GDT: Devils @ Avalanche - 10 P.M. - TNT/SN1/SNE/SNO/SNP

[My3Sons]

Artturi Lehkonen 5-11 179 lbs....almost out hit our entire forward group and had 4 shots

NJ is not built or coached to hit guys. It's the downside to all that skill. When the team is firing on all cylinders it doesn't matter. They can just outstate and outscore teams. When that isn't working this is the result. They look disjointed and get pushed around.

 

[denverdevil]

I bet that game was really fun to be at despite the final result. High energy for sure.

Energy in the building was great! That short handed goal sucked (for us Devils fans) but the place really blew up. Those hits and Dougie coming in and all that got the place really going. It was exciting.

Other energy high(low)lights:
- Young couple in front of us, the dude screaming "wanker" every 5 minutes and the girl high fiving my son after every goal.
- Devils fan nearby yelling "Dougie" pretty much every time he touched the puck.
- Older Devils fan sitting in front of us, silent, wearing his Christmas Nico jersey, listening to the radio, pounding beers.
- Dude wearing Letterkenney Shoresy 69 jersey

 

[glenwo2]

Energy in the building was great! That short handed goal sucked (for us Devils fans) but the place really blew up. Those hits and Dougie coming in and all that got the place really going. It was exciting.

Other energy high(low)lights:
- Young couple in front of us, the dude screaming "wanker" every 5 minutes and the girl high fiving my son after every goal.
- Devils fan nearby yelling "Dougie" pretty much every time he touched the puck.
- Older Devils fan sitting in front of us, silent, wearing his Christmas Nico jersey, listening to the radio, pounding beers.
- Dude wearing Letterkenney Shoresy 69 jersey

View attachment 765111

You should've asked your son after the girl high-fived him : "You and her dating?"

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I'm not sure Nico or Jack make much of difference in that game honestly. Jack by himself can turn the possession game around but neither one of those guys are going to do much for the lopsided physical play we saw last night ...in fact, that is why both of them are out right now.

Something has to be done or we will just get the bitch treatment all season.

I’m thinking if we had a guy with more points than anyone on their hockey team, he may have made a difference in that one.

We average more hits per game than Colorado, btw. They used to be the soft bitch team that couldn’t do it in that playoffs before they won it all — that was fun.

 

[Bleedred]

The scary part about Vitek right now is that he still hasn’t come back from the dark side of the moon since the start of the Rangers series and slide in the last couple of months of last year.

It’s too early to say for Schmid because he’s barely played yet. His two middle games of this year might have been worse than any game Vitek has played, but his game in St. Louis (which he will be sitting on for a week, I think he plays Friday) was better than any game Vitek has played this year or since probably last March.

That said, St. Louis is probably the weakest (or one of the weaker) offensive teams we’ve played, so they may have made Schmid look better because they’re bad.

 

[Bleedred]

My thoughts from this game:

Decent first period. It seems as the games go on that they are finally playing better in the beginning.

Colton: Dude was ON something... and I mean he did some slalom skiing into this game. HIs goal celebration was weird, the hit on Hughes was ridiculous. It's honestly crazy to me that people are trying to say it's clean. The broadcast (Eddie O is in outer space) was trying to say Hughes turned at the last second which you couldn't even tell in slow motion. All you could see is Colton having direct eye contact with the Hughes numbers the entire time then crushed him in a vulnerable position when he didn't have the puck... then continue to lose control and skate right over to crosscheck Meier right in the chops. Bizarre behavior.


We shouldn't really be worried about Bratt but he just put together a few games wearing an invincibility cloak.

Mercer and Palat- Depth is really important especially right now and these two guys REALLY need to start producing.

Hamilton- I'm glad he hit Wood. You can see how much it meant to Siegs with the Stein interview. We don't do enough of that and I'm getting real tired of our star players being targeted and taken out because the Devils don't play a tough game.

Goaltending: I'd feel better with Hellebuyck or Saros in net but how can we even have a discussion about goaltending right now? How many odd man rushes did the team give up last night? If you go back and watch the highlights of every game... nearly every goal scored on the Devils is from a crazy giveaway, failure to clear the zone, or odd man rush leaving the goaltenders high and dry. Yes, we need more saves... but we can't be blaming anything on the goalies right now.


If we're going another 10 games without Jack and Nico, we need to go 6-4 in that span. Just tread water while these guys come back and don't go on a losing streak.

People always talk about odd man rushes, but for the most part a shot on an odd man rush is not super dangerous when defended properly. If the pass gets over then the goalie has very little chance. If the pass doesn’t get over and it’s the shooter against the goalie then the goalie has a good shot on it.

However, that’s not what happened on some of those goals last night. Especially that complete Bahl failure goal. I think that was the second goal against? Or was it the first?

Now when you give up a lot of odd man rushes you do leave yourself open to the possibility of these chances where the pass gets over and the goalie has no chance.

 

[OmNomNom]

Ball Arena is nice, but gosh is it awk to get to if you don't have a car. went to a playoff game there 1.5 yrs ago (when they won), and it was awk walking there

 

[JimEIV]

NJ is not built or coached to hit guys. It's the downside to all that skill. When the team is firing on all cylinders it doesn't matter. They can just outstate and outscore teams. When that isn't working this is the result. They look disjointed and get pushed around.

You can't always out skate teams. Carolina showed us that in the playoffs. The rangers who are nowhere near the skating team we are managed to find ways to stifle us...Colorado just showed us that. Thing is if you take the best skating teams in the east they are all more physical than we are... Buffalo thumped us pretty solidly recently too

From my POV it's about being able to play in a multitude of different ways and we really don't have a big bag of tricks.

 

[Billdo]

That we're a .500 team without our PP?

How about we stop paying attention to a f*cking loser who never amounted to ANYTHING in his career?

He's probably not wrong...

 

[TheUnseenHand]

He's probably not wrong...

If anything he might be a bit generous there.

 

[glenwo2]

He's probably not wrong...

And I "probably" don't give a sh*t what that never-will-be has-been neanderthal says.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[JimEIV]

Are people ignorant or intentionally conflating goonery with physical players?

I mean I think everyone knows that they aren't remotely the same thing?

 

[Triumph]

Are people ignorant or intentionally conflating gooney with physical players?

I mean I think everyone knows that they aren't remotely the same thing?

They are very much the same thing in a lot of cases - especially now - and also I guarantee you a portion of Devils twitter is calling for a goon-type player. All goons are physical players. Not all physical players are goons. Some Devils fans definitely would want a goon for retribution on Avs players/hitting their guys. Mason Geertsen was credited with 58 hits in 174 minutes.

The Devils didn't have their legs last night. Anyone extrapolating from that game is going to be making mistakes.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Are people ignorant or intentionally conflating goonery with physical players?

I mean I think everyone knows that they aren't remotely the same thing?

We had people in here last night saying we need Ryan Reaves

 

[My3Sons]

You can't always out skate teams. Carolina showed us that in the playoffs. The rangers who are nowhere near the skating team we are managed to find ways to stifle us...Colorado just showed us that. Thing is if you take the best skating teams in the east they are all more physical than we are... Buffalo thumped us pretty solidly recently too

From my POV it's about being able to play in a multitude of different ways and we really don't have a big bag of tricks.

It’s still a bit of a work in progress. I don’t think Fitz is blind to it.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Much of our lineup I would consider physical players. Certainly most of the bottom 6. And the top 6 consists of some of the best players in the entire NHL, I do not care how many hits they have. Jack Hughes and Bratt are busting anyone’s ass when they’re on, it’s just a narrative that physical teams neutralize them.

We parted with tons of assets to add a “skilled grit” guy. Not exactly sure who you guys want removed from the roster to remake the team the way you think it should be built. I can see a move being made for a D, the forwards should be more than fine.

 

[JimEIV]

They are very much the same thing in a lot of cases - especially now -

This is just stupid. Nathan McKinnon is tougher and more physical than any of our top 9 forward. He does everything, he stands up for himself, he thumps Defensemen every chance he gets, he punishes the puck carrier by finishing his checks....we don't have a single top 9 forward that does any of that...that is not "the same thing - especially now". That's just a physical player .

 

[Bleedred]

Reaves doesn't even help the team he's with.

Marchand is still laughing over how Reaves did nothing to him, other than say after the fact ''Yeah, if I was on the ice blah blah blah''.

 

[R8Devs]

Palat went after Clifton after Nico got hit, Hamilton literally boarded Wood after Siegenthaler got hit, Meier went after Colton after Luke got boarded. They clearly stick up for each other and I don't think some random 4th liner who fights is going to stop players from trying to play physical with the Devils skill guys. It's not like the Devils don't have those guys in the lineup right now (Bastian, Lazar) and Mcleod would probably be playing more physical if he was in his normal role.
Guys like Marchand/Wilson aren't going to stop playing like themselves because Ryan Reaves or Mason Geertsen is in the lineup lol

 

[NJDevs26]

Yeah this is more on the league continuing to sanction cheap shot bs than it is the Devils at this point, exhibit A the slap on the wrist for Colton’s roid rage. What ‘protection’ is really gonna do any good if nothing short of serious injury is going to lead to any kind of penalty that hurts?

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

This is just stupid. Nathan McKinnon is tougher and more physical than any of our top 9 forward. He does everything, he stands up for himself, he thumps Defensemen every chance he gets, he punishes the puck carrier by finishing his checks....we don't have a single top 9 forward that does any of that...that is not "the same thing - especially now". That's just a physical player .

MacKinnon has thrown 4 hits this season. Jesper Bratt has been credited with 13. He’s obviously a physical freak with powerful skating, but I wouldn’t say you’ve accurately described the player.

Timo Meier doesn’t thump guys on the forecheck and doesn’t stand up for himself? Huh, we must not be watching the same games.

 

[kiwidevil]

So we just need to find more players with the skill and toughness attributes of McKinnon or maybe a Lindros clone. That shouldn't be hard. I bet they're really cheap to acquire and easy to find too.

 

[Triumph]

This is just stupid. Nathan McKinnon is tougher and more physical than any of our top 9 forward. He does everything, he stands up for himself, he thumps Defensemen every chance he gets, he punishes the puck carrier by finishing his checks....we don't have a single top 9 forward that does any of that...that is not "the same thing - especially now". That's just a physical player .

Nathan MacKinnon is credited with 4 hits this year. You have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

So we just need to find more players with the skill and toughness attributes of McKinnon or maybe a Lindros clone. That shouldn't be hard. I bet they're really cheap to acquire and easy to find too.

Now that we’ve found the franchise player of our dreams, an offensive force tailor made for the modern NHL, we need to find some other class of player that will take us to the next level, or something. And Timo doesn’t fit that category, for reasons.