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

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Defensive pairs should be:

Siegs Hamliton
Bahl Marino (fingers crossed he's not actually dead for tomorrow)
Smith Severson

They're gonna be tested big time if Marino is out extended time.

 

[glenwo2]

He is out indefinitely. Which means he isn't coming back anytime soon

Out indefinitely is code for "Done for the Season", imo.

 

[NJDevs26]

It's crazy that the team just don't even acknowledge injuries anymore.

Is Bastian in witness protection?

Worse, he’s in Bernierland

 

[Cheddabombs]

Worse, he’s in Bernierland

Lmao remember when he played in the first scrimmage in camp. Good times

 

[devilsblood]

When you guys want to compare any Comet to Johnsson, you lose. In his 11 games in Utica he became the team's #1 scorer with 13 points.

Foote (25GP) and Thompson (21GP) have finally just caught up to Johnsson's point total of 13.

Clarke just recently surpassed the total with 8 points in is last 7 games and now has 17 points in 24GP. He has become the Comets latest hot guy along with 3rd/4th liner Laberge, whose 4 goals in his last 5 games has given him 6 on the season tied with Thompson.

I lose? On what front are we talking?

 

[Eggtimer]

Bahl has been “ good” but saying he can replace Graves without a dip in our overall play is being a little too optimistic. And saying Marino can be replaced easily is silly talk . He was our best D man for the majority of the year . Losing both is a bigger loss than people are saying .
Yes Bahl has been good but the injuries to Graves and Marino will hurt us more than we think . Those two were our best defensive D with maybe exception to Seigs . Our entire 2nd pair is hurt .
That’s like missing our entire 2 nd like if forwards and have to bump up line 3 to fill the loss .

Only positive is that we have waaaay better depth now than other years . We’d be stuck dressing scrubs if we had two regulars out . At least we have some decent options now .

 

[billingtons ghost]

Haha what if I told you I’ve been a voice of reason this whole time?

Nah, I wouldn't have bought that .. But you've been absurdly solid the past few weeks.

 

[billingtons ghost]

I thought that was actually the right move. Kochetkov had pretty much covered everything when Tatar got the puck. He would've just jammed it back into the goalie.

Tried to get him moving to open him up and get a better angle. Didn't work.

I wouldn't mind if they bring Tatar back on a 1-2 year deal again, but I'm indifferent.


It really doesn't seem like a "bipolar" stretch.

The team is playing worse, but not awful. They're just not scoring. Dallas, NY, Philly, etc. were very close, competitive games where they just didn't cash on enough chances.

We are a young team that just doesn't know how to be consistent and is missing a couple of grizzled vets for when the going gets tough.

The talent and desire is obviously there... It's been there in pieces the past few years.

The trick is remaining confident when shit isn't going right.

We started this season playing the EXACT same way. Displaying flashes of great intermixed with turnovers and odd man rushes. That got us fire Lindy chants.

We are flawed and missing some pieces but it's all part of it.

Getting to, and winning in the playoffs is next.

 

[Bad Goalie]

I lose? On what front are we talking?

Touchy much?

The point was simple. Guys are clamoring for guys like Foote , Thompson , and Clarke replacing Johnsson because they theoretically would be better. They didn't hold (and haven't held since) a candle to Johnsson's play in Utica and now they will upscale him in NJ? Thus, I see that as a losing argument.

You see that as calling you a loser? If that's the case, somebody has some thin skin.

 

[RNCDevil]

Worse, he’s in Bernierland

I would love it if a reporter asked "Lindy can we see proof of life on Nate before this interview continues?".

BTW, as a quick aside, google some Ben Palmer videos if you like, dry, subversive comedy.

 

[Billdo]

Worse, he’s in Bernierland

Speaking of Bernier, didn't he play a preseason game or was it just the scrimmages? Then he vanished like the dad who went for a pack of smokes one night.

 

[severian]

Speaking of Bernier, didn't he play a preseason game or was it just the scrimmages? Then he vanished like the dad who went for a pack of smokes one night.

I see him at his kid's mites games every so often, so I have proof of life.

 

[Bleedred]

Speaking of Bernier, didn't he play a preseason game or was it just the scrimmages? Then he vanished like the dad who went for a pack of smokes one night.

Yup

He did play that scrimmage. And he still hung around for a bit after that and traveled with the team on at least one of those Canadian road trips. Think it was the one out west.

And Ryan Novo reported at the same time that Bernier had told him he was “Re-injured” in training camp and had no idea on the timeline.

The scrimmage game immediately came to mind. Not that was necessarily what got him re-injured, but the fact that he was on a scrimmage meant that he was probably working hard in camp practices also which calls into question whether he should have been even ready for camp or not.

Fitz all off-season acted like he probably wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season, going off what I remember. But then when camp rolled around suddenly he was at least practicing and getting into a scrimmage game.

 

[devilsblood]

Touchy much?

The point was simple. Guys are clamoring for guys like Foote , Thompson , and Clarke replacing Johnsson because they theoretically would be better. They didn't hold (and haven't held since) a candle to Johnsson's play in Utica and now they will upscale him in NJ? Thus, I see that as a losing argument.

You see that as calling you a loser? If that's the case, somebody has some thin skin.

I dunno in response to my post you said “you lose”. I was just trying to figure out how i lost.

 

[Guttersniped]

It's pretty standard to see 2nd units have significantly better #'s then the top units. Especially when our 2nd unit fwd's like McLeod are probably our best penalty killers. I imagine Graves plays a bunch with McLeod.

But yeah, Graves is pretty good defensively so it makes sense he is pretty good on the PK.

It depends by what you mean by better numbers but Graves results have been extraordinary good. Some real luck there if you look at the SV% which he can’t personally control. I’m wary of the numbers because he’s not been that great on the PK but he might have improved, it happens.

Not sure what that has to do with my point though, which is Marino and Graves do a shit ton of PKing and now other guys have to do it. That can potentially go not great for us. No one cares about PK until things go wrong but it’s a personnel driven unit and defensemen are more important on it.

Severson has carried a big load before and has actually had some excellent years on the PK, mixed in with 20-21 which went bad for everyone. But he’s a great insurance policy, not really concerned there. So if Marino comes back quickly this isn’t that bad.

If both are out for a while then the unit is very different.

The last time Brendan Smith did much on PK was his last year in Detroit and some seasons in NY, particularly 2018-20. Those years in NY were awful for him but his PK work was probably the best part.

The Rags PK was awful those years though lol but Marc Staal was their top PK guy (yikes).

Their best PK guys other than Smith were 1) Skjei, who was underused until Carolina swiped him and made him a top guy for them, and 2) Jimmy Vesey, who was underutilized but continued to have strong PK numbers on every team he was on and was our best PK guy. (That’s what we signed him for.)

So sometimes numbers don’t lie, good PK guys travel pretty well actually (Lovejoy being a PK god everywhere for example). Numbers do fluctuate, more so with defensemen, even great PK guys like Greene can have monster years and not so good ones.

The only time Dougie was really part of a PK unit was in his last two years in Carolina. His numbers were good his first season, less so the next. Ruff gave him real numbers early on the PK last season and then ended that experiment pretty quickly after his first injury. He’s not a guy I would necessarily pick for increased PK numbers but it’s him or Bahl or a new guy (when Marino & Graves are out both out.) There’s no AHL special team data publicly available.

 

[Devils090]

 

[youryeah]

to me that does not sound like good news for gravy

 

[Devils090]

to me that does not sound like good news for gravy

Yeah have to imagine Graves and Marino are both going to be out for tomorrow, hopefully we get one back after the break.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Well Okhotiuk still has 49 games to win the Norris and Calder. I say he does it.

 

[Devils731]

Even if Marino was 50/50 to play Friday, I’d rather give him the extra time to heal up since they have a break after the game.

 

[FooteBahl]

Well Okhotiuk still has 49 games to win the Norris and Calder. I say he does it.

You’re f***ing crazy, bruh…you forgot about the Hart and Rocket

 

[Guttersniped]

Yup

He did play that scrimmage. And he still hung around for a bit after that and traveled with the team on at least one of those Canadian road trips. Think it was the one out west.

And Ryan Novo reported at the same time that Bernier had told him he was “Re-injured” in training camp and had no idea on the timeline.

The scrimmage game immediately came to mind. Not that was necessarily what got him re-injured, but the fact that he was on a scrimmage meant that he was probably working hard in camp practices also which calls into question whether he should have been even ready for camp or not.

Fitz all off-season acted like he probably wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season, going off what I remember. But then when camp rolled around suddenly he was at least practicing and getting into a scrimmage game.

Scrimmages are way different than games, if there’s a very difficult save Bernier doesn’t feel like making he didn’t have to try it and no opposing players are going to make contact with him.

Korpisalo came back from hip surgery, played 12 games and is still on the IR with a LBI after playing 20 minutes in his last game on 12/9. And he’s 28.

Setbacks are common enough with this. Bernier turns 35 in August, he might not get a NHL contract if he took the year off. He had a reason to be pushing himself.

We’ve been lucky with injuries all things considered, even Wood’s hip held up so far. (He misses games every season so him being out for only 1 is better than usual.)

If Palat comes back in good shape I will have no complaints this season

That’s unlike last season, because Blackwood was a human clusterf***. I’m assuming Blackwood will get injured again so if he manages not to and Palat’s return is a success, I will be very pleasantly surprised to say the least. Knock on (non-human) Wood.

I agree. Also just a quick sound bite from Palat would be nice. I mean its not like this guy is in the ICU for a month.

Like, "Hey guys... Eager to get back in there. Hard to not be on the ice, but was following the run and just itching to make a difference again. They guys have been making it easier for me winning while i was out."

No one even needs to question his timelines. Just have him make a brief appearance to remind everyone this guy is part of our organization. Is it that hard?

Do any other NHL teams do this?

 

[Bleedred]

Scrimmages are way different than games, if there’s a very difficult save Bernier doesn’t feel like making he didn’t have to try it and no opposing players are going to make contact with him.

Korpisalo came back from hip surgery, played 12 games and is still on the IR with a LBI after playing 20 minutes in his last game on 12/9. And he’s 28.

Setbacks are common enough with this. Bernier turns 35 in August, he might not get a NHL contract if he took the year off. He had a reason to be pushing himself.

We’ve been lucky with injuries all things considered, even Wood’s hip held up so far. (He misses games every season so him being out for only 1 is better than usual.)

If Palat comes back in good shape I will have no complaints this season

That’s unlike last season, because Blackwood was a human clusterf***. I’m assuming Blackwood will get injured again so if he manages not to and Palat’s return is a success, I will be very pleasantly surprised to say the least. Knock on (non-human) Wood.


Do any other NHL teams do this?

I guess it varies with hip injuries.

Rask was playing about 6-7 months after his surgery, but he was so bad when he came back he just retired after playing only about 5 games.

I think Bernier's surgery was January of 2022, so I figured with the Rask timeline he'd be cleared by camp, but I know everybody is different.

Francouz took over a year to come back, but I think he had both hips and both knees. I'm not even sure if they all went at the same time.

 

[Bleedred]

to me that does not sound like good news for gravy

Yeah have to imagine Graves and Marino are both going to be out for tomorrow, hopefully we get one back after the break.

I remember a lot of us liked what we saw from O (one day I'll spell his name right) and many even thought he would make the team over Bahl, but it's not like he would have played more than Bahl has if he did,

This is just a keyboard doctor point of view, but Graves looked BAD. He was helped off the ice. I knew it was trouble as soon as I saw him go down. Pretty sure he left with no weight on his one leg and was assisted to the back.

Now, a lot of people were sure Wood was concussed after the hit from Romanov and he was indeed not. He didn't miss a game, just the remainder of that one.

So maybe he won't be out super long term, but I think it's safe to say he's out for tomorrow.

I still think best case scenario is a couple weeks for Graves. But maybe that twitter sport doctor dude already gave his prognosis!

With Marino we don't even know what the hell happened to him and nobody even frickin asked Lindy about it in the post game of the Hurricanes game. They either didn't care, didn't notice or seriously thought he was benched. I know our main reporters weren't on the trip though, but I figured someone would have thought to ask.

 

[FooteBahl]

I remember a lot of us liked what we saw from O (one day I'll spell his name right) and many even thought he would make the team over Bahl, but it's not like he would have played more than Bahl has if he did,

This is just a keyboard doctor point of view, but Graves looked BAD. He was helped off the ice. I knew it was trouble as soon as I saw him go down. Pretty sure he left with no weight on his one leg and was assisted to the back.

Now, a lot of people were sure Wood was concussed after the hit from Romanov and he was indeed not. He didn't miss a game, just the remainder of that one.

So maybe he won't be out super long term, but I think it's safe to say he's out for tomorrow.

I still think best case scenario is a couple weeks for Graves. But maybe that twitter sport doctor dude already gave his prognosis!

With Marino we don't even know what the hell happened to him and nobody even frickin asked Lindy about it in the post game of the Hurricanes game. They either didn't care, didn't notice or seriously thought he was benched. I know our main reporters weren't on the trip though, but I figured someone would have thought to ask.

Twitter sport Dr dude said it’s anything from a contusion to blown A-Z ligament.

I like what I saw from Okhotiuk in the preseason, but I love his throwback “you hit Jack/Nico and I’ll f*** you up” attitude. He’s our hardest hitting dman since Volchenkov imo