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

My3Sons

Nobody told me there'd be days like these...
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K.O.vy

I really like this lines. May be flip Tatar and Mercer to give opportunity for Meier to play on the right wing. It will bring right winger Mercer with right handed shot on the third line.

I'm not sure about sitting Nemec. Casey was good in PP, but Nemec is better 5 on 5, especially in the slot/against rushes etc.
Casey looks good right now. He’s playing his offside so it’s a bit tougher. The issue to me is that right now is Kovy is playing so well he has to stay in the lineup when Pesce returns.
 
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My3Sons

Nobody told me there'd be days like these...
Sponsor
K.O.vy

I really like this lines. May be flip Tatar and Mercer to give opportunity for Meier to play on the right wing. It will bring right winger Mercer with right handed shot on the third line.

I'm not sure about sitting Nemec. Casey was good in PP, but Nemec is better 5 on 5, especially in the slot/against rushes etc.
I already have Mercer playing on the third line.
 
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Guadana

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Mar 7, 2012
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I already have Mercer playing on the third line.
Damn. I was caught in an obvious trap.

Casey looks good right now. He’s playing his offside so it’s a bit tougher. The issue to me is that right now is Kovy is playing so well he has to stay in the lineup when Pesce returns.

I really like them all now. I don't believe in "win metter" after the first game, they controlled the game, slowed it down after 3 goals, limited opportunities for creations of really dangerous chances. Second game was from the books.
But I think in the next games someone will definitely make mistake. Or they will just use Casey in more offensive situations and Pesce and Nemec in more defensive situations. May be Pesce himself will be raw and they will give him more time.
May be they will build roster against specific opponents. I believe its better to use bigger and more experienced defense against teams like Boston, Toronto or Florida. On the other side its good to have better pp2 brigade against weaker teams like jackets to maximize opportunities to score.
 

Bleedred

#FIREDAVEROGALSKI
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May 1, 2011
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On the one hand, I agree...but on the other hand, I've seen us lose to so much junk over the years I hardly care who the wins come against
Yeah, last year we lost game two the worthless Coyotes in a shootout. Which was a red flag with last year’s team. And we constantly got throttled by bad teams last year. Including the second game against the Coyotes, which was also after Green took over.

And we constantly were destroyed by the Capitals, who made the playoffs by not even one point and had to have been one of the weakest teams to make the playoffs in an 82 game season in quite some time.

Honestly, I think it’s just a coincidence that we play those two teams after Toronto and that I’m naming them. But Arizona sticks out because it was game two of last year and we were constantly losing to Washington.
 

NJ07102

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Apr 15, 2012
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We never got any kind of traction last season. Not at any point did I feel as if this team would go on a roll. And they never did. Can this year's version do it? The way they played team defence in these two games, I'd say the odds are much better. Those two games were as good as any game they played last season.
 

My3Sons

Nobody told me there'd be days like these...
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We never got any kind of traction last season. Not at any point did I feel as if this team would go on a roll. And they never did. Can this year's version do it? The way they played team defence in these two games, I'd say the odds are much better. Those two games were as good as any game they played last season.
They got goaltending these two games that they rarely got last season. Hopefully that continues.
 

Better Call Sal

Salnalysis
Nov 24, 2011
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It’s easy to get wrapped up in the opponent when we win, but we’ve seen plenty of evidence over the years that any team can beat their opponent on any given night in this league. It’s more important to see how the team played to earn that win, and honestly, both of these games were impressive for different reasons.

It’s felt like a night and day difference from last year so far, which is exactly what you want to feel like with a new coach at the helm.
 

Call Me Al

Registered User
Aug 28, 2017
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couldn’t be happier with these two wins honestly.

goaltending is good but the best part was us covering the middle and limiting second chances. something that was sorely missing last year.

in dillon we have someone that can lay a punishing open ice hit and we haven’t had that in a while. it’s a small but important element to be able to intimidate your opponent and this team has been way too soft.

cotter feels like the coleman replacement we’ve all wanted. holtz who?

the aggressive pk is going to result in a lot of goals for us. loving bratt on there.

and all of the other lines look good so i’m willing to give jack and timo a chance to gel - looked like it was starting to come together in the third and it feels like the kind of line where if they do get in a groove then they’ll dominant. as long as they don’t get hemmed in the d zone all the time 😬

anyway it’s just two games but having a sound team defensive strategy with full buy in really raises the floor for this team
 

Hisch13r

Registered User
May 16, 2012
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NJ
The xG outside of the score effect riddled 3rd period of game 1 was 4.22-2.76 so 60.5%. It was a beatdown

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the opponent when we win, but we’ve seen plenty of evidence over the years that any team can beat their opponent on any given night in this league. It’s more important to see how the team played to earn that win, and honestly, both of these games were impressive for different reasons.

It’s felt like a night and day difference from last year so far, which is exactly what you want to feel like with a new coach at the helm.

Hopefully this rolls into a 22-23 type start where yeah they had a soft schedule to start so it made some people doubt just how good they were even though they were completely shit kicking teams up and down the ice. The quality of the opponent obviously matters but if you're utterly dominating those weak teams you should be able to beat the good teams too.
 

Guttersniped

Satan’s Wallpaper
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Dec 20, 2018
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The other one thing I really remember about Jagr as a devil was his faceoff goal that was like 2 seconds after someone won the faceoff (in the late game, I think).

I distinctly remember his hat trick because I threw a hat I very much regret losing. (A Devils knit cap with ear flaps *sob*)

I also didn’t remotely consider trying to get it back then. At the time I viewed throwing a hat for a hat trick the equivalent of tossing it into Mount Doom.

Anyway, Jagr had a hat trick vs the Flyers.
 
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Guttersniped

Satan’s Wallpaper
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We never got any kind of traction last season. Not at any point did I feel as if this team would go on a roll. And they never did. Can this year's version do it? The way they played team defence in these two games, I'd say the odds are much better. Those two games were as good as any game they played last season.

Call me an optimist but I think we can beat last season’s top win streak by winning 4 games in a row this year.*

The gauntlet I’m throwing down is I want the home record to be better than the road record this year.


*We only managed to win 3 games in a row four times last season and never did it in 2024.
Wins vs the Sabres were part of two of the four 3 game win streaks.
 

My3Sons

Nobody told me there'd be days like these...
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It's way too early to say anything about the goalies yet.

If they continue half as good as they played in Prague, Devils will be extremely hard team to stop.
They each played a good game. How many times last season did the team get good back to back games from two different goalies?
 

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