GDT: Devils @ Rangers 7PM MSGSN MSG

[theoptimist]

People can keep bringing that up but there've been plenty of times over the last decade where several poor games portended a downfall, rather than being a blip including the more recent example of last year where people used December 2022 to handwave away real concerns last year.

TBH if it wasn't for Keefe I'd be a lot more worried, I'm somewhat confident he'll be able to get the team out of it eventually but it'd be nice not to have to wade through another three games of crap first before the next 'soft' part of our schedule. If it wasn't for Markstrom, this one game in six stretch would have looked even worse which is hard to believe.

I'm more annoyed at the team for this stretch than worried (though I do think people are overstating the degree to which we're 'safely' in the playoffs)...those two things are not related.

 

[HersheyBob27]

Rempe coming off a suspension was probably not going to do anything stupid tonight and yet MacDermid comes into the lineup. He did have a decent scoring chance or so but for all the good Keefe has done, he has had his quirks when it comes to lineup decisions. If our bottom 6 is struggling to score than MacDermid should not be on the ice at all unless he is skating in warmups as a healthy scratch. We have guys like Kovacevic or Noesen who can drop the mitts with that scrub Rempe.

Either way this was a frustrating loss but atleast they snagged a point. Jack was all over the ice tonight doing his thing but unfortunately he had some bad turnovers and cost them the game. They have been struggling in the 3rd period latley whuvu wasnt the case pretty much all season. It's kind of crazy how they are 1-4 in overtime this year when it has been their bread and butter the last few seasons....

Great idea lets get noessen injured fighting a heavyweight

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

They played poorly tonight, I have no idea what people were watching. The second period was ok, first was not good, third and OT was embarrassingly bad.

I don’t care about other teams streaks. I know that teams go through tough stretches. Without context those comparisons are meaningless. The way the devils are playing currently cannot be just dismissed because there’s additional context to be considered. This team has not been great 5v5 all year, they haven’t been able to put together a meaningful winning streak, they’ve had multiple prolonged episodes of being unable to capitalize on offense, they have weak forward depth and little to no offensive contribution from the defenseman or bottom six forwards. And this is with having almost no injury issues to the top players and improved goaltending. What do you think we’re gonna get if we face some adversity there? Or when the playoffs start and guys assuredly get injured?

If this was a decade ago I might have more patience or give them the benefit of the doubt, but that’s what years and years of sucktitude and a core of guys who haven’t proven a lot over an extended period of time yet does.

Noted. Here’s what Vegas thinks about things:

Things start to seem a bit better when you realize that every single team has problems and question marks. We actually have far fewer than most and you’re being neurotic!

 

[NJDevs26]

Rempe coming off a suspension was probably not going to do anything stupid tonight and yet MacDermid comes into the lineup. He did have a decent scoring chance or so but for all the good Keefe has done, he has had his quirks when it comes to lineup decisions. If our bottom 6 is struggling to score than MacDermid should not be on the ice at all unless he is skating in warmups as a healthy scratch. We have guys like Kovacevic or Noesen who can drop the mitts with that scrub Rempe.

Either way this was a frustrating loss but atleast they snagged a point. Jack was all over the ice tonight doing his thing but unfortunately he had some bad turnovers and cost them the game. They have been struggling in the 3rd period latley whuvu wasnt the case pretty much all season. It's kind of crazy how they are 1-4 in overtime this year when it has been their bread and butter the last few seasons....

What can you do with something like that…he doesn’t play him with Rempe in the lineup he gets first guessed, then if Rempe does do something Keefe gets destroyed for not putting the ‘deterrent’ in, which is half the reason he got a three year deal to begin with lol

 

[JimEIV]

Noted. Here’s what Vegas thinks about things:

View attachment 958986

Things start to seem a bit better when you realize that every single team has problems and question marks. We actually have far fewer than most and you’re being neurotic!

I've been trying to work neurotic, exotic and erotic into one perfect sentence since freshman year of highschool... I've gotten a few good ones but never perfect.

 

[Satans Hockey]

What an absolutely terrible sports night. One of the worst I can remember.

What else happened?

 

[MadDevil]

The only reason MacDermid is even on the team is to play against other goons. It's stupid and annoying but until teams stop employing pieces of shit like Rempe, or the game gets past this mythical "deterrence" bullshit it is what it is.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Noted. Here’s what Vegas thinks about things:

View attachment 958986

Things start to seem a bit better when you realize that every single team has problems and question marks. We actually have far fewer than most and you’re being neurotic!

Holy shit, now we’re hanging out hats on Vegas odds? Who gives a shit…they had the devils in the same spot two weeks into the season last year. Completely meaningless.

I had high hopes for this team this year, but more than halfway through I’m seeing too much of the same old crap from this core. I think they’ll still make the playoffs given how mediocre the wild card race has become, but I’m not seeing a contender that’s for real. Start playing like grown ups again for an extended stretch and string together more than 3 wins in a row and then maybe I’ll hop back on the high expectations train.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Holy shit, now we’re hanging out hats on Vegas odds? Who gives a shit…they had the devils in the same spot two weeks into the season last year. Completely meaningless.

I had high hopes for this team this year, but more than halfway through I’m seeing too much of the same old crap from this core. I think they’ll still make the playoffs given how mediocre the wild card race has become, but I’m not seeing a contender that’s for real. Start playing like grown ups again for an extended stretch and string together more than 3 wins in a row and then maybe I’ll hop back on the high expectations train.

I’m not “hanging my hat” on anything, it’s quite obvious that the team is a contender based on the overall body of work. You can foolishly isolate a 6 game block from any team in the league and claim they stink.

But I most definitely give more shits about people paid to make these odds vs some guy that cries all the time.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I’m not “hanging my hat” on anything, it’s quite obvious that the team is a contender based on the overall body of work. You can foolishly isolate a 6 game block from any team in the league and claim they stink.

But I most definitely give more shits about people paid to make these odds vs some guy that cries all the time.

Exactly. It’s apparently much easier to “hang your hat” on a rough 6 game road trip instead of taking the prior 2 months of play into account.

Lol here come the temper tantrums

I’m using the Olli Jokinen angry emote here just for shits and gigs.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Holy shit, now we’re hanging out hats on Vegas odds? Who gives a shit…they had the devils in the same spot two weeks into the season last year. Completely meaningless.

I had high hopes for this team this year, but more than halfway through I’m seeing too much of the same old crap from this core. I think they’ll still make the playoffs given how mediocre the wild card race has become, but I’m not seeing a contender that’s for real. Start playing like grown ups again for an extended stretch and string together more than 3 wins in a row and then maybe I’ll hop back on the high expectations train.

Then someone big gets traded if this core can't get it done, not sure what you're arguing about in the whole grand scheme of things. It took Florida YEARS to shed the label of being the next great team that was a failure after drafting Barkov, Huberdeau, Ekblad. They figured it out, so will we. Also, not for nothing, are you really spiraling after a bad 2 week stretch? Kings are a good team and they got boned by the worst goalie interference call in history, Hurricanes are a very good team, the Ducks literally beat us, Oilers, Jets, Lightning in a stretch, the Sharks are whatever but they were 30 seconds away from a point there and got mangled by the ref standing right in front of a Siegs clear where they go from 1 banked point to 0 and last night was the most predictable schedule loss in Devils history where they were coming back East to play a rival that just had an embarrassing loss the previous game and waiting on the Devils. They're a goalie interference call + ref not blatantly trolling them from having 2 more points banked on that trip.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

What can you do with something like that…he doesn’t play him with Rempe in the lineup he gets first guessed, then if Rempe does do something Keefe gets destroyed for not putting the ‘deterrent’ in, which is half the reason he got a three year deal to begin with lol

Or they do what should've been done in the first place, you go for their stars if they try to punk one of yours. Getting a buffoon in MacD does literally nothing, we've seen Devils stars get rag dolled with him here. Keefe is the last coach who should be playing these games considering what Boston did to him in Toronto and he has no true affiliation with the Rempe garbage from last year.

 

[HughesCorporation]

this was a special teams loss, both PK and PP.. never created halfboard space on the PP , rags played with higher urgency we've handled the rags very well this year. however,
got to stop the bleeding and start winning more than losing or alarms will start going off
Im not in panic mode yet.. im am in smacking guys in the back of their heads mode though

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Or they do what should've been done in the first place, you go for their stars if they try to punk one of yours. Getting a buffoon in MacD does literally nothing, we've seen Devils stars get rag dolled with him here. Keefe is the last coach who should be playing these games considering what Boston did to him in Toronto and he has no true affiliation with the Rempe garbage from last year.

Wish we’d just waive MacDermid at this point. Rempe seems neutered after the suspensions — he’s not gonna try anything. I’d rather just have some league minimum player up here than his waste of a contract.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Postgame comments from last night. I really love Marky's attitude and approach to everything. Likely everything you want in your top goalie. Athletic, battles, won't let shit happen in his crease. Hope he keeps it up. He's been legitimately great for nearly 2 and a half months now, 17-5-2 with a .918 SV% dating back to the win over Anaheim at the end of October.

I do also appreciate Jack owning up to his errors.

 

[Triumph]

Wish we’d just waive MacDermid at this point. Rempe seems neutered after the suspensions — he’s not gonna try anything. I’d rather just have some league minimum player up here than his waste of a contract.

Rempe has played one game after the suspension. Regardless, MacDermid is not being waived.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Holy smokes we'd be pure shit right now if not for Markstrom. Like to see that "boring vintage" Devils hockey that they were playing up to the Christmas break. Jack was our best and player and worst player last night. Anyway OT is a crapshoot but, I'm super high on what Markstrom has been for us!

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Wish we’d just waive MacDermid at this point. Rempe seems neutered after the suspensions — he’s not gonna try anything. I’d rather just have some league minimum player up here than his waste of a contract.

The biggest issue with Rempe is not winning those games last year where he legit took majors in, it emboldened him + Rags to do whatever with the Devils to where the Devils thought they had waste cap space + term on a bodyguard. And again, I know me and you have had a differences on Jesper Boqvist but that's the whole issue, a guy like MacDermid shouldn't be in the league let alone consistently played. We could do so much better on using that money elsewhere but alas we know over reactionary Fitz is as a GM

 

[Oneiro]

Strange game from Jack. He's a guy who has carried us but probably a little too much pressure or urgency right now. Mercer also seems like he's improving a bit, I liked how he was looking for shots outside of the paint last night.

I'm not super worried. They just look kind of sleepy post holidays. Execution has been bad. I do think the league has scouted their PP well and we'll have to see if Leafs fans are right about Keefe's ability to adjust.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

this was a special teams loss, both PK and PP.. never created halfboard space on the PP , rags played with higher urgency we've handled the rags very well this year. however,
got to stop the bleeding and start winning more than losing or alarms will start going off
Im not in panic mode yet.. im am in smacking guys in the back of their heads mode though

Need to yank Dougie off for Luke at this point. If they're not even looking for Dougie's shot then he's utterly pointless there. Luke will help with the entries which it looks like have stalled a bit with teams baiting Jack to go 1v4 on the powerplay in that situation.

 

[Call Me Al]

i just want to complain about the team playing like ass lately without being worried that they’ll drop out of the playoffs.

the teams on the bubble really are dogshit, we are clearly a step above them. but it’s frustrating to get a taste of how good this team could be and then see this shitty display over the last week and a half, losing to crappy teams and needing goalie heroics to eke out points. plus going from one of the best stretches of defensive performance in franchise history to what we’ve seen the last couple games.

hopefully they work through it, and if it takes some time hopefully they can at least rack up loser points or undeserved wins until it clicks again.

but the bottom 6 and lack of 5v5 performance is mildly concerning. xgf isn’t quite as useful of a stat if the team is just collectively bad at finishing. i don’t like hand waving that away and crying luck because finishing is a skill and it’s definitely lacking a little here

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Rempe has played one game after the suspension. Regardless, MacDermid is not being waived.

Yeah, he’s played one game and openly talked about having to change the way he plays.

Yeah he probably wont be waived, we’ll continue to waste that money for no reason. Maybe he can match Eric Boulton’s 51 game pointless streak if we keep him in the lineup?

 

[NJDevs26]

I’m sure if we actually saw him speak that would have looked like a hostage video

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Yeah, he’s played one game and openly talked about having to change the way he plays.

View attachment 959006

Yeah he probably wont be waived, we’ll continue to waste that money for no reason. Maybe he can match Eric Boulton’s 51 game pointless streak if we keep him in the lineup?

Chances are this will happen his whole career, he'll talk about changing his game to be safer and then 10-15 games later he'll do something that warrants a suspension. Rinse and repeat. He only plays 5 mins a game, way too much time and mind being spent on a useless turd lol

 

[Patrik26]

What else happened?

I'm guessing ND over Penn State for one.