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

[Emperoreddy]

my biggest complaint about this team is how soft they are. defense is a close second, but jesus have some pride - your star players get abused every single game and no one sticks up for them. other teams don’t have to pay any kind of price for anything.

you don’t have to be the 70s flyers but be hard to play against, you can’t just count on getting your revenge by winning, we’re going to do less of that without our two best players

Nico got hit and Palat stood up for him.

Siegs got hit by Wood last night (which was a clean hit BTW) and Dougie came in, stuck up for him, and got a penalty as a result.

Luke got hit and Timo stood up for him (and got cross checked in the face for his troubles)

This idea they don't stick up for each other is a false narrative.

 

[Devils731]

That looks like if you tried to fuse the DNA of Wood and Zajac and made a monster instead.

Ok, it’s doesn’t know how to make Jesper Bratt but at least it’s good with how letters are made.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Ok, it’s doesn’t know how to make Jesper Bratt but at least it’s good with how letters are made.

Devils tuugh!

 

[Emperoreddy]

!

Obviously the team needs to figure out how to play better team defense while these guys are out, but it's wrong to claim that they wouldn't make a difference in a game like last night.

 

[MartyOwns]

so the complaint is that we don’t have mackinnon, one of the best players on the planet, on our team? boy that’s egg on our face

 

[Devs3cups]

so the complaint is that we don’t have mackinnon, one of the best players on the planet, on our team? boy that’s egg on our face

Grass is always greener elsewhere.

 

[Blender]

!

Obviously the team needs to figure out how to play better team defense while these guys are out, but it's wrong to claim that they wouldn't make a difference in a game like last night.

Hughes alone completely caves in teams 5on5 to the point where the other team generates very little. His defensive impact is pretty underrated.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Hughes alone completely caves in teams 5on5 to the point where the other team generates very little. His defensive impact is pretty underrated.

It's a very different game if they are healthy.

 

[Devs3cups]

Can’t wait until next game so the narrative around the team switches to the next thing.

 

[JimEIV]

Exactly, that's what the stats say!

Let's take a different approach. Can you explain what it is you're wanting that we don't have? Someone that drives the net? Seems like Mercer, Toffoli, Palat and Meier all do that well. Someone that will take a hit in the corners? Just about all of our forwards do that more than you're giving them credit for. Is it really someone who will drop the gloves every time there's a hit, legal or not? I don't love the idea of investing in a top 9 player that regularly takes themselves off the ice, for 5 minutes at a time, but I'll bite. Who is an actual player that does this and also has the skill to warrant playing in a top 9 on a good team? I can list maybe 3 or 4 in the entire league

Physical play is about initiating... we receive more than we initiate far too frequently.

Look at guys like Tkachuk, both of them but Brady in particular. Look at Marchand, look at JT Miller, look at Landeskog and McKinnon, look at Ovechkin...they are almost always the initiators.

At the end of the year when people do the hit highlight videos...we won't have any players on the giving end but I guarantee you we'll have a few on the receiving end...and really these things aren't just one anecdotal event they are cumulative...just like a boxer doesn't get punch drunk from one knock out it's years of blows. We are in the infancy of the season and many of key players have already taken a beating.

We're a soft team, I'm not sure how that can be denied and it's painfully obvious that other teams believe hitting us and playing us physical is the way to beat us.

I'm not sure how anyone watches some of these games like the Carolina series, some of the ranger games the games, last night's game, the buffalo game, most Washington games over the last couple of years and doesn't see how we can get physically dominated?

 

[OmNomNom]

Where were you coming from? It’s not right in the middle of downtown like Coors, but it’s not bad. Now Empower is annoying to walk to for sure. We went to a Rockies and Broncos game on the same day once years ago, walked between them, and that was stupid.

i walked from the convention center - wasn't THAT bad, but was surprirsed when walking down market st past through speer blvd. never felt unsafe though!

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Physical play is about initiating... we receive more than we initiate far too frequently.

Look at guys like Tkachuk, both of them but Brady in particular. Look at Marchand, look at JT Miller, look at Landeskog and McKinnon, look at Ovechkin...they are almost always the initiators.

At the end of the year when people do the hit highlight videos...we won't have any players on the giving end but I guarantee you we'll have a few on the receiving end...and really these things aren't just one anecdotal event they are cumulative...just like a boxer doesn't get punch drunk from one knock out it's years of blows. We are in the infancy of the season and many of key players have already taken a beating.

We're a soft team, I'm not sure how that can be denied and it's painfully obvious that other teams believe hitting us and playing us physical is the way to beat us.

I'm not sure how anyone watches some of these games like the Carolina series, some of the ranger games the games, last night's game, the buffalo game, most Washington games over the last couple of years and doesn't see how we can get physically dominated?

Fact free crying about nothing. I’m looking at all of those seemingly random players you list. And I’m taking Jack Hughes over every single one of them.

I genuinely have no idea what you’re even trying to convey here. We’re “soft”. Okay. We broke the franchise record in points last season and beat the Rangers in the playoffs. How did Machand’s team do in the playoffs?

And again, for the second time, we get credited with more hits per game than Colorado. Not that I give a shit about that.

And you still haven’t named a single player you want removed from the roster for this super important toughness reason.

 

[JimEIV]

!

Obviously the team needs to figure out how to play better team defense while these guys are out, but it's wrong to claim that they wouldn't make a difference in a game like last night.

Many of the odd man rushes came from Colorado finishing their checks. Watch how many times our players were knocked off the puck high in the offensive zone leading to those odd man rushes. Then our D was pounded in the corners by the Colorado forevheckers. Siegenthaler was brutalized last night physically.

 

[kiwidevil]

You've got the blueprint now Fitz. Just get McKinnon, Tkachuk (maybe both???!!! ) and prime Oveckin and we're running through the league.

 

[Devs3cups]

You've got the blueprint now Fitz. Just get McKinnon, Tkachuk (maybe both???!!! ) and prime Oveckin and we're running through the league.

Should be easy enough. Let’s move Nico, Jack and Bratt cause they’re soft right? Right????

 

[kiwidevil]

Should be easy enough. Let’s move Nico, Jack and Bratt cause they’re soft right? Right????

Oh, for sure.
Then we could probably get prime Scott Steven's and Pronger on the 3rd pair to round on the D.

 

[IDEKWTM]

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?

Lol dude we're scoring at a 45% clip while being 7-4-1.

Are you saying that the only way to be knowledgeable in hockey is to have amounted to something in the sport? That's a pretty bad take.

 

[Devs3cups]

Oh, for sure.
Then we could probably get prime Scott Steven's and Pronger on the 3rd pair to round on the D.

How are we feeling about Ron Hextall in net? Dude didn’t f*** around. We need that toughness in net.

 

[kiwidevil]

How are we feeling about Ron Hextall in net? Dude didn’t f*** around. We need that toughness in net.

Oh it all helps.

I'm just happy to be enlightened that if a hockey player is big, fast, really skilled and has an edge, it is valuable to a team.
We should give a name to a player type like this, that is like a powerful skater that plays forward.
Then we should really get out ahead and acquire these types before the rest of the NHL finds out, as they sound fairly rare.

 

[Devs3cups]

Lol dude we're scoring at a 45% clip while being 7-4-1.

Are you saying that the only way to be knowledgeable in hockey is to have amounted to something in the sport? That's a pretty bad take.

Yeah the PP is hot, but I think the 5v5 play is being dragged too much.

At 5v5:

5th in xGF (27 xGF, 19 GF)
12th in xGA (23 xGA, 28 GA)
9th in xGF%
1st in SCF%
7th in SCA
7th in HDCF%
11th in HDCA

26th in SV%
31st in HDSV%

The team isn’t playing their best, especially on D, they need to tighten up, but those aren’t bad numbers at all.

Not being in the bottom 3 in high danger save percentage at 5v5 would be cool too, but I’m not holding my breath, we were 26th last year in that stat while being 3rd in HDCA and 8th in SCA.

 

[SJinNewJersey]

Didn't the Rags try to toughen up by trading Buchnevich? That didn't seem to work out too well for them.

 

[Devs3cups]

Didn't the Rags try to toughen up by trading Buchnevich? That didn't seem to work out too well for them.

Sammy Blais did wonders for them.

 

[denverdevil]

This thread has gone off the rails.

 

[Devs3cups]

This thread has gone off the rails.

What 1 loss does to HF Devils.

 

[Rhodes 81]

Physical play is about initiating... we receive more than we initiate far too frequently.

Look at guys like Tkachuk, both of them but Brady in particular. Look at Marchand, look at JT Miller, look at Landeskog and McKinnon, look at Ovechkin...they are almost always the initiators.

At the end of the year when people do the hit highlight videos...we won't have any players on the giving end but I guarantee you we'll have a few on the receiving end...and really these things aren't just one anecdotal event they are cumulative...just like a boxer doesn't get punch drunk from one knock out it's years of blows. We are in the infancy of the season and many of key players have already taken a beating.

We're a soft team, I'm not sure how that can be denied and it's painfully obvious that other teams believe hitting us and playing us physical is the way to beat us.

I'm not sure how anyone watches some of these games like the Carolina series, some of the ranger games the games, last night's game, the buffalo game, most Washington games over the last couple of years and doesn't see how we can get physically dominated?

OK, you're naming some of the very best players in the league. Yes, I'd love to pair Brady Tkachuck with Jack Hughes but this is not a reasonable thing to aspire to. These are not players that have been available to us. If we wanted to prioritize size and physicality we could have picked Kakko over Hughes, but I'm just not sure what other instances we had where we could have done that. The best combination of size, physicality, and skill that's been available in the past 12 months is Meier and we acquired him.

I'm not disagreeing that it would be nice to have a team full of Landeskogs, but we don't exactly have that choice. Even if we did, that doesn't stop Hughes from tripping over a goalie into the boards, it doesn't stop Miller from hurting himself in practice, and evidence around the league suggests it wouldn't stop Hischier from getting headhunted, either. Bahl got hurt last night blocking a shot. These are not injuries that are prevented by being more physical. I'm all for adding another skilled power forward if we can, but we've already done that when presented with the option.