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

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Thought this was a cool video to watch. I know it's our farm club but Gambardella seems like a real solid dude. He's the kind of guy you want your prospects to be around. This was their last loss before their current win streak of 5 games. Just good to see that he atleast was trying to bring some energy and positivity to the team like a real leader does.
 
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NjDevsRR said:
Big difference for having Markstrom is even in his bad games he is still coming up with some massive saves which is allowing the team to win or just compete. That was nonexistent last season.

I think he will bounce back and finish the season strong.
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Devils fans also have unrealistic expectations about goaltending as a result of the atrocious goalies we've had over the last decade. Outside of the absolute elites like Shesterkin and Hellebuyck, every goalie has streaky ebbs and flows to each season. Even Sorokin was straight up mediocre last year and was getting benched down the stretch.

Jake Allen is saving about 0.5 goals above expected per game and Markstrom is just saving just below expected each game (-0.2 per 60).

I'm confident we'll see Markstrom hit a groove where he starts to steal games, but it's always going to be a little up and down because that's how goaltending works in the NHL.

All in all, they've been absolutely fine so far to allow our skaters to dictate the outcome of games.
 
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I gotta say, I'm not very thrilled with the last few games. Too many shades of last season for my blood, the major difference is league average goaltending instead of downright terrible. First-goal disadvantages and complete lack of discipline stick out to me. The longer this festers, the harder it gets to coach it away.
 
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Markstrom really has been fine. Not great, not good, and worse than you would hope, but fine. Gives the team a chance most nights he’s in, despite not playing as well as he can. And I think he’s due for a run of really good games.

Goalies require pretty big sample sizes for confidence, too. And besides, if he is this all year but locked in come April, are you going to be mad?
 
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Nocashstyle said:
I actually think I have a vague memory of Legare in a preseason game. Surprisingly I don’t remember the name Hardman haha
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Hardman was a free agent signing from Chicago. 25 years old, decent sized left winger (6'2", 205 lbs), scored 22 goals in the AHL last year, has 5 goals in 10 games this year.

37 games of NHL experience. Might be a better replacement for Tatar on the 4th line if he is out this week or longer.
 
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We really need at least one NHL player on the 4th line...

Where is Lazar at in his recovery? I'm assuming Tatar will be out many weeks.
 
TheBeerNerd said:
Markstrom is... well, Markstrom. Flames fans will tell you that he's equally capable of incredible feats of goaltending prowess and utterly baffling decision making. He wasn't gonna be Hellebuyck.
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I don't think anyone expected him to be that, just hoped that he would not be very similar to what we've had to deal with.
 
TheUnseenHand said:
We really need at least one NHL player on the 4th line...
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You rang? Am I joke to you?

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MasterofGrond said:
Goalies require pretty big sample sizes for confidence, too. And besides, if he is this all year but locked in come April, are you going to be mad?
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If he pulls a Chris Osgood we'll love the guy...I don't know how likely that is as a scenario though.
 
I like this team defensively. I’m not worried about the goaltending for that reason. You can be a contender with great D and meh goaltending, you can’t if it’s the opposite.

I don’t know what the deal is with giving up the first goal. They led the league in this last year and now it’s rearing its ugly head yet again. Watching the games it seems some of it is just bad fortune but it’s still disconcerting.

My biggest legit concern that I think will hold this team back from being a real contender is having a black hole taking up a spot on the top line. Palat is a fourth liner at best now, other top teams top lines will out-perform ours and absolutely feast on him come the playoffs if someone legit does not replace him. I also think our forward depth is not quite good enough. If anyone in the top six goes out even for a mid amount of time, it will likely spell a lot of trouble. I think we need one more legit top six player and another versatile middle sixer a la Sharangovich.
 
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