I've refrained from posting much the last three games, even to defend goalies, which is my MO, bc honestly I'm in stunned awe of this team.
In my history of watching the Devils we've had great players... Marty could make any save look easy, there seemed like there was a 100% chance Stevens would stop any forward entering our zone and take away the puck, Niedermayer skated five feet above the ice...
But outside of Kovy's snipes and breakaway dashes up the ice and Hall's patented zip up the left boards that resulted in either a goal or him crashing into the boards or both, we've never had generational talent up front. That annoying 'cheat code' commercial reminds me we've never had someone like that.
Now we might have three or four. At the same time.
Jack is undoubtedly already the best player we've ever had and is clearly a generational talent who can dictate gameplay every shift.
Nico probably will just be Bergeron or Eliasesque. Not generational but?
Bratt's acceleration through the zone last night was other-worldly. Only macKinnon could top that, I think.
And that leaves Dawson Mercer who is putting on a show. That spinerama backhand made me and my Vegas fan friend drop our beers last night.
It wasn't Schmid's fault last night; he should have had one of those at least, but after that first carom for the Marchessault goal it clearly wasn't going to be our night.
But I'm pretty happy after that loss and getting a point. Still 12-0-2 against the Pacific is wild.
Yeah, having these young offensive players including an electrifying young superstar forward locked up for 7 more years is new territory.
People have complained that our late 90s teams weren’t appreciated but 2001 got a ton of buzz. That offense was ridiculous and the media narrative definitely was “this isn’t the old trapping Devils, they’re super exciting! Get on board this fun team!”.
But that team, as constructed, was gone in two seasons. And the team became very defensive oriented and we never had an elite offense again.
The years we were top 10 in Goals For after 1992:
1993-94:
GF 2nd of 26 (306 GF; 3.64 GF/G)
GA 2nd (220 GA; 2.62 GA/G)
1997-98:
GF 9th of 26 (225 GF; 2.74 GF/G)
GA 1st (166 GA; 2.02 GA/G)
1998-99:
GF 2nd of 27 (248 GF; 3.02 GF/G)
GA 6th (196 GA; 2.39 GA/G)
1999-00:
GF 2nd of 28 (251 GF; 3.06 GF/G)
GA 7th (203 GA; 2.48 GA/G)
2000-01:
GF 1st of 30 (295 GF; 3.60 GF/G)
GA 5th (195 GA; 2.38 GA/G)
2022-23 (so far):
GF/G 4th of 32 (217 GF; 3.56 GF/G)
GA/G 7th (163 GA; 2.67 GA/G)
The NHL in the 1990s was a whirlwind of trades in general, and Lou often made it work to his advantage, but never having an offensive stars stick around made the team a tough sell. That’s what made Parise such a heart breaker after those two big career years.
It really does feel like this team can capture more fans. A close friend of my brother’s brought his young Rangers fan son to a game. When he said that while he is (allegedly) a Rags fan, his favorite player is Jack Hughes and they watch the Devils all the time lol.
It was the Kings OT comeback win and he said it was the best game he had ever been to. And my brother bought the kid a Hughes jersey in an attempt to turn him lol.
