GDT: Devils @ Golden Knights - 8:00 PM - MSG

[NjDevsRR]

Bottom 6 is going to be tough fix because we need centers and they are always at a premium.

Boq

*sad sounds*

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Hey maybe Meier finally gets put on PP1 now!

 

[Ol Dirty Bstrd]

It would be nice if we had some young forwards ready to contribute but Fitz’s drafting has been dogshit in that regard. If we just went with BPA and didn’t outsmart ourselves by drafting for ‘need’ we’d have Rossi and Cooley/Wright instead of Cotter and Nemec.

I like Silayev but he is going to be the next example while we watch Buium and Dickinson tear up the league for 10+ years. The fact that the runner up for that pick according to our GM was Helenius instead of Buium or Dickinson is f***ing terrifying. Drafting for need/playstyle given how long it takes a prospect to contribute is beyond dumb.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm not sure about this take.

If the assertion is that Noesen is slower, yeah. I don't think Cotter is any significantly slower, despite his size. Who are people taking about? Dowling? (Faster). Lazar? Probably the tiniest bit slower.

Everyone else was already here, so?

Some of the other guys got older and therefore slower. Like Haula, who has lost quite a bit of speed (and everything else) since then. He was actually a very good skater and fairly speedy two seasons ago. Not anymore.

Wood was much faster, but it was good we didn’t re-sign him. That contract is looking very ugly in year two.

Tatar was also much faster.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Even if people don't wanna admit injury prone...can they at least acknowledge him falling on his ass 10 times a game is a problem?

The fact that he's nearly 24 and in his 6th season, yet loses his edge repeatedly or gets knocked off the puck by a light breeze is unacceptable. What other allegedly elite player spends a material amount of the game on his ass? Seriously. I want a comparable forward that isn't new to the league. It's f'ing comical at this point.

Who the f*** cares? This fanbase watched David Clarkson fall on the ice 4-5 times a game and gushed over him like some Make a Wish kid

 

[billingtons ghost]

Marchand

The problem with this team is that we don't have enough players like Jack Hughes.

I love the people in here who want him to be "gritty" and "tough". Start lifting!

This reminds me of the idiot Red Sox fans who LOVED Trot Nixon and hated Manny Ramirez. Trot was dirty, dove all over the place and got back up, his hat was filthy, he was sweating all the time, running into walls. THAT was the player they loved. The guy hitting 50 bombs and driving in 130 was the problem.

Like saying we should have let Jack go and built the team around Miles Wood

Yeah well, tonight I wish he was a helluva lot more like miles wood than Miley Cyrus. This is his third shoulder surgery, right?

He's worthless to us on IR. Hockey is a contact sport. There's legitimate concerns around building your team around a player who can't stay healthy and there are lots of super talented players that don't make the Hall of Fame in every sport.

I love Jack, and wish him all the best, but right now this is a pretty tough night for the franchise.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

This. I don't get why people are so enamored of this JAG.

Were you not here for Jacob Josefson? Marcus Johanson? He's almost a carbon copy with the tiniest smidge better speed.

Do you guys even listen to the f***ing argument or just brush it off immediately? No one's said it 100% has to be Boqvist who was brought back but getting away from the speed element in the game brutally f***ed this team/roster. Not being able to play 4 lines deep in a game puts more pressure on the top guys to consistently score which leads to the 17-18 Hall play hero roster. The fact this has to explained to this board like a bunch of middle schoolers is comical at this rate.

 

[Bleedred]

It’s not even about the player specifically, it’s the mentality. You let Boq go but have no problem signing a useless good who’s not even good at being a good to a three year contract. If the GM’s name was Lou we’d never hear the end of how much of a dinosaur move that was.

Hell, we were ripping Lou for signing Ross Johnston to a 4 year deal a few seasons ago. I remember going “what a joke! Who signs a goon for 4 years? I’m glad we’d never do that!”.

And I wasn’t wrong, because we didn’t sign one for 4 years. We just signed one for 3 years instead.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Some of the other guys got older and therefore slower. Like Haula, who has lost quite a bit of speed (and everything else) since then. He was actually a very good skater and fairly speedy two seasons ago. Not anymore.

Wood was much faster, but it was good we didn’t re-sign him. That contract is looking very ugly in year two.

Tatar was also much faster.

Ok, I mean the talk was about Fitz making the team slower with personnel decisions, not players getting slower.

 

[Dylan9z9]

Three guarantees in life. Death, taxes and Jack & Nico will be injured every season.

I don't pay taxes

 

[JimEIV]

I wonder if we could get Zacha to replace Haula?

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Ok, I mean the talk was about Fitz making the team slower with personnel decisions, not players getting slower.

Lazar/Bastian/Nosek/MacDermid (LOL at this one especially since he blew assets on it and a stupid contract that he could've just given to Boqvist in the first place)/Dillon/Pesce on the backend

I wonder if we could get Zacha to replace Haula?

This would do wonders for my username once again

 

[NjDevsRR]

I wonder if we could get Zacha to replace Haula?

 

[guitarguyvic]

Who the f*** cares? This fanbase watched David Clarkson fall on the ice 4-5 times a game and gushed over him like some Make a Wish kid

Of course no one gave a shit that Clarkson was always falling down, he was not a #1 pick / franchise cornerstone.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Of course no one gave a shit that Clarkson was always falling down, he was not a #1 pick / franchise cornerstone.

Exactly, so Jack will make up for those stupid ass mistakes more times than not. Beyond a stupid and trivial thing to care about a player who's a superstar.

Can't believe we're sitting here in March of a possible devastating end of the year and talking about how a dude skates versus the actual roster construction being piss poor which has led to this.

 

[Bleedred]

Do you guys even listen to the f***ing argument or just brush it off immediately? No one's said it 100% has to be Boqvist who was brought back but getting away from the speed element in the game brutally f***ed this team/roster. Not being able to play 4 lines deep in a game puts more pressure on the top guys to consistently score which leads to the 17-18 Hall play hero roster. The fact this has to explained to this board like a bunch of middle schoolers is comical at this rate.

I actually thought our bottom 6 in 17-18 was quite good. The second line/top 6 was a bit shady outside of Hall and his line though.

Our bottom 6 was strong that year, but we also had some guys who were having career years and overachieving. Brian Gibbons being the most obvious.

A 30 year old mostly AHL forward who had only appeared in 60-something NHL games several seasons before that and really only had one full NHL season after that.

That was also Miles Wood’s career high in goals and points season. Coleman looked like nothing before that season and never had a full NHL role prior to that year and was already late 20s. Noesen was a good 3rd/4th liner. I liked the depth that year.

But a lot of those guys didn’t repeat it the next year or weren’t on the team anymore.

Even Drew Stafford had a good first 20 games or so, which bought him a whole extra season with us after that. And he was never good again after those 20 games lol.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Do you guys even listen to the f***ing argument or just brush it off immediately? No one's said it 100% has to be Boqvist who was brought back but getting away from the speed element in the game brutally f***ed this team/roster. Not being able to play 4 lines deep in a game puts more pressure on the top guys to consistently score which leads to the 17-18 Hall play hero roster. The fact this has to explained to this board like a bunch of middle schoolers is comical at this rate.

I understand your irate, but your argument doesn't hold water.

You make it sound like Fitz actively made this team slower by design bc we were clearly getting our asses handed us by more physical teams.

That's just not the case.

Yes, Rango, Zetterlund, Boquist, Wood depth was lost.
You want Timo or not?
You want Markstrom or not?
You want Wood and his three total points on a 2.5m contract?
It's too bad McLeod is a molester.

Dowling is faster. Cotter is just about as fast as those guys.

I get that Haula and Tatar and Palat seem slower.

I get that we are actually playing defense and that has made us less aggressive but it also means our goaltenders aren't getting destroyed like last year.

But the ' Fitz ruined us!!' take is silly.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I actually thought our bottom 6 in 17-18 was quite good. The second line/top 6 was a bit shady outside of Hall and his line though.

Our bottom 6 was strong that year, but we also had some guys who were having career years and overachieving. Brian Gibbons being the most obvious.

A 30 year old mostly AHL forward who had only appeared in 60-something NHL games several seasons before that and really only had one full NHL season after that.

That was also Miles Wood’s career high in goals and points season. Coleman looked like nothing before that season and never had a full NHL role prior to that year and was already late 20s. Noesen was a good 3rd/4th liner. I liked the depth that year.

But a lot of those guys didn’t repeat it the next year or weren’t on the team anymore.

Even Drew Stafford had a good first 20 games or so, which bought him a whole extra season with us after that. And he was never good again after those 20 games lol.

They were decent up front considering what Shero came into NJ 2 years prior with, the backend was really their undoing. Having Vatanen as a 1D is beyond criminal. If you combined Shero's brain with forward moves and Fitz on the backend, maybe we'd win a cup in the distant future

 

[Edmonton East]

What comes across most is he’s in a lot of pain. The way he lifts his head up as he’s kneeling and holding the forearm, and then looks back down and takes a deep breath before getting up. And the way Eichel is worried about him and touching him on the shoulder. And skating off too, there’s a moment he’s trying to just bear it.

Also the way he first rolls over in his back after the initial moment of lying there. Broken bone if I have to guess. Might have got caught under him awkwardly and not been the blow into the boards so much as his own weight on the ice.

My heart breaks for him. Such a competitor. There it was just a meaningless play at the end of a lost game but he’s going 150%.

Yet we can’t just quit the season. Nico, Bratt, Meier and Luke are going to have to carry us the rest of the way. We have sufficient goaltending and defensive structure to remain competitive but things just got so much harder.

The average person has a huge blindspot for how frustrating and debilitating shoulder injuries can be. Serious shoulder surgeries are also among the highest in failure rate and/or relapse and reinjury....regardless of age. Looks like his shoulder is separated again (and it isn't simply clavicle break), but we'll see. Sucks

 

[Shakir ONeal]

Bring back Gibbons

 

[NjDevsRR]

They were decent up front considering what Shero came into NJ 2 years prior with, the backend was really their undoing. Having Vatanen as a 1D is beyond criminal. If you combined Shero's brain with forward moves and Fitz on the backend, maybe we'd win a cup in the distant future

Credit does have to go to Vats though, he very good in 2018 and was a big reason we made the playoffs. Too bad he got cheap shotted twice and his career ended

Bring back Gibbons

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I understand your irate, but your argument doesn't hold water.

You make it sound like Fitz actively made this team slower by design bc we were clearly getting our asses handed us by more physical teams.

That's just not the case.

Yes, Rango, Zetterlund, Boquist, Wood depth was lost.
You want Timo or not?
You want Markstrom or not?
You want Wood and his three total points on a 2.5m contract?
It's too bad McLeod is a molester.

Dowling is faster. Cotter is just about as fast as those guys.

I get that Haula and Tatar and Palat seem slower.

I get that we are actually playing defense and that has made us less aggressive but it also means our goaltenders aren't getting destroyed like last year.

But the ' Fitz ruined us!!' take is silly.

Dowling and Cotter are f***ing garbage, lmao. That's the whole point. Just like how you can't just sign guys for being physical, you don't just sign guys based on speed. They actually have to know how to hold a hockey stick between their hands and do something with it at the NHL level. It's a red flag that a team like Vegas who prides itself on 2 way grinders let Cotter go

Credit does have to go to Vats though, he very good in 2018 and was a big reason we made the playoffs. Too bad he got cheap shotted twice and his career ended

For sure but it just felt like Shero was just as f***ing clueless on the backend as Fitz is up front

 

[guitarguyvic]

Yeah well, tonight I wish he was a helluva lot more like miles wood than Miley Cyrus. This is his third shoulder surgery, right?

He's worthless to us on IR. Hockey is a contact sport. There's legitimate concerns around building your team around a player who can't stay healthy and there are lots of super talented players that don't make the Hall of Fame in every sport.

I love Jack, and wish him all the best, but right now this is a pretty tough night for the franchise.

If repeated injuries weren’t a legit reason to be concerned about a player, Mackenzie Blackwood would still be here.

This org reminds me of the Florida panthers before the team was re-imagined around Tkachuk. We need a Bill Zito.

 

[Bleedred]

Bring back Gibbons

Hasn’t played since 22-23 season in Germany.

Hilarious that there are two different Brian Gibbons in hockey, both born in the same year. Both finished their careers in Germany. Other Brian Gibbons didn’t play a single game in the NHL though.

I looked him up and found a profile for one of the coaches for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. I saw the picture and knew immediately it wasn’t our Brian Gibbons.

 

[Edmonton East]

Who the f*** cares? This fanbase watched David Clarkson fall on the ice 4-5 times a game and gushed over him like some Make a Wish kid

Are you seriously saying one of your top players and the player who is on the puck the most for your team....can fall down repeatedly all the damn time and it be okay? That typically means turning the puck over and you are out of the play. Nevermind the added injury risk. What an absurd stance. A+ strawman argument with 3rd line grinding winger Clarkson. I don't even know why I'm responding to this junk.