Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - part IV

[billingtons ghost]

I didn’t see Jack or Bratt or Nico get pushed around last night. The worst night was had by McLeod Bastian and Wood. I didn’t see Nashville generate odd man rushes of sustained offensive zone pressure. NJ had 39 shots and scored four goals and nobody played well except Hughes. The refs allow clutching and grabbing which is just bad for the game. It hurts NJ because they want to play with skill and speed but it slows them down it doesn’t force them to give away the puck randomly on defense to allow breakaways and odd man rushes. I’ve seen plenty of games where NJ has been pushed around. Last night wasn’t it. NJ just didn’t show up excoet for Hughes who was head and shoulder above every player on both teams. If he had legit top six talent to play with he might have had a five point night and win the game by himself.

Agree with the Hughes take. The 39 shots almost all came in the last five minutes when NSH stopped counter attacking. Yeah, they didn't need zone time bc we'd get stripped of the puck and they'd counter attack with an odd man rush.

My point stands though. Last night was hardly a lopsided ref game MGMT fest.

We had no business being in that game and it was more late game heroics, which are great, but....

 

[Devs3cups]

Agree with the Hughes take. The 39 shots almost all came in the last five minutes when NSH stopped counter attacking. Yeah, they didn't need zone time bc we'd get stripped of the puck and they'd counter attack with an odd man rush.

My point stands though. Last night was hardly a lopsided ref game MGMT fest.

We had no business being in that game and it was more late game heroics, which are great, but....

I honestly think we were the better team offensively last night. Defensively we were horrible though, that’s what ultimately cost us the game.

I didn’t find the Preds to be all that impressive, we just shot ourselves in the foot more often than not.

 

[NJDevs26]

For the last time, let's keep the goalie stuff to the goalie thread before I give up and lock it. I've already had to move posts over there several times and it seems pointless to have a goalie specific thread if nobody actually thinks to use it.

 

[My3Sons]

Agree with the Hughes take. The 39 shots almost all came in the last five minutes when NSH stopped counter attacking. Yeah, they didn't need zone time bc we'd get stripped of the puck and they'd counter attack with an odd man rush.

My point stands though. Last night was hardly a lopsided ref game MGMT fest.

We had no business being in that game and it was more late game heroics, which are great, but....

Nashville showed patience and some smart decisions. NJ played sloppy and careless and their passing sucked. I think NJ lost as opposed to Nashville winning. I don’t think the refs took the game from NJ. I think the refs took the game away from fans of hockey in the 21sy century. The call against Blackwood was a joke given what else they let go: I just object to bad hockey which the refs are allowing at the behest of someone. As the season goes along the refs just let more and more go and only call about two power plays per side per game. That leads to a boring slow game, if the NHL cares about the next generation of fans they need to let the gane breathe. Kids aren’t interested in slow clutching and grabbing. That’s not the same thing as the refs cheating NJ.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Wood has not been an NHL caliber player for 2 months now

Was he an NHL calibre player 3 months ago? 4 months ago? Did he forget how to play hockey? Did the team drastically change their style? Is he injured (yes probably)?

I think we as fans tend to take the easy way out when it comes to explaining poor play. We single out a player or a coach instead of looking at the complex web of chance and skill and scheduling and chemistry and health and physical and mental fatigue that all factor in to wins and losses. And i get it, cuz like….who has time for that?

We do the same thing with good teams too, but there’s a lot less complaining and scapegoating when the team is winning.

 

[NjDevsRR]

For the last time, let's keep the goalie stuff to the goalie thread before I give up and lock it

Rats. I was just going to talk about my undefeated run in net in 2001 to the championship in the intramural roller hockey league.

10-0-0 1.0 GAA.

Legendary stuff as a 10 year old. This is what real tending looks like @Bleedred

 

[Guttersniped]

I’ll use my 10 000th post here to say the following message:

Jack Hughes is an elite player and deserves Timo Meier on his line.

Manifesting the trade. That is all. Thanks for listening to my TED Talk.

————

Also thanks to you guys for being such a fun bunch and turning me into an HFBoards addict.

Happy Milestone (or whatever)!

 

[Devs3cups]

Happy Milestone (or whatever)!

I’m kind of happy with it in a weird way cause I love our little community here, but it’s kind of concerning cause I spend A LOT of time online because of this board lol!

 

[NjDevsRR]

I’m kind of happy with it in a weird way cause I love our little community here, but it’s kind of concerning cause I spend A LOT of time online because of this board lol!

Im on during work, once even when my date went to the restroom.

Priorities.

 

[Devs3cups]

Im on during work, once even when my date went to the restroom.

Priorities.

The Devils have never dumped or fired me so…

 

[Devs3cups]

Dougie having himself a hell of a week and should be one of the league’s 3 stars this week.

3 goals (2 OT winners and 1 late game-tying goal) and 4 assists (7 points) in 3 games. Just awesome stuff.

 

[Saugus]

I’m kind of happy with it in a weird way cause I love our little community here, but it’s kind of concerning cause I spend A LOT of time online because of this board lol!

Pfft, wait until you hit the 100K club like me, @Bleedred and @Emperoreddy

That's a new definition of spending too much time on here.

 

[britdevil]

View attachment 642560

Where Meier

Ooga booga?

 

[Hisch13r]

I’ll use my 10 000th post here to say the following message:

Jack Hughes is an elite player and deserves Timo Meier on his line.

Manifesting the trade. That is all. Thanks for listening to my TED Talk.

————

Also thanks to you guys for being such a fun bunch and turning me into an HFBoards addict.

He deserves Bratt. Nico deserves Meier. Jack and Meier would cannibalize each others shots

 

[Devs3cups]

Pfft, wait until you hit the 100K club like me, @Bleedred and @Emperoreddy

That's a new definition of spending too much time on here.

I hope to get there one day! That’s impressive stuff!

 

[NjDevsRR]

Ooga booga?

 

[Guttersniped]

Rats. I was just going to talk about my undefeated run in net in 2001 to the championship in the intramural roller hockey league.

10-0-0 1.0 GAA.

Legendary stuff as a 10 year old. This is what real tending looks like @Bleedred

 

[NjDevsRR]

View attachment 642615

Ball hockey as well lmao pre puck era for me

 

[MasterofGrond]

I played 1 period in net during my Cornell intramural floor hockey run because we were down two goals and needed our goalie (a club roller forward) for an offensive spark. I gave up 2 pretty soft goals.

He scored 5 though. He was really feeling himself, just f***ing lasered a couple of them from center ice.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Pfft, wait until you hit the 100K club like me, @Bleedred and @Emperoreddy

That's a new definition of spending too much time on here.

Christ we have over 100K posts?

I need to reevaluate my life

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Hopefully last night will serve as a wake up call that they can't play like ass and expect to win.
Honestly haven't been impressed with them in a loooong time, they just keep hanging around and pulling out wins. While it's exciting, it's not a sustainable way to get wins.

 

[My3Sons]

Christ we have over 100K posts?

I need to reevaluate my life

Really? That’s what makes you reevaluate? Not the last four years of ineptitude ? It’s the post count?

 

[Bleedred]

Pfft, wait until you hit the 100K club like me, @Bleedred and @Emperoreddy

That's a new definition of spending too much time on here.

I knew I had over 100k, but I can't remember exactly when I made post number 100k.

I wish I did. I probably made it without realizing it.

I'm sure it's been over a year, if not 1.5 years. Almost 12 years with this account, 113k-some odd now, That's only about 753 or so posts per day (I'm rounding off here), which in the season I can rattle off probably 75-100 posts in a day. That's a little over 9000 posts a year.

I've never taken a sabbatical from here, outside of maybe a few days here and there over the years. I took a 3 day break from the internet in February of 2020 and had to do make up work on all my goals reviews cause I was days behind.

I didn't post much in 20-21 like I do now. I posted daily or at least in-season I did, but I wasn't really in a good place mentally and didn't have as much energy to really post here or do much of anything. I was fairly quiet over the 2021 offseason as well.

 

[Puckclektr]

Meier-Hughes-Mercer
Palat-Nico-Bratt
Tatar-Haula-Sharangovich
Parise-McLeod-Bastian

Rotate in Z for Bastian if he can’t find his game. Let’s go Fitz.

The SHiT line?

 

[Forge]

The SHiT line?