowed two goals in his previous four appearances combined. And he proved Bednar's hunch to be a good call, stopping 24 of 26 shots against the Flyers.
While the rest of the team looked a bit tired by the end of the afternoon in Philadelphia, Blackwood helped the Avs hang on to a one-goal lead and prevail despite serious pressure from the Flyers.
"I figured they were going to be opportunistic, because they missed the net on a couple of really quality chances early," Blackwood said. "I kind of saw the way they were poaching a little bit, so I was like, ‘It might only be four shots, but they’re going to have a couple Grade-As so just try and stay in it.' "
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