Devils' P.K. Subban enters COVID protocol; MacKenzie Blackwood out with neck injury

The bad news just keeps on coming for the Devils.  The team made a pair of announcements, revealing that goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood is dealing with a neck injury and will not be accompanying the team to Detroit for its game on Saturday night, while defenseman P.K. Subban has been placed in COVID protocol.

The Devils haven’t had a lot of good luck on the injury front when it comes to their goaltending.  When they were healthy, they wound up losing Scott Wedgewood on waivers to Arizona last month.  Earlier this month, Jonathan Bernier suffered a hip injury, one that could be a longer-term issue.  First-year pros Nico Daws and Akira Schmid have both seen action (Schmid’s coming this week), and New Jersey recently acquired Jon Gillies from the Blues, a player who had just signed an NHL contract days earlier.  Now, Blackwood’s absence — one that carries a day-to-day designation — means that Schmid and Gillies will serve as their tandem for the time being.

As for Subban, he is now the fifth Devil to enter COVID protocol, joining blueliners Ryan Graves and Christian Jaros plus forwards Nico Hischier and Jesper Boqvist.  Subban had been held out of their game against Vegas on Thursday for precautionary measures, but that won’t count as time spent in protocol; he will still need to miss at least 10 days unless follow-up testing reveals a false positive.