Mackenzie Blackwood spent five seasons together with Miles Wood as teammates in New Jersey, and had a unique view of the reputation his friend garnered in their younger days with the Devils.
The first question for Blackwood about Wood started with, “Well, you’re a goalie and Miles …”
“Is a goalie killer?” Blackwood interrupted with a laugh. “He tries to keep that in the games, but you do have to keep your head on a swivel out there. I love Woody. Great guy, great teammate, works hard. He’s a pretty easy-going guy, pretty relatable I think. Just a good friend and a good human.”
Another former teammate, Blake Coleman, compared Wood to Luis Mendoza, the ultra-fast skater with no brakes in the second and third movies in the Mighty Ducks trilogy.
“When I think of Miles, I think of breakaways and running into goalies,” Coleman said.
Wood is one of the new members of the Avalanche this season, but he believes this version is a different player than the one his former teammates described. It’s part of an evolution to find both career longevity and become a more complete and valuable player.
After parts of eight seasons with the Devils, Wood signed a six-year, $15 million contract with the Avalanche on July 1. That, of course, came after he made a name for himself in New Jersey by playing a certain brand of hockey.
Wood is one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, and he’s not afraid to hurl his 6-foot-2 frame into opposing players at high speeds. After a couple of questions about adjusting to life in Colorado, Wood knew where this interview was going, even as a reporter who spent several years with him in New Jersey searched for the right way to ask about his past experiences.
“Reckless abandon,” he said. “I had to change it. I think it was the first two, maybe three years, I was kind of crazy out there. It’s not sustainable to play like that in this league day in and day out. (Former Devils assistant coach) Ryane Clowe was a huge person in my life, a huge coach in my life, who helped me change my game.
“It definitely comes out. I just think in order to play day in and day out as much as possible, you have to pick your spots. My first three years, it was every night. I was getting hurt a lot, quite frankly, and that hurts the team. The most important thing is playing and finding a way to be consistent.”
It definitely came out in his first game against his former team. Wood connected on a couple of huge hits scored a breakaway goal, and assisted on another during a 2-on-1 rush in a 6-3 win.
Coleman and the Flames saw it at Ball Arena late last month as well when Wood got involved in a big scrum that led to multiple Calgary penalties and a Colorado power play.
“We want him to be a little bit of a bull in a china shop, and he still has that in his game,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I think it’s just the intelligence and the discipline and detail in our game and the structure of our game. That’s what I think he’s talking about. He’s not just roaming around looking to get hits. He’s more disciplined and a more reliable defensive player.”
Wood’s breakout season in New Jersey was 2017-18, when he scored 19 goals despite playing fewer than 13 minutes per game and helped the Devils claim a surprising playoff berth. He missed 19 games the following year, and only played three in the 2021-22 season because of a hip injury that needed surgery.
He has six goals and 11 points in 33 games for the Avalanche, playing mostly on the third line. One of the biggest surprises of the Avs’ season to date has been the effectiveness of the penalty kill, and the players they’ve used in that situation.
Wood played a total of 11 minutes and 44 seconds on the PK in 402 career games with the Devils. Not only did he score a shorthanded goal against his former team, he’s been a regular on the unit for Colorado.
“I never played it in Jersey, never got the opportunity to,” Wood said. “The last time I did was in college. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a momentum changer in a game. Our team is pretty good at it. Yeah, that’s been good. A lot of fun.”
Wood has found a connection, both on and off the ice, with New Jersey native Ross Colton. Both are new guys on the Avs but have become good friends and carpool buddies, along with Ryan Johansen and the recently departed Tomas Tatar.
A line of Colton in the middle with Wood and Logan O’Connor on the wings has frequently been Colorado’s second-best trio behind the top unit. Early in this season, Avs star Nathan MacKinnon noted that Wood and Colton added something that he felt was a little lacking for this team last season.
“They bring some jam, some edge,” defenseman Jack Johnson said. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re not out there just running around. They are out there to make plays and win games. They are bringing some of that with closing on guys and finishing their checks and their defense.”
This isn’t the first time that Wood has become an integral part of a depth line. He teamed up with Nathan Bastian and Michael McLeod in recent years to form the “BMW line” for the Devils. When the team was really rolling last year en route to its first playoff berth since 2018, that trio helped make it a deep, tough club to play against.
“Well, when you’re a fourth line and your line has a nickname, obviously things were going pretty good for us for a while,” Bastian said. “He’s a great teammate and a great guy. We had a ton of good laughs together. Lots of good memories.”
Blackwood said Wood is one of the most naturally gifted athletes he’s ever met. He’s extremely fast, both on the ice and in sneakers. If Wood’s reputation on the ice as a big hitter proceeds him, it is very much the same … on the golf course.
Coleman didn’t play golf with Wood while they were teammates in New Jersey, but Calgary’s Noah Hanifin has told him about Wood’s prowess on the links.
“The first time I ever saw him golf, I was blown away,” Blackwood said. “He wasn’t even having a good round, in his books. I think he started off like two- or three-under after a few holes and I was like, ‘What the heck is going on here?’ He’s insane. He can really hit a golf ball.”
The thin Colorado air has certainly not hurt Wood’s ability to crush it off the tee.
“He’s really good. He’s a scratch (golfer),” Colton said. “We’ve played a couple of rounds and like to have some fun out there too. I’m decent, but he’s like legit.”
Colton has some of the same traits in his game that Wood possesses. He also finds it a little hard to believe that this version of Wood is a tamer one.
“I mean, if he says he has grown up or matured on the ice, I would love to see what he was like before,” Colton said. “That would be interesting because I still think he plays with that passion and fire that you want to see.”
Coleman also played a more reckless style in his early days with the Devils, but has tried to evolve into a more well-rounded player with the Flames. The Avalanche saw Wood as a significant long-term investment to help revamp the club’s depth and add some snarl up front.
As someone who often spent offseason time in Big Sky country while living on the East Coast, Wood in turn loved the idea of security and a new life in the Rocky Mountains. And he’s not planning on scaling back the hitting, either on the ice or the golf course, anytime soon.
“I think that’s part of who he is and you don’t want to take away the spirit or the aura of who somebody is as a player,” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that wants to create havoc. You don’t want him to dial it down too much, because that’s who he is at his core.”
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