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

[NjDevsRR]

Jack was a monster pre injury last season

So he didn’t lose anything from 22-23

 

[HoliksGhost]

Where Pesce ?

 

[dgibb10]

Ahem, I hear Jesper Boqvists music in South Florida playing. He's the fastest bottom 6 player you can ask for.

Letting Goatqvist go for Chris Tierney smh

 

[NjDevsRR]

Where Pesce ?

 

[Devs3cups]

Lindgren starts tomorrow

 

[MartyOwns]

I hate paint by number interviews so I enjoy how much he hates them too lol

oh don't get me wrong, i love unorthodox interviews (or unorthodox anything else, for that matter). but jack's are borderline rude and condescending, i'm not a fan.

 

[Patrik26]

oh don't get me wrong, i love unorthodox interviews (or unorthodox anything else, for that matter). but jack's are borderline rude and condescending, i'm not a fan.

I'd remove the borderline part. He speaks like a 12 year old. He's too immature to understand people are trying to do their job and he wants no part of helping them out. It's all about what he wants, no more, no less.

 

[AfroThunder396]

oh don't get me wrong, i love unorthodox interviews (or unorthodox anything else, for that matter). but jack's are borderline rude and condescending, i'm not a fan.

It's weird, because in other contexts he seems totally fine. That one promo video for TNT he seemed totally cool, produced in-studio interviews he seems totally fine. The red carpet stuff he appears pleasant enough. He's just a massive prick during walk-offs and locker room interviews.

Which, I agree with you, I get it. But still. I would like to see Jack mature this season.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Jack was a monster pre injury last season

So he didn’t lose anything from 22-23

Overall yes but he still went through these brutal too long phases where he played like shit but still put up the odd point.

His B game is not close to good enough. It all starts from his skating too. Whenever he’s flying around the ice playing through his skating he’s one of the best in the game. When he’s not and he thinks he can float around and be a hands guy he it’s hard to watch. It’s hard to play 100% all the time which is my concern. He might always have these phases

 

[SansaStark]

I'd remove the borderline part. He speaks like a 12 year old. He's too immature to understand people are trying to do their job and he wants no part of helping them out. It's all about what he wants, no more, no less.

This is directly reflected in his play on the ice. I'm not sure how anyone can't see there are some red flags here..

 

[Mgd31]

Reading the comments last night, I figured this was going to be an absolutely horrid game. Just watched and it wasn't so bad at all. Some of you guys are hilarious.

Yes we got outplayed and hemmed in at times (in the first for a bit) but not too many breakdowns. Nothing like last year which was refreshing.

They had moments offensively, could have potted a couple more with some better luck. They definitely had a chance to make it a 3-2 game on that power play at the end of the 2nd. Had at least 3 golden chances. Thought the power play in general looked good and the PK although limited was fantastic.

Overall the offensive play was a bit sloppy and the execution was off.

Markstrom was fine. Couple weird bounces and plays made his night look a lot worse than it actually was.

 

[My3Sons]

lol I mean if he gets hurt we’ll have by far the slowest bottom 6 in the league. If we don’t already

Other than Noesen I don’t think anyone is that slow in the scheme of things. Plenty of average to slightly below but I haven’t seen the relative speed or lack thereof in thr bottom six stand out yet. Small sample size of course. I’m willing to chalk last night up to jet lag which can easily last a week to 10 days.

 

[Devs3cups]

Timo looks like Timo at least.

 

[Mgd31]

And yes Nemec had some bad moments defensively and in general. Maybe he is still hurt. Who knows.

Would also like to see him on a real L-R pairing though.

We will see what happens when Pesce gets back but you can't take out Kovacevic right now. He's been their best defenseman.

 

[Devs3cups]

In regards to Jack and Dougie, getting back into a groove after an injury and/or surgery also takes a while.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Utterly bizarre vibes in here at 2-1 with a new coach, new roster players and some injuries

 

[britdevil]

It's weird, because in other contexts he seems totally fine. That one promo video for TNT he seemed totally cool, produced in-studio interviews he seems totally fine. The red carpet stuff he appears pleasant enough. He's just a massive prick during walk-offs and locker room interviews.

Which, I agree with you, I get it. But still. I would like to see Jack mature this season.

Sometimes dudes are just obnoxious assholes.

That's fine. Be an asshole if you want Jack, but your game needs to back it up mate.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Jack is in the same stage Kovy was in Atlanta before he got to NJ, they both think they have to be the guy every f***ing night. As soon as their teams are down by 2-3 goals, they try to force things and create to get back instead of just relying on their teammates. Keefe needs to go talk to him and tell him to settle a bit when those situations occur. The issue you run into with that is that you're basically also telling a player who's a superstar to neuter his talents a bit for the sake of the team, we've seen Jack do well in a year the Devils have been tremendous in 22-23, so I don't think he'll take much issue with that request if it was brought up.

 

[OldCraig71]

I know it's early but what are your impressions of Jonathan Kovacevic?

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

Last year at the start of the season, Jack looked unstoppable. Remember the practically 1 on 3 goal in OT versus the fishsticks? He just needs his pace, head and timing to get back in sync. We’ve seen this before.

 

[glenwo2]

Reading the comments last night, I figured this was going to be an absolutely horrid game. Just watched and it wasn't so bad at all. Some of you guys are hilarious.

Yes we got outplayed and hemmed in at times (in the first for a bit) but not too many breakdowns. Nothing like last year which was refreshing.

They had moments offensively, could have potted a couple more with some better luck. They definitely had a chance to make it a 3-2 game on that power play at the end of the 2nd. Had at least 3 golden chances. Thought the power play in general looked good and the PK although limited was fantastic.

Overall the offensive play was a bit sloppy and the execution was off.

Markstrom was fine. Couple weird bounces and plays made his night look a lot worse than it actually was.

The lousy start of the 1st period basically doomed the Devils.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I know it's early but what are your impressions of Jonathan Kovacevic?

Possibly the greatest defenseman in Devils history.

jk but he's been really good, better than advertised. Playing like a legit top-4 guy for us. Passing well, skating well, using his body, looking good defensively. Most of us expected to him to be #7 but it's going to be impossible for us to take him out of the lineup when guys get healthy.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Other than Noesen I don’t think anyone is that slow in the scheme of things. Plenty of average to slightly below but I haven’t seen the relative speed or lack thereof in thr bottom six stand out yet. Small sample size of course. I’m willing to chalk last night up to jet lag which can easily last a week to 10 days.

Palat is slow as can be too. Haula and Bastian have below average speed. Overall the speed in our bottom 6 is below average. As I said in that post if Cotter were to get hurt and replaced by MacDermid or Foote the speed of that group overall is atrocious and most likely (without looking) the worst in the league.

Compared to being fast and a strength a couple of seasons ago. And a fast bottom 6 is a much more effective one in my opinion especially when speed is an important aspect of our top 6. We shouldn’t have abandoned our team identity of speed.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Jack is in the same stage Kovy was in Atlanta before he got to NJ, they both think they have to be the guy every f***ing night. As soon as their teams are down by 2-3 goals, they try to force things and create to get back instead of just relying on their teammates. Keefe needs to go talk to him and tell him to settle a bit when those situations occur. The issue you run into with that is that you're basically also telling a player who's a superstar to neuter his talents a bit for the sake of the team, we've seen Jack do well in a year the Devils have been tremendous in 22-23, so I don't think he'll take much issue with that request if it was brought up.

Not to be rude but this isn’t even close to how I see it at all. I don’t think he’s playing like he needs to be the guy and I certainly don’t think he needs to settle down. He needs to do the opposite and kick it up a few gears. He’s playing casual and thinks he’s a hands guy trying to dipsy doodle and make cute plays. He looks like shit and is just turning picks over because of that. He’s not Kane he has to play through his skating.

 

[Billdo]

After the first three games, without going off the deep end, is there any chance Nemec AND Casey go to Utica? Nemecs been bad, really bad, and Casey's got pretty horrible underlying numbers. So realistically when Pesce and Luke are back is there a shot we see Dillon-Hamilton, Hughes-Pesce, Siegenthaler-Kovacevic?