Devils discussion (news, notes and speculation) - part III

[Billdo]

Every single year we've got an injury or two where the medical staff relays it as day to day and every single f***ing year it's always more than that.

 

[jkrdevil]

2013 DeBoer lets Hedberg completely crater us. That team wasn’t really good enough, but he just let that spiral by stubbornly playing Hedberg instead of giving Kinkaid or Frazee a shot in anything but relief.

2018 - Cory returns and is completely awful. Hynes allows Kinkaid to keep running with it.

I’m not saying Allen is as bad as 40 year old Hedberg or even the 2018 Cory. That’s not the point. The point is you don’t let Jake Allen have free range to keep playing like he did last game (and for the majority of the lasts two months) just because he’s a veteran. Jake Allen is 34 years old and wasn’t able to really do this kind of stuff even when he was 27-28?

Say what you want about Brent Sutter, but after Marty went down in 08-09 they went about a week with Weekes before running with Clemmensen until Brodeur got back.

We aren’t close to being at that point with Allen yet. He has to be giving up more than 3 goals a game to get there.

 

[NJDevs26]

This is wild. You play Allen. He is a veteran in this league and is use to randomly being thrown into tough situations. And he is a guy who can have a good game after a bad one.

I aint throwing one of our kids in there again.

These scenarios are exactly why Allen is on the team

Thing is when the kids got thrown in there in the past it was with a far worse defense/system and without a safety net behind them. Daws played ten in a row or whatever it was last year cause they had nobody else, and eventually he got fried after a good start just like he did three years ago. I wouldn't mind platooning one of these kids with Allen for three weeks, he certainly hasn't earned the set it and forget it tag with his play this year.

 

[longislanddevil]

I was afraid it wasn’t truly day-to-day and lo and behold, it’s week-to-week. This team cannot afford to be without Nico or Jack and in many ways, I think being without Nico is even more catastrophic. I’m not going to dump on Fitz because he did a fantastic job in the off-season. However, the organization ‘s failure to address the center position draft after draft is astounding to me.

It’s not important in the grand scheme of things but I was looking forward to see if Nico could make a run at 40 goals. If he’s out for an extended period of time, we can forget about the Selke. It’s stupid how offensive numbers seem to matter for an award that is supposed to be based on defense. What a bummer.

 

[JrFischer54]

With Nico and Markstrom out till probably after the break, this is where Keefe needs to earn his keep. Ruff couldn’t handle injuries and let’s see if Keefe can.

its really on jack gimpy shoulders to raise his game and put the team on his back

 

[JK3]

They should rename Groundhog Day to Fitzgerald Day.

Will Fitz come out of his hole and talk to the media any time soon?

 

[NjDevsRR]

I wouldn't mind platooning one of these kids with Allen for three weeks

When the time is right, I don’t mind either. But Allen has a .912 save percentage this month, and .918 since Markstrom went down.

We aren’t even close to making that decision right now and getting on Allens case right now doesn’t seem fair whatsoever.

I will fully be with Bleed if he strings together some awful games, but he’s actually doing good at the moment.

 

[Cheddabombs]

New Nico parts on backlog, will take a few weeks for them to be shipped out. You hate to see it

 

[Bleedred]

Say what you want about Brent Sutter, but after Marty went down in 08-09 they went about a week with Weekes before running with Clemmensen until Brodeur got back.

We aren’t close to being at that point with Allen yet. He has to be giving up more than 3 goals a game to get there.

3 goals a game is probably too much when the team can’t seem to score 3 themselves.

 

[Guttersniped]

Keefe just dealt with a heartbreaking loss to BOS in Game 7 last season and came back so soon to coach this mess. I respect him for that. I think he stays even with a new GM.

Not addressing the MM is Fitz's downfall. Even with MM on the active roster, we clamored for more depth. Knowing what we know now, I can't imagine people are okay with the Pesce signing. We needed a center (Stephenson/Lindholm) and we didn't land them. Unfortunate.

I remember getting flak on this board for thinking MM was worth $4-5M/year.

Actually I still really like the Pesce signing and would’ve passed on Dillon first, both then and now.

Chandler Stephenson is having a catastrophically bad season in Seattle in his first year of a 7 year/6.25m deal, which has a full NMC/NTC and ends when he’s 37. I’m good with missing out on that.

I don’t see Lindholm at 7.750m happening either and that’s 2.25m more than Pesce makes. Not sure how that would work even hypothetically.

I hate our center depth too but if you’re being realistic about last off-season then you’re really talking about signing someone Kevin Stenlund.

 

[Saugus]

I do like seeing the D pairs shaken up, and giving Dougie his Siegs security blanket back should help him suck less defensively.

But I would have preferred to see Dillon go with Kova and Luke-Pesce be kept together. Why screw with our best D pairing unnecessarily?

 

[Bleedred]

Say what you want about Brent Sutter, but after Marty went down in 08-09 they went about a week with Weekes before running with Clemmensen until Brodeur got back.

We aren’t close to being at that point with Allen yet. He has to be giving up more than 3 goals a game to get there.

And regarding Weekes, he only allowed more 3 goals one time before November. Clemmensen was getting shelled before that, but then got on a role. I firmly believe he got to run to with it early because he was winning.

He had a game against Washington that we won in the shootout I think 6-5 or 5-4. I need to look up the game log.

He was the only reason Washington had that many goals, but I think he stopped everybody in the shootout. He got the next game and went with it from there.

He did start actually playing well though, so that’s why he kept the job.

 

[Zippy316]

So we have no depth but you want to trade for a guy that passed through waivers. Okay now

Let’s be fair, if Bastian was placed on waivers, he’s passing through as well.

Theoretically swapping him for Aube Kubel (or any other fourth liner) is more about waking the team up and getting them to not be complacent.

 

[Devils731]

I do like seeing the D pairs shaken up, and giving Dougie his Siegs security blanket back should help him suck less defensively.

But I would have preferred to see Dillon go with Kova and Luke-Pesce be kept together. Why screw with our best D pairing unnecessarily?

Luke-Pesce has been struggling a bunch lately, imo.

I think they could use a shakeup just for the freshening up factor.

I also think opponents are too comfortable that the Devils defense can’t/wont skate it from the defensive zone and into the offensive zone so they don’t defend against it. Luke can be a guy that does this multiple times a game but I think he was thinking defense first playing with Pesce; I’m thinking Luke will see the softest minutes now and be told to get aggressive when he sees chances to push up ice.

 

[Bleedred]

Keefe just dealt with a heartbreaking loss to BOS in Game 7 last season and came back so soon to coach this mess. I respect him for that. I think he stays even with a new GM.

Not addressing the MM is Fitz's downfall. Even with MM on the active roster, we clamored for more depth. Knowing what we know now, I can't imagine people are okay with the Pesce signing. We needed a center (Stephenson/Lindholm) and we didn't land them. Unfortunate.

I remember getting flak on this board for thinking MM was worth $4-5M/year.

Trying to PM you, but I don’t think it’s allowing me to. Keeps saying “this member limits who can see their profile” or whatever. I even tried to follow you to see if that would let me.

I didn’t know you couldn’t PM certain people. And I know you don’t have me blocked, as you do often interact with me.

 

[Zippy316]

I don't get this trade rhetoric on Mercer, dude scored 3 goals less than Meier how is 5M more expensive, constantly on PK with good numbers, never missed a single game in his career, he is on pace for 40 points this season, I don't think it's too bad for 3RW.

People have these idealized expectations of Mercer based on his hot streaks, but they just need to accept who he is as a player.

He’s a good complimentary forward with special teams utility who struggles with driving play. I’m skeptical he ever becomes more than that, but he’s a guy whose skill set fits perfectly with our top four forwards who all drive play well.

I think part of the issue is Mercer’s game looks like he’s the ideal guy to step up and replace Hischier in times like this. At the end of the day, that’s just not his game and anyone who expects that is going to be seriously disappointed.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Every single year we've got an injury or two where the medical staff relays it as day to day and every single f***ing year it's always more than that.

Annoying as hell but I also reckon that this is a league wide annoyance if we step out of our Devils bubble. I am sure many teams do the same. The injury secrecy in this league is crazy.

 

[Saugus]

New Nico parts on backlog, will take a few weeks for them to be shipped out. You hate to see it

That’s what we get for ordering them from dodgy Etsy sellers in Bulgaria.

 

[njdevils1982]

Trying to PM you, but I don’t think it’s allowing me to. Keeps saying “this member limits who can see their profile” or whatever. I even tried to follow you to see if that would let me.

I didn’t know you couldn’t PM certain people. And I know you don’t have me blocked, as you do often interact with me.

here, i'll PM you.....PM dawn, jersey city baby



and hoboken's own....

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Hischier now out week-to-week? What a coincidence, my ability to give a shit is also out week-to-week. This team f***ing sucks without our beating heart. Maybe the break will give everyone the time to heal up but this is our medical staff we're talking about.

 

[Devils731]

Annoying as hell but I also reckon that this is a league wide annoyance if we step out of our Devils bubble. I am sure many teams do the same. The injury secrecy in this league is crazy.

But I don’t even think it was secrecy.

I imagine they thought it was sore ribs. Next day they were very sore so they sent him home to get some more examination and it revealed he was going to miss some time.

Those steps make sense and how the Devils announcements happened make sense too.

 

[NjDevsRR]

my ability to give a shit is also out week-to-week.

 

[Camille the Eel]

re Nico I'm wondering if it was just the cross check by Suzuki, in the ribs but also it was in the kidney area, like a rabbit punch, or whether he was hurt beforehand. Because he didn't look right in the game even before that. And right now we know nothing about the injury either, do we? "week to week" but they haven't told us because of what. It's just the board here that says it's ribs which it probably is based on what we saw but all the same . . . I don't really know.

In football there are certain protocols about identifying an injury and deadlines about when the team has to publish info. Hockey would benefit from something like this.

In this era of legalized gambling on games it's actually a necessity. Something standardized and enforced and that the public can rely on pertaining to injuries.

 

[NjDevsRR]

 

[None Shall Pass]

Re: the day-to-day going to week-to-week complaining:

Keefe (not the medical staff) said Nico was day-to-day and that he was going back to Jersey for further evaluation. Which is whatever, but he's not a doctor, he's a coach. The Organization made no such announcement.

Nico got that evaluation back in Jersey (One assumes, anyway), and now he's week-to-week, as per The Organization.

I'll be the first to assume negatively about our medical staff and their capabilities, but this confusion doesn't point towards that.

Back to the whining.