Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - 2023-24 season part II

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Pens situation is much worse than ours in 08-09.

Elias was "only" 33 in that season. We had Parise and Zajac, both under 25 at that time.

Crosby and Malkin are pushing 40.

The reason I used that year specifically is I don't know what they're doing with Guentzel. And maybe they try to add one last superstar to that roster before shit hits the fan truly

 

[Killing Joke]

man Tom shit the bed so hard and he’ll get leeway for it even though everything in his fault lol.

35 games left and you realistically need to win 22 to have a shot of making it.

Clueless f***ing gm that sat on his hands and might not make a move that we need to make regardless of health. What a f***ing moron and we’re stuck with him as the gm.

 

[britdevil]

The reason I used that year specifically is I don't know what they're doing with Guentzel. And maybe they try to add one last superstar to that roster before shit hits the fan truly

They already did that with Karlsson haha.

But yeah, if the Pens are stupid enough to fire Sullivan (they aren't...) and TF still sits on his hands with Ruff as his coach? I'll riot.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Read Guentzel as Genucel….

Definitely time for bed

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

They already did that with Karlsson haha.

But yeah, if the Pens are stupid enough to fire Sullivan (they aren't...) and TF still sits on his hands with Ruff as his coach? I'll riot.

18M for next year and not a ton of guys to sign but the big fish is Guentzel, they could do something sneaky next summer unless Dubas does what Hextall did with Marino and gets worse on purpose lmao

 

[britdevil]

Read Guentzel as Genucel….

Definitely time for bed

 

[BurntToast]

Bizarre or not the elephant in the room is how this was handled. When this blew up first in 2018, NHL teams should all release any player that was a suspect. They should do it for their own good. But they did not, because Hockey Canada offered to pay this off and police closed the investigation. Problem is the case became criminal with a different plaintiff and that's when NHL clubs gave all those LoA guys contracts for this season only. They clearly knew who is who. Some guys were shipped off, some were traded, so were tried to be sold, but no takers.

What I'm trying to tell you is this, sad story for the girl in this case (btw she cant' be trusted 100% either), but the bigger picture is worse. HC had 21 cases like this since 1989. All swapped under the rug. I sincerely believe if HC and everyone else started throwing these guys under the bus (actually there is no bus, just let them face the law) from day 1 they would all be better off and there would be less victims from this. Not everything is money and lies. At some point you need to face the truth.

Its kinda hard to do that, when there have been so many allegations that have occurred throughout the years. Hockey Canada was covering stuff up for a while, the NHL is numb to it. Its gets brushed under the rug but the 2003 teams allegations are just as bad, but we know who was on that team. It also concerning because we keep seeing it at the NHL level. With teams still drafting players with significant allegations against them and the Kyle Beach fiasco. I love hockey the game but hate hockey the culture.

 

[My3Sons]

Its kinda hard to do that, when there have been so many allegations that have occurred throughout the years. Hockey Canada was covering stuff up for a while, the NHL is numb to it. Its gets brushed under the rug but the 2003 teams allegations are just as bad, but we know who was on that team. It also concerning because we keep seeing at the NHL level. With teams still drafting players with significant allegations against them and the Kyle Beach fiasco. I love hockey the game but hate hockey the culture.

MTL picked that Mailloux kid in the first round or maybe first pick in the second round. Why any North American League allows him to play is beyond me. Maybe he’s gotten genuine treatment and therapy and has made amends we don’t know about? If not he should head overseas.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Why not Kevin Dineen as head coach? This is a serious question. Are we judging him based on those Florida teams? They were trash teams and he still managed to make the playoffs the first year. Additionally he has 5 years experience working with Quenneville who is a phenomenal coach. He has simply been an amazing AHL head coach as well.

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

Pens board hate on, complain about and blame Sullivan just as much, just FYI.

Good we will take Sully

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Moneypuck thinks Philly is 3x more likely to make the playoffs.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Well, no shit. We keep using games in hand as our logic for clawing back and then literally keep losing like idiots

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Well, no shit. We keep using games in hand as our logic for clawing back and then literally keep losing like idiots

Philly has lost 5 in a row, their starting goaltender vanished into thin air, and they haven’t been playing with half a team like we have.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Philly has lost 5 in a row, their starting goaltender vanished into thin air, and they haven’t been playing with half a team like we have.

I mean every Flyers fan knew the shoe was gonna drop at some point, just not in the matter it did. My original point was that we can keep crying about the games in hand but they won't matter unless NJ does something with them with is why their percentages is tripled ours.

 

[Call Me Al]

there SO much season left, the standings are so close, and teams go on runs - good and bad- so commonly that there virtually no value to be taken from these charts unless you’re a top or bottom team. what does 20% mean? if we win our next couple games that will probably jump to 40% (big if and i don’t expect that i’m just illustrating that these charts are useless at any point in time).

there’s 70 points on the table - there’s a 1 in 5 chance we make up 5 point with 4 games in hand?

worse than the deserve-to-win-o-meter

 

[Triumph]

The reason I used that year specifically is I don't know what they're doing with Guentzel. And maybe they try to add one last superstar to that roster before shit hits the fan truly

They're of course going to try to do this because they have no alternative. Once Crosby and Malkin and Letang are gone, it's tanksville for them. They're all still playing at a high level.

 

[Call Me Al]

all of that being said i think this is a shitty team and even if we do make the playoffs i don’t see us don’t want damage without wholesale changes but it’s still possible

 

[Blackjack]

there SO much season left, the standings are so close, and teams go on runs - good and bad- so commonly that there virtually no value to be taken from these charts unless you’re a top or bottom team. what does 20% mean? if we win our next couple games that will probably jump to 40% (big if and i don’t expect that i’m just illustrating that these charts are useless at any point in time).

there’s 70 points on the table - there’s a 1 in 5 chance we make up 5 point with 4 games in hand?

worse than the deserve-to-win-o-meter

We are well over the halfway mark and on pace for eighty nine points. That is horrendous. Don’t look at the standings because it’s an illusion. Look at the number of points you need to make the playoffs, it’s a very consistent number from year to year.

To hit 96 points we’ll need to play at a 105 point pace for the rest of the season. Does this team look even close to that to you? There are no signs of life at all, there’s no help coming, and our coach is an absolute dud.

we are missing the playoffs, and if it leads to Ruff’s dismissal, it will be worth it.

 

[Call Me Al]

We are well over the halfway mark and on pace for eighty nine points. That is horrendous. Don’t look at the standings because it’s an illusion. Look at the number of points you need to make the playoffs, it’s a very consistent number from year to year.

To hit 96 points we’ll need to play at a 105 point pace for the rest of the season. Does this team look even close to that to you? There are no signs of life at all, there’s no help coming, and our coach is an absolute dud.

we are missing the playoffs, and if it leads to Ruff’s dismissal, it will be worth it.

no i don’t think we’re a good team but we have a shitty division. im not looking at the total points im looking at if we can keep pace with other shitty teams - can we be better than philly, pittsburgh, washington and the islanders? sure, they all suck too. as bad as we are we are exactly on pace with all of them - that’s not an illusion that’s reality. and it’s still after having one of the worst months of any team in the league without our game changing star player. so yeah, i think there’s a better than 20% chance we make it


just out of curiosity - what pace do each of those other teams need to play at to make it?

 

[Call Me Al]

i’m doing the math for you. pace needed for 96 points:

flyers - 102.5
isles - 109
penguins - 102.5
washington - 105

that’s for 3rd place in the metro. suddenly not so impossible that we outpace the penguins and flyers by 2 points? more likely is that this year is an outlier and 96 points doesn’t cut it. we just need to be better than all them.

 

[Blackjack]

no i don’t think we’re a good team but we have a shitty division. im not looking at the total points im looking at if we can keep pace with other shitty teams - can we be better than philly, pittsburgh, washington and the islanders? sure, they all suck too. as bad as we are we are exactly on pace with all of them - that’s not an illusion that’s reality. and it’s still after having one of the worst months of any team in the league without our game changing star player. so yeah, i think there’s a better than 20% chance we make it


just out of curiosity - what pace do each of those other teams need to play at to make it?

I’m telling you that 91 points is not going to take the third division spot. Someone will heat up a bit. Look at the recent history of the league.

It will almost certainly require 96-99 points, and yes, that’s the expectation for a weak division. Is it possible that the metro remains a complete morass and ends up with the lowest point total for a third place team in recent history? Sure, but that is a far less likely scenario than one of the four teams around us finishing a little stronger.

 

[NjDevsRR]

That playoff chance on moneypuck was like 70% after the vegas gm

Also, we had like a 115 pt pace in that 20 gm stretch with Nico and Jack healthy

 

[Camille the Eel]

We are well over the halfway mark and on pace for eighty nine points. That is horrendous. Don’t look at the standings because it’s an illusion. Look at the number of points you need to make the playoffs, it’s a very consistent number from year to year.

To hit 96 points we’ll need to play at a 105 point pace for the rest of the season. Does this team look even close to that to you? There are no signs of life at all, there’s no help coming, and our coach is an absolute dud.

we are missing the playoffs, and if it leads to Ruff’s dismissal, it will be worth it.

well you know our roster is a mess, the defense is really green and raw as can be even if talented for the future, the goaltending isn’t exacting going to carry us, Jack is hurt (with just what we don’t know) and when he returns we don’t know if it’s at 100%, Meier is definite hobbled in some way, and our form is poor as we’ve been playing below 500 for a month while our roster problems have only gotten worse . . . I’m not betting on us playing out at a 106 point pace either.

 

[NJDevils17]

I’d feel better if the effort was there each night. It’s clearly not and that’s a problem from coaching and players. I think they’re tuning Ruff out but damn guys play with a little more effort.

 

[McDuffz88]

Why not Kevin Dineen as head coach? This is a serious question. Are we judging him based on those Florida teams? They were trash teams and he still managed to make the playoffs the first year. Additionally he has 5 years experience working with Quenneville who is a phenomenal coach. He has simply been an amazing AHL head coach as well.

We need a proven NHL playoff coach at this point. Stop with the experiments. We can't waste any more years. We dropped the ball when Torts was available. Fitz needs to wake up and fire Lindy right now. There's 0 path to the playoffs with Ruff as a coach & I don't want to write off the season due to "injuries" or "goalie issues". There's 0 path to a cup with Ruff as a coach. We have an extremely talented top 6 without Hughes that's still better than most of the league. Nico, Bratt, Mercer, Meier, Toffoli, Holtz. That's not chump change. That's an actual top 6. I'm so over Lindy at this point. I love Fitz but he's making a huge mistake riding his career on Ruffs back. If it was me I would be approaching Fitz going either fire Ruff or if you don't than you can go with him. We have our core & they're in their primes. Don't f**k this up by riding a dead beat of a coach.