GDT: Devils @ Rangers 7PM MSGSN MSG

[NjDevsRR]

Markstrom showing he can actually stand on his head at times to keep us in a game/steal one is the most important development of the season. Goalie and PP is so often what determines who moves on.

I think they will be a ok. Just a tough stretch, with little breaks and questionable officiating and obvious fatigue

Anaheim and SJ games annoy me but it is what it is. Just gotta slowly get back in a groove and collect points

 

[Bleedred]

One win on the trip when they played mostly garbage teams is dogshit, sorry. The standard should be a bit higher, especially since they're usually better on the road to start with! Next three games aren't gonna be easy either.

I didn’t realize game 3 was Toronto. I only noticed Tampa and Florida lol.

There’s another nice batch of cream of the crap soup on the other side of that. The shitty Flyers (can we get shutout by their shitty goalies? San Jose did last week lol), the Ottawa Travis Greens AND Boston, who have both f***ed themselves out of playoff spots in recent weeks with their own slide. The Montreal pretenders on their own hot streak, and The shitty Flyers again back to back.

I’m not sure if three in a week against the Flyers is helpful or not. Surely Anaheim, San Jose, Seattle and the Rangers for four of five weren’t so great.

And then we have Buffalo and the aging prostates after that. So we do have more cream of the crap post this next three game stretch. That should be a good thing, but it hasn’t been lately.

 

[Hisch13r]

Funny enough, Devils are playing a really good brand of playoff hockey this season. They will be a hard out no matter where they end up in the seeding.

I think that whole thing is a bunch of nonsense people tell themselves to feel better. Sure they’re “grittier” and more physical but they’re also mediocre offensively at 5v5 and rely heavily on the PP to produce. They have no offensive depth and strong defensive teams will be able to blanket the stars. Shut them down and you win handedly. Then add in the fact that refs essentially stop calling PPs after the first few games of the series so good luck when that happens.

I also don’t feel confident with Keefe as the coach considering Toronto always failed because they had the same problem of dog shit depth and then he couldn’t get enough out of the stars to get the team to succeed. I don’t think this team has it. Cut the fat and overhaul the forwards in the summer and maybe they have it.

 

[NjDevsRR]

I think that whole thing is a bunch of nonsense people tell themselves to feel better. Sure they’re “grittier” and more physical but they’re also mediocre offensively at 5v5 and rely heavily on the PP to produce. They have no offensive depth and strong defensive teams will be able to blanket the stars. Shut them down and you win handedly. Then add in the fact that refs essentially stop calling PPs after the first few games of the series so good luck when that happens.

Im not talking about physicality at all

They are doing a much better job at limiting odd man rushes and dangerous chances this season

 

[Better Call Sal]

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

Keefe didn't want to come out and blast Jack but he said "We took too many chances in OT". Keefe is going to work on it. We will be back.

Was kind of surprised with the Rangers though. They made some minor changes and seem to be a grittier more confident team. Hockey is a funny game.

 

[Hisch13r]

Im not talking about physicality at all

They are doing a much better job at limiting odd man rushes and dangerous chances this season

I mean the 22-23 team was literally the best team in the league at defending the rush

 

[NjDevsRR]

And to the season doomers on here currently. You don’t magically snap out of a bad streak with tremendous play. You all watched hockey for a long time, cmon now. You scratch and claw. They had some good periods mixed in with bad ones the last two games. They managed 3 of 4 points. Thats a START. Now the next step is stringing better games together.

I mean the 22-23 team was literally the best team in the league at defending the rush

Yeah, thats why they won a round. They weren’t an easy out

 

[Devs3cups]

And to the season doomers on here currently. You don’t magically snap out of a bad streak with tremendous play. You all watched hockey for a long time, cmon now. You scratch and claw. They had some good periods mixed in with bad ones the last two games. They managed 3 of 4 points. Thats a START. Now the next step is stringing better games together.

NOOOOOOOO they're cooked because of a tough road trip that ended with 3 out of 4 points!!!

 

[Bleedred]

Again, we do have a good gauntlet of shit teams coming up after three in a row against the top-3 in the Atlantic.

It’s all non-playoff teams into February. Other than Boston, who are only in a spot on a technicality right now. Three against the Flyers in like one week.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Again, we do have a good gauntlet of shit teams coming up after three in a row against the top-3 in the Atlantic.

It’s all non-playoff teams into February. Other than Boston, who are only in a spot on a technicality right now. Three against the Flyers in like one week.

Thankfully, we aren’t on a western road trip after a holiday against the next 3

 

[jkrdevil]

I don't see the optimism. Have you seen their upcoming schedule? If they can't fix this fast, they may be competing with Columbus for a wild card spot.

Calm down. Accounting for differences in games played, they have a 4.5 game lead on first out of the playoffs. There is a long way to go before we get there. They are still closer to the Caps than they are missing the playoffs.

I feel like I should go back to October / November and the doom and gloom about the upcoming schedule where they had to play the Panthers twice on the road.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I think that whole thing is a bunch of nonsense people tell themselves to feel better. Sure they’re “grittier” and more physical but they’re also mediocre offensively at 5v5 and rely heavily on the PP to produce. They have no offensive depth and strong defensive teams will be able to blanket the stars. Shut them down and you win handedly. Then add in the fact that refs essentially stop calling PPs after the first few games of the series so good luck when that happens.

I also don’t feel confident with Keefe as the coach considering Toronto always failed because they had the same problem of dog shit depth and then he couldn’t get enough out of the stars to get the team to succeed. I don’t think this team has it. Cut the fat and overhaul the forwards in the summer and maybe they have it.

I’m much more confident in Washington’s sustainable brand: everyone on the team shoot 15-25%.

 

[Emperoreddy]

This teams strength is getting better and better as a game goes on. Dominating the 2nd and crushing it in the 3rd.

To my eyes, they don’t have the legs for that at this current juncture

I think they will fully get back to that after the 4 nations break. We are in the tread water part of the season.

I suspect they trend back up after that break and finish strong buoyed by some smart deadline moved

 

[Emperoreddy]

I think that whole thing is a bunch of nonsense people tell themselves to feel better. Sure they’re “grittier” and more physical but they’re also mediocre offensively at 5v5 and rely heavily on the PP to produce. They have no offensive depth and strong defensive teams will be able to blanket the stars. Shut them down and you win handedly. Then add in the fact that refs essentially stop calling PPs after the first few games of the series so good luck when that happens.

I also don’t feel confident with Keefe as the coach considering Toronto always failed because they had the same problem of dog shit depth and then he couldn’t get enough out of the stars to get the team to succeed. I don’t think this team has it. Cut the fat and overhaul the forwards in the summer and maybe they have it.

See you next year then I guess?

 

[Bleedred]

I don't see the optimism. Have you seen their upcoming schedule? If they can't fix this fast, they may be competing with Columbus for a wild card spot.

In myself being the most insufferable poster in this thread tonight, I don’t think we need to worry about falling out of the playoffs right now. And I really wouldn’t worry about Columbus. They’ve been swerving in and out of 500 all season. And even though we now have a couple of teams over NHL 500 and not in a playoff spot in the East for the first time in like 1.5 months I think, we’re also seeing other teams on a skid and falling out. Like Boston and the Ottawa Travis Green’s.

If anything, this skid will wind up being why we finish in 3rd in the division, if we do indeed wind up finishing 3rd and not 2nd.

 

[Better Call Sal]

This place, as always, is largely overdramatic after every single loss. Very rarely any middle ground. Preparing for a worst-case scenario of bottoming out completely so that you can point back to it in the event it takes place and say "Look! Look!" isn't going to make you feel any better.

If there is one thing that I have faith in Keefe for, it is his consistent regular season success. He has shown from his time in Toronto that he can manage the peaks and valleys that come with an 82 game season.



We all need to take a breath. This road trip is done. Now time to take care of business at home and turn the corner back in the right direction.

 

[NjDevsRR]

All those teams at the bubble are basically tied and they will all be playing each other. Devils would have to have a historic free fall to become a bubble team.

If you dooming that hard this early, its time to take a break from here.

Yes, there is some concern in this last stretch. But the pieces are already here for this to turn around quickly and start collecting points at a 60% pace again.

 

[NJDevs26]

I'll be content with #3 in the division. They like the road anyway

Not so much the last two weeks!

 

[billingtons ghost]

I mean it didn’t. They played well that month and got shit results.

Absolutely not true. They played complete garbage hockey. It wasn't just the results, they had terrible breakdowns. They got full of themselves and stopped playing with any sort of respect for their opponents. It was a clear case of them thinking they could just show up and win the game with a couple of fancy passes.

I can't believe you didn't remember what those games looked like. They totally hung their goalies out to dry.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Absolutely not true. They played complete garbage hockey. It wasn't just the results, they had terrible breakdowns. They got full of themselves and stopped playing with any sort of respect for their opponents. It was a clear case of them thinking they could just show up and win the game with a couple of fancy passes.

I can't believe you didn't remember what those games looked like. They totally hung their goalies out to dry.

I remember it the same

Played good hockey in December but got unfortunate results and vice versa in January

But its all moot

 

[Bleedred]

One troubling trend is that teams are entering our zone and we’re not able to get them out. Especially in the 3rd period.

We were really good at shutting this down I wanna say from the first Florida game through Christmas.

That cost us the game in both Anaheim and San Jose. It almost got us into OT in Seattle and came very close to costing us this one in regulation. Markstrom was making a lot of saves in the 3rd these last two games to preserve the 1-2 points.

 

[NjDevsRR]

One troubling trend is that teams are entering our zone and we’re not able to get them out. Especially in the 3rd period.

Could easily just be fatigue

 

[billingtons ghost]

I mean I think that's more on the people who haven't been watching. The things plaguing them right now have plagued them since first period of game 1. It's honestly up to Fitz to correct them and I expect him to in short order. He's a very proactive GM, he won't let this team just die in a season after showing good results.

I think we all got accustomed to then playing terrific team defense and very responsible hockey before the break and it really looked like it was a growing thing and was going to lead to something special.

I think we just have to get back on track and we'll be fine. We're still playing good hockey for much of the games but there's definitely some holes in our second tier scoring that need to get addressed, and we need to get in a few good practices to get our stars's confidence back.

I thought we were at our best when we were confident but scared of the other team's abilities, like against Florida and Toronto.

 

[Bleedred]

Columbus is kind of like Philadelphia of last year. They’ve don’t have terrible underlying numbers like this year’s Flyers and the new flavor of the week Canadiens.

But they’re also shooting a bit above league average.

And unlike Philly who were getting good goaltending from the rapist, they’re getting “You ain’t nothing but a soft goal getting by me all the time” by hunk a hunk of burning dumpster and his shitty backup singers or I guess goalies in this case.

I’m not worried about them. There seems to be a new flavor of the week on the bubble in the East every week. It was the Flyers at one point,’it was even Columbus a little over a month ago. It might even be Les Fraude at the moment. The Pens had a pretty good run to go from like 7 or 8 games under NHL 500 to get back to NHL 500.