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

[Bleedred]

MacDermid will probably play against Washington. But sending Foote down has nothing to do with MacDermid in general.

I think Bastian may be close.

He probably just needs to gain some weight back if I had to guess.

 

[Bleedred]

Give Allen some games and let him run with it. Can’t watch this below average goaltending anymore.

I can’t see Allen sustaining that playing Markstrom’s number of games.

But Markstrom has had extremely little to do with our wins/his wins and success this year. He’s been better than last year’s goalies, but not by a whole lot. He’s pretty much playing at around the same level Daws did here last season. Not quite Vitek bad.

He’s been “above league average” because of the team/system/Keefe.

The expected save percentages for this year’s goalies are literally one whole percent higher on the moneypuck. They’re still significantly higher on evolving hockey, but they don’t give you the exact numbers of what his expected save percentage is. You have to do the math yourself.

Moneypuck has Markstrom at an expected .907% this year and he’s a .904%. They have Allen at an expected .909% and he’s a .916%.

But for some reason the NHL decided this year (with no announcement) that they are no longer counting own goals against a goalie if they were put in by his teammate. And Allen has been scored on twice because of that. The NHL official stats page does not acknowledge those two goals against, so they have him at a .921%. But every other site is still counting them, which has him at a 916%.

The team got shutout. It’s hard to fault Markstrom even if he didn’t play his best.

He was brutal.

All 3 goals were probably stoppable, but I didn’t nail him on goal 3. It was unlucky. But he looked so shaky and unaware on it. He made the save very uncleanly and it bobbled up over him and into the crease on the other side of him. We had a chance to clear it and couldn’t.

Goal 1 the pass shouldn’t have gotten over (Kovacevic was the defenseman there) but it squeaks right through him. He was there, it just beats him.

The worst goal was the second. He really should be shredded for that one. We were about to kill off the bullshit penalty and maybe get some momentum, all he had to do was catch that puck.

Instead, he just whiffs on it and looks behind him shocked that he didn’t catch it.

He did take ownership in the post game, but we also heard Cory take ownership and call himself out over and over, and in those last few years that really didn’t indicate that he was going to start stopping those.

 

[Omar Little]

The shutouts combined with the Maple Leafs inability to score goals in the playoffs the last couple of years is concerning. We need more depth scoring and while I do think there has been a conscious effort to focus on defense first, we may need to make a decision to consciously open things up a bit. My working guess is there will be a slow glide path to that kind of game strategy so we’ll see where we’re at at game 70ish.

 

[JK3]

The team got shutout. It’s hard to fault Markstrom even if he didn’t play his best.

Second goal was bad, totally demoralizing.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I think Bastian may be close.

He probably just needs to gain some weight back if I had to guess.

eh I dont know, in that video the other night Bastian looked noticeably thinner

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

The shutouts combined with the Maple Leafs inability to score goals in the playoffs the last couple of years is concerning. We need more depth scoring and while I do think there has been a conscious effort to focus on defense first, we may need to make a decision to consciously open things up a bit. My working guess is there will be a slow glide path to that kind of game strategy so we’ll see where we’re at at game 70ish.

It’s too bad we can’t bring Gritsyuk over sooner. He could probably add some scoring pop.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Second goal was bad, totally demoralizing.

The bad calls probably demoralized them more then anything, including Marky

 

[Forge]

The weird thing about Markstrom this year for me is it totally feels like his best games are ones we lose anyway. Like, he's seldom been the reason they've won games this year, but he's been the reason a few times that they didn't just get flat blown out and only lost be a goal or two. And those games usually result in him giving up 3 anyway.

 

[Bleedred]

eh I dont know, in that video the other night Bastian looked noticeably thinner

That's why I say it's probably a matter of getting his weight back up now. I don't think it's the jaw/mouth keeping him out now as much as loss of muscle/weight, due to probably not being able to consume a whole lot of food.

 

[theoptimist]

The weird thing about Markstrom this year for me is it totally feels like his best games are ones we lose anyway. Like, he's seldom been the reason they've won games this year, but he's been the reason a few times that they didn't just get flat blown out and only lost be a goal or two. And those games usually result in him giving up 3 anyway.

This is a very good thing. It was 2-2 in the third and Jordan Staal was stopped at the net by Markstrom. We end up winning the game 4-2. If situational saves are a thing, he and Allen have helped us stay in games when they were close, as you mention. We’ve also stopped blowing leads which was a terrible trend for us during Hynes/Ruff - probably has to do with the core maturing over time.

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Metro with 3 of the top 6 teams in the league lmao

 

[Eggtimers]

It’s too bad we can’t bring Gritsyuk over sooner. He could probably add some scoring pop.

How is he doing this year? Think he can be a top 6 forward one day ?

Capitals should fall on their faces soon ? Or do you think they can maintain this level of play? I don’t get how they are doing so good . Is it coaching or a bunch of players playing over their head / having career years or what ?
I am still pissed that they drafted McMichael … I wanted him that year