Post-Game Talk: Devils lose another SO to Sabres

[Devils Dominion]

Believe me I understand the venom. There's some on my end as well. I won't criticize anyone who hated on him because he did give us fans a lot of lip service throughout the year until the time he was gone. Especially at that rally outside the rock when the team returned from LA. "Dont worry about it" I think it was when everyone started chanting for him to come back.

I bought it. Honestly thought he'd come back because the team was built to win with him and he had unfinished business. Until a few days before when a few people who know him texted me that it wasn't going to be us. Huge gut punch. We won't ever see a player like that again.

BTW you want to hear something weird? I went to the Devs game in Nashville last season and bought a yellow suter player T-shirt. Forgot about it until a few months ago when I was cleaning. It was sitting in my closet sandwiched between two Parise shirts

How's that for irony!

 

[Volodya Krutov]

I just don't get why this team plays for the shootout. Not one bit of extended pressure in the five minute OT. We didn't go 5 minutes the whole first 60 without pinning them in their zone except for that 5 minute OT. How many shootouts do they have to lose before they try winning a game in OT?

What makes you think they do ? I've seen a team desperate to score before OT ends personally. And they gave Buffalo 2 or 3 odd man rush because of that.

 

[DEVILS ALL THE WAY*]

Just pull a Canadiens and be done with it...

1- Land a top #5 pick
2- Add a couple of players via free agency
3- Turn it around in a single year and challenge the Pens for the #1 see in the East

If we can keep our pending UFA, buyout Volch and use that cap space to acquire a top #6 forward, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to do the same in all honesty.

 

[Tundra]

Just pull a Canadiens and be done with it...

1- Land a top #5 pick
2- Add a couple of players via free agency
3- Turn it around in a single year and challenge the Pens for the #1 see in the East

If we can keep our pending UFA, buyout Volch and use that cap space to acquire a top #6 forward, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to do the same in all honesty.

Agreed. The good new is that the 3rd and 4th lines along with the defensive unit doesn't need a massive revamp. The bad news is that we legitimately need to find 2 Viable Top Six Forwards either via draft and/or free agency.

 

[Devils Dominion]

My gut feeling is Lou would have acquired Weiss from Florida if he did not get injured.
With Weiss the last 10-12 games, I think the Devils would be in a much better position at the moment.

He's exactly the type of forward we could use next season.

 

[BrodeursCups]

Only problem is we don't have a Price or Subban.

 

[rofalk22]

Ottawa is falling hard too. So even if we can't leapfrog the hot Rangers and Islanders we may still be able to catch Ottawa. With a huge game this week against them it's possible we might be tied with them at the end of the week. I don't want the team to tank, chances are they won't get a top 5 pick this year anyways. I would much rather them make the playoffs even if they don't go anywhere. There is no other experience quite like watching your team battle in the NHL playoffs. It's the ultimate treat.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

Of course you want to make the playoffs. You ain't gonna tank with 10 games left.

 

[DEVILS ALL THE WAY*]

Only problem is we don't have a Price or Subban.

True, but we play as a team more then anything else. If we can land a top #6 forward and clean up our blueline, I can see us competing for a top #5 spot in the East.

At the moment, we have too many 3rd/4th liners and not enough talent on our top two lines. Outside of IK and Elias, this team is pretty much dead offensively.

Ottawa is falling hard too. So even if we can't leapfrog the hot Rangers and Islanders we may still be able to catch Ottawa. With a huge game this week against them it's possible we might be tied with them at the end of the week. I don't want the team to tank, chances are they won't get a top 5 pick this year anyways. I would much rather them make the playoffs even if they don't go anywhere. There is no other experience quite like watching your team battle in the NHL playoffs. It's the ultimate treat.

True... but there's no harder feeling then to see your team get steamrolled in the 1st round and god knows we've seen that movie too many times in the past 6 or 7 years.

 

[Bardof425*]

Rangers are not winning a Cup with a defense that consists of any combination of Hamrlik, Eminger, Stralman, Gilroy and Bickel.

McDonagh Girardi
Staal Stralman
DelZotto Moore

Barring injuries only Stralman on that list plays and he's generally been good. If Staal doesn't come back then it gets dicey.

 

[Robert Theodorson]

My gut feeling is Lou would have acquired Weiss from Florida if he did not get injured.
With Weiss the last 10-12 games, I think the Devils would be in a much better position at the moment.

He's exactly the type of forward we could use next season.

I don't buy that first part.

There was plenty of offensive talent to acquire at the TDL and the best Lou could do was 38 year old Steve Sullivan.

There is no excuse as to why this team still has too many NHL defensemen and not enough scoring power.

 

[Capt Nico Poo]

I don't buy that first part.

There was plenty of offensive talent to acquire at the TDL and the best Lou could do was 38 year old Steve Sullivan.

There is no excuse as to why this team still has too many NHL defensemen and not enough scoring power.

Ugh..

Maybe Lou couldnt get a good deal? Not giving up too much, perhaps? This team is lacking a legit scorer to go with Kovy, but its not worth the future of this team. As of now the team is not ready for a deep cup run, and giving away too much at this point would be pointless. Im in favor of adding talent this summer, next year or the summer after that when it comes at the right price. While at it, get someone to fill marty's boots aswell.

 

[DEVILS ALL THE WAY*]

I don't buy that first part.

There was plenty of offensive talent to acquire at the TDL and the best Lou could do was 38 year old Steve Sullivan.

There is no excuse as to why this team still has too many NHL defensemen and not enough scoring power.

With all honesty, I'm perfectly fine with Lou doing nothing at the deadline. We weren't a "Ryan Clowe" away from turning things around and the price to land Pomminville was wayyyyyyyyyy out of reach, so yeah, status quo was the best bet at the time.

What I can't understand is the fact that we're still stuck with 8 d-men. For the love of god, Douglas Murray went for two 2nd round picks... DOUGLAS MURRAY !!!! You can't tell me that we couldn't have moved one of our blueliners for a extra pick, instead of having two guys getting paid to watch from the pressbox and create havoc for our coaching staff/blueliners to figure out who sits and who plays.

To me, that right there is a bonehead decision but what can you do.

 

[BrodeursCups]

McDonagh Girardi
Staal Stralman
DelZotto Moore

Barring injuries only Stralman on that list plays and he's generally been good. If Staal doesn't come back then it gets dicey.

They better pray Staal comes back or torts will run that first pairing into the friggin ground.

 

[Tundra]

McDonagh Girardi
Staal Stralman
DelZotto Moore

Barring injuries only Stralman on that list plays and he's generally been good. If Staal doesn't come back then it gets dicey.

That defense is fine. Del Zotto has upped his game in a big way this year. The problem with the rangers is that I'm still not sold on their offense. They will have trouble scoring goals in the 2nd season.

 

[Devils Trap]

I dont know why, but I have a feeling we may see Kovy by Friday

 

[Volodya Krutov]

I don't want them to rush Ilya back. They better make sure he's ready to play, guy still hasn't fully recovered from his broken back yet.

 

[vozl59]

its done! and im pissed as anyone for the way it unfolded since last year. were not too far off though. we need TALENT! this team besides Kovy has no talent, hence the lack of goal scoring and inadequacy on the power play! And our d-men throwing pucks into the corner, lobbing pucks into the other teams shin guards and passing back and forth on the blueline until it goes out of the zone game after game is all i can take anymore! we have heart for sure, but its not always enough. we need:

1-2 Offensive top 6 forward (as we all know) 'I would have liked Hemsky at deadline'
1-2 d-men (your stalwart Stevens type, and/or the Doughty/Boyle type)

And what the ****is our goalie situation. I always assumed wed draft/bring up or trade for a young goalie who could split a year learning the ways from Brodeur. cause moose is signed next year too. unless we buy him out or Marty plays another year past the contract. but this all remains to be seen...

 

[apice3*]

murray is a UFA. Volch and tally are signed and the cap comes crashing down next year

groundhog day

 

[DevilsJunkie]

With all honesty, I'm perfectly fine with Lou doing nothing at the deadline. We weren't a "Ryan Clowe" away from turning things around and the price to land Pomminville was wayyyyyyyyyy out of reach, so yeah, status quo was the best bet at the time.

What I can't understand is the fact that we're still stuck with 8 d-men. For the love of god, Douglas Murray went for two 2nd round picks... DOUGLAS MURRAY !!!! You can't tell me that we couldn't have moved one of our blueliners for a extra pick, instead of having two guys getting paid to watch from the pressbox and create havoc for our coaching staff/blueliners to figure out who sits and who plays.

To me, that right there is a bonehead decision but what can you do.

You underestimate Murray a tad, but I get your point. I think more than anything, Lou not moving a defenseman for a pick or two says more about the defensemen in Albany than anything else. It would appear that Urbom and Gelinas aren't ready for the show. And, especially in Urbom's case, might never be. If he was ready, then I think Lou would've moved somebody to make room.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

I remember asking where the goals were going to come from this year.

Same. As soon as I saw the way this roster was shaping out towards the latter stages of the offseason, I thought we might have issues. Never thought it would be this bad though.

 

[Devils Trap]

I dont want them to rush Kovy either, but I could see them doing it out of panic and Kovy wanting to play

 

[Brooklyndevil]

As bleak as things look, the Devils still really have a decent chance to make the playoffs. What's making it not seem possible is just how much they've lost over these last couple of months. But this is going to break at some point. It has to. They're just not going to keep on losing every single game they play.

I'm ditching the shootout losses. Those are ties if you ask me. If you look at it that way, NJ has 7 ties, they're a couple of game under .500 (15 - 17 - 7) and they're a team who struggles to score. They were also low on depth for a long amount of time. All things considered, their record is probably where it should be.

At the very least, they've done enough to hang around and stay relevant. They bought some time to find a way to start winning. Look at it this way, they have 9 games to play and every single one of them is still significant. It could be a lot worse when you really think about it. It's very possible that we'll be looking back at all of this frustration and laughing about it in a couple of weeks.

The Devils would be doing themselves a favor by getting the best possible draft position and not make the playoffs. I see some lean years ahead as well as Lou retiring in a few years, which might not be a bad thing. Time for some new blood.

I know we made the finals last season, but as posted, Zach should have been traded when he signed that one year deal and he should have trade Clarkson and Elias at the deadline. You could see this team was falling apart.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

I dont want them to rush Kovy either, but I could see them doing it out of panic and Kovy wanting to play

That's exactly what am I expecting.

 

[GameSeven]

That's exactly what am I expecting.

Sadly, same here...