GDT: Devils @ Blues - 9:00 PM - ESPN

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

You keep saying that but it's not the loss so much as how they are playing the game lately the defense doesn't have a clue. The Canes keep winning The Bruins keep winning and The Rangers keep winning we can't be losing to bottom feeders.

the Blues are like 5 points out

"bottom feeders"

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

This game was titdirt

Mmmmm…tit dirt.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I never said there was a single post that said Blackwood lost the game. Where tf did you pull that from?

when people criticized his rebound control, you (and others) stated "HE ISNT TO BLAME TONIGHT!!!" immediately. Like, weirdly quick.

as if he is somehow above criticism.

 

[Dylan9z9]

I never said there was a single post that said Blackwood lost the game. Where tf did you pull that from?

He makes shit up all the time

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Find one post that said Blackwood lost the game. Literally nobody said that. You made it up.

Blackwood DOES give up terrible rebounds. Tonight and every other game of his career. He has awful rebound control. This isn't up for debate. Its a fact.

The hive mind though. If you make any statements critical of Blackwood, they are not independent thoughts, but merely a product of the hive mind.

 

[DerekDevils30]

They’ve sucked. I don’t care about the record. An unsustainable shooting percentage and unsustainable goaltending is going to turn eventually and then everyone will flip out when the Rangers wipe the floor with us in the first round. They’ve sucked and they need to turn it around. Teams figured out the system and there’s no adjustment.

Yeah. They’ve got 25 games or so to make some improvements. Would like to watch that back because I saw a few times tonight where someone was pointing to someone to cover something and then both players went there and left someone open. Saw that in Columbus too.

 

[Whaddagoal]

They have been playing badly though winning over the last month. The coach is a moron that refuses to accept his favorite line, the 4 line is a league worst line and miles wood is the equivalent of a ruptured cyst on the center of someone’s asshole.

Siegenthaler went from one of the best dmen in the game to a pumpkin, and Blackwood is still a Devil though he sucks.

Not to mention the rangers have gotten better as the season has gone on, are 5 points away from us and are on a heater at the moment.

I agree with the 4th line stuff, and coach refusing to sit Wood, but the Nico takes from earlier post wayyy over the top.

Winning while playing less than great is better than losing while doninating, like weve seen in the past. Team has made it to at least a reasonable spot at this stretch of season. Unlike the last 10 years minus 2017-2018.

(Top 3-4 team in league stilll!)

 

[Devs3cups]

Recap at EV:

CF%: 52.46%
SCF%: 53.13%
HDCF%: 45.45
xGF%: 53.12%
xGF: 3.15
xGA: 2.78

 

[Unknown Caller]

Fair enough

I thought he was okay

Would have liked a save on the third goal, but it was a fairly forgivable goal and not a brutal softy.

I thought he looked shaky in the 1st period, but it didn't cause of the goals against on him.

This is a fair analysis. He was okay. Essentially saved equal to expected.

 

[Bleedred]

Blackwood's rebound control is likely poor because he doesn't play a whole lot of games and has been relegated to a backup. That's very common with backup goalies in the league.

But then the question becomes, why is Blackwood the backup? Because he's clearly not the best goalie on the roster.....

 

[billingtons ghost]

What... What is titdirt? I need to know this thing.

 

[Eggtimer]

The players and Ruff have said all year that it’s important to keep improving as a team each day amd every game. Seems like we have stalled a little. We are still winning but it is a little worrisome that we are not playing as well as a team with this good of a record should be.

 

[DerekDevils30]

Blackwood's rebound control is likely poor because he doesn't play a whole lot of games and has been relegated to a backup. That's very common with backup goalies in the league.

But then the question becomes, why is Blackwood the backup? Because he's clearly not the best goalie on the roster.....

You’ll see Blackwood against Hellebuyck on Sunday and like it.

 

[Unknown Caller]

when people criticized his rebound control, you (and others) stated "HE ISNT TO BLAME TONIGHT!!!" immediately. Like, weirdly quick.

as if he is somehow above criticism.

Because the analysis immediately turns to Blackwood’s rebound control being a reason for the loss. The Blues had 4.25 expected goals for and he gave up 4 goals. He isn’t to blame for the loss. He was average.

 

[Capt Nico Poo]

suggesting that Nico Hischier should be stripped of the C is a f***ing stupd ass braindead take, and you should feel bad.

Plain and simple.

Get a f***in break.

I did not suggest stripping him from the C, just noted that he is not performing up to expectations. He has shown flashes of greatness offensively but still, after all these years, cannot consistently convert on chances.

Nico is alright, decent to good, but lets face it, there are a lot of good teams in the league where Nico would A) not be in the 1st line and B) would not be in the discussion for captaincy.

That said, i dont mind keeping Nico as the captain for the time being, dont think there's a better alternative out there. Still keeping my fingers crossed that he'll at some point figure out how to score. His pacing for a 70 ish point season. Not bad, not great for a 1C.

Or is he a superstar, a future hall of famer and im just not seeing it?

 

[Dylan9z9]

the Blues are like 5 points out

"bottom feeders"

They are 24th in the league and 1 point a head of the Flyers that's a bottom feeder to me

 

[Eggtimer]

The Jets scare me.They play a style that is our kryptonite. Not lookig forward to Lowry and Stanley possibly taking runs at Jack

 

[guitarguyvic]

They’ve sucked. I don’t care about the record. An unsustainable shooting percentage and unsustainable goaltending is going to turn eventually and then everyone will flip out when the Rangers wipe the floor with us in the first round. They’ve sucked and they need to turn it around. Teams figured out the system and there’s no adjustment.

I don’t think it has anything to do with other teams adjusting. This isn’t being forced by the opposition. They are needlessly forcing breakouts even when the outlet guy isn’t in a position to receive the pass. They are deciding to get aggressive on the puck even when team mates don’t have solid control/possession. The coaching staff continues to trot Wood out there and roll four lines despite that bottom line getting caved in badly.

This is not a talent issue, it’s a structural and coaching one.

 

[Guttersniped]

People that only focus on results are even worse. God forbid there’s real analysis that actually looks into whether a team is playing well or not.

There’s no analysis going on. Analysis requires looking at numbers in way more detail to try figure at why things are happening.

People point at the same basic numbers and whine about how we suck. Wow, thanks for the insight.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I love stats. I always want the team to play better.

But holy hell, “we’re a terrible non-playoff team because we don’t have the amazing stats from October, wah wah” is getting old.

And anyone who takes a smug victory lap over this win, because they believe it proves whatever random theories they have about the team, can eat a bag of dicks.

And when they finish, they can eat another bag of dicks.

It’s especially stupid because we out-fancy statted them without our MVP. And it meant dick all. There have been games where I thought we played better and had worst results on the stat sheet. People are treating natural stat trick like it’s a goddamn holy text.

Everyone agrees they need to be better. But totally ignoring that they’re finding ways to win and getting good goaltending is just classic miserable behavior. But if they lose a playoff round, you’ll get to “I told you so” people, I guess that’s the ultimate goal?

 

[Devs3cups]

I don’t think it has anything to do with other teams adjusting. This isn’t being forced by the opposition. They are needlessly forcing breakouts even when the outlet guy isn’t in a position to receive the pass. They are deciding to get aggressive on the puck even when team mates don’t have solid control/possession. The coaching staff continues to trot Wood out there and roll four lines despite that bottom line getting caved in badly.

This is not a talent issue, it’s a structural and coaching one.

Seems like after game 2 this season, they cleaned the system up. I don't know what happened, but they're back to last season's ways.

 

[Bleedred]

The hive mind though. If you make any statements critical of Blackwood, they are not independent thoughts, but merely a product of the hive mind.

Honestly and it's not just this forum, it's all over the main board and other team's I'm sure, there's a lot of reactionary posts and threads when a player or team has a really good hot streak. Pittsburgh outshoots Anaheim 59-20 (or whatever it was) and beats them 6-3 and there's immediately a thread ''Can Pittsburgh compete with Boston in a playoff series?'' thread. Which was really weird, since Pittsburgh isn't even set to play Boston right now, as even though they were the second wild card at the time, they have a ton of games in hand on Pittsburgh.

Then there's the ''Bobrovsky is a .924% since December, is he back?'' thread on the mainboard. The same shit here when Schneider had a hot streak to end 2019.

There was a puff piece today where our really good beat writer came out and said that Blackwood has proven to be a solid 1b goalie this year, which is completely false, because he hasn't been the 1b this year. To be a 1b, you actually have to play close to half the games don't you? Since he came back from his injury, he hasn't played nearly half the games. Before he got injured he was.

There's always a reactionary thread or posts, just like in this thread right now.

And I'm sure there's already a ''Are the Red Wings poised for a late season playoff push?'' thread on the main board after their 5 game heater.

 

[Unknown Caller]

I don’t think it has anything to do with other teams adjusting. This isn’t being forced by the opposition. They are needlessly forcing breakouts even when the outlet guy isn’t in a position to receive the pass. They are deciding to get aggressive on the puck even when team mates don’t have solid control/possession. The coaching staff continues to trot Wood out there and roll four lines despite that bottom line getting caved in badly.

This is not a talent issue, it’s a structural and coaching one.

It’s because of the system. The Devils automatically funnel pucks up the strong side on the breakout and teams have shut it down. There has been zero adjustment. Instead we get Ruff saying “we’re finding ways to win” when we get caved in by the Blue Jackets.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I did not suggest stripping him from the C, just noted that he is not performing up to expectations. He has shown flashes of greatness offensively but still, after all these years, cannot consistently convert on chances.

Nico is alright, decent to good, but lets face it, there are a lot of good teams in the league where Nico would A) not be in the 1st line and B) would not be in the discussion for captaincy.

That said, i dont mind keeping Nico as the captain for the time being, dont think there's a better alternative out there. Still keeping my fingers crossed that he'll at some point figure out how to score. His pacing for a 70 ish point season. Not bad, not great for a 1C.

Or is he a superstar, a future hall of famer and im just not seeing it?

how the f*** do you know? Legitimately. You have no clue.

 

[Bleedred]

You’ll see Blackwood against Hellebuyck on Sunday and like it.

I'm very excited about it

Another Central division team that we almost NEVER beat, just like the Blues.