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

[Emperoreddy]

We all can be anti-blackwood though

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Bro just out here buying sports franchises like it's the infinity stones

 

[Bleedred]

So what are they missing? Just a baseball team?

He’ll get one eventually.

He was interested in the Mets a couple years ago and wasn’t there talk about Cleveland in the last year or two? Or am I imagining that?

 

[billingtons ghost]

We all can be anti-blackwood though

In with:. Blackwood gets 16 consecutive shutouts and leads us to a Cup.

 

[njdevils1982]

So what are they missing? Just a baseball team?

its like angelina jolie collecting exotic kids... holy shit, that's feels like another lifetime ago

 

[Bleedred]

#keepschmidfree

#blackwoodfreeisthewaytobe

 

[njdevils1982]

#keepschmidfree

#blackwoodfreeisthewaytobe

 

[Bleedred]

Tomorrow will be my first ever look at Vitek playing in an actual game. I’ve only seen him in warmups this year.

He didn’t take too many reps in the net in warmups. The backup usually doesn’t get much time in the net during pregame warmups, but I felt like Vitek had even less than usual tonight for the game’s backup.

 

[glenwo2]

He’ll get one eventually.

He was interested in the Mets a couple years ago and wasn’t there talk about Cleveland in the last year or two? Or am I imagining that?

Well he's certainly not prying the Mets from Steve Cohen's hands. Steve would knock him out if he tried.

BTW, 6 billion....That Piece of Crap Dan Snyder really cashed-in, didn't he?

guy won't have to concern himself with money ever (not like he ever did but now moreso).

He can buy a friggin' Island (oh wait....hopefully not "that" island, if you get my drift) with that cash.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

Josh Harris is a baller. Holy shit. I guess the NFL laid off that ownership having to only own in market teams to buy an NFL franchise.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Last night's GDT closed already?

 

[DevilDog]

Last night's GDT closed already?

Seems a bit premature but there’s another GDT coming today so….

 

[Clam Jensen]

Pls win today.

 

[Call Me Al]

the constant doom and gloom stuff is annoying but so is the freaking out at any valid criticism and trying to pin that as undeserved negativity. also don’t care much for how hyped up these games have been as far as “playoffs.” were in the midst of a chaotic schedule against non division opponents, one trying to bust out of a rut and the other fighting for their playoff lives. we’re comfortably in position and are trying line combos to find the right positions for players. these aren’t playoff games or playoff atmosphere games for us no matter how much they try to convince themselves or us of that.

the reality is our team is where they are in the standings largely because jack hughes was a top player in the league for the first half of the season. since he’s come back from injury he just hasn’t been, and that is a problem for us.

i don’t care about his point totals over an arbitrary number of recent games. he has 2 goals since his injury, pretty sure both on breakaways. he’s under a ppg since then, a lot of his assists have been secondary or power play passes. he’s not a shooting threat and he hasn’t really been a huge 5v5 factor in a lot of games. yes he is creating chances because of his elite skating but he loses the puck a lot, he can’t score from distance, and he spends a lot of shifts hemmed in the d zone (-7 over that time isn’t good for a 5v5 dominant player no matter what you think of the stat). there is a reason to be concerned

 

[HoliksGhost]

Starting to look like a coaching problem to me… continued player break downs that repeat and repeat this close to the playoffs not good.. can’t bench the whole team.

Tough schedule? Yes. Long season? Of course.

If I’m Fitz I’m thinking I just put Timo in your lineup and your guys are losing games mostly by brain farts and mistakes.

Fix it coach.

 

[Triumph]

the constant doom and gloom stuff is annoying but so is the freaking out at any valid criticism and trying to pin that as undeserved negativity. also don’t care much for how hyped up these games have been as far as “playoffs.” were in the midst of a chaotic schedule against non division opponents, one trying to bust out of a rut and the other fighting for their playoff lives. we’re comfortably in position and are trying line combos to find the right positions for players. these aren’t playoff games or playoff atmosphere games for us no matter how much they try to convince themselves or us of that.

the reality is our team is where they are in the standings largely because jack hughes was a top player in the league for the first half of the season. since he’s come back from injury he just hasn’t been, and that is a problem for us.

i don’t care about his point totals over an arbitrary number of recent games. he has 2 goals since his injury, pretty sure both on breakaways. he’s under a ppg since then, a lot of his assists have been secondary or power play passes. he’s not a shooting threat and he hasn’t really been a huge 5v5 factor in a lot of games. yes he is creating chances because of his elite skating but he loses the puck a lot, he can’t score from distance, and he spends a lot of shifts hemmed in the d zone (-7 over that time isn’t good for a 5v5 dominant player no matter what you think of the stat). there is a reason to be concerned

The reality is that neither thing is true. Yeah, Hughes might've been a 4 or 5 win player over the beginning of the season and might be a 0 or 1 win player now, but there's still a ton of wins being contributed by other players. Moreover, the Devils have added a player who should be worth 3 or 4 wins while subtracting, say, 1 win off the roster. Hughes is still contributing something, he's clearly not 100% but even still he should be scoring on more than 4% of his shots on goal - absolutely no forward in the NHL maintains a rate anything close to that.

 

[MauDevils]

11 games in 19 days. Whoever came up with the March schedule was drunk.

 

[MadDevil]

11 games in 19 days. Whoever came up with the March schedule was drunk.

As many of us will be at this rate.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Its fine to criticize. Totally valid and fair. Last night's game was very frustrating.

Its NOT totally fine to take a 2-3 game stretch of play, when there is 1 month left in the year, and say "THEY BETTER CLEAN IT UP OR THE SEASON IS OVER!!!!!" which absolutely happened last night. I say this all the time, but sometimes a lot of you guys get so hung up on 1 period or 1 game. Its a LONG season, and there will be losing streaks and winning streaks. They will probably have another 2-3 streaks either way by the time the playoffs even start.

there is a middle ground, you know.

 

[Call Me Al]

The reality is that neither thing is true. Yeah, Hughes might've been a 4 or 5 win player over the beginning of the season and might be a 0 or 1 win player now, but there's still a ton of wins being contributed by other players. Moreover, the Devils have added a player who should be worth 3 or 4 wins while subtracting, say, 1 win off the roster. Hughes is still contributing something, he's clearly not 100% but even still he should be scoring on more than 4% of his shots on goal - absolutely no forward in the NHL maintains a rate anything close to that.

we are getting depth scoring now, but that was missing for a long stretch in january when the team was winning games on hughes’ back. obviously other players are contributing. you’re just throwing out “player worth x number of wins” as if it’s played on paper.

jack hughes not being the dynamic superstar that he was for the first half of the season hurts us in the playoffs and i have no idea how you can argue otherwise. meier should help pick up the slack and i’m not worried about him but that’s irrelevant to my point.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

I'm still just grateful the rebuild has largely worked, the team is a legit cup contender, and Hughes is a superstar. Even if the Devils get swept in round 1, this season is a massive success based on what we we all projecting in training camp.

Obviously expectations are now raised, but I'm going to enjoy things for a little bit longer before getting frustrated.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I’ll have a GDT up eventually. Busy morning in this house unfortunately.

 

[Triumph]

we are getting depth scoring now, but that was missing for a long stretch in january when the team was winning games on hughes’ back. obviously other players are contributing. you’re just throwing out “player worth x number of wins” as if it’s played on paper.

This is one of those things where you have to forget how hockey works and how scoring typically works to be at all worried about the depth scoring. Everyone who plays regularly for this team is relatively young and has a history of scoring goals in the NHL at a decent rate except maybe McLeod. Here's all of our 'depth forwards' in terms of rate goal scoring out of the 402 forwards who've played 1000 or more minutes over the last 3 seasons:

Wood: 102nd
Sharangovich: 125th
Tatar: 153th
Boqvist: 155th
Palat: 174th
Bastian: 198th
Haula: 278th
Lazar: 281st
McLeod: 341st

This is six guys in the top half of rate scoring, and only one guy who's truly at the bottom. This team scores.

jack hughes not being the dynamic superstar that he was for the first half of the season hurts us in the playoffs and i have no idea how you can argue otherwise. meier should help pick up the slack and i’m not worried about him but that’s irrelevant to my point.

I can't argue otherwise. The Devils are going to need Hughes to find his game. I'm not concerned about it yet because there is plenty of time before the playoffs begin, and the Devils can absolutely win several rounds with Hughes at his current level - they'll need contributions from everyone to make that happen, but it can be done. The Devils carried an addled Kovalchuk for most of the 2012 playoffs - he was hurt around Game 3 or 4 of the Panthers series, had to sit out a game against the Flyers, but was still never himself during that run, and the team won lots of games regardless.

 

[MartyOwns]

I'm still just grateful the rebuild has largely worked, the team is a legit cup contender, and Hughes is a superstar. Even if the Devils get swept in round 1, this season is a massive success based on what we we all projecting in training camp.

Obviously expectations are now raised, but I'm going to enjoy things for a little bit longer before getting frustrated.

i don’t really think this is a cup contending team…and let’s face it, it’s the bruins’ year anyway. as you alluded to, this is a team that is set up to be competitive for the better half of the next decade, which i prefer anyway. make the playoffs and win a round or two, and i’ll be happy as a motherf***er.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

This "winning games on Hughes' back" nonsense is laughable.

The two biggest factors in the Devils winning games this year are the rebuilt defense corps and the ability to grind down opponents with speed and depth.

As was the case last season, the Devils winning and losing percentage was no different whether Jack Hughes was or wasn't in the lineup (in fact last year that percentage was worse when he played).

Is he exciting and fun to watch? Sure.

But the Devils are hardly a one-man show.