Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - 2022-23 season thread part I

[Nocashstyle]

Right....

I understand the skepticism…we all know this team no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to injuries…but that does make sense. From what it sounds like, Nico wasn’t even skating on his own. Might as well be overly cautious at this point. Better Nico misses the first one or two games of the season than rush back, re-aggravate, then miss more substantial time.

 

[Patrik26]

Right....

This coming from a Devils mouthpiece. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I’m just going to answer the first question since the rest are all obviously facetious rhetorical.

You can avoid injury through skill. Let’s take an extreme example. If I took to the ice against NHL players…with my supremely inferior athleticism, skating ability, reflexes, agility, hand-eye coordination, strength, hockey iq, awareness, etc…how much more likely do you think I am to get injured than the average NHL player? I’d say my likelihood is actually exponentially greater.

Some people are just more cognizant of how to avoid getting hurt. Others have an instinct. Some people are simply built more durably and can withstand more physical punishment without getting as injured as others.

Nico got hit in the face with a puck. This gets dismissed as a freak accident, which I understand. But the reality is that different player may have reacted quicker, or moved a different direction that would result in the puck not hitting exactly where it hit Nico. And if he didn’t have several other injuries over the last year, it would be largely forgotten about. But context and trends matter.

I am genuinely mystified that this has to be parsed out for people who are hardcore sports fans.

I am genuinely mystified that you’re drawing some trend line between a broken leg, a puck to the face, games missed due to COVID, etc. But you do you!

Edit: This is also a very good point about how skilled players are better at avoiding injury. That’s why Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, and Kucherov never miss games.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Hell yeah buddy, be pissed!

 

[NJDevs26]

Hell yeah buddy, be pissed!

Confirmed HF lurker

 

[Nocashstyle]

Hell yeah buddy, be pissed!

The best version of Nico is the one who is grimacing and looking pissed off on the bench. That’s when you know he’s having himself a game.

 

[Nubmer6]

Just let the season start already, I can’t have the same conversations any more times

We could go find someone else out in the internet to threaten and get into here. Although I guess that would now count a "same conversation" at this point.

 

[TrufleShufle]

Hell yeah buddy, be pissed!

Nico will be the next one in here.

"Hey guys! Heard you said I was injury prone a bunch, if you want to talk about it, please say it to me here. I'm just a guy with a hockey stick at the end of the day.

Also all the stuff about me being a 3c is a bit much. And please stop talking about my metal leg, it's fine.

Gotta go, got a heart tune up in a few, I'll be around though. Luv ya, Bye!"

 

[Nubmer6]

No TV and no Internet but everyone made it out ok and the house is still standing. Ft Meyers beach got absolutely devastated 40 minutes south of me. 15ft surge.

I found that when I moved and didn't have TV and internet for the first week it may well have been the most productive time of my life.

Then again, I didn't have to deal with cleaning up after a storm surge either.

 

[Devs3cups]

So Nico’s day-to-day, he feels good, had a full practice today, things looking up for Thursday, and at worst, the home opener.

 

[HersheyBob27]

Hell yeah buddy, be pissed!

Like this guy. He isn’t afraid to ask anything

 

[Saugus]

Confirmed HF lurker

Would be funny if he was, but I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones putting that narrative out there. The fans on Reddit and Twitter are even rougher on Nico than we are.

 

[Xirik]

Confirmed HF lurker

Or we got snitched on again!

How many snitches do we have on this board anyway?!

 

[DevRickus]

Would be funny if he was, but I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones putting that narrative out there. The fans on Reddit and Twitter are even rougher on Nico than we are.

Nico farts and the animals on twitter are mad because it doesnt smell bad enough.

 

[guitarguyvic]

You make a good point, but you won't convince me that the Subban shot was a lack of skill to get out of the way. The puck changed direction and came through at least one body and Hischier was moving as well. The distance to react to what was probably a puck moving at 80-90 mph just wasn't enough. Like Hamilton taking the puck to the face. The hamstrings and ribs and similar things, sure, there is an element to avoiding that.

Look I understand there’s an element of luck. And yeah you could say an incident was “unavoidable”. I just think that’s a subjective assessment. We aren’t talking about a bullet here. Even the tiniest difference in reaction speed or movement can make a difference in the extent of an injury. I don’t want to dwell on that specific injury…I only brought it up as an extreme, to point out that even the most “freakish” of accidents have some element of “avoidability”, even if it’s quite small. Focusing on one singular injury also ignores the wider trend pattern, which is the real concern here.

 

[Darkauron]

"Nico is fine and ready to go for our first game. He is 100% and just has some speed and conditioning issues!!!!!"

*nico misses a few games after*

"He is just resting and not up to speed. He is fine trust us!"

*goes back on IR*

Book it.

 

[JimEIV]

Context definitely matters

Nico has missed about 20% of the games he could've played in so far in his career. 300 out of 371.

About 1/3 of those missed games were from getting hit in the face with the puck. 24 of 71 - That leaves 47 games of other injuries.

That is still missing 13% of his games without considering the puck to the face... That average out to a little over 10 games a season...

It's not all that terrible to play/average 70 games a season...But when you are a team with little depth and has made no progress in the last 3 years AND have a key piece missing 10/12 games(or more) every year..no bueno

 

[Triumph]

Look I understand there’s an element of luck. And yeah you could say an incident was “unavoidable”. I just think that’s a subjective assessment. We aren’t talking about a bullet here. Even the tiniest difference in reaction speed or movement can make a difference in the extent of an injury. I don’t want to dwell on that specific injury…I only brought it up as an extreme, to point out that even the most “freakish” of accidents have some element of “avoidability”, even if it’s quite small. Focusing on one singular injury also ignores the wider trend pattern, which is the real concern here.

This is absurd. Yes, reacting can make a difference, but you have no idea what kind of difference it can make. A person can accidentally make themselves more vulnerable in that tiny fraction of a second.

Of course you don't want to 'dwell' on this injury because it makes no sense to even bring it up in this context, but you are the one insisting on putting it in with the other ones. You're winning the war here, Nico's injury to start the season is not good, but you've just got to also have this one because of 'context'.

 

[TBF1972]

What’s a reasonable hope/expectation over the first couple weeks (say 8 games) of the season?

With the schedule we have I’d love if we could start strong with 5 or even 6 wins out of 8. Minimum 4.

Would also love if Jack could get to 10 or more points quickly.

at least 9 wins or blow that freak show up.

 

[guitarguyvic]

It has to be parsed out to hardcore sports fans because you insist on including 'getting hit in the face with a puck' as part of this, and the reason you do it is because 'context and trends matter'. This isn't an explanation for anything. Context and trends is just saying 'I like grouping things together that don't belong together' and calling that 'context'. Avoiding or not incurring soft-tissue injuries like hamstring injuries is part of the skill of avoiding being hurt. Being struck by a puck in the face is something that can happen to any hockey player, there is no skill to avoiding it at all, the puck is flying around out there, sometimes it deflects off something and smashes into a guy's face. I am genuinely mystified that this has to be parsed out to someone who purports to watch hockey often.

There’s no skill to avoid getting hit in the face with a puck? I can guarantee you I would be much worse at avoiding getting smacked by an NHL shot than an actual NHL player would. Referees literally do it multiple times per game every game. Wtf are you talking about?

You can subjectively assess that the likelihood of avoiding certain things is more or less than others. Yeah avoiding getting hit by a puck changing directions from a short distance at a high rate of speed is much more difficult than a dump in from 100 feet out. That doesn’t equal “impossible”. As I explained in a different response, you don’t even need to avoid the strike altogether for there to be a difference in the outcome. Moving a fraction of an inch in a different direction could mean the difference between having your jaw wired vs the puck deflecting off your shield.

As an aside, I find it not at all surprising that you go out of your way to police how people view each specific injury despite agreeing with the overarching point that his penchant for getting hurt is concerning.

 

[Devs3cups]

"Nico is fine and ready to go for our first game. He is 100% and just has some speed and conditioning issues!!!!!"

*nico misses a few games after*

"He is just resting and not up to speed. He is fine trust us!"

*goes back on IR*

Book it.

Come on… why would he have practiced today. I understand being worried with the medical staff, but come on. He even got in on the line pairings.

 

[RangerDoggo]

Come on… why would he have practiced today. I understand being worried with the medical staff, but come on. He even got in on the line pairings.

It's telling he hasn't been taken off of IR. I think he's close but not there yet.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Context definitely matters

Nico has missed about 20% of the games he could've played in so far in his career. 300 out of 371.

About 1/3 of those missed games were from getting hit in the face with the puck. 24 of 71 - That leaves 47 games of other injuries.

That is still missing 13% of his games without considering the puck to the face... That average out to a little over 10 games a season...

It's not all that terrible to play/average 70 games a season...But when you are a team with little depth and has made no progress in the last 3 years AND have a key piece missing 10/12 games(or more) every year..no bueno

now, how many of those games were due to Covid.....? That reduces your number even more.

See how stupid this is?

It's telling he hasn't been taken off of IR. I think he's close but not there yet.

no it isn't

they will need to be very smart about how they do these moves this year given the LTIR/cap usage. Even an extra day or two here or there is helpful. If Nico can play Thursday (I still have my doubts), we wont hear of him being activated until Thursday afternoon.

 

[Billdo]

Come on… why would he have practiced today. I understand being worried with the medical staff, but come on. He even got in on the line pairings.

Are you honestly going to be surprised if that scenario happens though? Bernier played in camp and a scrimmage and said he's still hurt. Why even let him play?

 

[Ripshot 43]

I found that when I moved and didn't have TV and internet for the first week it may well have been the most productive time of my life.

Then again, I didn't have to deal with cleaning up after a storm surge either.

It mainly would be useful to keep my kids entertained while we try to piece things back together and they don’t have school. I have 3.5 acres with almost 3 of that being fenced in, so the past 4 days have been all about pine and oak tree cleanup from dusk till dawn. Basically, no time for TV for me anyways lol.