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

[Hisch13r]

Smith is generally a fine 6D. Smith so far has very much not been fine. A 34% xGF and ~10 pts worse than the next closest D is absolutely f***ing putrid.

 

[Bleedred]

Geertsen is a name I forget about, until I see it posted or read it online somewhere.

Then I unfortunately remember.

 

[Hisch13r]

Luke-Dougie have been great again together in their limited sample. They’ve played 23:37 together dating back to last year which obviously is a super duper small sample but they have a 72% CF and 63% xGF. Siegs-Marino have been awful together in their 54:37 together the past 2 years but that’s also a really small sample. I wouldn’t mind giving them some time to figure things out and giving Luke-Dougie a look

 

[Saugus]

Geertsen is a name I forget about, until I see it posted or read it online somewhere.

Then I unfortunately remember.

Hey now, we will tolerate no Big Ma$e slander here!

 

[glenwo2]

Geertsen is a name I forget about, until I see it posted or read it online somewhere.

Then I unfortunately remember.

Do you recall a player we referred to as "Muscles" or something? For some reason, I'm recalling this....i don't know why. lol

 

[Guttersniped]

Smith is generally a fine 6D. Smith so far has very much not been fine. A 34% xGF and ~10 pts worse than the next closest guy is absolutely f***ing putrid.

That’s why I posted the the list of 33 and over defensemen.

There aren’t many 34 year old defensemen in the NHL these days. There are more now than last year because 2008 was one of the greatest defensive drafts ever, but still not that many.

Smith could be turning into a pumpkin here and no longer be a guy we can keep in the line-up longterm.

But his potential replacements have to get healthy for this amazing theory to matter.

Hatakka’s injury is a real bummer because it’s not clear if he can stay healthy while playing hockey anymore.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

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

Seem to recall a retaliatory slashing penalty in the third period taken 150 feet BEHIND the play in which the opposite team scored the game-tying goal on the ensuing power play.

The culprit was not Brendan Smith.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

I like how the NHL is doing 1 day with all 32 teams playing. I'm just not a fan of a home game starting at 6 PM on a weekday. I'm sure the traffic in the D.C. area is pretty bad. That 1 hour makes a difference for people commuting to the game. The fans in attendance should be the biggest priority and not the tv scheduling. It's only 1 day so it's not a huge deal.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Hey now, we will tolerate no Big Ma$e slander here!

Certainly not his grandmother or whoever it was that called me out for ripping on him on Facebook....

 

[NJDevs26]

Yes Timo has had four penalties, and he got called out by us AND benched by the coaching staff for it, I don’t expect that to be an ongoing issue though.

re: Smith it’s not just his penalties that annoy me (which also finally got him sat in the playoffs btw), he also tries to be far more of an offensive d-man than his skills suggest he should and he’s not quick enough to recover when he gets trapped in the offensive zone after taking a bad angle shot that gets stopped

 

[NJDevs26]

Also the earliest game tomorrow starts at 6pm ET, so I don't even know what the 5pm complaining is about.

Opening night was a 5 PM start in Tampa to give ESPN a triple header which was ludicrous but you can probably get away with that for the season opener, not at any other point (and not in every market).

The cry for more staggered games is silly when you already have four different time zones and games start at the hour and half hour. There are also more games starting at 6 this year in general, just try that in Newark and watch the howling about how the stands are 1/4 full in the first period cause rush hour traffic sucks.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

https://x.com/ashelai_/status/1716508208347402436?s=46&t=kovjTVOY1_RTGVsFqMpVRg

If anyone wants an early morning laugh, LMFAO.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

https://x.com/ashelai_/status/1716508208347402436?s=46&t=kovjTVOY1_RTGVsFqMpVRg

If anyone wants an early morning laugh, LMFAO.

I think the poster was meant to type in plummer for Kakko but, the word playmaker went in instead?

 

[Triumph]

Opening night was a 5 PM start in Tampa to give ESPN a triple header which was ludicrous but you can probably get away with that for the season opener, not at any other point (and not in every market).

The cry for more staggered games is silly when you already have four different time zones and games start at the hour and half hour. There are also more games starting at 6 this year in general, just try that in Newark and watch the howling about how the stands are 1/4 full in the first period cause rush hour traffic sucks.

It's not that silly, a lot of nights are just 7 pm starts. Even with the later starts when games are on HNIC, it's not enough to see you through an intermission. That said, of course the league doesn't really want people flipping around on intermissions, but it's extended them from 15 minutes to 18 minutes for absolutely no reason other than greed (and stupidity).

 

[Clam Jensen]

https://x.com/ashelai_/status/1716508208347402436?s=46&t=kovjTVOY1_RTGVsFqMpVRg

If anyone wants an early morning laugh, LMFAO.

Insane revisionist history lol.

 

[Triumph]

Luke-Dougie have been great again together in their limited sample. They’ve played 23:37 together dating back to last year which obviously is a super duper small sample but they have a 72% CF and 63% xGF. Siegs-Marino have been awful together in their 54:37 together the past 2 years but that’s also a really small sample. I wouldn’t mind giving them some time to figure things out and giving Luke-Dougie a look

There's obviously huge score effects in the Luke-Dougie sample, and likely that in the Siegs-Marino sample also.

 

[theoptimist]

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.

It was a stretch and I agree with you - comparing the two is not fair.

Smith took a penalty and the penalty kill looked good until Siegenthaler/McLeod failed to clear the puck on a sloppy play. My point is, we can choose to pick events in a time series, but how important is this when the team didn't score in the penalty shootout nor did Schmid make any saves (maybe 1, I forget)?

 

[TrufleShufle]

Seem to recall a retaliatory slashing penalty in the third period taken 150 feet BEHIND the play in which the opposite team scored the game-tying goal on the ensuing power play.

The culprit was not Brendan Smith.

I think I remember that, was that the one dude who is 3rd in the league in points only behind two guys who have two more games played? Forget his name, but I think that's who you are talking about.

 

[Bleedred]

Do you recall a player we referred to as "Muscles" or something? For some reason, I'm recalling this....i don't know why. lol

Now you got me thinking.

It rings a bell, but not a very loud one.

I can’t think if this was going back long ago or sometime in the last few years?

 

[Satans Hockey]

Opening night was a 5 PM start in Tampa to give ESPN a triple header which was ludicrous but you can probably get away with that for the season opener, not at any other point (and not in every market).

The cry for more staggered games is silly when you already have four different time zones and games start at the hour and half hour. There are also more games starting at 6 this year in general, just try that in Newark and watch the howling about how the stands are 1/4 full in the first period cause rush hour traffic sucks.

Exactly on the last part. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to get out of work early to get a game and that's not accounting for the fact that you may have to go home first for whatever reason, grab the kids, walk/feed the dog, might have a far commute from the arena already, etc etc

 

[Japam]

https://x.com/ashelai_/status/1716508208347402436?s=46&t=kovjTVOY1_RTGVsFqMpVRg

If anyone wants an early morning laugh, LMFAO.

She trying to get that Elon Musk ad revenue from the engagement or something?

 

[Devs3cups]

Goalie we’re facing tomorrow night.

 

[Bleedred]

https://x.com/ashelai_/status/1716508208347402436?s=46&t=kovjTVOY1_RTGVsFqMpVRg

If anyone wants an early morning laugh, LMFAO.

Is she just a regular, average person? Or is this some personality from the hockey world?

Either way, this belongs in the Shane Doan is better than Patrik Elias hall of fame.

 

[Rhodes 81]

Staggered starts is a great thing that the NHL continuously gets wrong. It is objectively better to give casual fans the option to always be watching hockey rather than to go do something else when the period ends and possibly not come back.

The stupid part is starting a weeknight game before 7 and having every team play on the same day. They do this because it is easier to schedule around instead of having to juggle days off to keep teams playing on every day, but how often do we end up with 12 games one night (and 70% starting at 7 eastern) and then 2 the next day. You're limiting options of what to watch at that point on both nights, because realistically a fan can't watch more than 2-3 of those games on night 1, then only has one choice on night 2.

https://x.com/ashelai_/status/1716508208347402436?s=46&t=kovjTVOY1_RTGVsFqMpVRg

If anyone wants an early morning laugh, LMFAO.

Us trying to convince ourselves that Joe Blandisi was going to be something mentality.

 

[OlfactoryHughes]

Staggered starts is a great thing that the NHL continuously gets wrong. It is objectively better to give casual fans the option to always be watching hockey rather than to go do something else when the period ends and possibly not come back.

The stupid part is starting a weeknight game before 7 and having every team play on the same day. They do this because it is easier to schedule around instead of having to juggle days off to keep teams playing on every day, but how often do we end up with 12 games one night (and 70% starting at 7 eastern) and then 2 the next day. You're limiting options of what to watch at that point on both nights, because realistically a fan can't watch more than 2-3 of those games on night 1, then only has one choice on night 2.

Us trying to convince ourselves that Joe Blandisi was going to be something mentality.

Staggered starts would be nice on a regular basis, all they need to do is throw a game on at 7, 7:15, and 7:30 on nights where multiple games are scheduled at once.

Every team playing on the same night doesn’t work, because most fans have a team, and they’re going to watch that game above the rest.

If we had off tonight, I would love this promotion, and would look forward to watching all these games end one after another, which has the potential to be good entertainment.