GDT: Spend Some Time with the Wee Baby Seamus: Your New Jersey Devils (2-0) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (0-1), 7 PM, MSG

[guitarguyvic]

They're not a great team like people are saying here with the early season excuses for a bad loss. They are objectively way worse than they have been in previous seasons. They have no depth at forward and on d.

The expectation should be winning a home opener against a team that played just last night in Montreal and had a decent amount of travel to get to NJ and that started a rookie goalie.

Instead, we shit the bed 10 minutes in and looked exactly like we have looked outside of 2022-2023.

And we all know we are going to get smoked by that team of overachieving geriatrics down in DC.

I like how three games into the season you can assess that the Leafs are no longer a good team compared to previous years because of x changes, but for the devils it doesn’t matter how many changes there were they are still the exact same team as last year because they had…checks notes…one bad game out of three so far.

Keep the unhinged takes flowing.

 

[JrFischer54]

My apathy from this game comes from them making their own bed early in this game + Toronto is a really f***ing good team. The media shits on them but they've been one of the better regular seasons ever since Auston Matthews has gotten there. It's not like losing to the f***ing Red Wings in 22/23 where we should've won and started 0-2. Usually the Devils first game overall is the home opener, they already won 2 prior to tonight and that's probably where the fan boredom and urgency level of not panicking is probably from.

to be fair this board has shit on the leafs a ton! just go read the around nhl threads.

 

[MartyOwns]

the experiment has failed, blow the team up

 

[Nocashstyle]

This thread is too much man lmao. Long, long season ahead. 1st L of the season and it won’t be the last. We can’t be doing 40+ pagers after every loss holy moly.

HF probably brings me more stress and desperation than the actual f***ing team lol.

Absolutely. I can watch a loss and think “aww they played like shit, but onto next game.” Then I’ll look on here and there’s posters arguing that a team who started the season 2-1 needs to be blown up

 

[Whaddagoal]

I like how three games into the season you can assess that the Leafs are no longer a good team compared to previous years because of x changes, but for the devils it doesn’t matter how many changes there were they are still the exact same team as last year because they had…checks notes…one bad game out of three so far.

Keep the unhinged takes flowing.

I do think @Killing Joke is right about the second part though. The expectations for a home opener against a team on a back to back playing their backup goalie should be pretty high and this team shouldn't come out the way they did. To hear from the post game (Timo/Bratt) that the team was out worked or the opponents " compete level was much higher".... Just disappointing.

From a fan level, I don't think that we should putting Toronto in some sort of pedestal of "hey Toronto's a great team! We tried!" . We came out low-energy and lackadaisical with the puck.

The aim by the players/team/fans is to be a top team this year no illusions. I think that is what I feel Killing Joke is reactive at, and this home opener performance reflects from the recent bad past.

Just feels a bit like a loser mentality already creeping in giving the team a pass for a flat home opener.

Of course it's 3 games in, but I get where that frustration comes from for sure. I don't think it is unhinged to have really high expectations from this team this year.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I do think @Killing Joke is right about the second part though. The expectations for a home opener against a team on a back to back playing their backup goalie should be pretty high and this team shouldn't come out the way they did. To hear from the post game (Timo/Bratt) that the team was out worked or the opponents " compete level was much higher".... Just disappointing.

From a fan level, I don't think that we should putting Toronto in some sort of pedestal of "hey Toronto's a great team! We tried!" . We came out low-energy and lackadaisical with the puck.

The aim by the players/team/fans is to be a top team this year no illusions. I think that is what I feel Killing Joke is reactive at, and this home opener performance reflects from the recent bad past.

Just feels a bit like a loser mentality already creeping in giving the team a pass for a flat home opener.

Of course it's 3 games in, but I get where that frustration comes from for sure. I don't think it is unhinged to have really high expectations from this team this year.

I don’t know where the high expectations for a home opener come from. Historically teams both good and bad have an extremely mixed record on opening nights. Couple that with the history of teams being mediocre on their return from Europe. Add in that the opponent doesn’t suck and is coming off their own home opening loss (see?). Add in that our team is still adjusting to a new coach and yes, some old habits might creep back in because it takes time to unlearn.

So yes, clearly some people’s expectations were way too high. There’s no conclusions to be drawn from a single game like this.

PS…I alluded to Toronto losing their home opener. And it was to Montreal - a team no one expects to even be playoff caliber.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Again, I think the atmosphere had more to do with what felt like a relapse into last year more than anything. It was almost a comical “aw shit, here we go again” mentality once we went down by 3.

I don’t disagree that it was different than any home opener I’d been to, but I think that had we cut it to a one goal deficit at any point, the energy would’ve picked up. Even our goals came just a minute before both periods ended, so that also killed the energy the crowd could have built also.

The play was so disjointed most of the night, even when we had chances. It never felt as though we were going to push another one home.

The energy was definitely a little weird, even from the start. 80% of the crowd was seated for the player intros.

The classic Winnipeg blown lead home opener and the Chicago home opener a few years ago were much better atmospheres from the jump. No idea why that is.

 

[NJDevs26]

People also acted like (with a touch of justification) that we just beat a lottery team with a bad coach and now this was our first game against real competition and we blew a tire quickly

 

[Triumph]

I don't evaluate based on one or two games. 2022-23 was 2 years ago and the most 'give up on evaluating the season based on two games' start you've ever seen. Hell, they almost lost that game to the Ducks Game 3 too, and the Ducks ended up as the worst team in the league.

That said, everyone was not great for that first period, including the goalie, but there's a lot of good signs even within that. The breakdowns are not quite the same thing we've been seeing lately.

 

[Triumph]

The energy was definitely a little weird, even from the start. 80% of the crowd was seated for the player intros.

The classic Winnipeg blown lead home opener and the Chicago home opener a few years ago were much better atmospheres from the jump. No idea why that is.

Mets and Yankees both in the playoffs, Yankees playing that night, plus the team already started in Europe? That'd be my guess - enough baseball fans in the crowd who've been watching meaningful games.

Chicago home opener was the first game after COVID restrictions were lifted, of course that's going to be a wild atmosphere.

 

[Better Call Sal]

The energy was definitely a little weird, even from the start. 80% of the crowd was seated for the player intros.

The classic Winnipeg blown lead home opener and the Chicago home opener a few years ago were much better atmospheres from the jump. No idea why that is.

Yeah, the Winnipeg opener was as raucous as I can ever remember, playoffs aside. The hype from the Summer of Shero was serious.

I remember getting chills at the time when the intros went from Subban to Jack to Goose. The crowd got louder and louder with each one.

I don't know, I was up top in 212 and I thought it was loud for the intros and at the start. Maybe it was nervous energy, but I never had a confident feeling in this game the way it played out. It just felt like we never had any momentum going. I was hoping for much more out of the gate given the Leafs just played the night before, but it felt like we were as disjointed as can be.

 

[Whaddagoal]

The energy was definitely a little weird, even from the start. 80% of the crowd was seated for the player intros.

The classic Winnipeg blown lead home opener and the Chicago home opener a few years ago were much better atmospheres from the jump. No idea why that is.

I wanted to stand but didn't want to block the folks sitting right behind me as the players were skating out. If everyone behind me was standing I definitely would have.

 

[Devs3cups]

There’s no conclusions to be drawn from a single game like this.

I think that’s the biggest thing for me. I feel like there’s this trend of overanalyzing every game and drawing larger conclusions based on one game sample sizes.

Now, if games like these become a trend, I’ll get concerned, but I doubt it will. I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but last year, even in a W, the game in Vancouver basically turned me on the team for that season. They had that huge lead and just pissed it away. But the weeks before that game were pretty bad. I knew playing like that wasn’t sustainable. It wasn’t just a one game thing.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I do think @Killing Joke is right about the second part though. The expectations for a home opener against a team on a back to back playing their backup goalie should be pretty high and this team shouldn't come out the way they did. To hear from the post game (Timo/Bratt) that the team was out worked or the opponents " compete level was much higher".... Just disappointing.

From a fan level, I don't think that we should putting Toronto in some sort of pedestal of "hey Toronto's a great team! We tried!" . We came out low-energy and lackadaisical with the puck.

The aim by the players/team/fans is to be a top team this year no illusions. I think that is what I feel Killing Joke is reactive at, and this home opener performance reflects from the recent bad past.

Just feels a bit like a loser mentality already creeping in giving the team a pass for a flat home opener.

Of course it's 3 games in, but I get where that frustration comes from for sure. I don't think it is unhinged to have really high expectations from this team this year.

Not really, players/teams come out soft when they have a cushion, the Leafs just got blanked the night before in a game they arguably should've won 6-1 and they knew they couldn't start their year 0-2 with the Woll injury. it would've been panic central for their roster/media. I'll give them credit as opposed to just shitting on the Devils, the Devils didn't show up but it was still a 2 shot game going into the third and their anemic PP had chances to help them win that game but it wasn't meant to be. Berube has them playing good defensive hockey, I rarely saw the slot available like I did in years past from Leafs teams. Pretty sure there's also stats to backup teams that play in the Global Series games that they have a tendency to lay an egg when they travel back to NA, it happens. They have no excuse v Washington, but the Caps utterly own this team for no f***ing reason

I don’t know where the high expectations for a home opener come from. Historically teams both good and bad have an extremely mixed record on opening nights. Couple that with the history of teams being mediocre on their return from Europe. Add in that the opponent doesn’t suck and is coming off their own home opening loss (see?). Add in that our team is still adjusting to a new coach and yes, some old habits might creep back in because it takes time to unlearn.

So yes, clearly some people’s expectations were way too high. There’s no conclusions to be drawn from a single game like this.

PS…I alluded to Toronto losing their home opener. And it was to Montreal - a team no one expects to even be playoff caliber.

Montreal was the home team in that game

Mets and Yankees both in the playoffs, Yankees playing that night, plus the team already started in Europe? That'd be my guess - enough baseball fans in the crowd who've been watching meaningful games.

Chicago home opener was the first game after COVID restrictions were lifted, of course that's going to be a wild atmosphere.

There were more people watching the Yankees games on their phone in my row than the Devils games once it got to 3-0 and 4-1, lol.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

People also acted like (with a touch of justification) that we just beat a lottery team with a bad coach and now this was our first game against real competition and we blew a tire quickly

Almost like former players know how to combat their former coaches systems should be the lesson for this week, lol.

 

[Satans Hockey]

We are pretty mid at home openers in prudential too

7 wins

7 losses

1 ot loss

3 shootout losses

07 - 4-1 loss vs Ottawa

08 - 2-1 win vs islanders

09 - 5-2 loss vs Philly

10 - 4-3 ot loss vs Dallas

11 - 3-0 loss vs Philly

13 lockout - 3-0 win vs Philly

13 - 4-3 so loss vs Islanders

14 - 4-2 loss vs San Jose

15 - 3-1 loss vs Winnipeg

16 - 2-1 win vs Anaheim

17 - 4-1 win vs Colorado

18 - 6-0 win vs Washington

19 - 5-4 so loss vs Winnipeg

21 covid - 3-2 so loss vs Boston

21 - 4-3 ot win vs Chicago

22 - 5-2 loss vs Detroit

23 - 4-3 win vs Detroit

24 - 4-2 loss vs Toronto

 

[NJDevs26]

There were more people watching the Yankees games on their phone in my row than the Devils games once it got to 3-0 and 4-1, lol.

This is actually a good observation…I’m sure that was part of the blase attitude of the crowd. I couldn’t go last night anyway but tbh if I could have, and the Mets were playing their potential series clincher I would have just sold my ticket(s) and opted out of going to the Devils game entirely.