GDT: New York Rangers @ Your New Jersey Devils, 3 PM, MSG+

[Bleedred]

I'm starting to get nervous about Blackwood he's not playing confident and looks like he's struggling to see the puck.....Got to hope he's the answer in net....Georgiev looking like the better goalie at this stage in their development. Liked the beginning of the year but not impressed lately.........

I don’t think the plan going into this year was to play Blackwood as much as we have. I think they probably wanted him to play 55% of the games or 60% max. Now he’s only started 61% of our games so far this year, but he was unavailable for about 5-6 of those games earlier in the year when he got covid before everyone else did and before the team shutdown for two weeks.

I think if Crawford hadn’t retired on us, he would have played a lot more of these games than Wedgewood or Dell have. Unless he was also injured (he does have a recent injury history) or just completely fell apart because he was older.

I don’t think we signed him to be a sparsely used backup, at least not in year one of his two year deal. I think if we had Crawford and Blackwood was struggling like this, Crawford may have temporarily taken the starter gig. That’s IF he were actually healthy and playing well.

 

[MartyOwns]

My kids are 10 & 12 and have only known pain from this franchise.

show them some heat maps, that’s where we shine

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

All while missing Nico for most of the year and our two "scoring" wingers being useless for most of the year. This team is not nearly as bad when everyone is healthy. Now granted our depth at the NHL level isn't good right now and that is one of the main reasons we had such a poor year as well.

If Nico plays most of the year than does Zacha breakout ? Because we ran Zacha and Hughes as our top 2 centers when Nico was out. Zajac got some time their as well. Yeah our scoring wingers didnt produce well (Palms , Gusev , Johonsson) but atleast we had players like Sharangovich , Kuokannen and Merkley establish themselves. Things can definitely change next season if we make the right moves. This team has a ton of youth knocking on the door , they really just need a few veterans to play alongside them.

 

[TheDuke93]

If Nico plays most of the year than does Zacha breakout ? Because we ran Zacha and Hughes as our top 2 centers when Nico was out. Zajac got some time their as well. Yeah our scoring wingers didnt produce well (Palms , Gusev , Johonsson) but atleast we had players like Sharangovich , Kuokannen and Merkley establish themselves. Things can definitely change next season if we make the right moves. This team has a ton of youth knocking on the door , they really just need a few veterans to play alongside them.

Well our wingers being shit let Sharangovich and Kuokkanen step into more prominent roles I absolutely agree with that and good call there.

I think if Nico plays this year we see an even better Zacha because he should thrive on the wing with less defensive responsibility and imo he doesn't get to use his greatest asset playing center.

Zacha should imo be getting up ice, catching passes in the NZ and driving hard to the net. The guy is an absolute bull and thrives when he can do that. When he plays center he is usually deep in the zone and the NZ is clogged up by the time he gets going and can't just drive to the net.

 

[Guttersniped]

Yes. We are in the bottom 5 for Goals for and bottom for Goals against. 3rd worst Power Play and the worst Penalty kill in the league. Bottom 5 in faceoff wins percentage. Bottom 4 in goalies Save Percentage.


Yeah that was to easy to dig up...I'm sure your dumb comment looks even worse now.

You made a statistical claim without stats. I was wondering what kind of stats you deemed important and now I know.

 

[Guttersniped]

Lou doesn't rebuild

It was Lou's "never rebuild just retool!" Which I 100% bought into btw.

But how is the 2018 draft part of a rebuild exactly? We had our first pick and our next pick was in the 4th round because our GM traded our 2nd for a rental.

The same GM then traded our 2019 2nd, 2020 2nd, 2020 3rd and 2021 2nd for a defenseman three years away from UFA and a winger two years away.

There’s no mythical “rebuild” where the team didn’t sacrifice future assets to retool but people keep pretending there is. And there certainly isn’t one that’s 5 or 6 or 8 years long, or what ever random number people keep throwing out there with the word “rebuild”. Seriously, define “rebuild” and you will find that late stage Lou and Shero blur together a lot more than you think. Which makes sense since Lou hired Shero. (He didn’t kick himself upstairs but he did handpick Shero.)

 

[TheDuke93]

But how is the 2018 draft part of a rebuild exactly? We had our first pick and our next pick was in the 4th round because our GM traded our 2nd for a rental.

The same GM then traded our 2019 2nd, 2020 2nd, 2020 3rd and 2021 2nd for a defenseman three years away from UFA and a winger two years away.

There’s no mythical “rebuild” where the team didn’t sacrifice future assets to retool but people keep pretending there is. And there certainly isn’t one that’s 5 or 6 or 8 years long, or what ever random number people keep throwing out there with the word “rebuild”. Seriously, define “rebuild” and you will find that late stage Lou and Shero blur together a lot more than you think. Which makes sense since Lou hired Shero. (He didn’t kick himself upstairs but he did handpick Shero.)

Oh I agree 100% and I have criticized Shero a ton for that. I believe he felt forced to make a move to try to keep Hall. I also value 2nds much more then most it would seem. I was agreeing with you in that post btw haha.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

show them some heat maps, that’s where we shine

 

[Maine Fan]

Lou is a turd. He deserves all the credit in the world for the three cups, but he just has no idea how to build a sustainable legitimate cup contender in the salary cap era.

Absolutely crushed this organization with his management and the same will be said for the Islanders in a few years. Toronto got out while they could before he saddled them with too many Martins and Komarovs.

Interesting, I was not a big fan of Lou Lams but whatever he had or has, he has done well. Maybe it takes him to leave to see the flaws. But for sure he didn't believe in "rebuilds."