Snitches and witches leave stitches. Isn’t that the saying?First Witch party eh?
Snitches and witches leave stitches. Isn’t that the saying?First Witch party eh?
My friend, I’m sorry for your current feeling. I’m an older folk and here’s how I approach life (with a touch of lexapro as well). When I’m having a shitty day/period, I think back to the bad times in my life (getting shot at, losing both of my parents 9 months apart and other bad periods) and I say to myself “I survived those things, so I can handle anything.” Conversely, when I’m having a great day, I remember the great times of my life.I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm kind of looking to explain myself. I posted about it before a couple weeks back, but I'm going through some kind of weird depression where I'm just whatever about everything. I'm not real sad, but I'm more just apathetic right now. I've been saying recently it's maybe the male version of menopause, I don't know.
So I know I've been super insufferable at times on this board lately, but I have absolutely LITTLE patience for what's been happening in Devils land since about December 28th. So I'm probably really going off the rocker more than I normally would. That's all. There's really nothing I can really do right now. I'll snap out of whatever moods I'm going through, but I just hope this team doesn't completely fall out this season.
However, I don't think I was exaggerating or hyperbolizing when I said Markstrom's game yesterday was a bottom 5 (or top 5 BAD) goalie game for the Devils this decade.
Yeah, the October of 2019 Cory Schneider game was worse, but that was pre-this decade.
Except the game really was only close for like five minutes after the first period when it got from 4-1 to 4-3We were in yesterday's game until that penalty by Pesce killed our chances to tie it up, we still had momentum up to that point and then it went to shit. The final score makes our effort look worse than it was.
Most of the goalies who were here last year aren't anymore. The Devils got 49 starts in 2023-24 out of goalies who are no longer on the roster or in the system. Schmid is a backup goalie in Vegas's farm system, Vanecek was awful for San Jose and was then traded to Florida for nothing, and Kahkonen has been bouncing around the league on waivers and has started exactly one NHL game this year. I'm skeptical that any of these guys start the year on an NHL roster next season, so I'm not sure this is the conclusion you really want to make - yes obviously Daws has been lights out this season but he's played 5 games and he has not been anything special in the AHL.
Obviously there can 'team in front of them' issues and last year's team was certainly not good defensively, but these guys can't hack it here and it turns out they couldn't hack it anywhere, for the time being. It can be both things.
Markstrom's bad performances are almost certainly injury related, before that injury he was headed towards possibly being Sweden's starter in the 4 Nations and a top 10 goalie around the league. Obviously injury risk is part of acquiring any goalie and more so with an older player, but I can't get behind the idea that we overpaid for Markstrom - a good portion of that payment was for Calgary to retain salary on him.
Thompson was in our system too a while backit’s definitely injury related, that’s for sure. and markstrom was having a great year before that but my point is largely that a good team will elevate “good” goalies into top 10 level. he’s definitely good, and has some great games for sure. and yes daws is the only one who put up great numbers but you kind of proved my point - the ahl team is shit but somehow in the harder league he looked better.
just looking at goalies who’ve won the cup like keumper/francouz or hill, and now seeing thompson in washington and i just think our current system could have propped up another goalie that didn’t require us trading a first round pick and comes with the same injury risk. i get why fitz did it, and he probably had to, but in think it was an over correction.
it’s definitely injury related, that’s for sure. and markstrom was having a great year before that but my point is largely that a good team will elevate “good” goalies into top 10 level. he’s definitely good, and has some great games for sure. and yes daws is the only one who put up great numbers but you kind of proved my point - the ahl team is shit but somehow in the harder league he looked better.
just looking at goalies who’ve won the cup like keumper/francouz or hill, and now seeing thompson in washington and i just think our current system could have propped up another goalie that didn’t require us trading a first round pick and comes with the same injury risk. i get why fitz did it, and he probably had to, but in think it was an over correction.
let's fist the greater ohio area tonight
it’s not just about the 5 game sample though it’s just seeing a goalie that’s capable of winning games. you play a system that makes the opposing team’s offense predictable and you limit chances and you can win. We were terrible at that previously and were excellent now. I think a lot of goalies would have been able to win with this team and i believe that it didn’t need to be markstrom, but again I know why fitz wanted/had to get this guy.Kuemper cost a 1st round pick + a conditional 3rd and a young defenseman to acquire. The Devils paid pretty much the same exact price.
From The Athletic's NHL Owner Rankings.
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NHL owner rankings: Grading every team, from Tampa Bay to Buffalo
Introducing The Athletic's first NHL owner rankings, based 50 percent on a fan survey and 50 percent on expert accounting.www.nytimes.com
Methodology:
We’ve compiled your answers in four key ownership categories — willingness to spend, organizational stability, treatment of the fan base and franchise vision — into a “Fan Score” and combined that with our own ranking that factors in objective things such as team performance in the regular season and playoffs (over the past decade) as well as ownership’s general reputation and influence, according to our reporting.
The end result is our first-ever NHL ownership rankings. Keep in mind that this ranking is an amalgam of 50 percent fan perception of their teams’ owners and 50 percent of our own accounting for owner performance, and in some cases, those factors don’t align with one another. (In some markets, fans don’t love their owner even though the franchise is successful on the ice, for example.)
Devils ranked 13th overall, which seems about right.
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Behind LAs low event defense, he's been terrific. He was my stealth fantasy goalie late round pick and I've enjoyed being right.what is who doing now, Kuemper? He has been one of the best goalies in the league this year....