Post-Game Talk: Devils lose again... this time to the Leafs 4-2.

[lboogie42*]

If anything, Henrique is more talented offensively to create opening for Kovy imo.

I think the same way. Zajac is a clever player and I think would be able to fit with patty. Henrique makes some crazy plays and could really space out the ice for Kovy.

 

[Holtz My Bahls]

I will not blame Hedberg when it is a team sport, but man he has not been sharp or put the team in a position to win these games.

 

[Bleedred]

It's very hard to blame Moose, because he's been asked to play a role bigger than what he's supposed. Then we have to worry about Marty looking bad like he looked last year when he came back from injury.

 

[guitarguyvic]

**** this team, no heart

Oh shut up with that. The team sucks right now, has nothing to do with heart.

 

[lboogie42*]

I will not blame Hedberg when it is a team sport, but man he has not been sharp or put the team in a position to win these games.

If he hasn't been sharp and hasn't put us in a position to win the game by letting in soft goals, isn't that blaming him? He deserves to be blamed tonight. Played awful. Still low him. But we are seeing why he is a backup and not a starter.

 

[jkrdevil]

The revolving door on the 1st line LW isn't helping.

If only we had a player capable of playing left week and driving play from the position. If only we had such player kn the roster that wasn't being wasted on the right side where he is off his shooting angle.

 

[Zippy316]

Kovalchuk isn't playing well.
Zajac isn't playing well.
Henrique isn't playing well.
Clarkson isn't playing well.
Elias isn't playing well.

When your top five forwards are struggling, the team will struggle. Simple as that. I can't really complain about anyone else, but all five of those guys struggling at once is tough to overcome.

Eventually one or more of those guys will break out, and then we will be raving about them.

Combine that with a goalie whose lacking total confidence, and you have a recipe for failure no matter how well the team plays a system.

I don't get everyone pushing on the panic button and going into total meltdown mode. There's going to be a point in the season when we are winning 7 out of 10 and put ourselves back into a nice playoff spot.

 

[hlaverty06]

Oh shut up with that. The team sucks right now, has nothing to do with heart.

Oh shut up with it? Let kovy get picked on my kaleta, half ass skating and passes.

You shut the **** up

 

[Zippy316]

I will say that, Kovalchuk has seriously been disappointing me with his lack of effort defensively.

I was the first one to defend this guy defensively, but I'm scared when he's on the PK as he seems so lackluster coming back defensively. He's no where near the Kovalchuk that was playing very good defensive hockey last year.

 

[Devilsfanatic0421]

Lord do we really need a W tomorrow.

 

[Bleedred]

Relax guys. Usually when the team is playing this bad we all at least can come to some of the same conclusions.

 

[Oroku Saki*]

 

[guitarguyvic]

Kovalchuk isn't playing well.
Zajac isn't playing well.
Henrique isn't playing well.
Clarkson isn't playing well.
Elias isn't playing well.

When your top five forwards are struggling, the team will struggle. Simple as that. I can't really complain about anyone else, but all five of those guys struggling at once is tough to overcome.

Eventually one or more of those guys will break out, and then we will be raving about them.

Combine that with a goalie whose lacking total confidence, and you have a recipe for failure no matter how well the team plays a system.

I don't get everyone pushing on the panic button and going into total meltdown mode. There's going to be a point in the season when we are winning 7 out of 10 and put ourselves back into a nice playoff spot.

Bingo. This is why I still have some semblance of faith. The entire forward core can't possibly produce well below career average for much longer, right? Right??

 

[lboogie42*]

Oh shut up with it? Let kovy get picked on my kaleta, half ass skating and passes.

You shut the **** up

U deserved to be told to shut up. Have no heart? Really? GTFO! Can't stand posters that bash this team in a such a bad way.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Oh shut up with it? Let kovy get picked on my kaleta, half ass skating and passes.

You shut the **** up

Heart heart heart. If only they played with it every game they would be undefeated and Stanley Cup champs every season.

 

[jkrdevil]

I will say that, Kovalchuk has seriously been disappointing me with his lack of effort defensively.

I was the first one to defend this guy defensively, but I'm scared when he's on the PK as he seems so lackluster coming back defensively. He's no where near the Kovalchuk that was playing very good defensive hockey last year.

Are you serious?

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

How can anyone seriously be blaming kovy? If he was playing normal minutes I'd be the first to rag on him too. His icetime really needs to be reduced.

 

[Zippy316]

U deserved to be told to shut up. Have no heart? Really? GTFO! Can't stand posters that bash this team in a such a bad way.

No heart is a stretch but you can't deny this team has looked lackluster as a whole.

 

[guitarguyvic]

No heart is a stretch but you can't deny this team has looked lackluster as a whole.

Looking lackluster is not the same thing as playing without desire, as some posters love to suggest at virtually every loss. It's beyond illogical. If every time the team loses we are to believe it's because they are playing without heart, then are we to then believe that every time they play with heart they will win? Lack of execution is not the same as lack of heart. And these are human beings. They get discouraged just like all of us do when things don't go our way. They need something to get them going because mentally it's tough to lose so much.

Claiming the NJD are heartless, of all teams, is ridiculous.

 

[Bleedred]

The 3rd periods are of huge concern right now. This game, Buffalo, and the Caps, and second Jets game. Come into the 3rd period either tied or leading, and then proceed to give up multiple goals.

 

[jkrdevil]

The issue with Kovalchuk isn't his defensive awareness, or his ice time or his heart. The issue is the coaching staff has him playing the wrong wing. He is a shooter who likes to carry the puck and drive play and they have him on the wing where his shooting angle is diminished as he comes into the zone. It worked last year because he had an all-star on the left side to make up and him, Parise, and Henrique were good pachers who scored a lot off the rush. That isn't there before. He needs to go in the left.

He has scored as many goals short handed as 5-on-5. Putnhim back on left wing. Let's not forget in 2011 he carried the team on the left side with Nick Palmieri on his right wing.

 

[njdevilsownnhl*]

Kinkaid needs to start. Hedberg has been horrendous. I still can't figure out what he was doing on the first two goals

 

[NJDevs26]

How can anyone seriously be blaming kovy? If he was playing normal minutes I'd be the first to rag on him too. His icetime really needs to be reduced.

I've been beating this drum since the beginning of the season. Having Kovy average two and a half more minutes per game than he did even last year, and four minutes more than two years ago is beyond lunacy.

It's not all Pete's fault though, Lou hasn't exactly helped out with bargain-basement shopping for wing help. All he's come up with is Loktionov - who's a center and helped compensate for some offense we should already have down the middle with Zajac/Henrique - and Poni, who isn't a first-liner either.

Not to mention lining him up at RW on the power play is beyond irresponsible. That I will blame on the coaching staff. I could care less where he plays 5-on-5, but you're handicapping the man advantage every time you line Kovy up out there. I don't recall Oates lining him up at RW all that much last year on the PP, even when he was 'playing' it otherwise.

 

[Tretyak 20]

The thing I'm seeing that I really don't like is hesitation by our top forwards. Every time any of them get the puck, they hesitate. It may only be a tenth of a second, but this is the best league in the world - opponents adjust VERY quickly. That's the problem with the PP, in particular. Guys just never seem like they know what they're going to do with the puck before they get it. They wait until it's on their sticks, then they look around to see what their options are - that just doesn't cut it in the NHL.

Tonight during the last PP, Zajac had the puck behind the goal line and somebody (Elias, I think) was wide open right in front. Zajac waited, and an instant later Patty was covered and nothing came of it. That's the kind of thing that can't happen. You've got to make plays as quickly as possible and count on skill to kick in.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Tom Gulitti ‏@TGfireandice
Devils' locker room opened after tonight's game and Johan Hedberg was sitting at his locker -- only player in the room.

interesting

Moose has sucked but man, that tells me he asked the guys to let him shoulder the blame to the media. That's all well and good, but a good team wouldn't let him. At the very least, Elias and Sal shoulda stuck behind.

Ouch.