GDT: Devils @ Sabres - 7:00 PM - MSG

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

What difference would it make if we had 4/5 more points and we're in that last WC spot? I mean this team would get utterly destroyed in playoff hockey. They weren't built for it last year and we're worse this year.

They can't score without playing like the 80's oilers with no defense and they're to small and soft with a mistake prone defense to grind anything out or play a tight game.

Way beyond coaching or goaltending this team is flawed and needs to be reworked.

so "not built for playoff hockey" last year that they eliminated the team with like the 7th most points in the first round.

 

[JimEIV]

We don’t even play like the 80s Oilers anymore. That was last year.

And it was fun. Now we have whatever we saw last night and what we’ve been seeing all of this year(remember who ran the forwards all year) which has gotten even worse since the deputy became the sheriff.

Trying to play a tight game with a bad defense and bad defensive forwards is never going to work. But it didn't work the other way either...

It's personnel not strategy.

When we were playing wide open and the goaltending was exposed everyone wanted adjustments...when the adjustments came still not good enough...at some point it's got to be the players on the ice that are held accountable.

 

[BurntToast]

[FONT=times new roman]Beating a dead horse but just because Graves is failing to fill the defensive gaps for Letang or Karlsson, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be useful on the Devils. [/FONT]

[FONT=times new roman]Graves and Sevs are much better passers than anyone not named Nemec. Even Luke struggles.[/FONT]

 

[NjDevsRR]

Well we are fans lmao thats why most of us want to get into the playoffs even though we KNOW they suck ass

It’s not exclusive

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Green sounds like he's channeling the ghost of Lindy with his "Passion" bs while Nico sounds like a coach citing accountability and change needed to win consistently.

Nico for Reg Dunlop player/coach

How about playing the guys who don't screw up, who make the extra efforts (Lazar) and start benching players/vets who keep screwing the pooch.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

It was nice to have gunslinger Dougie who’s never afraid to blast it from anywhere. We miss him so badly.

Indeed, I think Dougie coming from Carolina too instilled him to shoot from everyone as well. As much as people shit on their play style come playoffs versus great goalies, it's 100% a great system for regular season because not everyone has a good goalie.

so "not built for playoff hockey" last year that they eliminated the team with like the 7th most points in the first round.

I don't agree with Jim at all but the Devils were the worst matchup for the Rags and we still f***ed around with them for 7 games which railed us against Carolina who was a nightmare matchup and they dismantled us in 5.

 

[Triumph]

Top 3 worse loss of the season?

Not even close. The Devils just haven't had 2-0 leads to blow, it was high time that they did.

The stars apart from Jack played a star game, the bottom of the roster got absolutely shredded. Jack is cooked.

Green sounds like he's channeling the ghost of Lindy with his "Passion" bs while Nico sounds like a coach citing accountability and change needed to win consistently.

Nico for Reg Dunlop player/coach

How about playing the guys who don't screw up, who make the extra efforts (Lazar) and start benching players/vets who keep screwing the pooch.

Lazar got almost historically caved in last night. Love his passion but you're not winning much with a team of Lazars - also doesn't help he's probably playing through whatever he's got, injury-wise.

 

[Emperoreddy]

It's basically just Nico, Timo, Bratt, and Allen right now.

Rest of the team is either trash, hurt, or on fumes

 

[Call Me Al]

It's basically just Nico, Timo, Bratt, and Allen right now.

Rest of the team is either trash, hurt, or on fumes

you’re discounting how good luke has been after getting over his hump but yeah

 

[Bleedred]

Lazar has had a good season and is one of the only current bottom 6 guys that were in last night's lineup that I care to see here again next year. He's also on a very cheap contract.

But he was pretty bad last night.

This is how I see it with the subtraction of McLeod, not even taking into account that he's a scumbag, monster and a rapist that should be punished by slow and painful death.

Losing him was a MASSIVE blow, but at the same time, it could have been a massive blow and drain on the cap to give him the contract he was probably going to get after the year he had. I never bought that he was magically a really good player this year, more than I figured he was just a pretty good bottom 6/4th liner having an up year/potentially career year.

Tierney has been an absolute crater since he was still on the Sharks, and that feels like forever and 10 days ago. And now he's about 30 years old, so a guy that was next to useless at 23-24 years old is really not an NHL player at 30 years old. He actually used to be able to score some points back then. Now he doesn't even do that.

He's kind of been the McLeod replacement, along with Nosek since he came back from injury. Nosek has been horrific this year after the injuries, despite looking somewhat serviceable lately.

I don't think the plan was ever there for Tierney to play this many games. Between Nosek's injuries and McLeod's expulsion, he's played a whole lot. Nosek would have played much more in an ideal season, but it would have been without the injuries and he would have been a decent player.

Willman stinks, no matter how many goals he scores. He's like 28 and has never been an NHL regular before, unlike Tierney, who was an NHL regular for quite some years. In a close to perfect season Willman maybe plays 4 games at most, 0 at best.

Foote probably could have been something, but lost the entire year to injury,

Bastian is an upgrade to almost everybody I just named.

MacDermid, just...No... it's just a no.

 

[JimEIV]

5 unanswered goals is pretty epic.

 

[glenwo2]

[FONT=times new roman]Beating a dead horse but just because Graves is failing to fill the defensive gaps for Letang or Karlsson, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be useful on the Devils. [/FONT]

[FONT=times new roman]Graves and Sevs are much better passers than anyone not named Nemec. Even Luke struggles.[/FONT]

FONT=times new roman

 

[Devilsfan992]

Not even close. The Devils just haven't had 2-0 leads to blow, it was high time that they did.

The stars apart from Jack played a star game, the bottom of the roster got absolutely shredded. Jack is cooked.

Perhaps if we are looking at each game in a vacuum. It's true that all games are worth the same value: 0, 1 or 2 points. This game does not make a difference towards a standing compared to a loss during the first five games of the season. It's also true, we may have played better in this game compared to others in which we lost.

With that said, the importance of this game was enormous for any chance of this team making the playoffs. Things were trending in the upward direction for us: Winning four of the past five games, outscoring opponents 21 to 11, goaltending not only looking competent, but above average and other teams in contention losing giving us a chance to close the gap.

We were up 2-0 on Buffalo and had a 5-3 power play. We absolutely need to win this game. We could have closed it out there and went into the weekend feeling much better about our playoff chances.

This loss is a huge blow to our playoff chances and a confidence killer. Some may not believe in momentum or playing confident hockey, but I think it's a real thing. If we win and the cards fell our way this weekend, we would have had a real chance to go into Tuesday controlling our destiny.

 

[MadDevil]

Top 3 worse loss of the season?

Not really, if only because I expected them to lose given it's kind of their MO this season.

 

[HoliksGhost]

5 unanswered goals is pretty epic.

No doubt, I thought we looked smug as we started to unravel, no one dug deep down to fight back. Absolute embarrassment.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Indeed, I think Dougie coming from Carolina too instilled him to shoot from everyone as well. As much as people shit on their play style come playoffs versus great goalies, it's 100% a great system for regular season because not everyone has a good goalie.



I don't agree with Jim at all but the Devils were the worst matchup for the Rags and we still f***ed around with them for 7 games which railed us against Carolina who was a nightmare matchup and they dismantled us in 5.

the only reason the Rangers series went 7 games was Shesterkin playing like a God and Vitek playing like a dipshit in games 1/2. We completely controlled the 5 on 5 play in that series.

 

[Triumph]

Perhaps if we are looking at each game in a vacuum. It's true that all games are worth the same value: 0, 1 or 2 points. This game does not make a difference towards a standing compared to a loss during the first five games of the season. It's also true, we may have played better in this game compared to others in which we lost.

With that said, the importance of this game was enormous for any chance of this team making the playoffs. Things were trending in the upward direction for us: Winning four of the past five games, outscoring opponents 21 to 11, goaltending not only looking competent, but above average and other teams in contention losing giving us a chance to close the gap.

We were up 2-0 on Buffalo and had a 5-3 power play. We absolutely need to win this game. We could have closed it out there and went into the weekend feeling much better about our playoff chances.

This loss is a huge blow to our playoff chances and a confidence killer. Some may not believe in momentum or playing confident hockey, but I think it's a real thing. If we win and the cards fell our way this weekend, we would have had a real chance to go into Tuesday controlling our destiny.

The Devils at no point during this 5 game stretch actually looked like a good team. They got excellent goaltending and some shooting luck. Last night they played Buffalo even and never got the third bounce to get that third goal. A lot of the reason the Devils don't look good is because Jack Hughes is clearly ailing and indeed his poor decision making on the power play is a lot of why that failed.

The Devils haven't had a chance to blow leads because they've been trailing so much. The real issue here is that the Devils have only gotten 9 games to OT this year and had they managed to get 15 there, they'd be in the playoffs.

 

[Camille the Eel]

That sequence that led to BUF's third goal was infuriating. Guys unable get a clear, unable to put a body on the Sabres best player, just chasing the puck all around the defensive zone and ineffective at stopping them from having their way in the zone.

By that time Jack had been out 1 minute 46 and the others nearly that. But yes the sequence sucked. Need a save there too.

 

[NjDevsRR]

the only reason the Rangers series went 7 games was Shesterkin playing like a God and Vitek playing like a dipshit in games 1/2. We completely controlled the 5 on 5 play in that series.

Games 1 and 2 were disastrous. They focused on the body instead of the puck in an attempt to be tough and they got clowned. They returned to their bread and butter in gm 3 and the rest was history.

 

[Call Me Al]

Not really, if only because I expected them to lose given it's kind of their MO this season.

ottawa, tampa and columbus for me. hm: san jose and anaheim at home

last night was just confirmation of what we’d known all along just hoped wasn’t true - this team doesn’t have it. they think they’re better than they are and nico’s quote confirms it.

i don’t begrudge nico for saying it and i bet he hates buffalo after that cheap hit knocked him out 11 games, but the devils have no right to look down on all those teams because they’ve gotten beat by bottom feeders all season. columbus, ottawa, buffalo, montreal, san jose, arizona and anaheim have all taken 2 points away from the devils and all but buffalo have done that in newark.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Lazar got almost historically caved in last night. Love his passion but you're not winning much with a team of Lazars - also doesn't help he's probably playing through whatever he's got, injury-wise.

I'm referring to his play on whole not last game which he's had more impact with less ice time than almost half the roster yet he doesn't get rewarded for it. Just stay down there in grind time while the turnover machines get 2x the ice. That's the accountability Nico is referencing whereas coach will just keep playing the mistake makers because they got passion. Probably slamming a bench door or stick over the goal post makes up for it in his eyes.

 

[Bleedred]

The Rangers game a few weeks ago that Kahkonen played was also up there with greatest duds of the season.

The game where Rempe took Siegs head off, taunted MacDermid like a see you next Tuesday AFTER the fact as he was being escorted off the ice and we barely generated a scoring chance. That was as pathetic as a game we've played this year that wasn't against one of the COC teams.

It feels like there's already been almost half as many of these clunkers under Green in 13 games as there were under Ruff in 61 games. Green was also here for the Coyotes disaster where we came out lifeless and score effects'd them for the rest of the game after it was 3-0.

 

[Triumph]

I'm referring to his play on whole not last game which he's had more impact with less ice time than almost half the roster yet he doesn't get rewarded for it. Just stay down there in grind time while the turnover machines get 2x the ice. That's the accountability Nico is referencing whereas coach will just keep playing the mistake makers because they got passion. Probably slamming a bench door or stick over the goal post makes up for it in his eyes.

Lazar has gotten plenty of ice time. His top forward linemates have been Bastian, Haula, McLeod, Mercer, Holtz, Tierney, Meier, Palat, Hughes, Willman, Nosek. He's played up with Hughes, he's played plenty of 3rd line, and he's played on the 4th line too. He's been fine. He can't score goals. He's getting lucky on assists. He's the kind of player that belongs on a 4th line, but because of circumstances this season he's played up a lot and he's played semi-competently.

Hughes is gutting it out through something. I wish they'd shut him down but he clearly still wants to play.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

the only reason the Rangers series went 7 games was Shesterkin playing like a God and Vitek playing like a dipshit in games 1/2. We completely controlled the 5 on 5 play in that series.

I mean again, they were taking some stupid penalties which you could attribute to them being young + stupid. Then the obvious Vitek being Vitek meme and not being able to make a single hard save. The funny part is the Devils + Rags flip flopped the games they should've won in the first 4.

 

[billingtons ghost]

so "not built for playoff hockey" last year that they eliminated the team with like the 7th most points in the first round.

Yeah. Against one of the least disciplined teams that absolutely worked us like I've never seen a team get worked before they took the foot off the pedal.

We watched our sole playoff type player eat an elbow too and most of our guys get pulled.

Then we ran into a disciplined playoff team.