GDT: The Blue Note @ Your NJ Devils, 1/5/2023

[Azathoth]

Once you move from 'we are developing so may as well give prospects NHL time for free' to 'we are contending', you need to replace Boqvist type players with Brian Boyle type players (aka not young and not sexy but cheap, predictable and doing their jobs).

It seems like a no brainer to just sit Boqvist and play Haula as 3C. Then bump Mercer up to play with Jack and Tatar and roll with a 3rd line of Rango-Haula-Zetterlund/Holtz.

 

[Whaddagoal]

Good Morning y'all.

Canes, isles, pitts lost at least.

We need a win sat and a steamroller for the roadtrip.

Team will survive!

 

[Call Me Al]

boqvist has had plenty of time to develop into an nhl player. 4 points on the season is just not good enough to stay in the lineup.

i hope they switch the lines to try and find some balance but i’m not holding my breath.

expecting a game against the rags where we outplay and out chance them but can’t find the back of the net, they score a pp goal and capitalize on a couple breakdowns while some posters here embody the “this is fine” meme of the burning dog as we continue to drop in the standings.

 

[Clam Jensen]

Good Morning y'all.

Canes, isles, pitts lost at least.

We need a win sat and a steamroller for the roadtrip.

Team will survive!

Amen brother, amen. A regulation dub against the R words tomorrow would be lovely.

 

[Camille the Eel]

Wood has 1 goal in his last 24 games. Mercer is on an 11 game goal drought. Haula's finishing woes are at comical levels at this point.

When was the last time Boqvist scored a point ? Even an assist? Maybe I missed one recently idk.

In tweaking this team’s roster and play, including the coming off season, getting scoring from beyond the top two lines is definitely going to be the priority.

 

[TBF1972]

4 High danger chances against. 4. That might legitimately be the lowest number of high danger chances allowed all year around the NHL.

columbus game

 

[SJinNewJersey]

To give Schmid a break a bit, he was thrown into a tough situation with a callup to immediately start.

That's on Lindy. No reason not to start VV. I realize he doesn't seem to like to start goalies back-to-back, but in the case of the injury to Blackwood here he should have,

 

[Triumph]

That's on Lindy. No reason not to start VV. I realize he doesn't seem to like to start goalies back-to-back, but in the case of the injury to Blackwood here he should have,

Vanecek hasn't played more than fifty games in a season since 2014. The backup goalie should be able to get a point here, and he just couldn't do it.

 

[BurntToast]

I am surprised the Devils don’t put Jack and Nico together when we are down?

The bigger move is to put a struggling Bratt with someone. We know the coaches love balance.

It’s bonkers but the Devils are still 3rd in goals allowed! 8th in goals for. And only have 1 more loss than the Canes.

 

[Whaddagoal]

Amen brother, amen. A regulation dub against the R words tomorrow would be lovely.

Solve bottom 6 scoring and we will be ok an get a decent VV game.

Also defense not named Dougie are also due a random goal. Sevs, Smith, Graves, Sieges havent potted one since the streak (or at all)

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Solve bottom 6 scoring and we will be ok an get a decent VV game.

Also defense not named Dougie are also due a random goal. Sevs, Smith, Graves, Sieges havent potted one since the streak (or at all)

Sevs was terrible in that dive in attempt to stop the empty netter. If that goes better we turn the puck over and have numbers going the other way and one more chance to ring it off the post!

 

[TBF1972]

Holtz isn’t the answer to play with Jack, he just isn’t good enough all around yet. The time with the extra attacker is a good example, he isn’t fast enough to get on pucks and he isn’t strong enough on the boards. The answer to one of Jack’s wing isn’t in the organization. They need a trade.

it's even worse. it's not even the year the devils are a contender.

big picture

the team is building. from bottom feeder to a playoff team. maybe they were able to skip the bubble team years, in which they fall short of the playoff because of last years goalie performances. it would be nice, if people wouldn't meassure them against the unstainable 13 game win streak version of the team.

 

[Whaddagoal]

Sevs was terrible in that dive in attempt to stop the empty netter. If that goes better we turn the puck over and have numbers going the other way and one more chance to ring it off the post!

Yeah that wasnt a great move.

Didnt realize that was Sevs, i never saw the replay after cause i was deflated..

Sevs on a 2 game point streak. I mean this is a guy who had 40 something points last year. If he can get going this 2nd half we will be better.

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

eh. Grass is always Greener...blah blah blah...

Bet those two would be "disappearing" on this team as well.

Having both is better than just replacing one with the other.

That's all I'm saying.

Anyway, this is all a moot point.

Johnny Ohio (hehehe) is "enjoying" his time in Columbus....PFFFT!

And Tkachuk is a f*cking a-hole who I'm glad the Devils did not acquire, especially what he did to Nico.

Total douche move by MT but I'd rather him on the team....Once he's hitting guys for Nico and Jack they'll become best of friends....

 

[Whaddagoal]

That's on Lindy. No reason not to start VV. I realize he doesn't seem to like to start goalies back-to-back, but in the case of the injury to Blackwood here he should have,

I wouldn't say no reason, but i do agree we should have rolled with VV last night to see if we could build some separation below with the division and then think about rotating in more backup games in.

 

[BostonDevil]

it's even worse. it's not even the year the devils are a contender.

big picture

the team is building. from bottom feeder to a playoff team. maybe they were able to skip the bubble team years, in which they fall short of the playoff because of last years goalie performances. it would be nice, if people wouldn't meassure them against the unstainable 13 game win streak version of the team.

I don’t think we’re measuring them against November, I believe the outrage is coming from December.

They aren’t as good as the way they played in November, sure, but are they good enough to be a .500 team in December?

Nobody is looking for, or expecting, 13 game win streaks. We should be able to expect more than what we’ve seen since.

 

[Whaddagoal]

It seems like a no brainer to just sit Boqvist and play Haula as 3C. Then bump Mercer up to play with Jack and Tatar and roll with a 3rd line of Rango-Haula-Zetterlund/Holtz.

I think Boqvist will be out vs. rangers and we will see a fired up Zetterlund.

Holtz earned a few more solid games after his recent stretch of play. Whether he continues though we will see.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I mean everyone sees that Hamilton-Siegs has taken a downturn lately and yet Ruff refuses to make any adjustments to the pairings, just like the BS with Haula and keeping skilled guys in bottom 6 roles. He’s not maximizing the potential of the lineup, which is a problem when you’re losing a ton of games by just a goal and searching for any kind of spark that can reward the team for playing well collectively.

 

[JrFischer54]

another game where only Jack or Nico score

Imagine how bad the offense would be if they weren’t having career years.

This might be the worst one all yr

View attachment 631058

If you can’t finish your chances then you don’t deserve to win. I don’t care how much more they dominated. They were lucky off a fluke bounce on that 5on3 otherwise they probably don’t even score on it.

 

[SJinNewJersey]

Vanecek hasn't played more than fifty games in a season since 2014. The backup goalie should be able to get a point here, and he just couldn't do it.

VV may have gotten us 2 points there if he started. But that's Lindy for you.

 

[Triumph]

I mean everyone sees that Hamilton-Siegs has taken a downturn lately and yet Ruff refuses to make any adjustments to the pairings, just like the BS with Haula and keeping skilled guys in bottom 6 roles. He’s not maximizing the potential of the lineup, which is a problem when you’re losing a ton of games by just a goal and searching for any kind of spark that can reward the team for playing well collectively.

What adjustments are there to make to the pairings? Graves is going to be better? Severson-Graves did okay territorially last season and got lucky on GF-GA - Siegenthaler-Severson was better territorially but ran awful on both sides of the puck. I just don't see what making this change is likely to accomplish - Siegenthaler is already struggling, learning a new partner isn't likely to help matters.

 

[Camille the Eel]

To give Schmid a break a bit, he was thrown into a tough situation with a callup to immediately start.

He didn’t look sharp from the start. Even on the first goal from Kyrou - not that he didn’t stop it, but he didn’t even react, read the play, try to jump out at the shooter. When he first came up, in the Ottawa overtime for one example , he was reacting to everything like he was fueled on TNT.

He’s a kid and ideally should now be allowed to finish the season in Utica. Remember Dawes last year. He also had a lot of focus early and then broke down. But we may not have the luxury of babying Akira if Blackwood continues to incur injuries.

Blackwood getting hurt again a mere 2 games after he got back is a major concern. We need Blackwood to be at least a competent number 2 for the rest of this year. Or else Schmid is going to be on the spot big time.

 

[MadDevil]

When was the last time Boqvist scored a point ? Even an assist? Maybe I missed one recently idk.

In tweaking this team’s roster and play, including the coming off season, getting scoring from beyond the top two lines is definitely going to be the priority.

November 25th...18 games now without a point. Granted, he's played under 11 minutes in half of those games, but it's still pretty bad.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Palat-Hughes-Bratt
Tatar-Hischier-Zetterlund
Sharangovich-Haula-Mercer
Wood-McLeod-Holtz

Is what I would try out on the forward side of things with Palat back. While not a center, I think Palat can do the exact things Lindy attempted to detail that Haula brings to Jack's line. At the same time, Haula has possessed the puck well enough that I think he could hopefully bring a spark to Rango and Mercer, who need it.

I like what Tatar and Zetterlund have done together with Nico previously, so give him another shot. And Wood-McLeod-Holtz has looked decent enough that I'm good with keeping them together while giving Holtz more PP time. When Bastian is healthy as it appears he could return, you look to send Holtz back to Utica to get top minutes or sit Zetterlund if he isn't producing still.

I'm a Boqvist fan, I like him. But he doesn't have a spot in this lineup at the moment.

As for defense, while it was their worst game of the season, I think Siegenthaler-Hamilton need to stay together until Marino is back at least.

Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Okhotiuk-Severson
Graves-Smith

Deploy them how you want in the mean time, but I'm not a fan of Graves and Severson on the same pairing so I think you need to split them up and insert Okhotiuk for Bahl who has had 2 miserable performances in the last 3 games.

 

[Call Me Al]

it's even worse. it's not even the year the devils are a contender.

big picture

the team is building. from bottom feeder to a playoff team. maybe they were able to skip the bubble team years, in which they fall short of the playoff because of last years goalie performances. it would be nice, if people wouldn't meassure them against the unstainable 13 game win streak version of the team.

this isn’t about the win streak. points-wise, they are objectively one of the worst teams in the league over the past 5 weeks. at this point why should anyone care that they “play well” according to some possession metrics if they can’t score? that’s kind of an important part of the game that they are just not good at