GDT: Mobile GDT: Devils @ Sharks, 4 PM ET, MSGSN (if you somehow manage to still have it)

[NJDevs26]

I’m still f***ing pissed about this. You come into this game have already lost three in a row and a few days removed from shitting the bed against a shit team. You need to right the ship to avoid a long losing streak, and you have the opportunity to do it against a squad with one of the worst records in the league. What do you do with that opportunity…you come out and play like dogshit again. Then in spite of that with less than a minute to go and the chance to at least steal a point, you give up a backbreaking goal and lose in a horrible fashion - the same thing you already did just a few days earlier against another bad team! And you’re doing this with a fully healthy squad.

I don’t know how anyone can just wave this away as not meaning anything in terms of the quality of this team. It’s giving me the same bad vibe as that Vancouver game last year.

It’s gonna take a long winning streak to convince me this was just some blip.

This is definitely the biggest crisis point of the year, there’s no two ways about it

 

[NJDevs26]

I've also been a fan for over 30 years and if they somehow spiral out of the playoffs once again that might be enough for me. The last 12 years have been miserable (outside of 22-23).

I really thought they were a mentally strong, defensively solid sc contender, but it seems they are just a weak bubble team.

I’m not at DEFCON 1 yet, they should still make the playoffs. But if they don’t it’ll truly be DEFCON 1 - bye bye Fitz, Marty, and the next GM gets to start binning off so called core guys and locker room lawyers

They’re playing like a team who thinks they won the cup after going 3-0 in rivalry week at home.

 

[Bleedred]

glad i bet the sharks to win

...

and took the f***ing over on the goals ..

I wish I bet Cody Ceci for the game winner when I predicted it 20 minutes earlier.

I bet that would have been some payout.

Shitty defenseman dumped on a bottom feeder who averages 5 goals a year getting the game winner. I may have been able to have a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant for what that paid out.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Does anyone know why Marky was barking at the officials at the end? Did Siegs get tripped up? I didn't get a good look.

Siegs got the puck and tried to clear it up off the glass from the corner and it hit the ref and died right there leading to a turnover and then the point shot that went in.

 

[MadDevil]

The timing of this sucks too. Right after that stretch of basically allowing the other team nothing and then to hit a skid against teams they should or have beat already makes it even more frustrating.

 

[NjDevsRR]

They get like 3 pts minimum on this road trip if they didn’t get lackadaisical in the 3rd period

That 7 gm record stretch got to their heads me thinks. They will get back into their defensive groove soon. But, the offense does need to be addressed. Id like two more forwards to spark some life into the entire forward lineup

 

[Bleedred]

I’m not at DEFCON 1 yet, they should still make the playoffs. But if they don’t it’ll truly be DEFCON 1 - bye bye Fitz, Marty, and the next GM gets to start binning off locker room lawyers

If that happens then Marty might be the next GM lol.

We're so far ahead into a playoff spot right now that our biggest concern right now is pretty much just that the division win is probably out of reach. Now we have to worry about keeping 2nd and home ice advantage over the Canes.

But as I keep saying, tonight's results pending, there's zero teams in the East above NHL 500 that aren't in a playoff spot right now. That's how bad the East is. And all those teams right at NHL 500 can't seem to break ahead of 500. Every team above NHL 500 in the East is currently occupying a playoff spot as of tonight and the last several weeks. Maybe one of those teams got one game over before falling back to even again.

Even the second wild card team Sens are currently on pace for 86 points. With no other East team behind them on pace for more than 82 points. That probably won't hold the entire season, but it's been holding for several weeks now.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Lots of overreactions too on here

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Lots of overreactions too on here

Overreactions about the larger picture, appropriate reaction to the absolutely gutting defeat today.

 

[Andre Palot]

Haha. Or third rate comedian.

Yakov Smirnoff

 

[Ducks4Cup]

Silver lining : better to have weaknesses exposed now so Fitz can address them. Cuz we all know what 4L in a row means in spring.

 

[NJDevs26]

If that happens then Marty might be the next GM lol.

We're so far ahead into a playoff spot right now that our biggest concern right now is pretty much just that the division win is probably out of reach. Now we have to worry about keeping 2nd and home ice advantage over the Canes.

But as I keep saying, tonight's results pending, there's zero teams in the East above NHL 500 that aren't in a playoff spot right now. That's how bad the East is. And all those teams right at NHL 500 can't seem to break ahead of 500. Every team above NHL 500 in the East is currently occupying a playoff spot as of tonight and the last several weeks. Maybe one of those teams got one game over before falling back to even again.

Even the second wild card team Sens are currently on pace for 86 points. With no other East team behind them on pace for more than 82 points. That probably won't hold the entire season, but it's been holding for several weeks now.

I guess that depends whether you think Marty is in his current role because of Fitz or the owners. If it’s because of the owners then you might be right.

 

[Devs3cups]

Overreactions about the larger picture, appropriate reaction to the absolutely gutting defeat today.

Spot on. This streak sucks, but I’m not worried about the bigger picture. Fitz knows what’s up as well.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Hurricanes going 3-4 in their last 7 softens the Blow on NJ’s skid. Gotta start the winning ways soon, which I think they will be able to do just fine

 

[Bleedred]

I guess that depends whether you think Marty is in his current role because of Fitz or the owners. If it’s because of the owners then you might be right.

I honestly think it was because of the owners. Remember, he was promoted to one of Fitz's lieutenants for the rest of the year after Shero was fired and Fitz became interim GM.

There's not a ton of evidence that Marty WANTS to be a GM, other than he became an assistant GM for St. Louis a minute after his playing career ended and kept that role for 3 years.

If you remember, Shero claimed when he came through the door that he was going to call St. Louis and Marty and reach out and see what the deal was with him. A lot of people who were mad that Lou was ousted and mad at the owners thought it was BS at the time and Shero never reached out or wanted Marty here, but it was that offseason that Marty was named assistant GM for St. Louis. And the year his contract ended he was immediately brought back to the Devils, but apparently only in some kind of ''Business marketing'' role, that's what was said at the time. So it turned that Shero/the owners probably did indeed reach out to Marty in 2015, but St. Louis gave him that assistant GM gig.

Silver lining : better to have weaknesses exposed now so Fitz can address them. Cuz we all know what 4L in a row means in spring.

At least your Ducks were the beneficiary of one of these losses!

 

[TheUnseenHand]

All you have to do in this league is make the playoffs. The sky will be falling when we lose enough to be in danger of missing. For now, this looks to me like the type of thing every good team goes through at some point in the season and everyone starts wondering if they are toast. This isn't last year. This year they are winning in sustainable fashion and generally losing in an unsustainable fashion.

 

[Better Call Sal]

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

The frustrating thing is McLeod would be a perfect fit in the bottom 6

Shouldn't his trial be over by now?

Spot on. This streak sucks, but I’m not worried about the bigger picture. Fitz knows what’s up as well.

Based on his record to date, where is your confidence in any of this current management group?

 

[CalamityX23]

Sloppy D gaffes, can't bury scoring chances, can't come up with key saves.

I legit asked cuz I can't watch them since opt/msg!!!

 

[My3Sons]

Hurricanes going 3-4 in their last 7 softens the Blow on NJ’s skid. Gotta start the winning ways soon, which I think they will be able to do just fine

Hard to see them start winning until those Nosferdano memes start to roll out

 

[guitarguyvic]

Florida currently has Mackie Samoskevich on the 2nd line. Jack Roslovic is on Carolina’s top line. Conor Geekie is on Tampa’s 2nd line. Max Pacioretty is on Toronto’s 2nd line. Boston’s 2nd line is Zacha-Coyle-Geekie.

Lots of mid everywhere

Those teams have one guy each in their top six who are more like middle or bottom six guys. Not two like us.

Except Boston who is a bubble team.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Sometimes teams just go through stretches were they aren't playing well.

There isn't anything else to it. Not some fatal flaws or anything.

 

[Emperoreddy]

To even hypothetically be thinking about the team sprialling out of the playoffs is such an overreaction. Like that's legit go breath some of this brisk cold air and take a chill pill

 

[Triumph]

Right I’m remembering differently. I’m imagining that I was actually one of the few posters during the lull that season who still believed they were good enough to make some noise in the playoffs.

I thought they were a good team at the time. I think as of now they were a better than this one now. Perhaps they were a bit luckier in close games then, but I’m not basing my opinion on strictly their record so who cares.

I'm glad you've remembered enough to pat yourself on the back for an opinion - good for you. I think they had a higher top end, perhaps, and definitely more depth up front, but what the Devils were doing in the month of December is the kind of stuff that wins in the playoffs. The Devils are -13 in goals for versus expected goals for at 5v5, and I don't think the Devils have a ton of pluggers or chuckers in their lineup. The pucks just aren't going in. At some point they will.

 

[guitarguyvic]

To even hypothetically be thinking about the team sprialling out of the playoffs is such an overreaction. Like that's legit go breath some of this brisk cold air and take a chill pill

Is there anyone saying they’re going to spiral out of the playoffs? I know I’m not saying that.

I'm glad you've remembered enough to pat yourself on the back for an opinion - good for you. I think they had a higher top end, perhaps, and definitely more depth up front, but what the Devils were doing in the month of December is the kind of stuff that wins in the playoffs. The Devils are -13 in goals for versus expected goals for at 5v5, and I don't think the Devils have a ton of pluggers or chuckers in their lineup. The pucks just aren't going in. At some point they will.

That’s great, but if they can’t do it consistently, well…who knows what we actually get in the playoffs.