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

[NJDevs26]

This is a silly back and forth because we don’t even know for sure ‘what’ the injuries to Jack and Nico are, could both be shoulder/nerve injuries, could both be concussions, one of each or something the internet doctors haven’t seen yet.

 

[JrFischer54]

No, and that hasn’t happened to Jack since. He’s noticeably stronger on the puck. This has nothing to do with that.

Until it does but ok

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Until it does but ok

Ok. What is your solution beyond just “bulk up”? He already avoids hits better than anyone statistically on the team. Nico is the worst in that category, he refuses to make business decisions.

 

[JrFischer54]

Ok. What is your solution beyond just “bulk up”? He already avoids hits better than anyone statistically on the team. Nico is the worst in that category, he refuses to make business decisions.

No clue brother. But eventually he’s going to not avoid a hit both of them and if they are your core pieces it’s a concern

 

[NJDevs26]

No clue brother. But eventually he’s going to not avoid a hit both of them and if they are your core pieces it’s a concern

Anyone can get tripped up and hit the boards funny, last night had nothing to do with bulk, training or putting yourself needlessly in harm’s way

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

No clue brother. But eventually he’s going to not avoid a hit both of them and if they are your core pieces it’s a concern

This is a general concern with nothing to do with what occurred yesterday.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Anyone can get tripped up and hit the boards funny, last night had nothing to do with bulk, training or putting yourself needlessly in harm’s way

Right, but putting on muscle does protect you from those impact injuries. We have no information about the injury so it's a discussion that will go in circles, but there is value from an injury-prevention perspective to getting stronger.

 

[JrFischer54]

This is a general concern with nothing to do with what occurred yesterday.

Ok so we can’t talk about it on a msg board?

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[Nocashstyle]

Because I’m on the plane….

Lol. I wish. Saw this, not sure he is legit or not though. Moron Musk has made the twitter boobs problem even worse

View attachment 762706

https://x.com/vinnieparise/status/1720656853254738396?s=46

That probably doesn’t mean anything really, but at the same time, it’s definitely not BAD news either.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

We still have plenty of talent without them in the lineup. The team just needs to come together even more in their absence and show we wre a good team and don't have to rely on 2 players. We played some of our best games without Nico too. He only has 2 goals and 0 assist in 7 games. Mercer , Hischier and Palat need to step up on offense. Especially Mercer. They are dragging the team a bit even though we have a decent record 10 games into the season.

 

[NJDevs26]

That probably doesn’t mean anything really, but at the same time, it’s definitely not BAD news either.

Well it’s only a sign that it’s not a concussion, you wouldn’t put a guy on a plane who had concussion symptoms unless you were Mets with Ryan Church type stupid. But we’re still up in the air in terms of concern



Sounds like an x-ray of something

 

[Bleedred]

Mercer has been so bad that it’s not even worth complaining about anyone else. If Holtz had 0 points in 10 games he would have been a healthy scratch by game 5 because he had 0 points in the first four games.

Just not good enough. And he’s even made some really horrible plays that stick out. He’s been one of the repeat offenders who can’t clear the puck on the PK or makes a bad clear that just doesn’t get it out of the zone. He’s even had a couple of bad icings and there’s been one or two bad attempts at an empty net goal.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

Holtz looks alot more engaged on both sides of the puck this season. He has certainly earned his was higher up the lineup. Playing on the 3rd or 4th line against easier matchups might factor into that but he should get rewarded while Mercer gets demoted. Mercer doesn't deserve to be playing almost 20 minutes a game right now. Hughes helped get Meier going again and Toffoli off to a hot start. It'd a shame Alex can't play on his line at the moment or with Nico.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Well it’s only a sign that it’s not a concussion, you wouldn’t put a guy on a plane who had concussion symptoms unless you were Mets with Ryan Church type stupid. But we’re still up in the air in terms of concern



Sounds like an x-ray of something

If it's not immediately ok, it's probably somewhere on the continuum of not ok.

 

[The Wumpus]

The whole "Hughes is too smol to not get injured" thing is dumb for a number of reasons, least of which that Jack has managed to stay in the lineup more than his big boi 2019 draft peers Kakko and especially Dach.

 

[Bleedred]

Even the most optimistic timeline tells me Jack is definitely out tomorrow.

But Chicago is the first really bad team we’ve played this year, other than Montreal who has overachieved to start this year.

We should be able to beat them by icing Mercer with Lazar and a bunch of replacement players after the rest of the Devils regulars went on strike because they didn’t wanna play without Nico and Jack.

We’ve played quite a few mediocre teams, but we’ve struggled against a bunch of them too like Arizona, St. Louis and even Montreal looked amazing against us in the 1st period of that game. Last night was the first time St. Louis outshot an opponent in a single period all season, and we even had Jack for half that period. That’s why I said it was not at all a good start, but we did look pretty good shortly after they made it 2-0.

 

[Mgd31]

Kind of want to start Schmid tomorrow to follow-up the good game he had yesterday

 

[glenwo2]

I can't imagine Bettman and the NHL are happy with Hughes being OUT right before he and Bedard were going to face off.

They should dock the Blues a first-rounder out of principle. lol

 

[R8Devs]

Palat-Haula/Mcleod-Bratt
Meier-Haula/Mcleod-Holtz
Toffoli-Mercer-Lazar/Bastian

I would try to spread out the top 9 like this with Nico/Jack out so the team can run 3 lines properly and not overload the first two lines and just leave the bottom six vulnerable

 

[Emperoreddy]

Sounds familiar

 

[jkrdevil]

The whole "Hughes is too smol to not get injured" thing is dumb for a number of reasons, least of which that Jack has managed to stay in the lineup more than his big boi 2019 draft peers Kakko and especially Dach.

Plus this was a freak play. A similar thing happened to Kovalchuk (that ended his tenure here) and he was built like a tank.

 

[Bleedred]

Kind of want to start Schmid tomorrow to follow-up the good game he had yesterday

Not sure if it was just facing the lowly Blues and they made him look better (they suck and aren’t a good team anymore) but it was clearly his best game of the season. By far.

 

[devilsblood]

Holtz looks alot more engaged on both sides of the puck this season. He has certainly earned his was higher up the lineup. Playing on the 3rd or 4th line against easier matchups might factor into that but he should get rewarded while Mercer gets demoted. Mercer doesn't deserve to be playing almost 20 minutes a game right now. Hughes helped get Meier going again and Toffoli off to a hot start. It'd a shame Alex can't play on his line at the moment or with Nico.

I think playing him down the lineup is forcing him to do more. And it seems to be working.

Now he moves up the food chain because of the injuries but im fine doing what we ar doing otherwise

Not sure what to do with mercer.

 

[Camille the Eel]

Well it’s only a sign that it’s not a concussion, you wouldn’t put a guy on a plane who had concussion symptoms unless you were Mets with Ryan Church type stupid. But we’re still up in the air in terms of concern



Sounds like an x-ray of something

that would also be true for assessing a concussion I would think.

I think playing him down the lineup is forcing him to do more. And it seems to be working.

Now he moves up the food chain because of the injuries but im fine doing what we ar doing otherwise

Not sure what to do with mercer.

You put Mercer back at center and let him rumble in front of the net.