“Put the hat on, (Blackwood),” Cale Makar said. If he keeps playing like this, Blackwood will get used to how the big hat feels. Blackwood made 37 saves in his Avalanche debut, helping the sick and sluggish-at-first club fend off the Nashville Predators in a 5-2 victory.

Veteran goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, acquired from the San Jose Sharks on Monday, stopped 38 shots in his Colorado Avalanche debut, and his new team held off a late Nashville Predators surge to post a 5-2 victory on Saturday night in Denver.

DENVER - In his first start in a Colorado Avalanche uniform, Mackenzie Blackwood was, as the kids say, ill, while the team in front of him just physically ill.