Oilers would've been 2nd in their division if they were able to beat the Devils.
Calgary and Toronto were considered contenders by many coming into the season...though for purposes of this thread, that is apparently no longer relevant.
Why are the Devils 21-4-1? insane easy schedule, makes perfect sense.
- Thread starter Artorius Horus T
- Start date
Calgary and Toronto were considered contenders by many coming into the season...though for purposes of this thread, that is apparently no longer relevant.
KeithIsActuallyBad
SPEEN!
Yeah and they didn't because again, they're not very good. They're now out of a playoff position, because teams that aren't very good don't tend to be high in the standings.
Anyone who considered Calgary a contender should have their access revoked. Their prayers hinge on Huberdeau. Lol. Toronto could make a deep run if they could ever get their stars to play their hardest when the games matter, but they're just paper tigers.
Hockey experts have fetishes for being dreadfully wrong. There's no reason to take anything any of them say seriously. There are dogs with better predicting skills than the lot of them.
Jack Be Quick
Hasek Is Right
Keep trying.
Edmonton is 1 whole point out, have the best two players since Crosby, and their goaltending is nowhere near the bottom of the league.
And they're doing it without shootouts.
Quit while you're behind.
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KeithIsActuallyBad
SPEEN!
As it turns out, having two great players doesn't cover for the fact that the rest of the team is garbage. Trust me, I've been watching for 17 years.
And uh, goaltending? Hmm...
Gee, it's only a huge coincidence that Jack Campbell has some of the worst stats in the league. And I'm sure you appreciated the 2 or 3 laughers Skinner let in last night.
Trust me, the Oilers are the worst run team in the league held up by two studs that would have multiple championships if they played on literally any other team.
Conversely, teams that are very good do tend to be high in the standings. See: Devils, New Jersey
Because they haven’t played the Penguins. Then they would be 12-3-0, and Travis f***ing Zajac, although retired, would still score a goal somehow…
KeithIsActuallyBad
SPEEN!
Okay? But I didn't say anything about them not being good, I just said the teams they've beaten are teams they should beat.
Blender
Registered User
- Dec 2, 2009
- 52,925
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Another funny thing here, the Devils had horrendous goaltending last season that cost them a ton of points, yet that excuse was so often brushed off on the mainboard here as irrelevant to how good the team was. Fixing their goaltending is one of those changes you didn't notice.
KeithIsActuallyBad
SPEEN!
I mean let's be real. I could've been in net last night and you still would've won. Hell, you could've had the net empty the entire game and the Oilers would've just tried to pass it into the net.
Zajacs Bowl Cut
Lets Go Baby
the "They havent played anyone" shit is so stale, man.
If there are that many mid/bad teams in the league, why dont more teams simply go on 13 game winning streaks?!
If there are that many mid/bad teams in the league, why dont more teams simply go on 13 game winning streaks?!
OlfactoryHughes
Registered User
As I said in one of the other threads
A team becomes a great team by making sure they always win against weaker opponents. Meanwhile the supposed top teams that will Destroy our villages have all taken multiple losses to weaker teams if you take out Vegas and Boston.
Forge
Blissfully Mediocre
Last year, their skaters were mostly fine. If they just had average goaltending, they would have finished 9th in the conference if I remember right. The athletic did a piece on it and they lost something like 18 points due to how bad the goaltending was.
That was Hughes missing 33 games. Dougie missed 20 games. Siegs missed 12 and Bastian started the season with Seattle and only played 60 games with the Devils. Miles Wood missed the entire season for the most part. They started 7 or 8 goalies.
So right now, their good players (Dougie, Jack) are healthy. MIles Wood is a pretty big add back in the bottom 6 after missing all year. Will the health hold? I have no idea. I feel like Jack has been getting hit hard the last couple of weeks and we frequently get the famous Nico grimaces.
Then you take out guy with sub .880 save percentages and replace them with a guy who is .025 better over his career. You take out a very overwhelmed and bad Ty Smith (last year) and replace him with a very solid middle 4 defender in John Marino. You go from Damon Severson running your PP1 and playing 23 minutes a night to playing third pairing 18 minutes a night. Jimmy Vesey comes out and Fabian Zetterlund comes in, who is a little more hell on wheels and a little more greasy and perhaps even a little more offensively productive. Zacha was good for 40-45 points, but if he wasn't scoring, he was just floating out there. They replaced him with a guy that probably won't score as much, but can dominate faceoffs to help with possession and offers a little more jam and off the puck ability along with adding some "winning vet culture" (if you believe in that sort of thing) and better defense 5 on 5 defense than Zacha would give. A guy like Janne Kuokkanen (who couldn't find an NHL job this year) gets bounced from the lineup in lieu of Miles Wood and that's a pretty sizeable jump. And eventually Palat will come back.
Then you account for just natural growth. Nico is 24 years old and putting together the best season of his career. Bratt has continue (and slightly improved) on his performance from last year. When Dougie came back from his injury last year, he was bad. I don't mind saying it. He was. He was clearly gassed, very slow. It was bad looking. This year he came back and looks like the guy who started last year before the broken jaw derailed him.
I know that some of these don't sound like a big deal, but when you consider where the team would stand with just a single improvement (going from .880 goaltending to average goal tending), and then make improvements on top of that, it shouldn't be that huge of a surprise that the Devils are making a big jump this year. No idea if it will sustain or not - Vanacek has never even played 40 games in a year, I'm pretty sure and I'm really reticent to think that Blackwood would provide anything resembling legit NHL goaltending. And while Schmid looks drastically improved so far this year in his cup of coffee compared to last year, he's still a very young goalie with limited experience and I"m not sure consistency is what I would bank on in that situation. But I think the team is legitimately good. They are a playoff caliber team. Outside of that, I don't know. I don't know if they are top 3 in the division good or wild card good, but that's something we will find out throughout the season
glenwo2
JESPER BRATWURST
Your cats? You mean the Panthers?
ah. So fans are still pissed that they fired Brunette, I see.
Can't blame 'em as that was a very incompetent move for the Cats front office.
And the Devils are reaping the benefits (make no mistake that this team has Andrew's fingerprints all over it)
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glenwo2
JESPER BRATWURST
This is a young player who was 4 years old when the Devils won their last Cup.
Excuse him after seasons of losing and dealing with incompetent coaching (and sh-tty goaltending) that he's finally excited to have something to be excited about.
Fair enough, its surprising thi cuz oilers have been dominated in the first and catching up rest of the game lol
Like i said skinners give away took away edmontons steam. They weren't the same after for rest of game.
- Dec 20, 2018
- 23,079
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It’s mid-November, your concern about thee future playoff performances of the NJ Devils is touching, thanks.
Not sure if NHL players should focus solely on playoff series that would start in mid/late April rather than the games they’re playing now but OK.
Jason MacIsaac
Registered User
ZachaFlockaFlame
Registered User
- Aug 24, 2020
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I mean let's be real. I could've been in net last night and you still would've won. Hell, you could've had the net empty the entire game and the Oilers would've just tried to pass it into the net.
Which explains why the Oilers dominated the first, right? It's starting to become hilarious that the Devils invoke this anger from neutral fans. Guess this is what the 90's and early 2000's were like.
Whaddagoal
The Sheldon Keefe Era Begins
This is a very underrated post in this thread. Images of the ghost of Zajac coming out of nowhere added a nice touch.
Jason MacIsaac
Registered User
Being on hfboards since 2000 I can tell you they didn't have this SOS excuses, it was all the trap.
Edit: There was also the travel excuse.
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Jason MacIsaac
Registered User
Zach Hyman said NJ has one of the best if not thr best defense core in the NHL. This with the best defense prospect core in the NHL. NJ are here and they are here for a long time on the strength of their defense. It's a bonus to have Hughes, Hischier, Bratt and Mercer moving forward.
That’s fair. I’ll keep an eye on it. Based on your comments he can probably lean on a bigger partner to take some of the edge off that element.
ZachaFlockaFlame
Registered User
- Aug 24, 2020
- 16,404
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Once again, no Devils fan gives a shit what happens in April. Not sure why you keep missing that point, this was a year they were supposed to be competitive and it looks like they're on their way. Why mention how they're going to do in the playoffs when diehard Devils fans don't know the same question? We're not the Florida Panthers/Calgary Flames where we've had multiple playoff disappointments or the Leafs that can't get over the hump. Whatever they do in the playoffs is gravy.
Devils could just destroy the other teams goalie in in the playoffs and concuss their star player in order to go farther.
Ranger strat is best strat.
