GDT: Rangers @ Devils - 7 P.M. - MSGSN

[TF1970]

Schmid is 4-1-0 against the Rangers with a .951% and 2 shutouts. Of course these are all playoffs. He has no regular season games against them.

Vitek was 7-3-1 with a .908% and no shutouts before tonight.

Hey, remember last year when Blackwood was given games against the Canucks because Ruff “looked at their historic play against each of the teams” and decided to play them going by that?

Why didn’t Schmid play this game?

Why doesn’t Schmid get any rope?

Vitek is on pace for 56 starts and 62 games and hasn’t even been better than Schmid. Schmid is on pace for 31 games and 26 starts.

Are you f***ing kidding me? Shame on Lindy for this.

Disaster.

Fire him if he’s gonna keep going with Vitek.

Vitek sucks and irredeemable after last playoffs.

And we still roll him out there for the Rangers to embarrass him like they would have in game 3 if he got that game.

Enough with this guy already. Garbage. Better than Blackwood is like saying puke is better than shit.

And yes, when he got here he WAS better than Blackwood. WAS better. Key word WAS.

His last 39 games are quickly going the way of the Blackwood and Campbell.

I don’t disagree with you. But the bigger issue is that neither goalie is a good option thus far. And I think the GM is content with pointing to injuries as to why they are a .500 hockey club and then even further down the road blaming the goaltending if they miss the playoffs like he was quick to do two years ago. I guess my point is I don’t think he is gonna do shit about it.

 

[JimEIV]

Maybe St.Louis Blues-legend Martin Brodeur is available?

He won't put down the donuts for pads

 

[Bleedred]

Throw Akira out there and let him cook.

Vitek is nothing more than a career backup that got hot the same way Clemmer and Kinkaid did.

I think he can be fine on another team, but he’s irredeemable here after last playoffs.

You can’t keep throwing this guy out there after.

He can be fine somewhere else, but not here. Maybe we can get good games out of him as a backup though, but I can’t wait for him to be gone after this year. He’s signed for next year, but I’d bet he’s a cap dump or part of a deal for another goalie after this year.

 

[My3Sons]

I still can’t believe how ridiculous that just was to not even get it to overtime. And I’m not as on the goalie as most of the rest of you. But at the end of the day, it’s another sub .900 performance. At this point I the GM can’t use it as an excuse like he did a couple years ago.

It’s still something of a transition year. The defense is in turnover with two young guys and a new vet in Miller. Beyond that Schmid is still developing as is Holtz. They are flawed and the injuries don’t help. Vanacek is meh but that’s why they got him for essentially nothing and paid him accordingly.

 

[MadDevil]

I don’t disagree with you. But the bigger issue is that neither goalie is a good option thus far. And I think the GM is content with pointing to injuries as to why they are a .500 hockey club and then even further down the road blaming the goaltending if they miss the playoffs like he was quick to do two years ago. I guess my point is I don’t think he is gonna do shit about it.

WTF are you talking about? Fitz has been active in addressing issues his entire tenure. Is he supposed to snap his fingers and suddenly make a consistent starting goalie available for us to trade for? Which goalie that moved this year should he have been in on?

 

[Dylan9z9]

Teams just going to have to win games without goaltending until someone can be

Frustrating to lose, even more frustrating to not at least get a point. Another game where defense and goaltending just aren't good enough. Oh well, at least Jack is back

These goalies stink to high heaven every now and then there is a fluke and they give up only 2 goals otherwise they are Swiss cheese

 

[Satans Hockey]

Hey by the way, it's so embarrassing having our building filled with blue every f***ing time we play them at home.

The ticket prices are absurd, my seats are over $500 for this one game. Meanwhile another tier game will be $90. So these 2 games vs the Rangers can literally cover more than half the cost for 1 seat for the entire season. It's insane.

I never blame anyone for cashing out on this game. It's rarely a fun experience having to sit next to away fans.

Don't worry though, if I ever win the lotto I'm buying the team and putting in an away section policy like the EPL so they are only allocated so many tickets and will be all together so they don't have to ruin anyone else's night.

 

[TF1970]

It’s still something of a transition year. The defense is in turnover with two young guys and a new vet in Miller. Beyond that Schmid is still developing as is Holtz. They are flawed and the injuries don’t help. Vanacek is meh but that’s why they got him for essentially nothing and paid him accordingly.

I just hate the “transition year” that is always thrown around. Missing the playoffs is not at all acceptable regardless of what it is or isn’t.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I don’t disagree with you. But the bigger issue is that neither goalie is a good option thus far. And I think the GM is content with pointing to injuries as to why they are a .500 hockey club and then even further down the road blaming the goaltending if they miss the playoffs like he was quick to do two years ago. I guess my point is I don’t think he is gonna do shit about it.

big yikes

have you followed the team at all the past 2 years, or?

 

[TF1970]

WTF are you talking about? Fitz has been active in addressing issues his entire tenure. Is he supposed to snap his fingers and suddenly make a consistent starting goalie available for us to trade for? Which goalie that moved this year should he have been in on?

That’s fine but I don’t want to hear his excuse train he is so great at bringing out.

 

[Bleedred]

Why did Vitek get the start again? Because he allowed only two goals in arguably the best defensive game we’ve played this year?

Gimme a break.

Again, the Rangers don’t take our team seriously with him. And he obviously isn’t embarrassed about what happened last spring and the results in that series after he stopped playing.

The Rangers are laughing when they hear they have to face him.

Guy is a BUM.

I’d rather lose every night with Schmid getting shelled than give this guy a bunch of chances because he was better than Blackwood last year.

That’s like the wall of Gaylord. They probably make a ribbon for that?

“better goalie than Blackwood”.

 

[jkrdevil]

They’re even further out by points percentage. I’m not in panic mode, but they’ve given themselves a hill to climb already.

The final WC right now is Tampa who has played 2 games more than us and are 3 points up. Doing the math they are a 1/2 game out of the playoffs in November. They are also a half game behind the Flyers who one will think will drop

It isn’t panic time assuming we get healthy. I would expect a goalie trade at some point.

 

[BurntToast]

I don’t think playing 11-7 helps, when you go down a guy and the Rangers were thumping the Devils. Holtz was out for a couple of shifts, Hamilton was out a few and Jack is coming off an injury.

VV makes some great “looking” saves but I think if he was better at tracking pucks, a few miraculous saves would probably be more routine.

 

[My3Sons]

I just hate the “transition year” that is always thrown around. Missing the playoffs is not at all acceptable regardless of what it is or isn’t.

I don’t expect them to miss the playoffs but it won’t be easy and they will have to play better as a team. And I’m not a fan of Ruff even if the players like him.

 

[TF1970]

big yikes

have you followed the team at all the past 2 years, or?

Okay so if they miss the playoffs are we still gonna be giving him a pat on the back for all his work?

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

This game is literally the Coyotes game from the second game of the year. I get the Rangers thing gets us all hyped up but let's relax. The Devils played really well, the refs swallowed their whistles because of course they did and they died the last 10 mins. I don't know if fatigue killed them with their bench on the forward side.

 

[Devs3cups]

The ticket prices are absurd, my seats are over $500 for this one game. Meanwhile another tier game will be $90. So these 2 games vs the Rangers can literally cover more than half the cost for 1 seat for the entire season. It's insane.

I never blame anyone for cashing out on this game. It's rarely a fun experience having to sit next to away fans.

Don't worry though, if I ever win the lotto I'm buying the team and putting in an away section policy like the EPL so they are only allocated so many tickets and will be all together so they don't have to ruin anyone else's night.

Not trying to blame or shame anyone not having the money to go see hockey games, I apologize if that's how I came across, I'd never shame anyone for not spending money. It was simply an observation that it's very annoying having our building filled with rival fans.

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

All I care about is the team played great. We out hustled the Rangers. You can't stop that Panarin shot, no way. I don't want to say he was lucky but those typically do not go in.

The Rangers like always get 3 power plays, we had 1. They can't beat us in 7, not a chance.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Because his last like 40 games are way worse than .907 and this teams defense is atrocious.

Definitely not an atrocious defensive team. We’ve looked much better with Miller in.

I’m going to put some value in the 131 games as a perfectly average .909 goalie that won plenty of games.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Lmao, this team is virtually a lock for the postseason. They play regular season hockey to a tee.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Why did Vitek get the start again? Because he allowed only two goals in arguably the best defensive game we’ve played this year?

Gimme a break.

Again, the Rangers don’t take our team seriously with him. And he obviously isn’t embarrassed about what happened last spring and the results in that series after he stopped playing.

The Rangers are laughing when they hear they have to face him.

Guy is a BUM.

I’d rather lose every night with Schmid getting shelled than give this guy a bunch of chances because he was better than Blackwood last year.

That’s like the wall of Gaylord. They probably make a ribbon for that?

“better goalie than Blackwood”.

Vanecek looks so small and unathletic in net. I can’t remember having less confidence in a regular goalie.

 

[Maine Fan]

i can agree but Vitek was struggling with rebounds a bit tonight and has historically; so its hard for me to gibe him the benefit of the doubt

if that was uncommon for him id be willing to simply blame the defense; but herr i think its shared fault

I understand. Ruff just said we screwed up with #3 and he implied that we need to cover more. I am not trying to tell you that Vitek is an outstanding goalie. When Fitz hired him he was a backup goalie. He played his heart out last season and was mis-managed by Ruff last season, over used, and had never started a playoff game. Fans forget he was and is a backup goalie and is being paid as such.

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

Losing Nosek hurt, don't kid yourself.

 

[Bleedred]

This game is literally the Coyotes game from the second game of the year. I get the Rangers thing gets us all hyped up but let's relax. The Devils played really well, the refs swallowed their whistles because of course they did and they died the last 10 mins. I don't know if fatigue killed them with their bench on the forward side.

Lindy handicapped us by throwing the Rangers favorite blow up doll out there to start in goal.

And guess what? They made him their blow up doll yet again.

And I preemptively bitched about this in the Jets GDT two games ago. How the Rangers are gonna love playing Vitek on Saturday night.

 

[Devs3cups]

I don’t disagree with you. But the bigger issue is that neither goalie is a good option thus far. And I think the GM is content with pointing to injuries as to why they are a .500 hockey club and then even further down the road blaming the goaltending if they miss the playoffs like he was quick to do two years ago. I guess my point is I don’t think he is gonna do shit about it.

I don't understand this. Fitz has been very, and I mean VERY, vocal about wanting to improve the goaltending. It's just not an easy thing, or maybe even possible, thing to do when you want. Top goalies who make a difference are almost never moved.