GDT: Spidey Says, "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack Mr. Ducksworth!" Devils @ Ducks, 9 PM, MSG+

[JimEIV]

I do think he's played better this year than in past years, but he's also reverted a bit in recent weeks or the last month or maybe a little bit more.

I think Mueller may be an adequate replacement for Moore, even if it's a downgrade. If it is a downgrade, I don't think it's by much. My main hope is to really cut down on Greene's minutes and have him play the role that Lovejoy has played this year when he's been in the lineup. Get somebody to replace what Greene has played this year and I don't know beyond that. It's gonna be tight and then you think if Santini is gonna be back next year? He might not be (until injuries) if we don't buyout Lovejoy.

I hope so too...that is get someone to replace Greene. But that makes the Mueller trade almost completely worthless... Mueller never sees the ice other than injuries if you have a #1 LHD for Greene, . Greene in the 2 slot and Butcher in the #3

Man, the picks we wasted this year. I'm sorry, I know that will offend some people but I don't really care.. Im not trolling...we tossed around picks this year like dollar bills at the strip club.

 

[NJDevs26]

It does look like the Mueller picks will go to waste at this point, but in fairness they hadn't signed Butcher at that point. He was supposed to be the young 3 LD that eventually plays his way into a bigger role before they lucked into Butcher for free and he won a job straight off. Mueller did play a few games early but wasn't all that impressive till just before injury, now that they're in a playof run they can't play him to let him develop his game.

 

[SpeakingOfTheDevils]

But wouldn't you agree that he has been better defensively this season than any other year he's been here?

I do think he has go also but if he goes you are going to need a substantial player to replace his time.. I'd hate to go into next season with idea Mueller is replacing Moore?

With how much management likes Moore and what he brings, there's no way they let him go without a replacement coming in.

At the same time, I do see Moore going the way of the Schlemko and signing a contract that's too rich for Shero's blood.

 

[Camille the Eel]

Old school thought maybe but I would never interrupt a shut out streak. Never. Even bad goalies go on unexplainable runs...remember Brian Boucher in Arizona a few years back?

Hynes even sounded like he was leaning that way in his post game interview last night. Something Deb mentioned in her wrap up.

The way he's seeing the puck and reacting last night, why not send him out for periods 4, 5 and 6.

Bet it's Cory though. Just common sense.

On the D, ideally, and money aside (that is, all real world considerations unconsidered!) we'd be rid of Lovejoy and Greene next year before we were rid of Moore. Both of them are worse than Moore. (This doesn't take into account their positive personalities and presence in the locker room).

Maybe Hynes' biggest accomplishment this season may have been getting this club where it is with the defensive roster we've got. That is just frighteningly poor. A lot of nights our system for d-zone exits has consisted of "keep it to the outside and pray."

 

[glenwo2]

Henrique really needs to tool Vatanen again just to give the Vatanen haters a glimmer of hope, because the Devils have come off as absolute THIEVES in this trade:



Since trade:


FORWARD (i.e. offense) Adam Henrique - 47 games, 28 points

DEFENSEMAN Sami Vatanen - 47 games, 26 points

Not to mention, Vatanen leads ALL Devils in ice time, and plays on the PP and PK to boot.

Thank you Ray Shero for absolutely plundering the Ducks!

sigh....

Whatever. I'm no Vats hater 'cause I absolutely LOVE what he's done for us.

That said, the STATS show *BOTH* players working out for their teams.

Now if Rico had far LESS points, THEN I will agree with your "Ray Shero absolutely plundering the Ducks"....except he DIDN'T. It was a great trade for both teams.

 

[Bramskii]

Meh not a fan of Cory starting this one. Let's not act like Kinkaid has started 60 games this year and needs the rest. He can handle a back to back. The guy just shut down 3 of the best Western teams on their own home ice. Giving him a game off could mess with his rhythm.

And I'm not subscribed to this idea that every game from here on out isn't almost a must win. This board has gotten too comfortable after the last few wins, but all it takes is a little 2 game losing streak (which is very possible with this team) and we're back to panic mode.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

We've made 20 picks over the last 2 seasons including landing a number 1 overall. Now is not the time to complain about our drafting. The time to do that was the 5 years before Shero got here.

 

[MadDevil]

For a team that's being built for speed it's kind of hard to not want a defenseman with Moore's skating ability. The problem is if we bring him back I don't know how we could upgrade the left side unless we get rid of Greene (which is unlikely) or Butcher. And that's not even taking into account Mueller, who I don't know what the hell they're planning on doing with.

 

[NJDevs26]

Meh not a fan of Cory starting this one. Let's not act like Kinkaid has started 60 games this year and needs the rest. He can handle a back to back. The guy just shut down 3 of the best Western teams on their own home ice. Giving him a game off could mess with his rhythm.

Why? He had three days off between the Nashville and Vegas games, another two days off between Vegas and last night. Little different between that and going a back to back on the road after a nearly 40-shot game. No reason getting two days off before playing the Sharks will mess with his rhythm. Has KK even played a back-to-back as a Devil?

 

[glenwo2]

Put Kinky back in there!

Nope.

Kinky's numbers against the Ducks aren't so good.

I think it was 12 goals allowed in 145 minutes played against them.

We played him against the Kings because prior to that shutout, he had allowed just 1 goal in 145 minutes.


Let Cory have this game and hope he can get it together.

 

[MadDevil]

Why? He had three days off between the Nashville and Vegas games, another two days off between Vegas and last night. Little different between that and going a back to back on the road after a nearly 40-shot game. No reason getting two days off before playing the Sharks will mess with his rhythm. Has KK even played a back-to-back as a Devil?

He had one last year, and he actually stopped 35 of 36 in the second game, although he only faced 26 shots the previous night (and gave up 3 in a loss).

 

[glenwo2]

Reminder that since glenwo's tweet Kinkaid's stats are:

9-2-0
1 SO
.935 SV%
2.15 GAA
2 assists

Rollin' down the street, smokin' indo
Sippin' on gin and juice, laid back
With my mind on my money
And my money on my mind

 

[Bleedred]

I hope so too...that is get someone to replace Greene. But that makes the Mueller trade almost completely worthless... Mueller never sees the ice other than injuries if you have a #1 LHD for Greene, . Greene in the 2 slot and Butcher in the #3

Man, the picks we wasted this year. I'm sorry, I know that will offend some people but I don't really care.. Im not trolling...we tossed around picks this year like dollar bills at the strip club.

It does look like the Mueller picks will go to waste at this point, but in fairness they hadn't signed Butcher at that point. He was supposed to be the young 3 LD that eventually plays his way into a bigger role before they lucked into Butcher for free and he won a job straight off. Mueller did play a few games early but wasn't all that impressive till just before injury, now that they're in a playof run they can't play him to let him develop his game.

If Mueller wasn't injured for a significant part of the year and was a healthy scratch right now, I wouldn't be surprised if he was Beau Bennetted at the end of the year and not tendered an offer, but since he was injured, we didn't see enough of him and he'll probably get another chance next year.

That's the only pick that we probably want back right now, but like I said at the time, we did overpay for Mueller, but we didn't overpay for Mueller. I think the market, thanks to some guy trading a middle pairing defenseman for Taylor Hall the year before, was a bit inflated. A lot of other D-men were going for what you'd likely say is overpayment. Look what the Flames paid the Islanders for Hamonic last year. The marketplace was out of whack, but most years Mueller doesn't cost you a second round pick. I don't think Shero gives up a 2nd round pick for him most years.

But otherwise, Maroon went for a rinky dink 3rd rounder and he's been really good, Grabner went a lot cheaper than I thought he would, especially to a rival. I thought someone would give a first for Grabner.

 

[Bramskii]

Why? He had three days off between the Nashville and Vegas games, another two days off between Vegas and last night. Little different between that and going a back to back on the road after a nearly 40-shot game. No reason getting two days off before playing the Sharks will mess with his rhythm. Has KK even played a back-to-back as a Devil?

A Cory stinker could mess with the whole teams rhythm actually, but really that's besides the point. What I'm trying to get at it is each point from here on out is a premium. It's not a time to be experimenting with your goalies. Sticking with the hot hand seems like the most logical choice.

 

[Blender]

We're doing fantastic on this road trip so far, and we could use Cory to step up and continue that.

 

[glenwo2]

A Cory stinker could mess with the whole teams rhythm actually, but really that's besides the point. What I'm trying to get at it is each point from here on out is a premium. It's not a time to be experimenting with your goalies. Sticking with the hot hand seems like the most logical choice.

I get what you're saying but as I stated in a previous post, Hynes more than likely went with Keith because of his great numbers VS the Kings historically and was proven right.

His numbers against Anaheim aren't so good and I wouldn't be surprised to have Cory thrown in there as sort of a "last chance" for him today. To be honest, WE NEED CORY to play better.

DAMMIT!! WHY DOESN'T HE HAVE TWITTER? I COULD'VE TURNED THINGS AROUND FOR HIM!! STUPID CORY! STUPID DOG!

 

[MadDevil]

Resting a goalie on a back-to-back against a team he has horrendous numbers against seems logical to me too.

Whatever though. Hynes will pick somebody and let's just hope whoever it is gets the job done.

 

[Bleedred]

I do think there are several cases to be argued that Kinkaid can start this game.

Travel being a big one. Playing in LA and Anaheim on back to back is like playing at Barclays Center on a Saturday afternoon, then playing in Newark for a 6:00 PM start the next night. It's like a 40 minute drive, maybe 60 at most. It's not like we got on a plane to from LA to San Jose, Phoenix or Vegas and played the next night.

Honestly, I think playing Cory would be more about not letting Cory sit two weeks (or more) between starts, but I also think that if he doesn't respond tonight, the leash gets even smaller. That means that one crap game from Kinkaid probably ain't gonna be enough to get him back in, unless it's next week's back to back in Pittsburgh/Newark.

Bad goaltending gets coaches fired. A poor goalie is gonna do a lot more to hurt Hynes job than a bad defenseman (even one as bad as Andy Greene is right now) or a bad Sergey Kalinin or Jacob Josefson on forward. When Coach ''My family kicked our bottled water habit'' gets fired in 3 weeks from now, he's gonna look back at his goaltending the last several years and have nightmares of Scott Darling, Eddie Lack and Cam Ward and their combined 330 soft goals over the last 4 years and .90-something (,88-something in Darling's case) save percentages, even though his team also can't score 2 feet away from an empty net. Todd Richards got zapped for 10 games of Bobrovsky having an identical stretch to Cory's last 10 games.

 

[NJDevs26]

He had one last year, and he actually stopped 35 of 36 in the second game, although he only faced 26 shots the previous night (and gave up 3 in a loss).

Well two actually (in that case the first game was at home and it was just travel to Philly) but those seem to be the only back-to-back starts he's had here. The other one was in March last year where he played home against the Flyers then got beat up in Pittsburgh the next night. So each back to back last year he had one bad game and one good one against the Flyers.

A Cory stinker could mess with the whole teams rhythm actually, but really that's besides the point. What I'm trying to get at it is each point from here on out is a premium. It's not a time to be experimenting with your goalies. Sticking with the hot hand seems like the most logical choice.

They have a slight cushion atm, it's not the situation it was a week ago where they were squarely on the bubble. I realize the Panthers have two games in hand but five points is still five points. You also don't want to wear out Keith too soon before and if it ever truly gets desperate. He's only had a starters' schedule sporadically since his full-time AHL days, you don't just suddenly throw him out five games in eight days all in different cities.

 

[Hischier and Hughes]

Nope.

Kinky's numbers against the Ducks aren't so good.

I think it was 12 goals allowed in 145 minutes played against them.

We played him against the Kings because prior to that shutout, he had allowed just 1 goal in 145 minutes.


Let Cory have this game and hope he can get it together.

kinkaid was played against the Kings because he has been the better goalie

 

[JimEIV]

If Mueller wasn't injured for a significant part of the year and was a healthy scratch right now, I wouldn't be surprised if he was Beau Bennetted at the end of the year and not tendered an offer, but since he was injured, we didn't see enough of him and he'll probably get another chance next year.

That's the only pick that we probably want back right now, but like I said at the time, we did overpay for Mueller, but we didn't overpay for Mueller. I think the market, thanks to some guy trading a middle pairing defenseman for Taylor Hall the year before, was a bit inflated. A lot of other D-men were going for what you'd likely say is overpayment. Look what the Flames paid the Islanders for Hamonic last year. The marketplace was out of whack, but most years Mueller doesn't cost you a second round pick. I don't think Shero gives up a 2nd round pick for him most years.

But otherwise, Maroon went for a rinky dink 3rd rounder and he's been really good, Grabner went a lot cheaper than I thought he would, especially to a rival. I thought someone would give a first for Grabner.

It's the volume of picks that concern me

Just from this hockey year

2017 2nd ((Sharks)
2017 4th (Sharks)
2018 2nd (Rangers)
2018 2nd (Capitals)
2018 3rd (Capitals
2018 3rd (Anaheim )
2019 3rd (Edmonton)

 

[Tkachuky]

Please proceed to do to the ducks what you did to the Kings yesterday.

Thanks!

 

[NJDevils17]

I don’t care about giving up picks when we have a ton of guys now and a limited number of contracts. It matters how we spend those picks though. Loved, Johansson, loved Palmieri, jury is out on Mueller but meh, jury out on Grabner but it seems fair enough, and Maroon already making it worthwhile. We also have opportunities to recoup picks in trades before the drafts like Shero mentioned. We’re going to get Anaheim’s pick back in the Henrique deal for example.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

I truly think we need to win tonight and should. The Sharks and than Pittsburgh will be very difficult games to win, although we match up better against the Pens. Going 5-1 would be awesome for this road trip.

 

[haak84]

I hope Cory has a good game if only for the sake of Bleed's mental health.