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

NjDevsRR

Anything Can Happen In Jersey
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Apr 24, 2012
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Wtf is happening. I feel like I’m going insane. Stuff like this isn’t normal after the FIRST LOSS OF THE SEASON.
And they could have easily won tonight even playing so so hockey lmao

They had 4-6 sure goals they simply missed, hit the post or whiffed on. I just laugh these comments off until I actually see trouble with the team.
 

Whaddagoal

The Sheldon Keefe Era Begins
Nov 28, 2005
11,869
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The thing is, I've never experienced an atmosphere like this. It didn't remind me of any arena vibe. I explained it early as nervous energy because that's what I initially thought. But as I thought about it, and as the game went on, and when it ended, and even when we exited the parking lot, I realized I haven't experience that kind of vibe before at a game. Ever. Inevitably with a packed house like that you still have some pissed off drunks, idiots trying to kill each other in the parking lot, people calling for the coach to be fired, etc. An angry buzz. There was literally none of that. Nothing at all. We filed in, we filed out, we went home.

I got home just around 10ish, kinda unusual if I stay until the final buzzer, got to my car (say middle level parking level 2.5 vs. Low or high... Got in my car and left right away no delay no nose pushing the car out to even get out of spot. Guy gave me ample space, same with me for others and I was out on the streets in not that long time, and mostly easy drive out of Newark, even lights were mostly green, haha.

That was definitely unusual for the crowd this size. Very civil even walking into the parking garage deck from street.

That I can relate to completely.
 

Devs3cups

Wind of Change
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May 8, 2010
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And they could have easily won tonight even playing so so hockey lmao

They had 4-6 sure goals they simply missed, hit the post or whiffed on. I just laugh these comments off until I actually see trouble with the team.
I feel that. For me last year the alarm sounded after the game in Vancouver, even if they won. I got the feeling then that something wasn’t right, and I never felt confident in them after that. That game really rubbed me the wrong way.
 
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Whaddagoal

The Sheldon Keefe Era Begins
Nov 28, 2005
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this is my reaction too. you can see the team is good. they just happened to collectively have an off night against a great team.

To play a bit of devils advocate:

But why is Toronto considered such a great team to hand them so much cred? They have a donkey defense and backup goalie in net. They do have offense, sure.

Look, even after they lost their first one, and on a back to back also with a new coach? I don't see them as some tier above us. So far they are in a similar situation team wise, talent wise even worse if you consider D and goaltending.

Okay better than buffalo by roster but I don't see why we need to give them all this credit when our roster is also filled pretty joyously with some elite players and extremely comparable or even we should be better.

I get it our guys maybe off night or jetlagged or whatever the hell, but I think we should keep the bar high for us. We should be the great team, teams have to keep their bar to.
 
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Jersey Fan 12

Positive Vibes
Nov 20, 2006
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On the plus side, Devils didn't allow an empty net goal against at the end.

On the other side of things, 49 combined minutes of Dougie and Jack; no points and minus-2.

What happened to the team hockey played in Prague? This seems an awful lot like the one-man "me" hockey we've seen for much of the past four years.

Team can't be "harder to play against" if everyone isn't playing.
 

MadDevil

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Feb 10, 2007
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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. :laugh:
only-game.gif
 

ZachaFlockaFlame

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Aug 24, 2020
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To play a bit of devils advocate:

But why is Toronto considered such a great team to hand them so much cred? They have a donkey defense and backup goalie in net. They do have offense, sure.

Look, even after they lost their first one, and on a back to back also with a new coach? I don't see them as some tier above us. So far they are in a similar situation team wise, talent wise even worse if you consider D and goaltending.

Okay better than buffalo by roster but I don't see why we need to give them all this credit when our roster is also filled pretty joyously with some elite players and extremely comparable or even we should be better.

I get it our guys maybe off night or jetlagged or whatever the hell, but I think we should keep the bar high for us. We should be the great team, teams have to keep their bar to.

They're better coached and it was evident when they got up, their stars were back checking way harder than I've ever seen in the Matthews/Marner era. There was a play Matthews made tonight that was insane and probably went unnoticed by most of the fans at home. He had 2 Devils on him in the defensive zone, won the puck and just casually flipped it out from the slot. The things we said about the Devils in the first 2 games about team defense and commitment to the harder spaces of the ice is what Toronto did tonight. That's what Berube is going to bring to their team, will it work in the long run? Who knows, but it's the same reason why we should have faith in Keefe/Devils because it's arguably the same exact thing he's implementing in our young forwards.
 

ZachaFlockaFlame

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Aug 24, 2020
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Lol. I don't think it was anything like that. Mets fans didn't show up because they were pissed. No one was pissed tonight. No one was complaining about the lethargic play. No one seemed to care. It wasn't even apathy. It was like, I don't know, a simulation or something.

Maybe it's this bonkers geomagnetic storm that is making the northern lights visible at my house or something :laugh:

Nah there were definitely fans that were mad tonight about them sleepwalking but it felt pretty subdued. I even told my brother that the Devils be lucky to get 2 back from Toronto because Berube will have them playing defense the rest of the game and that's exactly what happened. Also again, the ice factor didn't help, whenever the Devils had a decent breakout a puck would bounce or something stupid would happen to end a scoring chance. If Timo scored on the shot he hit the post on, I think the roof would've exploded when it was 1-0 lol
 
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ZachaFlockaFlame

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Aug 24, 2020
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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.
 

Killing Joke

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Dec 2, 2017
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Wtf is happening. I feel like I’m going insane. Stuff like this isn’t normal after the FIRST LOSS OF THE SEASON.
Because a good team shouldn't be losing to the leafs with a rookie goalie, that god awful d core, and their god awful bottom 6 when they are the second half of a back to back and we had time to rest up.
 
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Killing Joke

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Dec 2, 2017
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Yeah because the expectation should be 47 save shutouts whenever you play them. They're a good team, I don't know what the f*** you're on about
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.
 

ZachaFlockaFlame

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Aug 24, 2020
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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.

They went up 3-0 with Berube as coach, the game was virtually over at that point. I frankly don't know what to tell you, the Devils couldn't hit an outlet tonight, the ice was garbage, Markstrom gave up a few bad goals and the game was still in reach in the third. You can complain about that in game 3, I'm not going to. And I probably expect them to lose to Washington because Washington could ice an ECHL team and we'd still f***ing lose to them lmao
 
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PizzaAndPucks

New Jersey Angels diehard
Nov 29, 2018
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On the plus side, Devils didn't allow an empty net goal against at the end.

On the other side of things, 49 combined minutes of Dougie and Jack; no points and minus-2.

What happened to the team hockey played in Prague? This seems an awful lot like the one-man "me" hockey we've seen for much of the past four years.

Team can't be "harder to play against" if everyone isn't playing.
It's 1 game against a completely different opponent. It sucks they didn't win it but's 1 game. We won last year's season opener and look how that worked out. We also lost our season opener in 2022 and we're calling for Ruff's head. The first few games of the season are important but at the same time not because every team is still adjusting to all of their offseason changes (which the Devils made plenty of). We are still 2-1-0 to kick the season off, not 0-3-0.

Also take into account we dont have Luke and Pesce in the lineup still. It wouldn't be easy to pull any Dman from the lineup but Casey and probably Nemec will be pulled for those 2.

If this fanbase is going to get bent out of shape losing 1 game in the 2nd week of October than they need to relax. We are not a lock to be a top 3 regular season team but we certainly have a roster that can be capable of it. Realistically this team should be able to cruise into the playoffs as a 4th to 6th seed in the East. Its really about them getting there and getting more playoff experience and hopefully winning a round or 2.
 

ninetyeight

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Jun 3, 2007
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I believe it's fairly common that teams struggle a while after european games. I don't know if anyone has stats for this, but I do remember reading this about Nashville when they returned after great euro performances.

So I expect more of the same in the next few games. We don't have to win all the games, just enough to make the playoffs and hopefully by then the team looks way better. If we have to choose it's better to have a rough start and improve as the season goes on, instead of a hot start and crash and burn by December.
 

Better Call Sal

Salnalysis
Nov 24, 2011
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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.
 

theoptimist

Trade Siegenthaler
Apr 22, 2014
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The reason Jack looks bad sometimes is because he always has the puck. If he turns it over 3 times in a shift it's because he has it, skates 30 feet up ice, makes one guy miss then throws a pass somewhere that may get picked off in the offensive zone, and everyone goes "He sucks!", "Head not in the game", "He lost his edge"

Meanwhile Palat/Haula/Nose take a puck off the wall in the defensive end, bounce it off the boards to clear the zone by 5 feet, but turn it over in the process and it comes right back in our end, and we run around and kill our defense for another 20 seconds and everyone pants are down because they got the puck out.

Jack's game score was 4th on the team tonight behind Kovy/Bratt/Timo. Wonder why those other forwards are there?

Bottom of the list? Nemec/Dillon/Casey/Mercer.

The only time I'm ever concerned about Jack is when he's out of the lineup.

Never liked The Palat-Haula-Noesen line. Noesen is the best skater of the trio.

Noesen should be playing with Nico. Both are dogs while Mercer is just a puppy. Noesen and Cotter deserve promotions.

Haula is just so bad. Jack needs him for the faceoffs and Haula needs Jack’s speed.

Palat is washed up and so is that leadership tax. “He’s only paid 1M more, it’s not a lot of money!” 🤡
 

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