GDT: You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out, Kid! Sabres @ Devils, 7 PM, MSG+

[Emperoreddy]

Palmieri will be fine. So will the second line even with Zajac. MoJo and Palmieri have played what 20 games each this season total and hardly any together. Those too will be able to click in the long run and Zajac will play the steady center who covers mistakes and shows up behind the play or digs pucks out of corners. They just need time to click.

You cant say enough about that first like, so much speed and skill skating around, add Moore and Vatman and its gotta be a pain in the ass to defend against. They move around so much it really awesome to watch. You cant break those 3 up.

It shouldn’t be overstated that Mojo has basically never played with Palms and Zajac before. Lines were different in camp, and all three guys have missed so much time they just haven’t had chance. That is going to take some time to gel.

I do think Zacha would be a better fit. I don’t think Zajac’s style fits with Mojo at all, where I see a guy like Gibbons playing perfectly with the way Zajac plays.

 

[Bleedred]

Are you saying the massive increase in goal scoring, and that is the SOLE reason for our rise, is the result of Hynes coaching? I'd call BS.

He's done a good job at some things (riding Cory, personnel decisions (minus Zajac on the PP and leaning on Greene and Santini so much) are getting a little better. I think he's been an okay developmental coach. We've played some pretty good hockey over the last few weeks, especially possession wise. It's definitely getting better, but I'm still not sold on him from an X's and O's standpoint. He's also let Nico and Bratt play on the top line, I give him full credit for that and allowing that to continue.

I think Ward is a decent X's and O's coach with the power play, but a bad personnel coach, unless this is Hynes overrulling him.

Goaltending is also making him look better this year, whereas it may have made him look worse last year. And he has done a very good job of providing us with the goaltender that can make him and make us look better. I do think some of his suspect X's and O's (and personnel decisions) reared its ugly head again tonight, with that 3rd period and especially OT. The fact that he needs Greene and Santini and Zajac to take these D-zone draws with minutes left in the 3rd period and the leaning of them on the PK (that was bound to bite us) like they're an elite shutdown trio (anymore) is pretty scary.

I wouldn't say we're winning in spite of him, nor would I say we're winning because of him. I'd give him a C grade this year? Maybe a C+ for the way we've been playing lately. We're outshooting teams a lot more, we're not getting outshot 46-23 by other bad teams or any teams that much anymore.

 

[Bcap88]

so what do u wanna do with him?

jacob josefson

 

[AveryQuietMan]

very true. this team is doing great overall, the sting of dropping a point vs buffalo in the way it went down gets my gears grinding

time to grease the liver up on a friday night i guess!

good teams lose to bad teams more often than they should. 6th game of a 6 game homestand against the worst team taping a special for the nhl.... trap game x2. refs didnt help. lets move on. liver has been greased. vodka/kaluha/irish cream...... yum

 

[Emperoreddy]

This is true, all of our players make bad plays from time to time, Bratt, Hall, Palms, Nico, Butcher, everyone. Its a sport and even the best players make mistakes, i dont like to harp on them because i expect them from time to time. The difference is the good ones to it less often. Vatman trying to make a "fancy" play i dont care about. Bratt making a bad pass, or even Coleman, s*** it happens. Im not going to bash a player for it.

A couple of games go Greene tried to clear a puck up the middle, he put it in the air and it was a hard clear and the other teams knocked it out of mid air with the shaft of the skate and people were hammering Greene on this board. S*** happens, that was more unlucky for Greene then him making a bad play. Greene is under a micro scope here and he's had his games but i feel he is more solid then people are giving him credit for.

Greene and Santini to a lesser extent get thrown to the wolves on here a lot. Their role on this team is basically to take the bad situations and just keep the puck out by hook or by crook. Coaching staff doesn’t seem to give a rats ass about their corsi as long as the puck isn’t going in most of the time.

Greene is also never going to be able to get as involved in high skill rushes and plays as some of our other guys can. It isn’t his game and it never was. Staff is also never going to demote Greene for that either.

 

[MauDevils]

What's our OT record now? 2W-4L?

 

[Emperoreddy]

It isn’t good. I definitely don’t like how we roll out in OT, and we seem to be playing really passive as well.

Our OT strategy runs counter to how we play in regulation. It is annoying.

 

[None Shall Pass]

There is a big difference between honest criticism and insane ranting.

Which one does honestly thinking the league rigged this game against us for the Winter Classic fall under?

 

[Emperoreddy]

Which one does honestly thinking the league rigged this game against us for the Winter Classic fall under?

If you can’t understand what is tongue and cheek and what isn’t, I can’t help you.

 

[Bleedred]

What's our OT record now? 2W-4L?

I think we've won more than 2 OT games, and that's not including shootouts.

We beat Minnesota, Detroit, Ottawa, I'm missing another one or two OT winners here. John Moore won another one of them. I know he scored in the Ottawa game and another one. Can't remember the other one, but it was more recently.

 

[AveryQuietMan]

If you can’t understand what is tongue and cheek and what isn’t, I can’t help you.

you wouldnt have said it if you didnt believe it in some capacity. hockey is a business.... that is all. im with you on that. now im the one who looks like an ass??? dont walk it back. it was obvious. when you have a chance in life take it. i dont blame the nhl, we will be paid back in the future, just watch for it.

 

[JimEIV]

They look that way now but nobody thought they were a good team coming into the season, and a lot of young players have stood out in a good way. He definitely gets credit for that. It's only fair since he and the staff took the blame for the young players not progressing the last couple years.

Nobody expected Coleman, Boyle, Gibbons, Hischier, Bratt or even Wood to be as good as as they have been. None of that has much to do with Hynes and I am willing to give the staff credit for keeping Gibbons in the lineup over other options.

How does Hynes deserve credit for young players performing well? Most of them really had little competition for spots... Hischier was pencilled into the lineup before he was even picked, the bottom 6 was wide open to anyone. I suppose if you want to give credit for not sending Bratt back to junior you can...but that really seemed like a no-brainer to me, and even still that is more of an organizational decision than a coaching decision.

A coaches value is day to day decisions. His value is pressing the right buttons and his ability as field General. Hynes is not very good tacticianally and he needs good players to execute his philosophy... anyone can do that. (Execute with good players)

 

[Emperoreddy]

you wouldnt have said it if you didnt believe it in some capacity. hockey is a business.... that is all.

Real reason is the refs are bad at their jobs and the league doesn’t hold them accountable on top of the league creating rules that run completely counter to what they claim they want out of the sport (more goals but you can challenge offsides)

 

[NJDevs26]

Can someone explain why Palmieri is taking a defensive zone faceoff?

Because Hynes for some odd reason put out Zajac and Nico on the same shift and then had no centers on the next line change. If you're going to rip him for anything tonight it's those odd configurations.

 

[Blender]

I don't see how this is conclusive that his back skate is off the ice.

 

[Devil X]

I dont think Hynes has been bad this year. He sat key players earlier in the season showing that everyone is accountable for their play. Scratched players that maybe shouldnt have been scratched again for accountability. Realized the best 6 D didnt involve Lovejoy and included 2 young players in Santini and Butcher. Yes he maybe pushed Greene and Santini out there to much but at the time he didnt have much else. The Vat trade along with the strong play of Moore have really settled the D down and they have looked much much better. He is allowing young guys like Bratt Nico Coleman Santini Wood and Butcher to play in key parts of the game and have key roles on the team. He took a lot of crap for the way he handled Zacha but its sure looking like it worked.

I believe the PP and PK personnel choices are made by the coaches who handle those units, then again i have never played hockey in my life so maybe i maybe incorrect. But anyway I dont have any issues with Zajac on the PP remember he is also one of the few forwards with a right shot we have and all he does is play outlet in the center of the ice. Its not like he is running the PP, also there arent may forwards on this team better then Zajac at digging pucks out on the boards or stronger on the boards overall.

 

[Bleedred]

I don't see how this is conclusive that his back skate is off the ice.

It wasn't.

They just didn't wanna hear Lehner bitch for the second game in a row.

Don't get me wrong, we were very playing very poorly in that period. The shift right before (between the tying goal and that non-goal) we got pinned in our end and almost got scored on again. So I'm not convinced that goal would have meant a regulation win, but it still should have been a goal I think.

 

[AveryQuietMan]

Real reason is the refs are bad at their jobs and the league doesn’t hold them accountable on top of the league creating rules that run completely counter to what they claim they want out of the sport (more goals but you can challenge offsides)

they just want more control. every sports league in the usa has moved to this recently. we are just like any euro football league now..... americans didnt want to be like europe in the past..... but we got it now. maybe we werent so crazy for not wanting to be like europe.... the land of people born into royalty. im getting too deep now but its sad.

 

[JimEIV]

He usually has Hall take the opening faceoff in OT with Hischier...they typically proceed to lose the face off then spend the whole opening shift chasing the puck.

 

[AveryQuietMan]

I don't see how this is conclusive that his back skate is off the ice.

inconclusive=no overturn

oh well.... i guess toronto has better eyes than us.
such bs.

 

[Bleedred]

I dont think Hynes has been bad this year. He sat key players earlier in the season showing that everyone is accountable for their play. Scratched players that maybe shouldnt have been scratched again for accountability. Realized the best 6 D didnt involve Lovejoy and included 2 young players in Santini and Butcher. Yes he maybe pushed Greene and Santini out there to much but at the time he didnt have much else. The Vat trade along with the strong play of Moore have really settled the D down and they have looked much much better. He is allowing young guys like Bratt Nico Coleman Santini Wood and Butcher to play in key parts of the game and have key roles on the team. He took a lot of crap for the way he handled Zacha but its sure looking like it worked.

I believe the PP and PK personnel choices are made by the coaches who handle those units, then again i have never played hockey in my life so maybe i maybe incorrect. But anyway I dont have any issues with Zajac on the PP remember he is also one of the few forwards with a right shot we have and all he does is play outlet in the center of the ice. Its not like he is running the PP, also there arent may forwards on this team better then Zajac at digging pucks out on the boards or stronger on the boards overall.

What you've said about Zajac was definitely true in the past, but his game seems to have really deteriorated or is just slumping mightily right now. I don't see him as being good at digging pucks this year or particularly anything, other than maybe faceoffs? Those are right around his career average, but almost everything else has been absent for the better part of these 20 games.

I think we have way better power play options than to use him, at least on the first unit.

 

[Bcap88]

It wasn't.

They just didn't wanna hear Lehner ***** for the second game in a row.

Don't get me wrong, we were very playing very poorly in that period. The shift right before (between the tying goal and that non-goal) we got pinned in our end and almost got scored on again. So I'm not convinced that goal would have meant a regulation win, but it still should have been a goal I think.

Yea but if its considered onside then we also get a powerplay out of it as well and at least have another oppurtunity again or at least kill 2 minutes

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

id do

hall - hischier - bratt
johansson - zacha - palmieri
wood - boyle - noesen
coleman - zajac -gibbons

or swap bratt and palmieri. i like zacha and wood together a lot but not at the expense of palmieri and mojo

That's the line combo right there. I like Coach Hynes' demeanor and intensity, however really feel he is misplaying Zajac.

 

[Zippy316]

He usually has Hall take the opening faceoff in OT with Hischier...they typically proceed to lose the face off then spend the whole opening shift chasing the puck.

Seems like the Devils wanted Zajac out against Eichel.

It's hard to complain about OT. We lost it cause Moore fell down, 3-on-3 is very much a "shit happens" scenario.

 

[Bleedred]

inconclusive=no overturn

oh well.... i guess toronto has better eyes than us.
such bs.

It's actually the officials who get to make the call, as they're walked through it by the people in Toronto.

They were like ''Oh no! We need to pretend like we missed it and that it's offsides! We don't wanna hose them again!''.