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

[njdevils1982]

Make Brylin the coach.

mercer has done well on sarge's old number


johnsson is shaming maddog's... gross bullshit

 

[NJDevs26]

They went out and drafted Jack’s brother what makes you think they wouldn’t keep his coach

I mean Luke St. Croix with the same skill set would have been the pick at 4, and Luke has done nothing to suggest he got bumped up the board via nepotism. If there was a redraft now Luke never even gets to us.

And Lindy is far from ‘just a Jack guy’, the dude coached our GM at one point for gods sakes

 

[Capt Nico Poo]

If we are tied with Philly in points, which one is higher in standings? I forgot the tiebreaker hierarchy. Is it first Reg wins, then goal diff?

 

[Guttersniped]

If we are tied with Philly in points, which one is higher in standings? I forgot the tiebreaker hierarchy. Is it first Reg wins, then goal diff?

Regulation Wins then ROW.

NHL Hockey Standings | NHL.com

The official standings for the National Hockey League.

www.nhl.com

The tie breaker rules are under the standing on the NHL site.

The 1st number after winning % are regulation wins and the 2nd are ROW. All three teams have two games left.

So Philly would win the tie breaker by having more more regulation wins if they catch us, but we would win the tie breaker with Chicago if we catch them the same way.

 

[MadDevil]

mercer has done well on sarge's old number


johnsson is shaming maddog's... gross bullshit

I mean, not everybody can honor #11 like Stephen Gionta.

 

[NjDevsRR]

The dude coached our GM at one point for gods sakes

 

[Billdo]

Both are examples of appeasing Jack

His brother was also the right pick though

 

[HersheyBob27]

His brother was also the right pick though

Many people would have taken edvinsson

 

[AfroThunder396]

The next time someone says that Dawson Mercer is good defensively I'm actually going to jump through the computer screen and slap them

 

[bigd]

Make Brylin the coach.

Just no!

 

[Omar Little]

The next time someone says that Dawson Mercer is good defensively I'm actually going to jump through the computer screen and slap them

He certainly has all the tools to be (speed, good stick, ability to win board battles, etc.). His defensive awareness is not that developed though.

 

[guitarguyvic]

My hot take: the woeful power play has been a much bigger embarrassment this season than the goaltending/defense. The goalies are just not good players, it is what it is. That PP though…it’s so bad, I have no doubt that they’d have no better success against an AHL PK. They can hardly even gain the zone, with an extra man! When they do gain the zone, they whip it around the boards to literally no one. Like how can you be this bad when the other team has one less defender? It makes no sense and I’ve never seen anything like it.

 

[Better Call Sal]

My hot take: the woeful power play has been a much bigger embarrassment this season than the goaltending/defense. The goalies are just not good players, it is what it is. That PP though…it’s AHL level. They can hardly even gain the zone, with an extra man! When they do gain the zone, they whip it around the boards to literally no one. Like how can you be this bad when the other team has one less defender? It makes no sense and I’ve never seen anything like it.

I agree with this in the big picture of it all though Blackwood and Bernier's level of play started to trend southward before being shelved for their respective injuries.

The fact that the talented players on this team look completely lost with the man advantage just screams confusing or lack of strategy on the part of the staff. It's truly shocking to watch. I was watching old clips of games from under DeBoer in 2014-2015 where we had less talented players but a more creative strategy on the PP with moving the puck and utilizing guys down low in the corners. It's incredible to see the stark difference.

 

[devilsblood]

He certainly has all the tools to be (speed, good stick, ability to win board battles, etc.). His defensive awareness is not that developed though.

Ya, 20 year old rookie syndrome I think is the main culprit defensively.

 

[Devils731]

My hot take: the woeful power play has been a much bigger embarrassment this season than the goaltending/defense. The goalies are just not good players, it is what it is. That PP though…it’s so bad, I have no doubt that they’d have no better success against an AHL PK. They can hardly even gain the zone, with an extra man! When they do gain the zone, they whip it around the boards to literally no one. Like how can you be this bad when the other team has one less defender? It makes no sense and I’ve never seen anything like it.

It is bizarre. The PP has some structural problems that seem obvious but have mostly continued all season. These don’t happen every time but at the common plays:

-They use the drop pass poorly. The drop pass can be good but you use a drop pass to force the opponent to react to the original puck carrier, lose shape, and then you drop it to a trailer who now attack the deformed shape defenders. The Devils drop pass does not cause defenders to lose shape because the initial skater is no threat to hurt the opponent and so the player receiving the drop has no advantage compared to if the drop had never happened. It’s just a waste of time.

-The Devils work hard to enter the zone by skating it in and then either dump it to nobody after all that work, lay it off to a player standing still next to them, or rip a pass across the blue line to a player standing still. All 3 of those are bad and the last is pretty dangerous for no advantage gained.

-The Devils feature little PP motion from the skaters. This isn’t a flaw unique to the Devils so I won’t dive into more and probably could even be removed from this list.

-The Devils usually only utilize 3 guys on the PP to handle the puck. The slot and net players on the PP basically contribute nothing to puck movement so the opponent knows where the passes and shots are likely coming from. This allows the opponents to prepare a strong defense against those locations.

—————-

We’ve watched these issues all season but there have only been minor changes made. So either the coaches can’t come up with solutions or they can’t communicate them well enough.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Wasn’t able to watch yesterday. How did Smith, Bahl, and Walsh look?

 

[Bleedred]

This kind of reminds me of when it was speculated (even by me) that Hynes was given a big extension in 2019 because Taylor Hall liked him and we were trying to keep Hall here and were trying to keep him happy here by bringing back a coach that I think he might have even publicly came out and said was his favorite or maybe even it was what he said was the best coach he had ever played for?

Hughes is already locked up for 8 years.

 

[Eggtimer]

They went out and drafted Jack’s brother what makes you think they wouldn’t keep his coach

Because Luke was drafted because he was the best available player at that spot , not because he is Jacks bro. It’s just a very nice coincidence they are brothers . I’m sure the brother thing played somewhat into the pick , but no as much as people think . Juke is a hell of a prospect and would have gone at that spot in the draft regardless .

 

[McDuffz88]

There is absolutely 0 reason to keep a coach because your star player (who is locked up for 8 years) likes him. Not when we have consistently been one of the worst teams in the league the past decade. Im sick & tired of losing at this point. I don't care if players are happy or not I care about wins. Wins is the only thing that matters.

 

[SpeakingOfTheDevils]

They went out and drafted Jack’s brother what makes you think they wouldn’t keep his coach

Luke filled an overwhelming need.. ?

What a false equivalence.

 

[OmNomNom]

i'm excited for the battles for open roster spots next preseason.

W how well Utica has done developing guys, people like JBo and Zetterlund (along with hopefully a FA signing and a few hungry PTOs) are really gonna push our laggards either up in intensity, or off to the box

 

[My3Sons]

Many people would have taken edvinsson

And many wouldn't. To suggest that it was a nepotism pick is just being recalcitrant. He is no worse a pick than Edvinsson from everything I've read. If nepotism was used as a tie breaker so be it. I don't see anyone saying anything but good things about Luke's play at Michigan. He was one of the youngest players in the NCAA and a Hobey Baker finalist. He apparently scored at a rate that set a record or two for something. What's Edvinsson done better? Score 2 goals "against men"? Meh. Maybe Edvinsson is better long term or maybe not, right now show me anyone specifically calling for Edvinsson to clearly go ahead of Hughes in a re-draft and I'll show you a Red Wings fan.

 

[Omar Little]

i'm excited for the battles for open roster spots next preseason.

W how well Utica has done developing guys, people like JBo and Zetterlund (along with hopefully a FA signing and a few hungry PTOs) are really gonna push our laggards either up in intensity, or off to the box

Add in at least two players from trade (which ideally ships out some deadweight) or free agency and I would agree. We cannot find ourselves in a position where it is just internal Devils (pro or Utica) players battling for spots.

 

[Eggtimer]

And many wouldn't. To suggest that it was a nepotism pick is just being recalcitrant. He is no worse a pick than Edvinsson from everything I've read. If nepotism was used as a tie breaker so be it. I don't see anyone saying anything but good things about Luke's play at Michigan. He was one of the youngest players in the NCAA and a Hobey Baker finalist. He apparently scored at a rate that set a record or two for something. What's Edvinsson done better? Score 2 goals "against men"? Meh. Maybe Edvinsson is better long term or maybe not, right now show me anyone specifically calling for Edvinsson to clearly go ahead of Hughes in a re-draft and I'll show you a Red Wings fan.

Well said . You should be a lawyer or something .
Luke could very possibly go first overall in this upcoming draft if he was 8 days younger .

 

[Eggtimer]

Add in at least two players from trade (which ideally ships out some deadweight) or free agency and I would agree. We cannot find ourselves in a position where it is just internal Devils (pro or Utica) players battling for spots.

Ya we need to shore up some roster spots with more certainty . Can’t waste another season on plugging in players and hoping they work . Maybe a lesser important roster spot and maybe one player but for the mist part, I hope Fitz knows where he needs to add quality known players.