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

[NJDevs26]

People were just asking for that to happen during the win streak acting like this team was the best in the league and giving other teams fans the middle finger for disagreeing about that. You reap what you sow.

Gotta snap this losing streak.

Everyone's main board posters are by and large arrogant homers. We only paid attention to it this year because our team was relevant for one of the few times in the last decade. We're no more arrogant or homeristic than any other fanbase though, stop it. If there was any moment of karma demarcation it was this:

Jonas Siegenthaler is sick of hearing about Devils’ ‘fluke’ season: ‘It’s time for people to respect us’

The New Jersey Devils have a 21-4-1 record in the 2022-23 season.

www.nj.com

 

[Combat Koala]

Everyone's main board posters are by and large arrogant homers. We only paid attention to it this year because our team was relevant for one of the few times in the last decade. We're no more arrogant or homeristic than any other fanbase though, stop it. If there was any moment of karma demarcation it was this:

Jonas Siegenthaler is sick of hearing about Devils’ ‘fluke’ season: ‘It’s time for people to respect us’

The New Jersey Devils have a 21-4-1 record in the 2022-23 season.

www.nj.com

I didn't say we are.

 

[MadDevil]

They’re obviously not a basement dweller this year but they’re only four points up on the bubble now. Three weeks ago they were like fifteen up and it was unthinkable they’d blow a playoff spot but here we are. It’s utterly alarming how quickly that cushion disappeared.

That's because half the division has gotten hot as we've gone cold. The Canes have won 13 of their last 14, the Pens had won 12 of 15 before losing 4 of their last 5. Washington has won 10 of their last 11, the Rangers 8 of their last 10. I doubt those teams are going to keep up those paces just as we weren't going to keep up 21 wins in 24 games.

 

[JrFischer54]

After watching a bit of the USA games at the WJC I am wondering if perhaps we could trade for Tyler Boucher. He perhaps was drafted a bit to early in the 1st round but he has gone on to have a good season so far this year. He seems to understand what his job is and where his talent lies already if you look at his play at the WJC.

We desperately need a net front presence other then Bastian and he would cost a lost less then Crouse. Ottawa really likes Big and Tall players so perhaps Bahl + Filmon? or Bahl + Filmon +?

devils dont need anymore kids they need proven nhl goal scoring forwards

Are the NJ Devils already collapsing?

Not sure are they collapsing or rather returning to their actual level. Question could also be; did they over perform beginning of the season?. 21-22 : same head coach, 99% same roster what this season 27-46-9 record | 63 points | 248-307 GD -59 No team progresses that much in one off season...

forums.hfboards.com

Man this thread is tough to read, people are really kicking us when we're down..

team overachieved for a month they showed what they could do when they played their best and had the confidence. bring in a legit 40 goal scorer park him on jacks wing and on the powerplay and the team will be better off for it 100%. dont rely on shara or tatar to be more then what they are with is 3rd line material that contribute everyone now and then.

 

[ninetyeight]

The schedule and math is not on our side either. You generally need about 100pts to make the playoffs. So we need to earn 54pts in the remaining 47 games. So well over .500, about 27 wins. And I counted there's only something like ~17 "easier" games. The rest of the schedule is full of top teams in the league.

It's really heart breaking to have such an incredible start to the season and then face a losing stretch like this (what was the worst last season?). To miss the playoffs would be devastating and embarassing.

I love that they are still playing good, it gives hope that eventually the bounces and luck will even out and they'll get back to winning ways. Marino, Graves, Palat and Bastian can't come back soon enough, they'll certainly help. But it is weird how we seem to get outgoalied by every team nowadays, does every team have a Vezina level goalie but us?

 

[Blackjack]

Okay, I have to admit that that is impressive

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Complete horseshit they didn't get anything from the two Boston games, Carolina, Dallas, Flyers games. They'll turn it around soon, powerplay needs to step it up too. It was coming through for us on the W13 and has gone completely silent now.

 

[NJDevs26]

That's because half the division has gotten hot as we've gone cold. The Canes have won 13 of their last 14, the Pens had won 12 of 15 before losing 4 of their last 5. Washington has won 10 of their last 11, the Rangers 8 of their last 10. I doubt those teams are going to keep up those paces just as we weren't going to keep up 21 wins in 24 games.

Problem is all those teams are proven good over longer periods than just a third of this year, if you expect any of them to really fall off it you’ll be waiting a while and for injuries to hit someone. As it stands now, it might well take over 100 points to crack the top five in the division again.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

The schedule and math is not on our side either. You generally need about 100pts to make the playoffs. So we need to earn 54pts in the remaining 47 games. So well over .500, about 27 wins. And I counted there's only something like ~17 "easier" games. The rest of the schedule is full of top teams in the league.

It's really heart breaking to have such an incredible start to the season and then face a losing stretch like this (what was the worst last season?). To miss the playoffs would be devastating and embarassing.

I love that they are still playing good, it gives hope that eventually the bounces and luck will even out and they'll get back to winning ways. Marino, Graves, Palat and Bastian can't come back soon enough, they'll certainly help. But it is weird how we seem to get outgoalied by every team nowadays, does every team have a Vezina level goalie but us?

You do not typically need 100 points to make the playoffs. Anyway, there’s no sense in counting the games against tough teams or whatever because we are a top team ourselves, despite this stretch.

Boston was like -115 against us yesterday, the top team in the league. There isn’t a team in the league we should be surprised if we beat.

 

[NJDevs26]

You do not typically need 100 points to make the playoffs. Anyway, there’s no sense in counting the games against tough teams or whatever because we are a top team ourselves, despite this stretch.

Boston was like -115 against us yesterday, the top team in the league. There isn’t a team in the league we should be surprised if we beat.

Last season you did, and none of these teams are appreciably worse this year other than the Isles (who weren’t beginning the season with a 9000-game road trip this year) slotting in for Florida, in spite of some here prematurely burying the Caps/Pens/Rangers early.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Last season you did, and none of these teams are appreciably worse this year other than the Isles (who weren’t beginning the season with a 9000-game road trip this year) slotting in for Florida, in spite of some here prematurely burying the Caps/Pens/Rangers early.

I would feel better about a bet for none of NYR, NYI, or WSH hitting 100 points than all of them hitting 100.

 

[Devils Pride 26]

Lindy has to go. I’ve seen teams value the puck more playing roller at Tab Ramos 11 pm on a Thursday night. They are a glorified roller hockey team. Problems that aren’t just going to “go away”:

-incessant obsession with going east-west, especially around both blue lines. This leads to insane amount of gimmie goals. They don’t always end up in the back of the net but they are momentum killers and make NJ easy to play against.

-zero adjustments to how they play the game. During the hot streak, teams tried to play NJ straight up. Now they have largely adjusted to counter attacking by having bodies back. NJ tries to attack with speed and come off shocked when the East-west pass, drop pass, or quick move to the middle is taken away.

-non existing forecheck. When the above happens and you cannot attack with speed, you need to turn all 5 opponents around by dumping the puck and establishing a fc. Make the D dig the puck out with pressure on. They NEVER fc properly. It’s a half hearted effort that would get you benched playing high school jv hockey. The only ones grinding are Mercer and Hischier.

Ruff has established a country club culture. It’s embarrassing. In case you forgot, it’s the NEW JERSEY DEVILS! A franchise built and prided on doing whatever it takes to win games. This team needs some GD structure.

 

[Call Me Al]

That's because half the division has gotten hot as we've gone cold. The Canes have won 13 of their last 14, the Pens had won 12 of 15 before losing 4 of their last 5. Washington has won 10 of their last 11, the Rangers 8 of their last 10. I doubt those teams are going to keep up those paces just as we weren't going to keep up 21 wins in 24 games.

why does this keep coming up as a valid point? those teams don’t need crazy hot streaks to surpass us anymore - they got them and are now within striking distance. if they play .550 hockey the rest of the way, which they are good enough to do, and we play .500 we will be out of the playoffs.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Lindy has to go. I’ve seen teams value the puck more playing roller at Tab Ramos 11 pm on a Thursday night. They are a glorified roller hockey team. Problems that aren’t just going to “go away”:

-incessant obsession with going east-west, especially around both blue lines. This leads to insane amount of gimmie goals. They don’t always end up in the back of the net but they are momentum killers and make NJ easy to play against.

-zero adjustments to how they play the game. During the hot streak, teams tried to play NJ straight up. Now they have largely adjusted to counter attacking by having bodies back. NJ tries to attack with speed and come off shocked when the East-west pass, drop pass, or quick move to the middle is taken away.

-non existing forecheck. When the above happens and you cannot attack with speed, you need to turn all 5 opponents around by dumping the puck and establishing a fc. Make the D dig the puck out with pressure on. They NEVER fc properly. It’s a half hearted effort that would get you benched playing high school jv hockey. The only ones grinding are Mercer and Hischier.

Ruff has established a country club culture. It’s embarrassing. In case you forgot, it’s the NEW JERSEY DEVILS! A franchise built and prided on doing whatever it takes to win games. This team needs some GD structure.

Have seen these posts before but knowing Ruff's background I highly doubt it is he who has created that atmosphere. If you recall in Friday's loss Kevin Bahl did not see the ice in the third period after a turnover led to a goal.

At the same time, there are players who have been consistently committing the things you mention for three years without consequences.

I can't help believing their immunity comes from a lot higher than the coaching staff.

As another example, last night the two best lines for the Devils were the Boqvist and Hischier lines. Yet who was on the ice in the final minutes with the goalie pulled?

Those decisions don't come from the coaches.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Lindy has to go. I’ve seen teams value the puck more playing roller at Tab Ramos 11 pm on a Thursday night. They are a glorified roller hockey team. Problems that aren’t just going to “go away”:

-incessant obsession with going east-west, especially around both blue lines. This leads to insane amount of gimmie goals. They don’t always end up in the back of the net but they are momentum killers and make NJ easy to play against.

-zero adjustments to how they play the game. During the hot streak, teams tried to play NJ straight up. Now they have largely adjusted to counter attacking by having bodies back. NJ tries to attack with speed and come off shocked when the East-west pass, drop pass, or quick move to the middle is taken away.

-non existing forecheck. When the above happens and you cannot attack with speed, you need to turn all 5 opponents around by dumping the puck and establishing a fc. Make the D dig the puck out with pressure on. They NEVER fc properly. It’s a half hearted effort that would get you benched playing high school jv hockey. The only ones grinding are Mercer and Hischier.

Ruff has established a country club culture. It’s embarrassing. In case you forgot, it’s the NEW JERSEY DEVILS! A franchise built and prided on doing whatever it takes to win games. This team needs some GD structure.

I don’t think any of this is true, it just sounds like a BS narrative because the puck isn’t going in.

How much more of a “structured” game do you want against the best team in the league? Boston did next to nothing all game.

The team actually forechecks quite well and routinely creates turnovers doing so. Boston just gave away the puck behind the net like 3 or 4 times because of the pressure we applied (with absolutely no finish, of course).

I wouldn’t fire the coach because the team couldn’t finish for a couple weeks. Has little to do with structure.

 

[Rhodes 81]

I don’t think any of this is true, it just sounds like a BS narrative because the puck isn’t going in.

How much more of a “structured” game do you want against the best team in the league? Boston did next to nothing all game.

The team actually forechecks quite well and routinely creates turnovers doing so. Boston just gave away the puck behind the net like 3 or 4 times because of the pressure we applied (with absolutely no finish, of course).

I wouldn’t fire the coach because the team couldn’t finish for a couple weeks. Has little to do with structure.

Yeah, you see these same critiques of basically every team when they're not winning. It's always that they're just not playing hard enough or forechecking hard enough or whatever.

Boston did a very good job of keeping us to the outside and clogging the middle, which is what they've done to everyone else and it's why they're currently the best team in the league. We had plenty of possession and really limited their chances fairly well. We got a couple big saves and they had a couple goals against the flow of play.

One thing I have noticed is that earlier when we were winning, even when we were playing teams with a lot of firepower, the D were very aggressive with pinching, carrying the puck deep into the zone, and cycling even down in the corners. They've been doing less of that recently and that was opening up a bunch of the grade A scoring chances during the winning streaks. I wonder how much of that is a coaching adjustment and how much of it is just fatigue from this stretch where they've been missing guys and playing rookies.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Yeah, you see these same critiques of basically every team when they're not winning. It's always that they're just not playing hard enough or forechecking hard enough or whatever.

Boston did a very good job of keeping us to the outside and clogging the middle, which is what they've done to everyone else and it's why they're currently the best team in the league. We had plenty of possession and really limited their chances fairly well. We got a couple big saves and they had a couple goals against the flow of play.

One thing I have noticed is that earlier when we were winning, even when we were playing teams with a lot of firepower, the D were very aggressive with pinching, carrying the puck deep into the zone, and cycling even down in the corners. They've been doing less of that recently and that was opening up a bunch of the grade A scoring chances during the winning streaks. I wonder how much of that is a coaching adjustment and how much of it is just fatigue from this stretch where they've been missing guys and playing rookies.

 

[Better Call Sal]

 

[guitarguyvic]

What more do people want from this team?
-Went on a 13 game winning streak
-Won an absurd 22 of 25 games (or something like that, don’t feel like looking it up)
-Did this while being the youngest team in the league, missing a veteran top 6 player, and a valuable bottom 6 forward
-Have lost a stupid amount of close one goal games against top teams during a really difficult part of the schedule this month.
-During this tough stretch they have still been out-possessing, out-shooting, and out-skating the opposition, their finishing just tanked.
-Overall during this stretch they’ve played well enough to win against the very best team in the league, twice, and lost by a goal each time.
-They did this while being the youngest team in the league, missing a veteran top 6 player, a valuable bottom 6 player, and their entire second defensive pairing.

They’re doing everything you’d want a young progressing team to do - minus burying the puck. Either they are on a cold streak, or they don’t have the finishing talent. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Everyone knows this team needs more legit sniper firepower.

None of this is indicative of a bad team that is the same as previous years. It’s also not good evidence for being convinced they can’t make the playoffs.

Obviously none of us know exactly how the season will play out. But it’s safe to say that the people acting like they know that it will play out in the worst case scenario based on what’s happened this month are ignoring any and all context of the results.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Maybe he should have told his teammates that, too.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Maybe he should have told his teammates that, too.

Waited until everyone took their pound of flesh

 

[guitarguyvic]

The one adjustment I’m seeing from other teams is that they have noticed there are players on this team that don’t seem to know how to take a hit and are targeting them heavily from a physical standpoint. Nico being #1 on the hit list.

Our guys do seem soft. They turn away from hits and get crushed, and then mentally it seems like they can’t handle it either. Then they don’t seem capable of dishing it back to the opposition in any kind of effective way. This concerns me almost as much as the need for a sniper. Can’t expect that that kind of bullying over the course of an 82 game season isn’t going to take a negative toll on their performance. I don’t know what they need to do to fix it precisely, but it’s no bueno.

 

[forceten]

Sounds like we need to bring in Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko from the booth and run hitting drills.

I'm really not kidding.

Also, Fabian Zetterlund is now captain of the weight room and will run these guys through whatever he did to become the great white hulk.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Nope meier not what we need

we don't need a high volume shooting, goal scoring power forward? Could have fooled me!

Good move not to give Bratt a insane 9mil + per or whatever.

Go for Meier. Resign Severson and try to get a good established veteran player for Bratt.

Absolutely no interest in bringing Severson back.

 

[Whaddagoal]

What more do people want from this team?
-Went on a 13 game winning streak
-Won an absurd 22 of 25 games (or something like that, don’t feel like looking it up)
-Did this while being the youngest team in the league, missing a veteran top 6 player, and a valuable bottom 6 forward
-Have lost a stupid amount of close one goal games against top teams during a really difficult part of the schedule this month.
-During this tough stretch they have still been out-possessing, out-shooting, and out-skating the opposition, their finishing just tanked.
-Overall during this stretch they’ve played well enough to win against the very best team in the league, twice, and lost by a goal each time.
-They did this while being the youngest team in the league, missing a veteran top 6 player, a valuable bottom 6 player, and their entire second defensive pairing.

They’re doing everything you’d want a young progressing team to do - minus burying the puck. Either they are on a cold streak, or they don’t have the finishing talent. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Everyone knows this team needs more legit sniper firepower.

None of this is indicative of a bad team that is the same as previous years. It’s also not good evidence for being convinced they can’t make the playoffs.

Obviously none of us know exactly how the season will play out. But it’s safe to say that the people acting like they know that it will play out in the worst case scenario based on what’s happened this month are ignoring any and all context of the results.

I agree with your points here. However...

What you're edging at is peoples emotional response to what is going on. I think its the emotional aspect that people don't want to go back to losing ways. I think that should be recognized here as well, people are invested in this team and the good has sheathed the bad feelings (until the last few games).

It boils down to, not that we can't appreciate how good this season has been if you look at it objectively compared to beginning season expectations, but rather, "we really don't want to be down there again".

Yes, we're still 2nd in division, ending December. No qualms about it from objective sense if you want to be disconnected from it.

It's more the aspect that we have seen SOO MUCH better already this season and don't want to go back to the mired play from years past. It's totally emotional response from most of every one here. The "doom and gloomers" and all the negativity from last night is only a reflection of how good this team has been and how on the edge we are from being at the top and being chasers again. It's hard to expect fans to lower their expectations after dominating for a long early stretch of the season. It may be misplaced optimism purely in the "big picture of things", but with this losing streak its hard not to expect the diehards to be so even keel about it, given the last 9 years of this franchise.