Post-Game Talk: Devils lose to Caps 2-1 in OT (The More Things Change...)

[RememberTheName]

I think Hughes is playing fine, but it is absolutely fair to say that he has some areas he needs to work on. I'd like him to stop trying to do so damn much every single play. Some turnovers are expected because of the sheer amount he has the puck on his stick, but I feel like the rate at which he coughs up the puck is a bit higher than I'd like it to be. That can also be attributed to having shit linemates, but I still think he tries to do a little too much a fair amount of the time. Faceoffs, yikes. I honestly think that if you gave this kid an actual set of linemates, not a single person would be complaining about him. Instead, he's stuck with f***ing Palmieri who doesn't give a shit and he has absolutely no chemistry with on his right wing and a revolving door of meh (sans Bratt) like Kuokkanen or Sharangovich or even Bastian on his left side. This dude needs actual linemates to play with. It's not even like he's struggling to set up chances, its just that no one can finish chances and no one on his wings is good enough to actually draw the defense's attention off of him, so entire defenses are just collapsing on him and forcing him to cough it up. Not much you can do when your linemates aren't doing anything to help you out. This offseason, moves better be made to get the kid actual linemates. And I'm not talking about whatever rookies we decide to call up. He needs legit veteran linemates to help him drive the play. Plain and simple. There is no other way around it. That is the #1 thing holding back this team. If we keep having a revolving door of rookies coming in and out of the lineup, we are never going to get better. We need established veterans to come in and lead this team. Fitzy may not like it, but we better be prepared to make a splash in UFA or a big trade for some kind of forward. I thnk its funny how solid our defense has been this year, as that was our perceived weakness coming into the season, and how god awful our offense has been. Acquiring veteran wingers has to be priority #1 this offseason.

 

[My3Sons]

27 or 4.

Ahem...

 

[Billdo]

Ahem...

I'm sorry... 27, 4, and most of all 12.

 

[Bankers Box]

Trade Palms before he just gives up completely or gets injured. He isn’t doing anything of value out there.

Trade Bratt for someone with size. I like Bratt a lot but we can’t have a team full of midgets and Jack is our chosen midget.

This team is soft and loses so many board battles and can’t cycle at all. I hate the system the Devils play. Wood is a tough kid but he doesn’t have to skill to cycle the puck it seems and the rest are too young or too small.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I agree, we should trade Bratt because he is 5’10”.

 

[Blackjack]

Trade Palms before he just gives up completely or gets injured. He isn’t doing anything of value out there.

Trade Bratt for someone with size. I like Bratt a lot but we can’t have a team full of midgets and Jack is our chosen midget.

This team is soft and loses so many board battles and can’t cycle at all. I hate the system the Devils play. Wood is a tough kid but he doesn’t have to skill to cycle the puck it seems and the rest are too young or too small.

I don't know what moves should be made, but the team is a terrible at forechecking. As much as I love Bratt, he is a brutal forechecker, and most of our other skill forwards aren't much better. Maltsev is about the only good forechecker we have right now, and oddly enough Johnsson had some decent forechecking shifts this game too.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I agree, we should trade Jack Hughes + Ty Smith + Blackwood for a REAL man like Chris Thorburn. He could really inject some much needed height, weight, snarl, nastiness, and zero talent into the lineup.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Johnsson is terrible and shouldn’t be in the building let alone on the Ice in OT.

I see the potential in Jack Hughes but he is super weak. Can his confidence and health withstand the time it will it take for his body to catch up? I can see him frustrating Devils fan into his mid 20s (not his fault). He just looks like a child. His passing is the only thing that saves him. He might be fast but he isn’t very good at juking defenseman, he is very easily knocked off the puck and he has fallen an alarming amount. He just looks sloppy. Unfortunately his shot is terrible. He might get a “Bratt Style” bridge deal, when it could of been of the 7mil Nico makes.

If Jack is willing to sign for 8 years at what Nico makes or less (7.25m) I say sign him to it. I thought the point of hoarding cap space was to make high upside bets eventually with it instead of pay for a veteran's decline.

 

[Tyronius]

Dey call me Tyronius

 

[Emperoreddy]

Last time we had a true number one was this year. His name is Ty Smith

 

[Billdo]

Trade Palms before he just gives up completely or gets injured. He isn’t doing anything of value out there.

Trade Bratt for someone with size. I like Bratt a lot but we can’t have a team full of midgets and Jack is our chosen midget.

This team is soft and loses so many board battles and can’t cycle at all. I hate the system the Devils play. Wood is a tough kid but he doesn’t have to skill to cycle the puck it seems and the rest are too young or too small.

I wonder if Lou would give us a guy like Komarov or Martin for Bratt. Maybe we can do something like Bratt and Mercer for Martin and Ladd.

 

[BurntToast]

Disagree with the bold. His skating is by far the best part of his game (more edge work than speed), and he’s already elite at transitioning the puck and gaining the zone. The problems come after that.

The level of horrendous the PP has sunken to continues to hurt his (and others) glamour numbers, too.

He has great transition numbers because the Devils drive play through him when he is on the ice. 2nd, I expected Jack to struggle with the physical play, but I expected more from his skating abilities. He might be a eloquent skater but he isn’t exactly dynamic. I expected higher frequencies of break aways and some elusiveness. When he does get a break, he falls or flubs a shot. He is over handling the puck and his thought process seems out of sorts. He tries to skate through defenseman as if he was Ovi. Guys are open, and he avoids them or skates into his own teammates, causes an offsides.

 

[MadDevil]

I wonder if Lou would give us a guy like Komarov or Martin for Bratt. Maybe we can do something like Bratt and Mercer for Martin and Ladd.

Put Martin with Jack so he can protect him from getting dominated physically.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

It's fun to act like size doesn't matter, as we run a lineup that likes to gain the zone, dangle around the perimeter for about 10 seconds and then take a low percentage shot and lose possession.

 

[Unknown Caller]

It's fun to act like size doesn't matter, as we run a lineup that likes to gain the zone, dangle around the perimeter for about 10 seconds and then take a low percentage shot and lose possession.

Or maybe we have an offense that’s like 75% rookies/sophomores and the veterans completely suck. I think that’s probably the reason we don’t have sustained offense against a team with Ovechkin, Backstrom, Oshie, Kuznetsov, Carlson, Hagelin, Wilson, Chara, etc. who have all played playoff games in their sleep at this point.

Just a guess though.

 

[Bleedred]

One is a little less bad than the other

One is WAYYYYYYYYYYY less bad than the other. This isn’t even close.

I know this is your schtick though and you can’t break kayfabe.

 

[MadDevil]

We aren't going to suddenly stop struggling against better and more experienced teams because we have bigger bodies up front. Yes, we will eventually need some size up front, but I would say we need more good players and guys who can finish first. Also suggesting trading Bratt for somebody with size without specifying who is just asking for smartass responses.

 

[Guttersniped]

This years class is doing no better though. Either the days of teenagers coming in and dominating right out of the gate are over (or be much more rare), or it’s two entire classes in a row full of players not matching their projections. I’d say it probably the former. Some of these kids (Hughes, Kakko, Laf, Byfield) are going to break out at some point.

No young players, 21 or younger, are particularly doing great. In 2019-20 there was five players with better Points Per Game (w/ 15 games played) then this season’s current leader. Farabee is 69th (nice) in points per game this season.

In 2019-20, Pettersson was 26th with 0.97 points/game (he’s 0.81 now). Then Yamamoto was 29th with 0.96 points/game (he’s 0.46 now). Laine was 34th with 0.93 (he’s 0.59 now). Svechnichov was 40th with 0.90 (he’s 0.74 now). Maker was 44th with 0.88 (he’s 0.96 now, Cale is the only one who hasn’t dropped.)

Quinn Hughes, 21 (Oct 14, 1999) 2018 draft
37 GP 2G 26A 28 points
37 GP .05G/G .70A/G .76PTS/G

Joel Farabee, 21 (Feb 25, 2000) 2018 draft
34 GP 14G 13A 27 points
34 GP 0.41G/G 0.38A/G 0.79PTS/G

Andrei Svechnikov, 21 (Mar 26, 2000) 2018 draft
35 GP 10G 16A 26 points
35 GP 0.29G/G 0.46A/G 0.74PTS/G

Jason Robertson, 21 (July 22, 1999) 2017 draft
29 GP 8G 15A 23 points
29 GP 0.28G/G 0.52/G 0.79PTS/G

Brady Tkachuk, 21 (Sept 16, 1999) 2018 draft
37 GP 11G 11A 22 points
37 GP 0.30G/G 0.30A/G 0.59PTS/G

Tim Stutzle, 19 (Jan 15, 2002) 2020 draft
34 GP 6G 13A 19 points
34 GP 0.18G/G 0.38A/G 0.56PTS/G

Ty Smith, 21 (Mar 24, 2000) 2018 draft
34 GP 2G 17A 19 points
34 GP 0.06G/G 0.50A/G 0.56PTS/G

Miro Heiskanen, 21 (July 18, 1999) 2017 draft
34 GP 5G 14A 19 points
34 GP 0.15G/G 0.41A/G 0.56PTS/G

Joshua Norris, 21 (May 5, 1999) 2017 draft
37 GP 8G 11A 19 points
37 GP 0.22G/G 0.30A/G 0.51PTS/G

Eeli Tolvanen, 21 (April 21, 1999) 2017 draft
29 GP 9G 9A 18 points
29 GP 0.31G/G 0.31A/G 0.62PTS/G

Oliver Wahlstrom, 20 (June 13, 2000) 2018 draft
30 GP 9G 7A 16 points
30 GP 0.30G/G 0.23A/G 0.53PTS/G

Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 20 (July 6, 2000) 2018 draft
33 GP 5G 11A 16 points
33 GP 0.15G/G 0.33A/G 0.48PTS/G

Jack Hughes, 19 (May 14, 2001) 2019 draft
34 GP 7G 9A 16 points
34 GP 0.21G/G 0.26A/G 0.47PTS/G

Nils Hoglander 20, (Dec 20, 2000) 2019 draft
37 GP 7G 9A 16 points
37 GP 0.19G/G 0.24A/G 0.43PTS/G

Alexis Lafreniere, 19 (Oct 11, 2001) 2020 draft
36 GP 5G 6A 11 points
36 GP 0.14G/G 0.31A/G 0.31PTS/G

Kaapo Kakko, 20 (Feb 13, 2001) 2019 draft
29 GP 5G 2A 7 points
29 GP 0.17G/G 0.07A/G 0.24PTS/G

Dylan Cozens, 20 (Feb 9, 2001) 2019 draft
25 GP 4G 2A 6 points
25 GP 0.16G/G 0.08/G 0.24PTS/G

Robert Thomas, 21 (July 2, 1999) 2017 draft
16 GP 1G 5A 6 points
16 GP 0.06G/G 0.31A/G 0.38PTS/G

Trevor Zegras, 20 (Mar 20, 2001) 2019 draft
15 GP 1G 5A 6 points
15 GP 0.07G/G 0.27A/G 0.33PTS/G

 

[Maine Fan]

I noticed that Zacha didn't show up for this game. He had 7 of 21 faceoffs that's an unacceptable .333%. He had ZERO (0) shots on goal. He had ZERO (0) hits. Was it an off night?

I am beginning to wonder about him again.

 

[Maine Fan]

Devils only had 43% of the 60 faceoffs that's 26 won and the Caps had 34 for .57%. This isn't good when the difference is 14 percentage points. The old man Zajac had 9 for 14 while Hughes had 6 of 11 what is with the rest if the faceoff guys. Then for Zacha 7 of 21 to be used at critical FO situations is unacceptable coaching decisions.

 

[MadDevil]

Zacha is just not very good as a center. Although strangely he is actually 2nd best at faceoffs behind McLeod (well technically Nico is ahead of both of them but he's obviously not available right now). Plus he's regressing from what was likely some good shooting luck (he was at like 18% through the first 16-17 games). Hopefully when Nico comes back he can go back to the wing where he's more effective.

 

[hidek91]

Does Holtz really have a chance to play this year? Not expecting him to light the world on fire but would like to see if he can shoot a little.

I'd rather not rush any prospect. I may be in minority but I don't want to see Holtz nor Mercer in the NHL lineup next season.

 

[hidek91]

I think that Johnsson started to actually play quite well since his demotion to the 4th line. Another criticized player, PK Subban has also had a very good stretch, what's the most impressive is his improvement in own zone. Blackwood has been fantastic this game.

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

Severson left us wide open a couple of times last night. Fans hated him 5 years ago but over the years he picked up a little toughness and improved his board-work. Last night was a replay of the old Severson.

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

There is one thing we should be grateful for, we have a really good young goalie. I liken a goalie to a quarterback in football as the most important position.