GDT: Penguins @ Devils, 2:00 PM, NHL Network

[jkrdevil]

There was some talk about our schedule being pretty tough at the end of the season. Even one of the players (I think Palat?) mentioned he looked at the schedule after the break and there’s a lot of playoff teams.

But I know we still have Columbus twice, the Habs two more times, Ottawa one more time. Chicago and Arizona on the road. I think we have the Flyers one more time. St. Louis on the road. We probably have the Islanders a couple more times. Buffalo too.

I haven’t really checked the schedule, but we should even have some of those teams post-deadline, where they’ll be worse and we may potentially be even better.

I know we do play Tampa all three times this year in about 7 nights. That’ll be tough.

February is a month where they build momentum. March is brutal because of who they play and that it is compressed (more than every other day essentially). That said those big teams they play will be in the same boat as the Devils, just trying to get through the schedule until the playoff.

 

[Blender]

Wood has been rotten.

 

[jkrdevil]

Playoffs potentially look set right now in the East, though seeding could easily change.

Maybe someone currently outside bumps Washington out and takes their spot. Every team in the conference has at least one game in hand on them and some teams like us and Pittsburgh have THREE games in hand on them.

I think Pittsburgh is in good position, but certainly not Washington. Buffalo is currently first out on pts%, and is 1.5 games back. They have two head to head games vs the Caps left. So the race for the last spot is still on.

 

[Better Call Sal]

 

[Devs3cups]

Great avatar potential!

 

[Call Me Al]

I was just kind of thinking about that and the criticisms a lot of us had about the Rangers last season; their run to the playoffs, plus the horseshoe they had up their asses so they mostly faces third string goalies for the first couple of rounds (oh, and Trouba's attempted tributes to Mitsuharu Misawa with those elbows), made it easy to treat them as suspect since it really felt like The Igor Show for most of the year. They're stronger overall this year so far, but last year had a vibe that made it easy to look at them as frauds as it pertained to being a top team in the league.

Makes me curious if some people are getting unnerved a bit about the Devils lately because they're afraid there's been a few too many "Vitek stood on his head at times, then Jack had to carry things" kind of wins, since if you're winning too often that way it carries the threat that you're always one freak injury away from everything falling apart.

But again, given their overall play over the entire season up to now, given all the travel they just had to do, winning games they should probably lose after losing a bunch of games they probably should've won, etc. etc. etc., I don't think it's worth getting concerned about that now. Lindy and the staff should obviously focus on it and try to deal with it during practice and whatnot, but for fans I think it's best to just watch them get to the break, take a breather, then see how things shake out once they're rested.

igor had a historically good season last year and their underlying numbers were not good.

vitek is above average, and the devils underlying numbers are among the tops in the league, even with this recent lull.

sure we are being carried by our top players right now, but the reality is we deserve to win a lot more games than the rangers did last year, it’s not a goaltending mirage

 

[Camille the Eel]

You are right you can't challenge a too many men on the ice non call the player has to be 5 feet or less from his bench for a good change this guy was more than 10ft .... was an easy call they had no choice but to make the call

The Pittsburgh player was maybe 30 feet behind the player jumping on. (As to the rule, Where the “5 feet from the bench” gets subject to abuse is also the length of the bench right? - one guy comes off at one end, the replacement jumps on at the other ? - Really it would be better to base it on the distance between the two players - but anyway you cut it, that was a penalty yesterday).

 

[NJDevs26]

That’s one of the worst line changes I’ve ever seen lol

Worst isn’t the word that comes to mind. Worst implies dumb and to a degree it was since you gave up a power play daring the officials not to enforce it, but more than that it was the most blatant cheating attempt I’ve ever seen on a too many men

 

[Nubmer6]

He's not wrong, but I also kind of refuse to get too caught up in that right now; as we keep saying, the Devils played a lot of really strong games in December that turned into losses, now they're playing weaker but getting wins, and over the course of 82 games that's just something that'll usually happen.

Plus, this is still the youngest team in the league; most of them now have enough experience to know what it's like to get through an 82 game schedule, but with the team actually being good this year it definitely changes the level of competition you face on a regular basis, as teams are no longer assuming that they can just toss their sticks out on the ice and walk away with a win against them. Wouldn't surprise me if a few of our younger guys are kind of catching up to that level of competition.

Just play strong as possible into the break and rest up. If we get to February and the Devils are still largely playing shitty but just eking out wins I'll get a bit more concerned, but far as I see it right now is just a market correction after an insanely frustrating December.

I'd rather be lucky than good.


But I'd REALLY rather be both.

 

[Hisch13r]

The past couple weeks is obviously a really small sample. Going back to December 1st is a 20+ game sample though and over that stretch we're 14th in xGF% at 51.2%. We've been trending down for a while.

 

[Saugus]

I watched this game with my Ranger fan father in law, and we both laughed at the Pens for not being able to count to 3 correctly.

I'm still not sure how that Penguins chance in the third period when Vanecek was down didn't go in. NHL Network never showed a proper replay of it.

Ugly win, but we'll take it.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

The resilience is simultaneously a good thing and covering up deeper problems. Either way, I'd rotate Holtz and Zetterlund in, at least against the Preds and Canucks.

Wood is lost at sea right now, and Boqvist can't ever make anything happen. That third line is the enigmatic part of this team. Think it only gets resolved post-trade.

Zetterlund should definitely replace Wood at the moment. He’s either hurt or lost.

 

[severian]

I watched this game with my Ranger fan father in law, and we both laughed at the Pens for not being able to count to 3 correctly.

I'm still not sure how that Penguins chance in the third period when Vanecek was down didn't go in. NHL Network never showed a proper replay of it.

Ugly win, but we'll take it.

Vanacek got a piece with his stick and it ramped up right off the crossbar.

 

[Whaddagoal]

Zetterlund should definitely replace Wood at the moment. He’s either hurt or lost.

Yup, his breakway speed is not there, so he's very pedestrian without that.

Zetterlund makes sense to fill in for a few games if he is indeed nursing some injury. Why not?

At first I was also thinking maybe the big hit had messed up his game, but I remember he was playing OK after that for some time when you look back at it. But if I had to further guess, its probably something with his hip again, or something affecting his skating and he's just trying to work through it.

Either way, a few games off might do him good.

 

[Better Call Sal]

The past couple weeks is obviously a really small sample. Going back to December 1st is a 20+ game sample though and over that stretch we're 14th in xGF% at 51.2%. We've been trending down for a while.

It also pretty much coincides with when we were unable to roll 4 effective lines upon Bastian's injury. The coaching staff can shoulder some blame there but we spent the month of December largely outplaying opponents without the ability to finish despite all of that.

Now that our forward group is "fully healthy" right now, I think we need the all star break to come in the worst way so those that are banged up can get some much needed rest. Nico clearly needs it as does Wood, if not just being taken out of the lineup all together given his performance for the past couple of months.

I really hope Zetterlund gets into the lineup again soon. I have a feeling once he does, he won't be coming out again. He's far too effective in aspects of the game that we can benefit from with his shot generation and forechecking ability.

 

[Whaddagoal]

Vanacek got a piece with his stick and it ramped up right off the crossbar.

That was a wild save. In the arena, I had no idea HOW they missed that, because the view I had, the net looked 1/3rd open net. I came home and saw the full replay and was very impressed.

 

[MachoDiablo]

igor had a historically good season last year and their underlying numbers were not good.

vitek is above average, and the devils underlying numbers are among the tops in the league, even with this recent lull.

sure we are being carried by our top players right now, but the reality is we deserve to win a lot more games than the rangers did last year, it’s not a goaltending mirage

Definitely agreed; we're deep enough into the season now to have a sample that tells us that they're for real, so I'm not really worried. Just trying to see things from the perspective of those who are, but really think they need to chill.

 

[NJDevs26]

I was just kind of thinking about that and the criticisms a lot of us had about the Rangers last season; their run to the playoffs, plus the horseshoe they had up their asses so they mostly faces third string goalies for the first couple of rounds (oh, and Trouba's attempted tributes to Mitsuharu Misawa with those elbows), made it easy to treat them as suspect since it really felt like The Igor Show for most of the year. They're stronger overall this year so far, but last year had a vibe that made it easy to look at them as frauds as it pertained to being a top team in the league.

Makes me curious if some people are getting unnerved a bit about the Devils lately because they're afraid there's been a few too many "Vitek stood on his head at times, then Jack had to carry things" kind of wins, since if you're winning too often that way it carries the threat that you're always one freak injury away from everything falling apart.

But again, given their overall play over the entire season up to now, given all the travel they just had to do, winning games they should probably lose after losing a bunch of games they probably should've won, etc. etc. etc., I don't think it's worth getting concerned about that now. Lindy and the staff should obviously focus on it and try to deal with it during practice and whatnot, but for fans I think it's best to just watch them get to the break, take a breather, then see how things shake out once they're rested.

There’s also the fact teams are adjusting to them and taking them more seriously now, the Devils are well on the way to completing the first step from doormat to legit playoff team and that’s fine for this year, eventually they’re gonna have to adjust to the adjustments and up their level that much more to stay among the elite and not just be a team being carried by their big guns. Especially as we get into the point of the season where Vitek will crash through his high in games started for one season.

 

[Bleedred]

I watched this game with my Ranger fan father in law, and we both laughed at the Pens for not being able to count to 3 correctly.

I'm still not sure how that Penguins chance in the third period when Vanecek was down didn't go in. NHL Network never showed a proper replay of it.

Ugly win, but we'll take it.

She called it a goal on NHLN as it happened and I was expecting the horn to stop play a few seconds later for what was to be a Pens goal.

 

[Saugus]

She called it a goal on NHLN as it happened and I was expecting the horn to stop play a few seconds later for what was to be a Pens goal.

Ya, I was waiting for there to be a stoppage in play and for them to review it. And then there wasn't a whistle for like 5 minutes afterward.

Would have been ridiculous if they let all that play out, only to rewind the clock because it had been a goal all along.

 

[Devils731]

Ya, I was waiting for there to be a stoppage in play and for them to review it. And then there wasn't a whistle for like 5 minutes afterward.

Would have been ridiculous if they let all that play out, only to rewind the clock because it had been a goal all along.

I’ve seen the league call down to the scorers table and tell them to blow the horn to stop play in instances where Toronto knows a goal was scored.

I assume everyone is on board with this because neither the teams nor players want to play time that won’t exist afterwards.

So the more the play continued the more I was sure it really wasn’t a goal.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Listening to the highlights, thought Jamie Hersch sounded alright on play by play. She apparently only just did it for the first time last April for NHLN.

For someone fairly new to it, thought she did fairly well. Weekesy is always a good guy to have in the booth as a counterbalance on play by play because he brings a good amount of energy.

 

[Bleedred]

Wood has been rotten.

He's a MASSIVE liability at this point.

Every time he's out there it's almost like he blades himself, especially in the defensive zone and he starts dripping all over the ice and the sharks start swarming our D-zone and nobody can get out. Maybe that's where the blood they had to clean up off the ice before OT came from?!

This is the worst he's played in his entire career, other than maybe his rookie year, but even then he was getting a breakaway every other game because of how fast he was.

He's having his worst season since his rookie year and that's scary when you look at his first 25 games, where he was on pace for like 23 goals and over 40 points.

He's on a 17 game goalless drought and has just two points since then, both coming in the Detroit game. And he only has one goal in his last 31 games.

We're sandbagging ourselves by playing him at this point, as Zetterlund has been sitting and was never nearly this bad.

And he's been getting worse every game. He was getting a lot of shots on goal every game, but that's evaporated in the last 4 games with only 3 shots on goal after a bunch of 4-5 shot on goals games from him.

I'm pretty sure he's the reason ''They get caught out there 2 or 3 times and couldn't get out of their own way'' as Ruff put it after the Seattle game when asked why guys were benched. He's clearly the weak link on that line at this point. I used to think it was McLeod, but Wood is such a liability at this point.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Listening to the highlights, thought Jamie Hersch sounded alright on play by play. She apparently only just did it for the first time last April for NHLN.

For someone fairly new to it, thought she did fairly well. Weekesy is always a good guy to have in the booth as a counterbalance on play by play because he brings a good amount of energy.

Remember when people had to work their way up from smaller markets to the big-time?

Listening to the D.I.E. "Hockey is for everyone" female announcers or interns like Sam Kasan instead of veteran broadcasters is sad.

 

[severian]

There’s also the fact teams are adjusting to them and taking them more seriously now, the Devils are well on the way to completing the first step from doormat to legit playoff team and that’s fine for this year, eventually they’re gonna have to adjust to the adjustments and up their level that much more to stay among the elite and not just be a team being carried by their big guns. Especially as we get into the point of the season where Vitek will crash through his high in games started for one season.

He shouldn't crash too far through his high games. He should get roughly 2/3s of the remaining starts, maybe a bit less. That would get him to low 50s. For all the Blackwood hate, he's been fine as a spot starter/backup. He's definitely an NHL goalie and he's capable of pulling a sparkling performance out of his you know where every so often. But the net is definitely Vanacek's now.