GDT: We're Here: Your New Jersey Devils @ Philadelphia Flyers, 7 PM, ESPN+/Hulu

[guitarguyvic]

90 pages is wild

We're f***ing pissed. And rightfully so. I refuse to accept this garbage or continue to be told all is headed in the right direction.

 

[JimEIV]

If Vanecek plays well tomorrow and they still lose, we have more issues than net in that case. And yeah I'm not playing Blackwood unless it's a B2B or Vanecek is missing limbs.

I would imagine after they watch film and are embarrassed they will tighten up the next game...Still I'd be willing to bet that we see Vanecek hung out to dry on more than one occasion against Detroit.

 

[JrFischer54]

We're f***ing pissed. And rightfully so. I refuse to accept this garbage or continue to be told all is headed in the right direction.

Roster isn’t that good

 

[severian]

A loss on opening night literally tanked our season in 18/19 lol

I mean yeah this wasn’t nearly as bad as that Winnipeg debacle but it was just a very stark reminder of what this team is under the moron who’s somehow still coaching it. Again it’s not “one game” it’s the same damn game we’ve watched for years.

Why did you have to bring that game up? I was at the Devils-Jets game, and I’d honestly rather think about the time I walked in on my parents having sex over that debacle.

 

[BurntToast]

I would “plus infinity” on the gross coaching decisions.

1) What was the purpose of putting in PP and line practice with Nico if he wasn’t 100.

IF Nico is hurting would/should he be playing that much anyways?! It seems, it was to garner a bigger ratings boost. There were like three or four articles about Nico’s return.

2) VTech out played Mac Black 7 periods to 1. Yet, Blackwood gets the start!?

3) Bahl has out played Smith in every way imaginable, his paring with Marino looked to be one of the best in Preseason, but he was benched game 1. Smith was a minus 2 and his transition play was terrible.

3) Why did the Devils play the whole preseason with the same lines, only to have them completely scrambled game 1. Ruff’s Nico excuse is funny since Nico played 1 shift in the preseason.

3. Blackwood’s rebound control, positioning and on ice awareness is abysmal. (You can complain about gaps, but the players were legally engaged with Philly players. Whoever posted photos of Philly’s gap control, was just a gallery of missed hooking calls.)

• Goal 1 bad rebound, also defensive breakdown.

• Goal 2, MB was caught napping, he went down into a split out of pure desperation. Bad transition up the ice.

. Goal 3 @Bleedred: there is little to no treat behind the net on the boards. MB is cheating, by covering for a wrap around. If he was 1) Standing and 2) Checking for Flyers in actual scoring positions, that is a save. The Devils player coming back takes away any deke, and the Flyers player was alone, therefore there is no chance of passing. Having a ounce of hockey IQ would do a world of good for MB.

• Goal 4, is on the PK and Miles. Who takes a penalty on a rush. Can someone please box out the screen. My one issues with MB on this goal. He gets small and goes down early again. It’s his default move if he isn’t sure where the puck is. Take a look at goal two.

The Devils are a skilled team, but with subjective reffing, gritty/blue collar teams will rough up the Devils. If the Devils can’t match hustle and toughness, their PP will need to be much better. They will get PP time but it’s not a treat to opposing teams.

 

[MadDevil]

90 pages is wild

I'm not surprised. We lost and it's been a while since people vented. I'm sure if we beat Detroit it'll be like half as long.

 

[Devils090]

And for all the whiners who don’t think we should ever have guys in the lineup who can hit and be physical(I don’t mean Geertsen I mean actual NHL players) just rewatch that game and see how badly we got pushed around.

 

[JimEIV]

I'm not surprised. We lost and it's been a while since people vented. I'm sure if we beat Detroit it'll be like half as long.

If we don't beat Detroit it'll be catastrophic. We are sitting resting, wanting to make up for that horrible performance... Detroit is coming in on the road, 2nd game of a back to back, their a non-playoff team --- We lose this one

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Biggest problems and solutions:
Blackwood, start Vanacek
Ruff, fire
Graves, play Bahl over and let contract expire
Hamilton, hope he gets his shit together


Need more from Jack in a game like yesterdays.
People are also underrating the flyers. Yes they possibly have the worst roster in the league but any team coached by Tortorella is gonna be tough to play against every game.

We need to be solid defensively and try to control play and then our stars making the big bucks like Jack and Dougie need to show up and give us something when nothing’s going.

 

[My3Sons]

Roster isn’t that good

They have (in my view) one transcendent player and top line center who is still very young, one first line caliber winger, one very good second line caliber center, two potentially second line caliber wingers, one veteran maybe second line maybe third line caliber winger, an unknown in Haula, and a bunch of ok to meh at forward. On defense they have (again in my view) four second pair defenders, an unknown in Marino, and some potential third pair guys until Luke and/or Nemec are ready. In goal they have an NHL backup, an unknown in Vanacek, and a broken backup. With the exception of the goalies that's not a terrible collection of players. They may be a bit mismatched in some sense. The biggest issue to me is that they really could use stability in net which hopefully Vanacek can provide and a defensive system that this roster can actually execute. Last night was less about the roster and more about the lack of energy and mental acuity to me. From the players to the coaches they all seemed to be stuck in preseason. Hopefully the Flyers effort woke them up to the level they have to play at to be successful.

 

[Devils090]

If we don't beat Detroit it'll be catastrophic. We are sitting resting, wanting to make up for that horrible performance... Detroit is coming in on the road, 2nd game of a back to back, their a non-playoff team --- We lose this one

Speaking of Detroit, we’ll get Nedeljkovic as Husso is starting tonight

 

[JimEIV]

Biggest problems and solutions:
Blackwood, start Vanacek
Ruff, fire
Graves, play Bahl over and let contract expire
Hamilton, hope he gets his shit together


Need more from Jack in a game like yesterdays.
People are also underrating the flyers. Yes they possibly have the worst roster in the league but any team coached by Tortorella is gonna be tough to play against every game.

We need to be solid defensively and try to control play and then our stars making the big bucks like Jack and Dougie need to show up and give us something when nothing’s going.

Need more from everyone...I was most disappoint with the "Veterans" Palat and Haula...Those guys were brought in to settle shit down when things go astray. They were hardly noticeable.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Need more from everyone...I was most disappoint with the "Veterans" Palat and Haula...Those guys were brought in to settle shit down when things go astray. They were hardly noticeable.

Want more from Palat but he was fine. Haula was more than fine as well, he absolutely settled things down, was great on faceoffs and did well on the pk. He’ll provide some offense here and there but shouldn’t expect too much more than what he gave us last night. Those things were noticeable last night but he’s a player who won’t be overly noticeable.
Palat is a good complimentary forward who didn’t really do any good or bad last night. Want more from him.


They were far down the list on our biggest problems though so I don’t know how they can be your biggest disappointments.
The guys I listed were much worse and then there’s other guys such as Smith and Hughes who I would complain about before Haula at least.


I also don’t understand how you say they were brought in to settle things down but were hardly noticeable? Those things don’t go together. Someone who settles things down usually isn’t noticeable. Haula by all means settled things down last night.

 

[Rhodes 81]

There were only two things about last night that really discouraged me. like last year, they just completely let it get away from them in the 2nd period when things started to go wrong. That's what adding veterans and more experience is supposed to fix but it didn't happen.

I have not been on the fire Ruff train before, and every coach makes lineup decisions that fans don't agree with, but as others have noted it makes no sense at all to keep certain groupings together throughout the preseason and then just completely wreck that to start game 1.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Need more from everyone...I was most disappoint with the "Veterans" Palat and Haula...Those guys were brought in to settle shit down when things go astray. They were hardly noticeable.

Eh, I don't know if I agree wit Haula. The guy was supposed to be the 3C on opening night, not the 2C. Even harder on the road where Ruff and company couldn't dictate matchups. Palat I agree with, have a really bad feeling about that contract but it is what it is.

 

[ninetyeight]

Want more from Palat but he was fine.

Didn't he have the worst corsi? Must have been way easier playing under Cooper with Kuch and Stamkos next to you..

 

[guitarguyvic]

It's literally defined.

But yes I am sure that none of Buffalo's chances allowed were uncovered and all of ours were. That makes more sense.


Literally baseless.

That vaunted buffalo sabres defensive zone coverage!!

LMAO...I just watched the 8 minute long video of extended highlights from the Buffalo game. Ottawa had one...ONE...chance where the shooter was completely uncontested by a Buffalo defender at the circles or in front of the net. They also had just one clear breakaway. Every other scoring chance highlight, the Sabres defenders were all over the shooters.

The Devils allowed uncontested shots like that SIX times against the Flyers.

6 vs. 1
And it was Buffalo that did it. A team whose #1 D-Man is barely old enough to drink. Playing against an Ottawa team that clearly has more potential offensive talent than the flyers.

Those HD analytics are capturing the reality the game so accurately...I'm sure if we just had Craig f***ing Anderson in net he would have had the exact same save percentage as he did in that game.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Eh, I don't know if I agree wit Haula. The guy was supposed to be the 3C on opening night, not the 2C. Even harder on the road where Ruff and company couldn't dictate matchups. Palat I agree with, have a really bad feeling about that contract but it is what it is.

Haula was pretty good last night.

played 18:19, was 82.6% on faceoffs, had 3 takeaways (and 1 giveaway), 3 shots, 1 hit, wasn’t on for a goal against and was very solid on the pk.

Not sure how much more he could’ve done to calm things down.

We traded Zacha for him and he’s making 2.375m. He’s gonna provide some offense here and there but even Hughes was having trouble creating offense for most the game.

He was one of the few players that actually played his role and did a decent job last night.

@JimEIV

 

[NJDevs26]

Not for nothing but the Flyers locker room was also called out by their coach before the season even started, so not surprising they might have come out strong in their home opener. That's no excuse for us having a bad game, but sometimes it happens. It sucks that it happened in the first game of the year, but it doesn't mean we're doomed to repeat history.

Maybe Ruff should have called our locker room out after a 63-point season, just saying

 

[Nubmer6]

Maybe Ruff should have called our locker room out after a 63-point season, just saying

Maybe Fitz should have called Ruff out after a 63-pont season. Just sayn.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Still don’t like his interview and should definitely get him out a little more still.

One thing of note with Jack and his TOI is that he does drag out his shifts pretty long at times.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Maybe Fitz should have called Ruff out after a 63-pont season. Just sayn.

Maybe the owners should've called out Fitz to call out Ruff after a 63-point season. Just sayin

 

[MadDevil]

Maybe Fitz should have called Ruff out after a 63-pont season. Just sayn.

I mean, he kind of did by hiring Brunette, his likely replacement.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

They happen way too goddamn much with this team

“Hey it’s totally ok Ryan Graves loses his man constantly or that we have 2 defenseman on 1 guy behind the goal line every night”

Graves is probably the worst dman on the team.

LMAO...I just watched the 8 minute long video of extended highlights from the Buffalo game. Ottawa had one...ONE...chance where the shooter was completely uncontested by a Buffalo defender at the circles or in front of the net. They also had just one clear breakaway. Every other scoring chance highlight, the Sabres defenders were all over the shooters.

The Devils allowed uncontested shots like that SIX times against the Flyers.

6 vs. 1
And it was Buffalo that did it. A team whose #1 D-Man is barely old enough to drink. Playing against an Ottawa team that clearly has more potential offensive talent than the flyers.

Those HD analytics are capturing the reality the game so accurately...

A shot being “uncontested” doesn’t necessarily make it more dangerous, especially when the goalie has zero ability to track a puck through traffic. This clown got beat by a weak wrister from the blue line and was saved by the pipe too. Traffic, no traffic, contested, uncontested…he stinks.

 

[Captain3rdLine]