GDT: Devils @ Hurricanes - 2025 Playoffs! RD1 GM5 - 7:30 PM - MSG, TBS, MAX

[Bcap88]

All things considered was always an uphill battle when you are missing 3 defensemen and your best forward

Does Keefe have his flaws ? Yea just like any other coach but he got the most out of this group. It’s now on Fitzgerald to get players that mold into Keefe’s playstyle so they can control more games going into next year.

Keefe’s a good coach and it’s fairly obvious

Bottom 6 over haul and maybe need a puck mover on the back end or unleash Nemec

 

[Billdo]

Yeah. That one hits.

Nico, Nemec, Markstrom literally devastated on the ice, and then you have a few guys hamming it up with their oppoents/buddies a few mins later

From the camera angles, players like Bratt, Cotter, Meier, a few others were cordial but serious in the hand shake line, and you had Haula, Hamilton, Pesce, Noesen smiling it up with their former chums literally 2 minutes after the whistle.

What a contrast. I forgive pesce and Noesen as its fresh for them last season, but man it doesn't look good to me as a fan of this team.

I'm not even talking about the line. When Markstrom was still on a knee Hamilton glided over all smiling and shit while Nico, Nemec, etc looked like someone killed their dog.

 

[NJDevs26]

“Hamilton smiled!” is the new “the team ate dinner!”

Hamilton likely came back early from his injury to try and help the team but he doesn’t have the correct facial expression so it’s a problem.

While I agree the smiling thing is ridiculously overplayed...I can't really blame others for harping on it after you have a poor series and there's a non-zero chance it was his last game as a Devil.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Luckily our second daughter was born last night right before the game so this series loss means nothing to me. Life has a funny way of putting things in perspective.

I have faith that the team will address the glaring needs this offseason (depth, depth, and more depth!). Hopefully Grits helps with that and the brothers Hughes get bionic shoulders. Oh and f*** the canes and their embarrassing brand of hockey! Can’t wait to see a real team stomp them.

At least something positive came from last night! Congratulations!

 

[FooteBahl]

Luckily our second daughter was born last night right before the game so this series loss means nothing to me. Life has a funny way of putting things in perspective.

I have faith that the team will address the glaring needs this offseason (depth, depth, and more depth!). Hopefully Grits helps with that and the brothers Hughes get bionic shoulders. Oh and f*** the canes and their embarrassing brand of hockey! Can’t wait to see a real team stomp them.

Congrats! Did you name her Clamantha Jensen?

I will forever hold a grudge against my 2nd child. Having her cost me my devils season tickets…like daycare is really that important?!!

 

[Camille the Eel]

we didn’t need markstrom specifically to stabilize the goalie position. and maybe smaller samples but our other goalies on this roster had as good of not better numbers. not saying they’re better, but having a strong defensive system and a full team buy-in was probably more important than having a “top 10” goalie.

besides that, fitz telegraphed exactly what he was going to do and who he was going after which put him in the worse negotiating position. and he went after a 34 year old with 2 years left - first year done and wasted.

that mid first round pick could still be a valuable, cheap piece on a roster where our stars go into their second and third contracts, you need those and we don’t really have many.

i understand on paper the need to “stabilize the goaltending” but saying this is your guy before the trade happens isn’t great

Pretty nitpicky - all this - compared to more major points about our team structure and development. On the ledger of Fitzgerald’s management of the team and its resources I can’t see it weighs heavily. I’ll cut him some slack here in light of getting Kovacevic for nothing and Dumolin at the deadline for next to nothing.

There’s a good deal of disappointment right now with the playoff series and our play since New Year really. And god knows the experience of watching hundreds of hours of the Devils in 2025 has been frustrating. I rather think Fitz’s tenure is going to be defined by the moves he makes now and whether we can take another step or two forward.

Nemec for Quinn Hughes straight up? Maybe throw in some forwards? Nemec and a forward or two for Hughes and Boeser?

Can Jack Hughes stay healthy through a season or is his career going to be cut short by a chronic shoulder problem?

See everyone around draft time for the next chapters.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Luckily our second daughter was born last night right before the game so this series loss means nothing to me. Life has a funny way of putting things in perspective.

I have faith that the team will address the glaring needs this offseason (depth, depth, and more depth!). Hopefully Grits helps with that and the brothers Hughes get bionic shoulders. Oh and f*** the canes and their embarrassing brand of hockey! Can’t wait to see a real team stomp them.

Congratulations. Best post on this thread by a mile. Next week my daughter will play her last regular season softball game after being a four year starter. She still checks her hand position every at bat the way I coached her in tball and that makes me smile.

Don't blink

Edit: Clamantha! Nicely done @FooteBahl lolololol

 

[billingtons ghost]

Timely deflating goals against? Flukey shots from bad angles? Are we talking about Blackwood? Allen last year? Vanacek? Wait... Two of those guys are still playing. I've heard this before.

Hey, maybe we mature as a team and don't just crater as a team and run around as soon as an opponent gets a goal back?

Maybe when our goalie makes some big saves or we get a PP we take that momentum and score a goal?

The start of the year with the same size guys playing stellar defense was really fun and lucky.

I have a ton of faith in Fitz. I think the dumouln and glad moves were great. Kovy and Cotter and Noesen were good adds.

We don't need to rebuild the bottom six. We need to rebuild the second line so that Mercer, Palat, Cotter, and Noesen are fighting it out for fourth line minutes.

 

[JK3]

NJ Devils in the 5th game of round 1.

 

[Patrik26]

Luckily our second daughter was born last night right before the game so this series loss means nothing to me. Life has a funny way of putting things in perspective.

I have faith that the team will address the glaring needs this offseason (depth, depth, and more depth!). Hopefully Grits helps with that and the brothers Hughes get bionic shoulders. Oh and f*** the canes and their embarrassing brand of hockey! Can’t wait to see a real team stomp them.

Congratulations! Nothing compares to such a blessing!

 

[billingtons ghost]

we didn’t need markstrom specifically to stabilize the goalie position. and maybe smaller samples but our other goalies on this roster had as good of not better numbers. not saying they’re better, but having a strong defensive system and a full team buy-in was probably more important than having a “top 10” goalie.

besides that, fitz telegraphed exactly what he was going to do and who he was going after which put him in the worse negotiating position. and he went after a 34 year old with 2 years left - first year done and wasted.

that mid first round pick could still be a valuable, cheap piece on a roster where our stars go into their second and third contracts, you need those and we don’t really have many.

i understand on paper the need to “stabilize the goaltending” but saying this is your guy before the trade happens isn’t great

Whom did we need? Brodeur? Hasek?

Markstrom kept us in games and I'm the series. He was the best available and the result would've been the same with any goalie in the league and we'd be either killing Fitz for getting a lesser goalie or the WPG playoff choker for being true to form. Overpay for an old goalie? Sure. Gave us the best chance to win

 

[devilsfan950003]

Besides Luke, who do they re-sign and who walks. Opinions?

UFA – Tomas Tatar, Nathan Bastian, Curtis Lazar, Daniel Sprong, Justin Dowling, Brian Dumoulin, Dennis Cholowski, Jake Allen

RFA – Cody Glass, Nolan Foote, Luke Hughes

 

[Jersey Fresh]

It sucks, but honestly the season has been trending in this direction for months, so on some level the sting of getting bounced isn’t quite as bad.

We can talk about our (lack of) forward depth and injuries, but it’s wild that ultimately it was the PP that did us in.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Besides Luke, who do they re-sign and who walks. Opinions?

UFA – Tomas Tatar, Nathan Bastian, Curtis Lazar, Daniel Sprong, Justin Dowling, Brian Dumoulin, Dennis Cholowski, Jake Allen

RFA – Cody Glass, Nolan Foote, Luke Hughes

Glass, Dumoulin. I think we clearly need 8 dmen to make it through the season if we are going to truly compete. I don't see anything else there that for whom I'd pay UFA prices.

 

[HersheyBob27]

Coach Keefe moves his playoff winning percentage to.405 with another 1st round exit

 

[Signal]

All things considered I don't think we could have asked much more from the series. They won one game which was more than I expected. I can't fault the team for playing fairly well while being severely undermanned.

That said, wtf is with the collapses? It's been multiple years now where, when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. Like clockwork, the second a tiny bit of adversity happens, they completely and utterly fold. I have never seen a team so consistent at folding under pressure.

This is one thing that seemed to finally change about our team a couple years ago. In the prior years, yes, it took only one bad goal and the team confidence would be shaken and they would immediately get put back on their heals and start chasing the puck. Play would get scrambly in our end and it would be lousy passing and zero forecheck on offense. But with the team a couple years ago, they honestly appeared to give a sh*t when they got scored on or blew a lead. They just had a confidence and a mentality that they could come back no matter who they were playing. This year's team seemed to take a turn for the worse in this area once again. They looked great up 3-0 last night but in the back of my mind I was worried about exactly what happened. I don't care if Jack and Luke are out. This is something that needs to be addressed.

 

[Capt Nico Poo]

The Athletic is giving Markström a lot of credit for the game when in fairness he was a key reason why it went to OT in the first place

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Coach Keefe moves his playoff winning percentage to.405 with another 1st round exit

Did you see what NJ was missing what the GM aquired at the deadline? I thought he had the team playing quite well given what he had available.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

What a cluster FK, last night’s game was. I don’t know what to say. After the first period we got a smack down. I know we had a lot of injuries, but give Carolina credit. They’re just the better team. We need a rebuild when it comes to our forwards. Fitz did a good job revamping the defense, however, he gets an F., regarding the forwards. As for Marky, he made some great saves but what good is that if you’re going to let in a bunch of soft ones as well. The referees sucked, especially on the Aho dive, the little shit. I’ll be rooting big time for whoever plays the Canes. I don’t see them winning the cup anyway.

 

[MartyOwns]

Coach Keefe moves his playoff winning percentage to.405 with another 1st round exit

i have zero issues with keefe. i think he's a breath of fresh air

 

[Brooklyndevil]

Let's call it like it is, horrible PK and couldn't get clears, but that's another savable puck.

We seem to always have a problem clearing the puck out of our zone and to often we get pinned in our zone for what seems like an eternity. Bid problem’s they need to fix.

 

[HoliksGhost]

Keefe is a damn good coach.
Nemec is going to be a stud defenseman.
I’m still mad at Noesen and Mercer, lol

 

[Bleedred]

Coach Keefe moves his playoff winning percentage to.405 with another 1st round exit

And the Laffs add to their horrible record in games in which they can clinch a series win.

Now 0-2 under the great Craig Berube in those games.

 

[HersheyBob27]

Did you see what NJ was missing what the GM aquired at the deadline? I thought he had the team playing quite well given what he had available.

Disappointing season anyway you frame it

 

[Brooklyndevil]

If there was a positive it was Nemec. He looked like the real deal in the playoffs. I think he was one of our best players. Nico and Meier also had a good series as well.