What Happened to The Devils?

[HBK27]

I get the goaltending sucked but it's the same tandem as last season, behind a much shittier defense.
Most devil fans claimed that losing Severson and Graves being replaced by Hughes and Nemec would be an upgrade, it wasn't.

As a nucks fan I've seen bad defense and the devils are sharks level easy to play against. It seems that fans of teams with shitty defense always lay the blame on goaltending because it's harder to fix a dcore than a goalie.

And if we're being brutally honest, the forwards are mostly below average defensively and last year was a fluke.

"Most" Devils fans were not at all claiming this.

We knew short-term that losing Graves and Severson was going to hurt and would be part of the reason the team took a bit of step back this season, but understood the long-term rationale as to why those two were let go. We also weren't even banking on Nemec playing in NJ this season, as he started the year in Utica and only came up after Hamilton was injured for the rest of the season.

 

[Asinine]

They were pretenders all along.

 

[KCC]

a bunch of things but they also just fluked out last season and massively overachieved.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Wait, I just thought of it.

The devils went down to Georgia.

That's what happened to them

 

[HBK27]

I mean...for all the "fluke" comments about last season they still set a franchise record for points (not bad for a team that's been around nearly 50 years and won 3 Cups) and won a playoff round while having one of the younger teams in the league. Kind of tough to fluke your way into that type of success.

The biggest thing with last season for NJ was they were relatively healthy all season and got adequate goaltending - neither was the case this season. Fans knew the defense would take a bit of a step back going from Severson/Graves to Hughes/Miller, but Miller started off the season injured (forcing Smith into the lineup, who's largely been a disaster) and the Hamilton/Siegenthaler injuries forced everyone to play up. Marino and Siegenthaler have not played up to last season's level and Luke has hit the rookie wall hard. Nemec has been a bright spot, but he just turned 20 a few weeks ago so he's going to have some ups & downs.

At forward, Meier just got healthy a couple weeks ago and is looking like the player the Devils thought he would be, but there's still something clearly bothering Jack Hughes. Mercer has struggled all season. The depth just isn't there in the bottom 6 after losing McLeod - he was having a breakout season, including leading the league in FO%, and making players around him better and was a massive loss for the bottom 6 & NJ's center depth. Holtz easily played his best hockey with McLeod this season, as did Bastian. The Nosek & Tierney signings have not worked out.

Not even going to get into coaching, which is another issue but one that should hopefully get solved this offseaon along with goaltending.

Team should absolutely be back in the playoffs next season, but Fitz has his work cut out for him this summer.

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

Injuries and inconsistent goaltending.

 

[golgoXIII]

like Ottawa they have AHL caliber goaltender.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

They couldn't get a save.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Injuries to key players and bad goaltending. They'll be back next year.

 

[dirtydanglez]

it's the way they built the team for this season. too top 6 heavy, not enough emphasis on goaltending, defense and grit. reminds me of the early leafs.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

it's the way they built the team for this season. too top 6 heavy, not enough emphasis on goaltending, defense and grit. reminds me of the early leafs.

If you mean "early" Leafs by right when Matthews joined, I disagree on the goaltending part. Andersen was a .918, .918, .917 and .909 goalie in those early years.

I realize he let in some softies in the playoffs, but this is the regular season and NJ's best goalie is .895. Leafs were much better off than NJ in goalie.

I agree on the rest though. Losing Hamilton really hurt their D, which already lacked depth.

 

[dirtydanglez]

If you mean "early" Leafs by right when Matthews joined, I disagree on the goaltending part. Andersen was a .918, .918, .917 and .909 goalie in those early years.

I realize he let in some softies in the playoffs, but this is the regular season and NJ's best goalie is .895. Leafs were much better off than NJ in goalie.

I agree on the rest though. Losing Hamilton really hurt their D, which already lacked depth.

leafs goaltending was ok and defense was bad. as the defense got better the goaltending got worse. they were never able to put both together

 

[Fatass]

List again tonight. They just seem to have too many players who don’t compete.

 

[the valiant effort]

As a young group I look at them and think they can’t possibly not win a Cup some day, but with the way things have kinda gone in Devilsworld since Lou lost his edge it seems Fitz will hold them back short term, and Harris will keep them down long term.

 

[Whoot Whoot]

1 shot on the 5 min PP today
It can’t be all missing #7

 

[Hunter Gathers]

They have no team culture at all. They are adrift just like the Rangers were a few years back.

As bland as bland can get.

 

[Tob]

I could see the Devils acquire a team building guy like Ryan Reaves who still has tons of years left on his contract at above league minimum. Leafs may want to move on from that after they've gotten the most out of the Reaves Process (trademark pending).

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Young team overachieved and fans thought they were on the rise. I mean this happens all of the time. They still have a ton of work to do before they become a consistent playoff team. Never mind a top contender. Still could easily go either way.

 

[Black Tank]

They have no team culture at all. They are adrift just like the Rangers were a few years back.

As bland as bland can get.

They DO have a team culture but it's a rotten one. They're focused on letting the Hughes run the show and that's never going to work. They need an old time head coach who's going to teach their players how to play to win versus whatever river hockey nonsense they try each game. It worked last year but their roster got worse and other teams figured out not to get into the run and gun with them.

 

[Killing Joke]

Last season they were good and looked to be trending in the right direction. This season I kept thinking they may make a push for a playoff spot at some point, but now it seems like they're almost certainly going to miss the post season in 2024.

What are the reasons they fell so hard, and will they rebound next year?

Injuries, bad coaching, bad goaltending.

 

[drede]

Last season they were good and looked to be trending in the right direction. This season I kept thinking they may make a push for a playoff spot at some point, but now it seems like they're almost certainly going to miss the post season in 2024.

What are the reasons they fell so hard, and will they rebound next year?

Losing dougie hurt them and they lost alot of vet dman and are playing aloy of rookies, bad coaching and goaltending also combination of all that I would say.

 

[Wierzbowski426]

Coaching, goaltending, 2 rookie d replacing 2 veterans, and injuries.

Next.

 

[geebster]

Significant injuries at bad times and goaltending are the big ones. Like look at the Canucks, the actual big difference was they were throwing Delia and Martin out there because Demko wasn't there for most of the season but they have Demko this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Devils resurge next season if they get a goalie and a bit more luck.

Also do NOT hire Green. Get a real coach.

 

[Dr Pepper]

The goalie they were rumoured to be after last summer, but decided not to trade for, just notched yet another shutout last night and is well on his way to an easy Vezina win.

That's what happened. The combo of Vanecek/Schmid/Daws just not good enough. At all.

And Allen won't save them.

 

[Jerzey Devil]

The goalie they were rumoured to be after last summer, but decided not to trade for, just notched yet another shutout last night and is well on his way to an easy Vezina win.

That's what happened. The combo of Vanecek/Schmid/Daws just not good enough. At all.

And Allen won't save them.

The goalie that signed and 8 year extension with his team? Why should any of us believe he was actually available?