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

[Blackjack]

This year was about always about taking steps forward. I started out wanting them to be competitive and play meaningful games at Christmas and competeting till the end. With the start to the season they have had a collapse would be devastating.

No it wouldn't. Was it "devastating" when Tampa rolled the league and then got swept out of the first round by Columbus? There's no continuity between seasons, you just get the results your team deserves and if you're able to keep the team together and make improvements, you'll be a little better the following year. Best thing for the team would be to lose a bunch more games like last night: score goals, control play, but lose because of bad goaltending.

No good can come out of a collapse and to wish for one at this point is crazy. Even with the start I never felt they were getting to 120 pts and winnng division and conference. Making the playoffs is a HUGE step and that should be the goal. Even after their start 8th spot in playoffs would be huge accomplishment.

Nah, making the playoffs meant nothing in '17-'18 and it would mean nothing this year either.

 

[Blackjack]

So, I was extremely impressed with Okhotiuk last night against an elite team. The organization needs to stop dicking around with him, its obvious he is better than Bahl. Bahl is passive in every sense of the word, struggling in open space. Okhotiuk takes away time and space quickly, skates extremely well and hurts people with his hits. While he isn't an offensive defensmen he still has nice hands to create some space in the offensive zone.

I really liked Okhotiuk's game last night and I don't understand why he doesn't get more of a shot. He's a great skater, moves the puck well, and he's a good hitter without being a headhunter.

 

[Devs3cups]

Just annoyed we couldn’t meet the challenge. Plenty to be excited about the future, they’re learning and all that, etc. but I hate that a lot of these losses come down to breakdowns exiting the zone and self owns.

They played very well against the best team in the league with 2 of their top-4 D missing and the sieve in net. I’m disappointed they didn’t pull off the W, but plenty to be happy about with this game imo.

 

[Call Me Al]

they did play well but they’ve lost 7 of 8 and 8 of 11 games while everyone else gained on them, to the point that the playoffs aren’t a given - one month ago this time people were talking like they already clinched.

they took advantage of the easy part of the schedule, which is great, but they absolutely shit the bed once the schedule got hard.

the fact that they are playing well enough to win and still not winning kind of sucks. they actually have to turn it around instead of collect moral victories, there’s a nonzero chance that by next saturday they are barely holding on to a wild card spot

 

[Devs3cups]

they did play well but they’ve lost 7 of 8 and 8 of 11 games while everyone else gained on them, to the point that the playoffs aren’t a given - one month ago this time people were talking like they already clinched.

they took advantage of the easy part of the schedule, which is great, but they absolutely shit the bed once the schedule got hard.

the fact that they are playing well enough to win and still not winning kind of sucks. they actually have to turn it around instead of collect moral victories, there’s a nonzero chance that by next saturday they are barely holding on to a wild card spot

I can’t get to mad with the L’s when the bolded is the case. If they were getting stomped every single night like the last few years it’d be a different story, but to me, this is par for the course for a young team turning the corner. If they keep playing like this they’ll win more than they’ll lose going forward.

I’m also trying to not change my expectations of the team based on the start. There were always going to be ups and downs. I saw this team as a bubble team at the start of the year and it helps me put things into perspective so to speak lol.

This is our best start up to the Christmas break since the 2009-2010 season. This is progress. Lots of positives to go around.

 

[NJDevs26]

No it wouldn't. Was it "devastating" when Tampa rolled the league and then got swept out of the first round by Columbus? There's no continuity between seasons, you just get the results your team deserves and if you're able to keep the team together and make improvements, you'll be a little better the following year. Best thing for the team would be to lose a bunch more games like last night: score goals, control play, but lose because of bad goaltending.



Nah, making the playoffs meant nothing in '17-'18 and it would mean nothing this year either.

Because it's really the same thing when you have a record-breaking 82 game season and flop in four after some deep playoff runs in the past as opposed to having a record breaking thirty games then flopping after that with a recent history of losing.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

they did play well but they’ve lost 7 of 8 and 8 of 11 games while everyone else gained on them, to the point that the playoffs aren’t a given - one month ago this time people were talking like they already clinched.

they took advantage of the easy part of the schedule, which is great, but they absolutely shit the bed once the schedule got hard.

the fact that they are playing well enough to win and still not winning kind of sucks. they actually have to turn it around instead of collect moral victories, there’s a nonzero chance that by next saturday they are barely holding on to a wild card spot

Is everyone just completely neurotic unless the season is wrapped up with a 100% guaranteed playoff spot before the halfway point in the season? The team is excellent, every team around us won’t continue the ridiculous pace of the last 10 games, we won’t continue the losing we’ve been doing.

 

[Guadana]

So, I was extremely impressed with Okhotiuk last night against an elite team. The organization needs to stop dicking around with him, its obvious he is better than Bahl. Bahl is passive in every sense of the word, struggling in open space. Okhotiuk takes away time and space quickly, skates extremely well and hurts people with his hits. While he isn't an offensive defensmen he still has nice hands to create some space in the offensive zone.

I like Okhotiuk, but he clearly should work on escaping part with the puck. But I like what I saw today too.

 

[Call Me Al]

Is everyone just completely neurotic unless the season is wrapped up with a 100% guaranteed playoff spot before the halfway point in the season? The team is excellent, every team around us won’t continue the ridiculous pace of the last 10 games, we won’t continue the losing we’ve been doing.

i don’t think my post was neurotic it was a pretty sober analysis of how the month of december has gone. sorry it wasn’t an “everything is still going great because advanced stats!” post but they have been finding ways to lose games with brain dead mistakes at bad times and a dried up offense.

i’m not sure what you expected after a losing stretch like this, fans to point to corsi and hdcf and think that matters the most when they give up a significant lead in the standings?

 

[Guttersniped]

They underscored their xGF and got absolutely sodomized on the xGA end.

You act like this is how it will always be. The team can play out of funk. The team can be improved in the off-season without a high draft pick.

The only thing I would hate to see is desperation rental spending but Fitz literally to a shit on the idea of rentals, god bless him. Sometimes he’s the anti-Shero in delightful ways.

If you don’t know how much better this team is than 2017-18 then I don’t know what to say. I’m not even bothering to provide the statistics to show the vast differences. That’s borderline trolling, similar to calling Carolina “middling” and acting like it’s shameful to lose them.

Fun Fact: After 34 games Brian Gibbons was the 2017-18 team’s lead gold scorer with 12 goals. He scored zero goals in his final 25 games (he was out with a broken thumb later in the season).

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

i don’t think my post was neurotic it was a pretty sober analysis of how the month of december has gone. sorry it wasn’t an “everything is still going great because advanced stats!” post but they have been finding ways to lose games with brain dead mistakes at bad times and a dried up offense.

i’m not sure what you expected after a losing stretch like this, fans to point to corsi and hdcf and think that matters the most when they give up a significant lead in the standings?

I’ll put it this way: we just had about the worst couple week stretch imaginable while basically every relevant team around us had the best stretch imaginable. As of today, if you wanted to lay a bet for the Devils making the playoffs, DraftKings is giving you -1200 odds. You can get the Islanders for +140.

 

[Triumph]

they did play well but they’ve lost 7 of 8 and 8 of 11 games while everyone else gained on them, to the point that the playoffs aren’t a given - one month ago this time people were talking like they already clinched.

they took advantage of the easy part of the schedule, which is great, but they absolutely shit the bed once the schedule got hard.

the fact that they are playing well enough to win and still not winning kind of sucks. they actually have to turn it around instead of collect moral victories, there’s a nonzero chance that by next saturday they are barely holding on to a wild card spot

The fact that they are playng well enough to win and still not is a great sign, it shows that they're going to win. No, they're not an 130 point team, yes they are sort of back in the playoff race but not really (they're six points up on the Islanders with a game in hand), and they're having their goaltending fail as the shooters can't seem to score. Most teams go through a stretch like that, they just tend to get a few more points out of them.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Can we just take a minute to appreciate Bill Spaulding’s Santagovich goal call last night? Guy is really settling into the job.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Just annoyed we couldn’t meet the challenge. Plenty to be excited about the future, they’re learning and all that, etc. but I hate that a lot of these losses come down to breakdowns exiting the zone and self owns.

They did meet the challenge. Management f***ed them over by deciding to start an AHL goalie against the best team in the league.

This is easily the most frustrating loss of the season for me, but it has nothing to do with how the skaters played. I am really angry that this organization is still giving this guy a chance. We cannot collapse out of the playoffs, it would be the worst season in franchise history and would put a dark cloud over this core that is supposed to be a future Stanley cup contender. And the most likely source of such a collapse would be management continuing to trot out this sorry excuse of a goalie. It would literally be handicapping the team and throwing away points. That would be unforgivable in my eyes given where we are with this team’s development.

 

[Guttersniped]

Is everyone just completely neurotic unless the season is wrapped up with a 100% guaranteed playoff spot before the halfway point in the season? The team is excellent, every team around us won’t continue the ridiculous pace of the last 10 games, we won’t continue the losing we’ve been doing.

I guess people here have grown unfamiliar with the concept of a “playoff race”.

Yes other teams compete for spots but the teams that just went on their own massive heaters will cool down too.

Yes, it was unfortunate that we didn’t pick up more points early in the losing streak because it was going to be obviously so hard to do it tiny brutal section we’re in.

We can however, and some people seem to not think this is possible, gain ground on teams right after this tough stretch.

The comical part of the doom and gloom stuff is if we had beaten Boston people would have acted liked like we just got the most crucial, season-saving 2 points ever.

That second period sucked. Losing sucks. Other Metro teams going on tears sucks. None of this means we can’t make the playoffs, it’s not decided right now.

People are bitching about collapses or that our playoff position isn’t secure enough at Christmas with 46 points after we had a total of 63 points the year before is goofy to me.

Cheer up, we’re a really good team.

 

[devilsblood]

At least it's not month-to-month

Year to year.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Can we just take a minute to appreciate Bill Spaulding’s Santagovich goal call last night? Guy is really settling into the job.

 

[devilsblood]

They did meet the challenge. Management f***ed them over by deciding to start an AHL goalie against the best team in the league.

This is easily the most frustrating loss of the season for me, but it has nothing to do with how the skaters played. I am really angry that this organization is still giving this guy a chance. We cannot collapse out of the playoffs, it would be the worst season in franchise history and would put a dark cloud over this core that is supposed to be a future Stanley cup contender. And the most likely source of such a collapse would be management continuing to trot out this sorry excuse of a goalie. It would literally be handicapping the team and throwing away points. That would be unforgivable in my eyes given where we are with this team’s development.

Things to consider here. Blackwood played well his last game out. Vitek did not. Also as Triumph noted Blackwood has been good in his career vs Boston So there was some logic to Blackwood getting that game.

To me the question is Blackwood or Schmid. And in that front there are waiver considerations. At some point, maybe pretty soon, we may risk putting Blackwood through waivers and go with Schmid. But I can see why they are reluctant to do that now.

 

[Triumph]

I guess people here have grown unfamiliar with the concept of a “playoff race”.

Yes other teams compete for spots but the teams that just went on their own massive heaters will cool down too.

Yes, it was unfortunate that we didn’t pick up more points early in the losing streak because it was going to be obviously so hard to do it tiny brutal section we’re in.

We can however, and some people seem to not think this is possible, gain ground on teams right after this tough stretch.

The comical part of the doom and gloom stuff is if we had beaten Boston people would have acted liked like we just got the most crucial, season-saving 2 points ever.

That second period sucked. Losing sucks. Other Metro teams going on tears sucks. None of this means we can’t make the playoffs, it’s not decided right now.

People are bitching about collapses or that our playoff position isn’t secure enough at Christmas with 46 points after we had a total of 63 points the year before is goofy to me.

Cheer up, we’re a really good team.

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The thing is, this is already going to be retconned into a collapse. If the Devils lose in the first round, this stretch will be called a collapse.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Things to consider here. Blackwood played well his last game out. Vitek did not. Also as Triumph noted Blackwood has been good in his career vs Boston So there was some logic to Blackwood getting that game.

To me the question is Blackwood or Schmid. And in that front there are waiver considerations. At some point, maybe pretty soon, we may risk putting Blackwood through waivers and go with Schmid. But I can see why they are reluctant to do that now.

Blackwood did not do anything special against Florida to warrant giving him the benefit of the doubt that he’s suddenly a better goalie than Vitek. You put your best players out there against the top team in the league. Likewise, his previous record against Boston is meaningless. It’s a small sample size and there’s too many variables that can make it seem like he plays better against a specific team even if that’s not actually what’s happening. It could just be randomness.

If they’re worried about injuries and don’t want to throw Dawes in there in that situation, can’t they carry Blackwood as the third goalie?

If they can’t, then waive his ass. If someone claims him…well who cares? Goood riddance. I would rather roll with Schmid (and Dawes in case of injury) than someone who’s proven already he sucks. At least those other guys have the promise of potential and in that sense deserve some benefit of the doubt that they can improve. And they won’t be any worse than Blackwood even if they’re not ready.

 

[Guttersniped]

The thing is, this is already going to be retconned into a collapse. If the Devils lose in the first round, this stretch will be called a collapse.

During the streak someone on the mainboard already had reached a “losing to the NYI in the 1st Rd is completely unacceptable and a failure on Fitz’s part” stage. (Yes, the standing we’re supposed to never change for 4 months.)

Now I’ve updated my expectations to where I would be disappointed if we don’t make the playoffs but I did say I feel going directly to outrage over 1st Rd exits was an overreaction to the win streak. I was told I wasn’t demanding enough lol.

What can I say, I’m an ol’ softy.

 

[njdevils1982]

Can we just take a minute to appreciate Bill Spaulding’s Santagovich goal call last night? Guy is really settling into the job.

i dont mind bill but last night when down 4-1 in the third there was about four of five minutes of game time where him and dano just talked and talked about whatever with no actual calling of the game.

it was actually a bit annoying

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

still playing well even despite losing.

(cant wait for the usual suspects to say YEAH WHO CARES ABOUT THE STATS!!!)

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

No it wouldn't. Was it "devastating" when Tampa rolled the league and then got swept out of the first round by Columbus? There's no continuity between seasons, you just get the results your team deserves and if you're able to keep the team together and make improvements, you'll be a little better the following year. Best thing for the team would be to lose a bunch more games like last night: score goals, control play, but lose because of bad goaltending.



Nah, making the playoffs meant nothing in '17-'18 and it would mean nothing this year either.

Teams aren't the same with this season's team you know it's not a fluke year but a growing year....If they make the playoffs hopefully it will make them play hard game in game out so they make it back again every year and compete for cup

 

[Blender]

still playing well even despite losing.

(cant wait for the usual suspects to say YEAH WHO CARES ABOUT THE STATS!!!)

Goaltending has been horrendous and finishing needs to be much better.