Pre-Game Talk: Devils Canes Round 2

[StorminSnvechnAho]

I think he found his game. We're just hoping he loses it.

The guy has 15 NHL starts he also gives up a ton of rebounds and freezes the puck way more than expected (our advantage in the face off dot vs them will be important) We will see how he does facing the Canes jamboree of throwing everything on net and playing every rebound.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Because a rookie goalie stonewalling a team to a deep playoff run is unheard of…

Didn't work for us last year. It's more the exception than the norm.

 

[StorminSnvechnAho]

The Canes, when healthy, are fast. Whatever we had cobbled on the ice in the final few games of that Islanders series was not fast. Especially when we’re still getting updates from practice about how Skjei missed it because he’s banged up, and Chatfield left early because he’s banged up, and…



Because a rookie goalie stonewalling a team to a deep playoff run is unheard of…

While certainly not unheard of.... It doesn't happen often, it's far more likely to be a small sample size.

I'd must rather face him than Shesterkin/Sorokin or Vasilevskiy.

Physical teams like the Islanders always slow teams down, as for Skjei and Chatfield I guarentee you every player in the playoffs is banged up to some extent right now, that's not uncommon given we had extra time off. .


We need Necas and KK to step up there game and the D to play like they should.

 

[VAcaniac]

Kind of like facing the 06 Buffalo Sabres except our D is much better and offense isnt as powerful?

I know it was just one game but hoping the old Freddie is back. He looked so composed last game and his positioning was so good.

 

[Sigurd]

Don't forget we have the eraser Jaccob Slavin, and Home ice to dictate who the Staal line goes against.

Yeah, that's something the Rangers didn't have against New Jersey in a 7 game series. If it went that far for us against NJ, getting the line matchups we want would probably be key. Also, NJ isn't as good of a defensive team as Carolina is.

Obviously with Carolina's injuries, NJ has more offensive weapons, but some of NJ's players really underperformed in the 1st round, so it remains to be seen if they reach their full potential. Our offense needs to reach its full potential too though with KK and Necas (Necas is capable of being on Aho's production level goal wise; see his regular season) in particular that have to step up, while Aho, Burns, and Jarvis continue what they did in the 1st round.

Finally, if Andersen gets back to form from last year when he was Vezina tier before he got injured late in the season? Andersen + our D will be a huge winning combination.

I'm concerned some of our players are fighting through injuries that are going to hold them back though after the very physical Islanders series.

 

[StorminSnvechnAho]

Yeah, that's something the Rangers didn't have against New Jersey in a 7 game series. If it went that far for us against NJ, getting the line matchups we want would probably be key. Also, NJ isn't as good of a defensive team as Carolina is.

Obviously with Carolina's injuries, NJ has more offensive weapons, but some of NJ's players really underperformed in the 1st round, so it remains to be seen if they reach their full potential. Our offense needs to reach its full potential too though with KK and Necas (Necas is capable of being on Aho's production level goal wise; see his regular season) in particular that have to step up, while Aho, Burns, and Jarvis continue what they did in the 1st round.

Finally, if Andersen gets back to form from last year when he was Vezina tier before he got injured late in the season? Andersen + our D will be a huge winning combination.

I'm concerned some of our players are fighting through injuries that are going to hold them back though after the very physical Islanders series.

I wouldn't consider there defense to be equal, I think they just got ahead of the Rags most games they won and just took them off there game...
Our D is definitely better IMO.... I'll give them Fs. But we don't lack the speed to keep up with them like the Rags did.

 

[bleedgreen]

I think Hughes can dice us up if we can’t keep things tight. We‘ve got better d, they’ve got way better O and a much more dangerous pp. Theyre counting on a goalie miracle to keep going, we hoping we have one of three goalies show up health and ready to play. They’re healthier and have younger legs. I think we’ve got our hands full here.

 

[StorminSnvechnAho]

I think Hughes can dice us up if we can’t keep things tight. We‘ve got better d, they’ve got way better O and a much more dangerous pp. Theyre counting on a goalie miracle to keep going, we hoping we have one of three goalies show up health and ready to play. They’re healthier and have younger kegs. I think we’ve got our hands full here.

Slavin is healthy, The Staal line will matchup vs Hughes in all home games...

There PP is 1% worse than ours in the postseason at 19%

and almost one percent better than ours in the regular season, saying there PP is much more dangerous is actually very false.

 

[TheTakedown]

Last year I hated you guys...

This year I'm your biggest fan

Please shut my devils friends up and stomp these losers !

I think Hughes can dice us up if we can’t keep things tight. We‘ve got better d, they’ve got way better O and a much more dangerous pp. Theyre counting on a goalie miracle to keep going, we hoping we have one of three goalies show up health and ready to play. They’re healthier and have younger kegs. I think we’ve got our hands full here.

Nah, Hughes is basically the entire team. Shut him down and you've clowned 75% of the devils offense. The depth scoring is absolutely useless on that team

 

[StorminSnvechnAho]

Last year I hated you guys...

This year I'm your biggest fan

Please shut my devils friends up and stomp these losers !


Nah, Hughes is basically the entire team. Shut him down and you've clowned 75% of the devils offense. The depth scoring is absolutely useless on that team

Hughes will be shadowed Jaccob Slavin and the Staal line I'm confident we can shut him down.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

The difficulty that McDavid has had against this team gives me some hope that we can shut Hughes down. I don't know how good their depth is, but I imagine we're about to find out.

 

[DougieSmash]

Stanley Cup Playoffs 2nd-round predictions | NHL.com

NHL.com staff members make their picks for 4 series

www.nhl.com

Almost no one, just like in HF main board, expect us to prevail.

We are better team in my eyes. Canes in 5.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

The Canes are the most recent Cup winner remaining in the playoffs.

That’s very weird.

 

[3CanesInTheBox]

I have been avoiding thinking too much about the second round until now--I like to soak up the series wins. But a few thoughts:

1) The Freddie situation has me confused. As noted before, his ceiling is SO HIGH, but I'm afraid of him doing ridiculous stuff. Even in his STELLAR game six, there were a couple of dangerous and baffling gaffes with the puck.

2) Koko, Necas, and a (rested/healthier?) Skjei are key players I'm hoping to be X Factors this round.

3) On paper, I feel like this should be a Devils win. But, as cliche as it sounds, there feels like there is something special about this Canes team. We'll see.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

We had the Corsi advantage in the regular season, tied in points gained, and had a slightly positive xGs percentage. Other than that, NJ killed us in the other main stats to look at.

The bad turnovers by Necas and pinching defenders getting caught too deep will be twice as worse this series. We’re going to need a better offensive strategy this series to slow them down. Instead of the offense starting from the point, we may need to start the offense from below the goal line and have the forwards and defenders rotate through finding soft spots in the zone. That will at least prevent a blocked shot or a stolen pass along the boards from kick starting an odd man rush.

While we forecheck hard, we don’t have speed. Staal, stas, stepan, Kk, and burns bring the speed average down.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

The difficulty that McDavid has had against this team gives me some hope that we can shut Hughes down. I don't know how good their depth is, but I imagine we're about to find out.

Oilers O strategy or maybe just McDavid’s is get the puck and then skate through everyone to score. Defenders have a chance to react to McD having the puck. Hughes’ is different. NJ flies out on passes along the board to create a giveaway. The moment someone goes to challenge, they have forwards going to cover the high side point men who will then fly the zone if possession is gained. Knowing that at least one defender (typically the near side guy who is staying close to the boards to keep the puck in) wont be able to turn and recover, they have created an odd man rush.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Will need more production from everyone but Aho this round to have a chance

While your original statement was true, the above also applies.

The Devils are gonna score.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

5-1 loss

 

[Chrispy]

5-1 loss

Making the Canes go back to Newark for game 6 after losing the series is adding insult to injury.

The NHL would absolutely do that.

 

[Porvari]

I have a bad feeling this series will set a new NHL record on breakaways and 2-on-1's.

 

[FlyingSquirrels]

I voted a sweep. My expectations are so low that we might actually win this whole goddamn thing.

 

[AD Skinner]

I think we’ll probably have to play like the 90s-00s devils to beat these new ones, but I also think we can do it. It may take a lot of 2-1 1-0 games but this devils team is not unbeatable

 

[MinJaBen]

I think we’ll probably have to play like the 90s-00s devils to beat these new ones, but I also think we can do it. It may take a lot of 2-1 1-0 games but this devils team is not unbeatable

We aren't beating any team in the playoffs 1-0. Our goalies don't work that way.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

I'll take off my biased Canes glasses and say the Devs have like a 55-60% chance of winning the series. They're healthy, we're not. Their offense is much better than ours. Our defense is significantly better than theirs, and goaltending is a push for me. Schmid has been excellent but I think we can solve him. Either way both teams are sighing relief from Sorokin/Shesterkin going into round 2.

The wild card for me is goalie. Who do we play in game 1? Andersen or Raanta have been good overall, but Andersen was lights out in game 6. There is an argument for either goalie getting the nod.

The Devils were very scary in the regular season when we played them. At the same time, oftentimes the regular season means nothing and you really see the team in the postseason. We have a decent advantage here in that we have a ton of playoff warriors. We've scouted Dougie Hamilton and it's possible we get some mismatches with him on the ice. I'm kinda surprised they aren't playing Luke Hughes in the playoffs. He seemed like the real deal to me. I like our matchup with them on D. I think if we lose this series, it will be because we allow too many odd-man rushes, or that we lose the special teams battle.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Weird little subplot here of playing against Haula for the 3rd year in a row in the playoffs. Only time we haven't played him since we traded him was the bubble.

He had a great 1st round, hopefully he turns back into the little guy that hates us so much he implodes whenever he plays us.