GDT: Devils @ Leafs - 7:30 PM - ESPN+

[Capt Nico Poo]

It hurts to watch the Devils win when thet get the average-to-good goaltending they havent had in years. Why did we make the moves so late!!

 

[NjDevsRR]

It hurts to watch the Devils win when thet get the average-to-good goaltending they havent had in years. Why did we make the moves so late!!

Well they are getting elite goaltending lately lol but I hear ya

 

[DVision44]

@JimEIV Talk to me again about the goaltending... yes it's "clear" that if we had some performances like the last 2 games earlier in the season.. they'd have more points than they currently do...

Another showing where every mistake didn't end up in the back of the net

 

[Capt Nico Poo]

Well they are getting elite goaltending lately lol but I hear ya

yeah, maybe i understated the quality of goaltending.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

My goodness, just watched the highlights. That felt like a loss despite the score. Absolutely caved the whole game it looked like. Allen looked like Hasek and Roy combined out there.

 

[njdevils1982]

Hmmm that Luke kid looks pretty good doesn’t he?



I wonder if this is @BahlDeep

I know he’s Canadian and makes it to some games up there

its not him

 

[Unknown Caller]

My goodness, just watched the highlights. That felt like a loss despite the score. Absolutely caved the whole game it looked like. Allen looked like Hasek and Roy combined out there.

Hilarious that they’ve won 4 out of 5 while their 5v5 play has absolutely tanked. Just shows how important goaltending is.

They were dominating at 5v5 and couldn’t buy a win most of the season because the goaltending sucked.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

The only problem right now are these losers points regarding the teams they’re chasing. Unless they go on a big time streak, there going to rue the day they lost to the Coyotes and Senators.

 

[NJDevs26]

Hilarious that they’ve won 4 out of 5 while their 5v5 play has absolutely tanked. Just shows how important goaltending is.

They were dominating at 5v5 and couldn’t buy a win most of the season because the goaltending sucked.

This is a massive oversimplification with a small sample size on the former. The latter, we’ve had the same problems all year (no showing against bad teams and early in games, a D with no legit top pairing players) which is why we’ve also been .500 overall with better goaltending under Green and around .500 during Daws’ run

Yes the difference between dumpster fire goaltending and great goaltending is immense but you can’t realistically expect the latter for longer than a couple week stretch and we didn’t do nearly enough to adjust to the dumpster fire goaltending and younger D. Last year’s goaltending is more or less the goal but if you don’t have that you can’t continue to play pond hockey, especially with a younger D

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

This is a massive oversimplification with a small sample size on the former. The latter, we’ve had the same problems all year (no showing against bad teams and early in games, a D with no legit top pairing players) which is why we’ve also been .500 overall with better goaltending under Green and around .500 during Daws’ run

Yes the difference between dumpster fire goaltending and great goaltending is immense but you can’t realistically expect the latter for longer than a couple week stretch and we didn’t do nearly enough to adjust to the dumpster fire goaltending and younger D. Last year’s goaltending is more or less the goal but if you don’t have that you can’t continue to play pond hockey, especially with a younger D

The maddening thing is the amount of games where if we got 1 more save, we’d manage a point. Or how many times we had a couple minute stretch with multiple goals given up to completely take the wind out of the team. One key save can turn a game.

The level of play hasn’t been good enough this year, but the shit goalies compounded everything. If we got the halfway point between what Allen is doing and Vitek, it would’ve been enough, even with everything going wrong.

 

[Triumph]

Only getting 9 games to overtime is absolutely ridiculous, especially when the Devils have a top 5 3v3 player in Hughes (when healthy). If they play 15 OT games they are in the playoffs, not that they are going anywhere playing this way.

By the way I am glad that the idiotic 'maybe Hughes actually is healthy' is now being put to rest as he skips everything that isn't the game now.

 

[Zippy316]

The maddening thing is the amount of games where if we got 1 more save, we’d manage a point. Or how many times we had a couple minute stretch with multiple goals given up to completely take the wind out of the team. One key save can turn a game.

The level of play hasn’t been good enough this year, but the shit goalies compounded everything. If we got the halfway point between what Allen is doing and Vitek, it would’ve been enough, even with everything going wrong.

I’m somewhat glad that the team is still kind of in the race despite all the things that have gone wrong.

Saves the team from the complete dejection of playing out the season with nothing to play for but also leaves a bitter taste in your mouth that they should’ve been there.

Extra motivation plus some of the right tweaks to this roster and this team should be much improved next year. Might be better off missing in the long run rather than making it just to be bruised up and bounced out in the first round anyways.

 

[CalamityX23]

Devils in Toronto

 

[devilsblood]

The maddening thing is the amount of games where if we got 1 more save, we’d manage a point. Or how many times we had a couple minute stretch with multiple goals given up to completely take the wind out of the team. One key save can turn a game.

The level of play hasn’t been good enough this year, but the shit goalies compounded everything. If we got the halfway point between what Allen is doing and Vitek, it would’ve been enough, even with everything going wrong.

Don't forget early goals allowed, which as the rest of your post alludes is part team, but I think mostly goalies.

I felt something had to be done, but I do think Ruff got a raw deal. Goalies were a problem from the get go, and the only change that was made to address it was to bring in a rookie coming off a surgery.

 

[OmNomNom]

Don't forget early goals allowed, which as the rest of your post alludes is part team, but I think mostly goalies.

I felt something had to be done, but I do think Ruff got a raw deal. Goalies were a problem from the get go, and the only change that was made to address it was to bring in a rookie coming off a surgery.

i will say Ruff's PP sucked 2nd half of the year - we had an 11.5% PP from 1/1 - 3/4

Since Green took over, we're back to 23.5% - i assume Lindy's stubbornness had some part in our crap PP?

 

[devilsblood]

i will say Ruff's PP sucked 2nd half of the year - we had an 11.5% PP from 1/1 - 3/4

Since Green took over, we're back to 23.5% - i assume Lindy's stubbornness had some part in our crap PP?

Any detail to this thought?

Meier in for Toffoli is a clear move, but other then that what has changed?

And while I probably would have something different, Toffoli was our PP goal leader.

 

[Triumph]

i will say Ruff's PP sucked 2nd half of the year - we had an 11.5% PP from 1/1 - 3/4

Since Green took over, we're back to 23.5% - i assume Lindy's stubbornness had some part in our crap PP?

I don't think so, I think it's a lot of luck. I don't think the power play is that good now, either - they're just getting the bounces. The Devils are 30th in shot rate since March 1. They were 11th between January 1 and February 29th.

 

[njdevil26]

slightly OT, but i'm impressed w Arda Ocal in his role - from in-game host for us to ESPN

Arda actually auditioned for Erika's job but they predictably went for the good looking blonde like most teams do... but I'd say it definitely worked out great for him. He's a good dude... Only thing wrong with him is that he get steaks cooked well done and uses ketchup.

 

[NJDevs26]

i will say Ruff's PP sucked 2nd half of the year - we had an 11.5% PP from 1/1 - 3/4

Since Green took over, we're back to 23.5% - i assume Lindy's stubbornness had some part in our crap PP?

Or Green being promoted got a better voice doing day to day power play stuff lol

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Any detail to this thought?

Meier in for Toffoli is a clear move, but other then that what has changed?

And while I probably would have something different, Toffoli was our PP goal leader.

This is avoiding the obvious fact that Toffoli is absurdly slow in general. If you lose puck battles on a powerplay which lack of foot speed contributes to then you're going to have a relatively shit powerplay. Toffoli is an elite finisher but besides that it was evident that he was beyond cooked in the 5v4 situation.

 

[Triumph]

This is avoiding the obvious fact that Toffoli is absurdly slow in general. If you lose puck battles on a powerplay which lack of foot speed contributes to then you're going to have a relatively shit powerplay. Toffoli is an elite finisher but besides that it was evident that he was beyond cooked in the 5v4 situation.

Toffoli was playing bad on the power play, I do not believe he is cooked there; too much was being asked of him. He was not the weak link - it is more likely that Jack was the weak link and just firing shots. Now he doesn't shoot - Luke does.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Toffoli is not a skate in and shoot sniper. He benefited from setting up at the doorstep but having others shoot/pass driving the play. He's great at shooting as the secondary threat and rebound shooter if others draw the focus. Trying to pass directly to him for the primary shot on goal is limited in success and it only goes down if you want him to drive the shot with skating into shooting position.

He needs Jack/Bratt/etc to move the puck into a shooting position and either ripping it or finding him uncovered.

Winnipeg is finding this out now as are my friends who have/had him in fantasy and expected him to just shoot and score. He needs to crash the slot with a pure shooter shooting at will imo.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Toffoli was playing bad on the power play, I do not believe he is cooked there; too much was being asked of him. He was not the weak link - it is more likely that Jack was the weak link and just firing shots. Now he doesn't shoot - Luke does.

His puck retrieval and everything went down this year, how many times did we see a puck jump over his stick or he was too slow to keep a puck in on the powerplay on the half boards when the powerplay rotated? The original poster asked why the powerplay looks better without him and it's evident that Toffoli's foot speed in certain situations played a massive role. It's nothing to be overly mad about, he was doing a great job early on in the year and probably solidified his spot but when the PP was in a rut, it should've been obvious that Meier for Toffoli should've been the first change or Nemec for Luke up top.

 

[Triumph]

His puck retrieval and everything went down this year, how many times did we see a puck jump over his stick or he was too slow to keep a puck in on the powerplay on the half boards when the powerplay rotated? The original poster asked why the powerplay looks better without him and it's evident that Toffoli's foot speed in certain situations played a massive role. It's nothing to be overly mad about, he was doing a great job early on in the year and probably solidified his spot but when the PP was in a rut, it should've been obvious that Meier for Toffoli should've been the first change or Nemec for Luke up top.

The power play doesn't look better, though. They are scoring more goals, and people can't tell the difference between that and a power play that looks bad. That's pretty much it, full stop. They are getting far fewer shots. In the game where they scored 3 power play goals, notice that they were basically winning all of the faceoffs. That's not sustainable. The zone entry still needs work and they're getting the shots to go in.

Meier looked like hot trash up until March 1, I do not understand why there is not a reckoning with the reality of Timo Meier's season. Meier couldn't shoot a one-timer at all, how is he going to be on PP1?

 

[Devils Trap]

The power play doesn't look better, though. They are scoring more goals, and people can't tell the difference between that and a power play that looks bad. That's pretty much it, full stop. They are getting far fewer shots. In the game where they scored 3 power play goals, notice that they were basically winning all of the faceoffs. That's not sustainable. The zone entry still needs work and they're getting the shots to go in.

Meier looked like hot trash up until March 1, I do not understand why there is not a reckoning with the reality of Timo Meier's season. Meier couldn't shoot a one-timer at all, how is he going to be on PP1?

Lol what. How does not shooting one timers have to do anything with being on the PP ???

We all wanted Meier on the top PP because it was painfully obvious we needed a big body winger in front of the net. That same guy then could help puck retrievals down low using his big body. Instead we had a guy about as fast as Dano on skates (present day)

Meier was misused all year long, not to mention hurt. None of it is on him lol.