Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - 2023-24 season begins!

[glenwo2]

this is pretty much it. By all accounts he's loved in the locker room. His actual game is solid.

He just done bonehead things more often than other guys on the team.

I think the board HATES when he takes dumb penalties

We've already had our fill of Severson and were ready to move on to a D-man that would not do what he did(ie Bad Penalties)...yet here we are AGAIN with someone playing his role when he was a Devil.

Yeah....none of us are pleased about this.

 

[JimEIV]

I don't mind Smith but the Devils got here by playing youth over veteran has beens, why automatically change that line of thinking after 1 good year. It's not the end of the world since Smith is done after this year, but I can see why fans don't like him playing.

I would argue the opposite
Devils got here by key veteran additions and their youth finally growing up.

The Defense we iced last year was all experienced with the top 5 all having over 250 games. It was probably the best defense we've iced in nearly 20 years.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I would argue the opposite
Devils got here by key veteran additions and their youth finally growing up.

The Defense we iced last year was all experienced with the top 5 all having over 250 games. It was probably the best defense we've iced in nearly 20 years.

Wouldn't disagree but adding a young Marino leads to that argument.

 

[Devs3cups]

63 PIMs in 33 regular season games last year. 12 PIMs in 3 playoff games. His reputation didn’t appear out of thin air.

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

Reputation is not what is currently occuring.

What is currently occuring is calls to get him out of the lineup based on bad penalties. All one of them

you stated that the board tends to not like him. This is the reason - precedent.

 

[JimEIV]

you stated that the board tends to not like him. This is the reason - precedent.

.
Yeah it's dumb. It's a new season and it's not happening this season so far.

 

[My3Sons]

Marino wasn't inexperienced though. He had 189 NHL games played before he came to NJ.


Reputation is not what is currently occuring.

What is currently occuring is calls to get him out of the lineup based on bad penalties. All one of them

I disagree and there is no need to insult a post that is just offered based on how I see the criticism. You notice a number of posts have been added suggesting the same thing I said so I’ll suggest it’s not bs even if you don’t like it.

 

[Billdo]

Brendan Smith is a weird player to support. Sure he's probably a real good locker room guy, he'll play physical, but he's not very good and he takes penalties that burn us. Yes, he's taken one this year but the Yotes scored on that and we lost in a shootout after. He's just not very good.

 

[My3Sons]

Brendan Smith is a weird player to support. Sure he's probably a real good locker room guy, he'll play physical, but he's not very good and he takes penalties that burn us. Yes, he's taken one this year but the Yotes scored on that and we lost in a shootout after. He's just not very good.

Well Miller may be worse? Smith is a dirt cheap bottom pairing option that has enough versatility to be meh on both sides at least. At some point you hope Nemec arrives and the defense sorts itself out. Still Smit would be fine for what he is if the penalties taper off. Given Miller and Nemec’s injuries I expect Smith to get a lot of games early to sort it out.

 

[JimEIV]

Brendan Smith is a weird player to support. Sure he's probably a real good locker room guy, he'll play physical, but he's not very good and he takes penalties that burn us. Yes, he's taken one this year but the Yotes scored on that and we lost in a shootout after. He's just not very good.

"Yes, he's taken one this year but the Yotes scored on that and we lost in a shootout"

And to me, this is the most ridiculous part of it all ..

The Devils took 7 penalties in that game.

Marino took 2, Siegenthaler, Hamilton as well as Smith took one.

And we're going to make believe that one was the troubling one ...ok

 

[theoptimist]

This is 4 games into this season. Look at last regular season and the playoffs.

The bad taste for his penalties started before this year.

EDIT: Plus the ONE penalty he took this year... i believe lead to a powerplay where Arizona scored a tying goal - sending us to a shootout loss. Hence the boneheaded penalty stereotype

I think Bratt had a breakaway before OT and did not score. In general, I hate pinning losses on one player and one play. (I like Smith)

 

[JimEIV]

Smith tripping 12:44 of the 3rd period = "inopportune time"

Hamilton tripping 3:57 of OT = "Nothing to see here"


Ah yes, "reputation"

 

[Billdo]

"Yes, he's taken one this year but the Yotes scored on that and we lost in a shootout"

And to me, this is the most ridiculous part of it all ..

The Devils took 7 penalties in that game.

Marino took 2, Siegenthaler, Hamilton as well as Smith took one.

And we're going to make believe that one was the troubling one ...ok

I mean they scored on it to tie the game.

Well Miller may be worse? Smith is a dirt cheap bottom pairing option that has enough versatility to be meh on both sides at least. At some point you hope Nemec arrives and the defense sorts itself out. Still Smit would be fine for what he is if the penalties taper off. Given Miller and Nemec’s injuries I expect Smith to get a lot of games early to sort it out.

I don't even "dislike" Smith, I can see why the team plays him as much as they do. I just don't really want them to have to. If Miller didn't get hurt I would've liked to see him get in.

 

[JimEIV]

I don't even "dislike" Smith, I can see why the team plays him as much as they do. I just don't really want them to have to. If Miller didn't get hurt I would've liked to see him get in.

They really don't play him a lot. He plays 13 minutes of even strength time a game. And whoever plays in that 6th spot is going to get about the same.

 

[glenwo2]

So is Brendan Smith your new favorite player or something, Jim?

Weird.

To be honest, I would have zero problem with him if he didn't commit bonehead penalties at the worst times.

@JimEIV , you said it was only One he committed this season but that ONE led to Game-tying Goal which led to the Devils losing in the f*cking gimmick when they could've won in Regulation had that Penalty NOT have occurred.

Brendan Smith has a history of doing this.

Last I checked, he was here LAST SEASON where you can count on him committing at least one penalty a game.

Now I'm probably incorrect on the exact number (as I don't have the stats in front of me, though @Guttersniped did provide some info) but more often than not, that's what usually happened when he was in the lineup last season.

And it wasn't just the Penalties he took, it was WHEN he took them which was infuriating.


EDIT : So nice for Jim to ignore everything I stated as if I never said anything. Then again, everyone else kind of said what I just said so whatever.

 

[JimEIV]

this dude dies on the weirdest hills lol guess he is bored tonight

Nah it's not weird...

It's just I think it is so gutless to harp on bottom pairing Dmen or 11th and 12th forwards easy targets when things aren't going particularly well.

And I honestly have believed for some years that this is done on purpose to distract from talking about the issues and or players that are the real problem.

We don't want to talk about how losing Graves and replacing him with Bahl is the true issue...so we'll make up an issue about Smith's nonexistent penalties....and that's just one issue.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Can't believe people just glossed over this video, called New Video. Where's the Old Video?

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Nah it's not weird...

It's just I think it is so gutless to harp on bottom pairing Dmen or 11th and 12th forwards easy targets when things aren't going particularly well.

And I honestly have believed for some years that this is done on purpose to distract from talking about the issues and or players that are the real problem.

We don't want to talk about how losing Graves and replacing him with Bahl is the true issue...so we'll make up an issue about Smith's nonexistent penalties.

Bahl is 3rd among our DMen in xG%...he has not been a problem whatsoever. And Graves at last check led the league in turning the puck over.

I dont know why you insist on making definitive statements based on a week's worth of games. Its super weird.

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

Brendan Smith shoots with a Bowtech 82nd. That's why nobody likes him.

 

[MadDevil]

The main reason is probably that Smith just isn't very good. He's not terrible most of the time either, but I think most viewed him as a veteran depth guy who has ended up playing more than we would have liked. Which isn't his fault. I get having a veteran to play nurse maid to a kid, and ultimately Smith has very little impact either positively or negatively on winning games, so I'm more indifferent that anything towards him. It's always easier to complain about the depth guys though.

 

[jkrdevil]

Why are we debating Smith when there is currently no one to insert into the lineup in for him?

 

[glenwo2]

I think Bratt had a breakaway before OT and did not score. In general, I hate pinning losses on one player and one play. (I like Smith)

I remember that.

I was like "oh! Bratt could've iced the game. Oh well. So long as we stay disciplined, we'll hold onto this lead and play PK when they pull their goaltender" and you know what happened ultimately.

But bringing Bratt up as if you're pinning blame to take blame away from Smith is way out there, man.

Bratt had 2 Goals and an Assist in that game.

He did his part and then some.

That he wasn't able to score on the Breakaway on what should've been merely the Dagger and not a goal that the Devils needed to win, shouldn't be held against him just to absolve Smith of the bad penalty that led to the Game-Tying goal later.

 

[Guttersniped]

Smith tripping 12:44 of the 3rd period = "inopportune time"

Hamilton tripping 3:57 of OT = "Nothing to see here"


Ah yes, "reputation"

Hamilton takes too many penalties too. I doubt people are thrilled with Meier having 4 minor penalties already even if the other team never scored on those PP. Some of Meier’s penalties have been pretty infuriating.

And yes, people complain about those players too.

That doesn’t change the fact that Smith was the most penalized player last season.

“Reputation” based on what happened all last year isn’t baseless. It’s not like he’s going to gets faster or better, so he’ll keep taking them.

You can also see the penalties drawn last year with the stats I posted. Smith drew quite a few. That’s a positive.

Of course that was last season so it has no bearing on the future (according to you now, for some unknown reason).

Smith is a useful plug. He’s also an offensive black hole had zero goals in his 63 GP last season (including playoffs with that). Historically speaking, people complain about this type of player. It is known.

I see no reason to bitch about Smith since we don’t have any other options. If we had a better option though I would be interested in exploring it. Not sure Smith stays in the NHL that much longer.

Here’s NHL defensemen 33 or over in 2023-24:

Of those 34:
4 retired: Holden, Braun, Demers and Borowieki
Alex Edler is in denial and not officially retired.
3 in the AHL: Irwin, Hunt and Fedun (AHL Pens Captain)
Stralman is in the SHL.
Jordie Benn is in HockeyAllsvenskan (lol, good lord).
2 injured: Muzzin is going to miss all of 2023-24 season. Wideman is out indefinitely on the LTIR.

This is 33 and over defenseman so far in 2023-24:

Note: the 2008 draft class makes this a particularly strong group of 33-34 year olds lol. The some of the older 2009 draftees are pretty good too.

 

[Guttersniped]

Why are we debating Smith when there is currently no one to insert into the lineup in for him?

Not sure this is really a debate. If it is, I’m only defending people’s god given right to be annoyed by Smith’s penalties.

It’s a reasonable question to ask why we’re discussing Smith though.

But this is a board that discussed Geertsen quite a bit and he never mattered. Scrubs get discussed.

 

[Darkauron]

Hughes sucks, but that Smith guy? Now that is a hockey player!

Yall just never stop giving into him