GDT: Your New Jersey Devils (13-7-2, 28 Pts) @ Washington Capitals (13-5-1, 27 Pts), 7 PM, MSGSN2

[Saugus]

Unfortunately, I think I’m out of George of the Jungle gifs. I’ll have to duplicate for Monday, or choose a new agreed upon theme.

Don’t be changing it now! I’m currently watching Sideways, which stars a certain actor who played Lyle. It’s a sign!

(I don’t believe in signs, do what you want.)

 

[Hisch13r]

Tatar masterclass

One of the wilder cards I’ve seen in awhile. Lots of good but also some bad

It's a bit surprising they're all so strong defensively but I guess it's because the first 2 periods they weren't bad and only 1 5v5 GA. Offensively no surprise. They generated f*** all at 5v5 outside of the 4th line a little bit

 

[DerekDevils30]

It's a bit surprising they're all so strong defensively but I guess it's because the first 2 periods they weren't bad. Offensively no surprise. They generated f*** all at 5v5 outside of the 4th line a little bit

Yeah. Hopefully they can find their groove 5v5 going forward because we know the red hot PP will eventually cool down a little bit. What do you think is holding this team back from being better offensively 5v5?

 

[Emperoreddy]

This is the week you would like to seem them open up a chunky winning streak.

Already on a two gamer with the next three against lesser opponents.

Finally start to pad their division lead

 

[Incharge1976]

Yeah. Hopefully they can find their groove 5v5 going forward because we know the red hot PP will eventually cool down a little bit. What do you think is holding this team back from being better offensively 5v5?

Need one more top 6 forward IMO.

 

[Bad Goalie]

2 goals for Halonen tonight in Utica. 2 assists for Casey and 1 for Nemec

Damn Caps take another penalty. Refs want to see the Devils PP again

Halonen's 2 were both PPGs, which is most often how he scores his goals.

Nemec's assist was his 1st for the Comets in his 6 games down here.

Casey has extended his team scoring lead to 13 on 12 assists and 1 goal in 11 GP. He just passes the puck to whoever is in a good spot every time he goes up the ice. His passing is tape to tape almost exclusively. When/if he gets the defensive part down he is is going to be something else.
He is trailed by 3 players with 9 pts: Beckman/in only 10GP, Foote/12GP, and Halonen/15GP.

 

[jkrdevil]

This is the week you would like to seem them open up a chunky winning streak.

Already on a two gamer with the next three against lesser opponents.

Finally start to pad their division lead

I’ll take 3 of 4 with one of the three being the Caps game on Saturday.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I’ll take 3 of 4 with one of the three being the Caps game on Saturday.

Feel like that should be enough to put the Caps behind us point percentage wise for sure, which would be a major plus

 

[jkrdevil]

Need one more top 6 forward IMO.

They need added depth to the bottom 6 because they are getting nothing 5v5 from the 3rd and 4th lines for the most part. Getting contributions from the bottom half of the lineup fixes any 5v5 problems (which isn’t as much as a problem a part of it is shooting pct. driven).

Feel like that should be enough to put the Caps behind us point percentage wise for sure, which would be a major plus

They are going to fall back a bit with Ovechkin out. Their pace wasn’t sustainable already and without him they look like last year’s team offensively.

 

[DerekDevils30]

They need added depth to the bottom 6 because they are getting nothing 5v5 from the 3rd and 4th lines for the most part. Getting contributions from the bottom half of the lineup fixes any 5v5 problems (which isn’t as much as a problem a part of it is shooting pct. driven).


They are going to fall back a bit with Ovechkin out. Their pace wasn’t sustainable already and without him they look like last year’s team offensively.

I do think Tatar on the 3rd line could help somewhat for the time being. At least possession wise

 

[Incharge1976]

They need added depth to the bottom 6 because they are getting nothing 5v5 from the 3rd and 4th lines for the most part. Getting contributions from the bottom half of the lineup fixes any 5v5 problems (which isn’t as much as a problem a part of it is shooting pct. driven).


They are going to fall back a bit with Ovechkin out. Their pace wasn’t sustainable already and without him they look like last year’s team offensively.

The top 6 add fixes that too since you can shift people down. I'd love to get a sniper.

With that said, I wouldn't be sad if they just upgraded the bottom two lines, but I really don't feel comfortable with constant production from any line outside of Jack's.

 

[My3Sons]

I do think Tatar on the 3rd line could help somewhat for the time being. At least possession wise

I think it’s matchup dependent.

 

[Devs3cups]

What do you think is holding this team back from being better offensively 5v5?

I just think it's getting adjusted to the new system and getting some more practice time.

 

[My3Sons]

I just think it's getting adjusted to the new system and getting some more practice time.

Watching tonight I’d also add they still try to make the perfect play a bit too often.

 

[Hisch13r]

Yeah. Hopefully they can find their groove 5v5 going forward because we know the red hot PP will eventually cool down a little bit. What do you think is holding this team back from being better offensively 5v5?

Thankfully the PP is pretty sustainable. After the first 4 games they have 14 GF/60 on 11 xGF/60. So yeah maybe we'll see a small dip but they're really great there.

At 5v5 I think part of it is a personnel issue. Outside of the stars they don't have guys that push offense. Even though guys Cotter and Noesen have produced well at 5v5 it's not like they've been creating a lot of offense. They've gotten some good puck luck. Palat's dragging down the Jack-Bratt pair hard. They drop from 2.75 GF/60 to 2.35 and 3.33 xGF/60 to 2.81 (while also being worse defensively).

They don't get a lot of offense from their D. They get a ton of it with Dillon-Dougie as literally everything is happening on the ice with them for both teams. The other 2 pairs though are VERY low event. Luke's at least been pushing for some more offense recently but over these past 5 games he's only at 2.06 xGF/60. As a team that'd rank 31st in the league. That's also literally our BEST guy over those games. On the year Kovy/Siegs/Luke/Pesce range from 2.19 to 1.89. Luke opening up offensively should help them some

I definitely don't think it's just personnel because this isn't a bad group. Earlier in the year I think they just kind of f***ing sucked with the puck and couldn't make clean plays. I think that's better now. Now I just think they're generally intentionally playing pretty conservative and slow hockey. They're still one of the better rush teams in the league because the high end talent is just that good but they seem to generally play lower in the DZ this year which has helped them defensively but also limited their quick strike offense. They're much more willing to dump pucks out of the DZ and into the OZ now too which again has helped them defensively but hurt them offensively.

The stars could also be producing more than they have. The last couple of years Nico, Jack, and Bratt were 13, 22, and 18 in P/60. Timo was 81. This year they're 168, 132, 75, and 150. Part of that is probably because they're also generating less.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I’ll take 3 of 4 with one of the three being the Caps game on Saturday.

Feel like that should be enough to put the Caps behind us point percentage wise for sure, which would be a major plus

They'll lose the Preds or Blues game randomly if I had to guess lol, Binnington always stones this team if memory serves right too

 

[Emperoreddy]

I just think it's getting adjusted to the new system and getting some more practice time.

I do think some of it is intentional as far as Keefe preferring they play a lower event style of game defensively at the cost of some of the 5v5 offense.

The trade off has obviously worked results wise and looking at how the team played under Ruff, was an adjustment that needed to be made.

There probably is a better balance to be found and I do think another forward add would really help as we are not getting much of anything offensively out of the bottom 6 plus we should be getting more out of Jack's line with Palat not on that wing.

But people should probably get comfortable with Keefe keeping them buttoned up in games where they have the lead.

 

[Hisch13r]

lol There is one Panthers fan (I know that's like 20% of their fanbase) on the main board GDT still just brain broken by the back to back losses and cannot help himself from talking about us

 

[Emperoreddy]

I think Casey still has the most points on our blueline, which says a lot about where they are offensively.

But it hasn't been an issue because the guys not scoring are all playing really really good defense.

You do figure Luke is going to start finding the score sheet more often though sooner rather then later

 

[Hisch13r]

I do think some of it is intentional as far as Keefe preferring they play a lower event style of game defensively at the cost of some of the 5v5 offense.

The trade off has obviously worked results wise and looking at how the team played under Ruff, was an adjustment that needed to be made.

There probably is a better balance to be found and I do think another forward add would really help as we are not getting much of anything offensively out of the bottom 6 plus we should be getting more out of Jack's line with Palat not on that wing.

But people should probably get comfortable with Keefe keeping them buttoned up in games where they have the lead.

It's managed to work results wide because the PP is so damn good. I don't want to see the PP go cold but it would be interesting to see the PP go cold and see how he adjusts

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

All we do lately is beat good teams

The less successful DJ Khalid B Side.

See you and raise you…

 

[Emperoreddy]

It's managed to work results wide because the PP is so damn good. I don't want to see the PP go cold but it would be interesting to see the PP go cold and see how he adjusts

I do agree that our PP should be sustainable all year, but it will hit a cold patch at some point.

Yeah I wonder how they adjust.

I assume Keefe has them open it up when we are trailing.

 

[Hisch13r]

I do agree that our PP should be sustainable all year, but it will hit a cold patch at some point.

Yeah I wonder how they adjust.

I assume Keefe has them open it up when we are trailing.

He does. I looked at it and we're 23rd in xGF/60 at all scores. 19th when tied. 8th when trailing. 29th when leading.

 

[Bleedred]

I don’t think we should do it now. It’s still way too soon.

But I think we may find ourselves needing to seriously consider re-signing Allen for another year at around what we’re giving him now with the retention from Montreal taken off.

I don’t think Daws is inspiring much confidence this season, but it’s also still early.

 

[Devs3cups]

I don’t think we should do it now. It’s still way too soon.

But I think we may find ourselves needing to seriously consider re-signing Allen for another year at around what we’re giving him now with the retention from Montreal taken off.

I don’t think Daws is inspiring much confidence this season, but it’s also still early.

Daws is also playing in front of an absolutely garbage lineup. You notice how much he faces nightly when looking at the Utica highlights.