Who's Better New Jersey Or Buffalo ?

[njdevils1982]

Yeah he might’ve played 69 games but he really kind of sucked until the last like 2 months of the year where he looked like himself again. He had 33 pts with 19 goals in the final 32 games. I don’t think people realize just how much Jack kind of f***ing sucked from like December onward. He “only” had 44 pts in 45 games and visually looked bad. I imagine both will be way better

if they're both good and ready this thread will be comical to to look back on to even suggest these two teams are in the same stratosphere

 

[My3Sons]

Because those are just raw numbers that lack context when taken straight

Jack Hughes was 19-20-21 adjusting to a game where hes in the smallest of categories; a smaller, excellent forward whos bound to be targeted because of his impact on the game. Also, two of those times he missed 15+ it was for the same, now surgically-repaired shoulder. He is not Josh Norris, this isnt his third go of it

Nico has always shown he wears a bit too thin sometimes and doesn't know when to let certain plays go, so he can get banged up; there is strictly a case of a player getting older and smarter, or so youd hope. Nothing major with Nico in his past

Dougie was an ACL tear most recently, which we will have to hope he does wel after. I have nothing for that part. However the other sizeable bout for him was a puck to the face; about as freak an accident as they come

I dont think its insane to have them injured again. But unlikely and that if include the others as well, just for arguments sake

Wasn’t Hamilton a pectoral muscle tear?

 

[njdevils1982]

Wasn’t Hamilton a pectoral muscle tear?

i heard it was scabbies... then again, they must've perhaps been shading the truth right with makeup

 

[SeanAveryTheGreatOne]

he's just a Ranger fan trying to jinx a the Devils.

I don't think Lindy will be bad for buffalo, I think he will get the offense working pretty good. I just worry that he'll try and insert his defensive style onto the defense, It seems to be very brain heavy on understanding who is covering who and is prone to defensive lapses. Hopefully Lindy just leaves the defense to another coach.

No, this is my sincere opinion. NJD is two years removed from a 112-point season and is far better now than they were then (just by virtue of replacing Akira Schit with a competent goalie, let alone their young guns recovering from injury and/or getting seasoned). I believe they should be favored to win the division.

Right now your boys are T-4th in betting odds to win the Cup in 2025. FanDuel Sportsbook

Really, OP's question that made this thread was downright silly.

 

[VanJack]

Easily the Devils.....last season was an outlier, with all the injuries and the implosion of their goaltending. But they've plugged almost all their holes. And Markstrom will give them quality starts in goal, night after night.

 

[Ford Prefect]

F:
Hughes>Tage
Bratt>Peterka
Hischier>Cozens
After that I think we're pretty competitive and might even give us an edge (Tuch/Quinn/Zucker about a wash with Meier/Mercer/Palát)

D:
Dahlin>Hamilton
Power>whoever you wanna say is gonna be the Devils 2D
After that it's Devils AINEC

G:
As fans of both teams will tell you, goaltending can and will make or break your season. The Devils seem to get a new guy every other year in hopes of fixing it and it never works. I think this is where the Sabres have a big advantage.

Overall I would prefer to have the Devils team (objectively, subjectively you can take Dahlin from my cold dead hands) but I think there's a good chance we do better this season.

I don't disagree with your post but the one thing that was omitted was the pipeline of talent that's coming and that sways heavily in Buffalo's favor (I personally am not partial to Silayev, but we'll see what happens). Still, just due to the disparity down the middle I take Jersey and where I expect Hughes and Nemec to be in 3-4 years, I take Jersey.

 

[Hisch13r]

I don't disagree with your post but the one thing that was omitted was the pipeline of talent that's coming and that sways heavily in Buffalo's favor (I personally am not partial to Silayev, but we'll see what happens). Still, just due to the disparity down the middle I take Jersey and where I expect Hughes and Nemec to be in 3-4 years, I take Jersey.

With so many of their you g guys in the pipeline and on the team currently being a similar type of player we’ll likely see more Savoie/McLeod type deals where they move out those guys at a discount to fill holes

 

[DapperCam]

If you compare each roster position for position it would probably look pretty close on paper. But the Sabres have played as less than the sum of their parts for the past few years. So until they can actually put together some sort of cohesive play style with good team defense (while not killing their offense), I'm going to go with the Devils.

With that said, it wouldn't surprise me if the Sabres finish above the Devils this year.

 

[Chainshot]

i heard it was scabbies... then again, they must've perhaps been shading the truth right with makeup

Funny, Bragg just played Buffalo a few days ago.

 

[Hisch13r]

If you compare each roster position for position it would probably look pretty close on paper. But the Sabres have played as less than the sum of their parts for the past few years. So until they can actually put together some sort of cohesive play style with good team defense (while not killing their offense), I'm going to go with the Devils.

With that said, it wouldn't surprise me if the Sabres finish above the Devils this year.

It would definitely surprise me if the Sabres finished ahead next year unless it’s like last year again where they both suck but the Sabres just suck a bit less. I think there’s a better chance the Sabres would be better in the long term than them being better next year. You bring up the playing good defense without sacrificing the offense. I cannot see that happening with Lindy. We got that for one year with the Devils and I don’t think it was a coincidence that year came when Brunette was here. Then he was gone again and we were back to being a complete mess

 

[DapperCam]

It would definitely surprise me if the Sabres finished ahead next year unless it’s like last year again where they both suck but the Sabres just suck a bit less. I think there’s a better chance the Sabres would be better in the long term than them being better next year. You bring up the playing good defense without sacrificing the offense. I cannot see that happening with Lindy. We got that for one year with the Devils and I don’t think it was a coincidence that year came when Brunette was here. Then he was gone again and we were back to being a complete mess

There were a lot of changes, and the Sabres have a lot of individual talent that it wouldn't surprise me much. A few reasons:
- New coaches, so we'll see what Ruff can do. I hear that you are skeptical, but sometimes a new coach can give a team a bump just because they aren't complacent/comfortable anymore.
- Powerplay was 29th last year, which is awful. Sabres have the talent to have a top 10 powerplay. I think this is mostly down to coaching. We'll see if it's better this year.
- All the young players are another year older. Ideally they would trend towards getting more consistent with more experience.
- Injuries were pretty bad last year. Lost Quinn and Samuelsson for the entire season pretty much. Lost Thompson for a solid chunk of the year, and wasn't himself until the end of the season.
- A lot of turnover in the bottom 6. The Sabres went out and pretty much bought a brand new bottom 6. It should improve (can't really get much worse).

So much has changed, I honestly don't know what will happen. It wouldn't surprise me if they were 2nd in the division or a slight regression from last year.

 

[My3Sons]

There were a lot of changes, and the Sabres have a lot of individual talent that it wouldn't surprise me much. A few reasons:
- New coaches, so we'll see what Ruff can do. I hear that you are skeptical, but sometimes a new coach can give a team a bump just because they aren't complacent/comfortable anymore.
- Powerplay was 29th last year, which is awful. Sabres have the talent to have a top 10 powerplay. I think this is mostly down to coaching. We'll see if it's better this year.
- All the young players are another year older. Ideally they would trend towards getting more consistent with more experience.
- Injuries were pretty bad last year. Lost Quinn and Samuelsson for the entire season pretty much. Lost Thompson for a solid chunk of the year, and wasn't himself until the end of the season.
- A lot of turnover in the bottom 6. The Sabres went out and pretty much bought a brand new bottom 6. It should improve (can't really get much worse).

So much has changed, I honestly don't know what will happen. It wouldn't surprise me if they were 2nd in the division or a slight regression from last year.

You can say similar things about NJ. Coaching and elements of the lineup have been changed. Goaltending was upgraded and the defense as well. The bottom six was bolstered a bit. Injuries were brutal for NJ last season. Absent another run of catastrophic injuries it’s hard to see NJ take a step back. How much they can improve is hard to say. Ultimately it’s not a great comparison. The real question is can either challenge the Bruins Rangers Canes Panthers or Bolts. If not then it’s kind of meh either way.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Not really a big believer in either team but the Devils should be better and should make the playoffs with Markstrom and Keefe.

 

[TBF1972]

100%.

Dahlin is overrated.

I am not saying he is a bad defenseman. Plus, he has an opportunity to take another-step, and maybe Lindy will help.

I would take Dahlin over Hamilton because he is the younger version of him, without the injuries. If Hamilton is healthy they are interchangeable. They are offensive defenseman who can put up 50-60pts and score goals. Dahlin is closer to Hamilton, than he is to Makar.

hamilton is a traffic cone in transition. he doesn't even try to expose himself by playing transition d. once the opposing counter attack takes up speed he throws himself on the ice in a (fake) attempt to knock away the puck. this is probably one of the main reasons the devils were so vulnerable to sh goals and hamilton was replaced with luke hughes on the pp1 unit.

while hamilton and dahlin share some positive attributes dahlin has no such glaring weakness like hamilton's transition d.

 

[TBF1972]

You know why

i know why, but can you say it again?

 

[Hisch13r]

hamilton is a traffic cone in transition. he doesn't even try to expose himself by playing transition d. once the opposing counter attack takes up speed he throws himself on the ice in a (fake) attempt to knock away the puck. this is probably one of the main reasons the devils were so vulnerable to sh goals and hamilton was replaced with luke hughes on the pp1 unit.

while hamilton and dahlin share some positive attributes dahlin has no such glaring weakness like hamilton's transition d.

This just literally isn't true. Dahlin's rush defense has been really bad the last 2 years. Dougie's on the other hand has been good. Dahlin has posted the better overall defensive numbers but it's not because of the transition defense.

 

[Chainshot]

So it is still New Jersey.

 

[RickyLafleur]

It's easily New Jersey, why is this even a thread?

 

[DapperCam]

It's easily New Jersey, why is this even a thread?

Devils finished 3 points below the Sabres last season, and had a -19 goal differential while the Sabres had a +2. And I think most Sabres fans consider last year pretty bad (the coach was fired after). Devils had injuries last year to explain their bad season, but the Sabres also had a lot of injuries. Both teams lost their #1 centers for some time.

It isn't that cut-and-dry.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Devils finished 3 points below the Sabres last season, and had a -19 goal differential while the Sabres had a +2. And I think most Sabres fans consider last year pretty bad (the coach was fired after). Devils had injuries last year to explain their bad season, but the Sabres also had a lot of injuries. Both teams lost their #1 centers for some time.

It isn't that cut-and-dry.

Devils fans would say we also got horrible coaching (from the guy you hired incidentally). And even then, if they got anything resembling league average goaltending they may have made the playoffs. Buffalo was mid-pack in sv% and got above average goaltending from UPL but still missed.

Goal differential is also incredibly misleading. The Devils gave up an unheard of amount of empty net goals - 27. The Sabres only gave up 12.

Assuming everything is equal, I think the answer is pretty obvious.

 

[Hisch13r]

Devils fans would say we also got horrible coaching (from the guy you hired incidentally). And even then, if they got anything resembling league average goaltending they may have made the playoffs. Buffalo was mid-pack in sv% and got above average goaltending from UPL but still missed.

Goal differential is also incredibly misleading. The Devils gave up an unheard of amount of empty net goals - 27. The Sabres only gave up 12.

Assuming everything is equal, I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Devils goaltending was bad but in order for us to have gotten statistically average goaltending it would’ve taken above average actual goaltending. The defense was atrocious (in sizable part due to the coach they just hired lol)

 

[dgibb10]

Devils finished 3 points below the Sabres last season, and had a -19 goal differential while the Sabres had a +2. And I think most Sabres fans consider last year pretty bad (the coach was fired after). Devils had injuries last year to explain their bad season, but the Sabres also had a lot of injuries. Both teams lost their #1 centers for some time.

It isn't that cut-and-dry.

Dmen by xgoals share over the last 2 years. All of the NJD dman are above the highest ranked buffalo dman

Top 6 forwards in terms of xgoals share. All of NJDs players, then all of buffalos

Bottom 6:

So then, does buffalo have better goaltending?

Goalies are volatile, and tbh I'd favour buffalo slightly, but it's even looking forward

Buffalo has better finishing

But NJD is in another stratosphere in terms of the possession game, up and down the lineups. (Also if you point to help as a reason that NJD players have better xGoal numbers, well that just proves the whole point).

In terms of new guys, Byram from Col, Clifton from Boston are both top contenders same with WPG and Car.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Devils goaltending was bad but in order for us to have gotten statistically average goaltending it would’ve taken above average actual goaltending. The defense was atrocious (in sizable part due to the coach they just hired lol)

Eh, maybe. They had some guys with down years on top of the injuries in defense for sure, but I'd attribute the overall defense just as much to goaltending. I can't remember how many times they gave up the first goal, but it was something absurd. They were chasing games from the start and that's no way to play.

 

[Zalos]

Not even a debate. The Devils will fight for a divsion title this year, while the Sabres will try to finally make it into the playoffs after a long run of disappointing years.

New Jersey.

 

[Beerz]

Jersey