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

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Watching the Panthers play the Jets. Panthers are aggressive all over the ice. Devils will have opportunities on the rush if they are concise on their breakouts. The Florida D can be taken advantage of. Panthers can overwhelm you though if you are not in sync. Will be a good test.
Me too... The best part of the game was Winnipeg playing Iron Maiden in the stadium. :)
 
Watching the Panthers play the Jets. Panthers are aggressive all over the ice. Devils will have opportunities on the rush if they are concise on their breakouts. The Florida D can be taken advantage of. Panthers can overwhelm you though if you are not in sync. Will be a good test.
They are a pain for us. Every game last year was a close, tough slog of a time. I expect nothing different this time
 
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My biggest takeaway was that Vitek looked good. Others flashed and Jacky delivered. I was pleasantly surprised with Noseks game. He was like Bizarro Wood (who scored an EN BTW).

The average margin of victory in the NHL is 2.02 goals and the average goals per game is 3.23. Games are universally going to be closer than the pre season Devils hype would suggest. So, I am thrilled with wins and Vitek looking solid.

Last year's Bruins were such an anomaly.
And then the next game, Bratt joined Jacky's Delivery service. :sarcasm:

Unfortunately, Brendan Smith. took a wrong turn and crashed the truck.
 
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Between Nico's and Bratt's early injuries, isn't that a rite of passage on this team?
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when is it time to panic that Timo has not looked great in more than a handful of games as a devil?

We don't need Timo to score 40+ goals. 35 goals with Nico being Nico and Mercer taking a step forward is fine. Bratt and Jack seem to have taken another step forward. Even more important from them is not getting stuck in the defensive zone and getting the cycling going in the offensive zone. That line is too good to completely fall apart.

With that said, I don't think our window truly opens up for two more seasons. Not saying we can't win it now, but we are going to be really good once Luke and Nemec get some seasoning.
 
and the preseason competition was very low grade too. Nobody was particularly aggressive or challenged us the way the opposition has come at us these last two nights. The new level of intensity looks like it’s surprised us. As someone said above, we were able to dictate the game on our terms in every pre season game. The other clubs were responding to us. While these first two nights the opposition has made us react to their aggressive games. We’ve been frequently turning over the puck and back on our heels. We should get it figured out. We haven’t brought our A game yet.

What if this is "the A game"?

If the Detroits and Arizonas can take the Devils off their game what happens when they face the heavyweights in the league?
 
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You think Nico, Toffoli and Timo finish with zero goals this season? There’ll be plenty of games where we pump in goals once the other forwards get their **** together.

Defensively it’s clearly going to be worse for a while but some of that is correctable
 
You think Nico, Toffoli and Timo finish with zero goals this season? There’ll be plenty of games where we pump in goals once the other forwards get their **** together.

Defensively it’s clearly going to be worse for a while but some of that is correctable
Haven’t you heard? We’re 6 periods into the season and the three players you mentioned are washed.

Man, patience truly is a virtue.
 
What if this is "the A game"?

If the Detroits and Arizonas can take the Devils off their game what happens when they face the heavyweights in the league?
Legitimate question. What is our game going to be this year.

We’re going to see that I guess as time goes by. But yeah, I think a question is - as at the start of every season - just what is this club going to be. The first couple games show we probably aren’t going to be able to throw our shirts on the ice and win 13 of 16 straight out of the gate.

It’s a different team and a different league. We’ve had a certain amount of turnover in personnel (1/3 of our defense, also subtracting Wood, Boqvist and Tatar) and the league around us has changed and our remaining guys are also a year older.

I would question if we are going to be as dominantly speedy this season? Could be other clubs have gotten more like us and better at it too?

We still have looked (and I didn’t watch every minute) like we want to rely inordinately on the rush for our scoring and like our forecheck game - to the extent it exists - is ineffective.

5 on 5 we haven’t looked as hot as last year. The power play however looks MUCH more dangerous.

But it’s only 2 games (and back to back at that). The answer to your question should be clearer in 2 or 3 more weeks.
 
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What if this is "the A game"?

If the Detroits and Arizonas can take the Devils off their game what happens when they face the heavyweights in the league?
Then we probably make the playoffs as the 6th seed or something. Last time we did that we came within two games of the cup. It's gonna be alright
 
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