GDT: Your New Jersey Devils (21-7-2) vs. Florida Panthers (14-13-4), 7:30 PM, MSG

[Devs3cups]

Yes but because we haven't been good for so long we can't possibly actually be good. Every good team slowly and gradually goes from bad to mediocre to good linearly. Clearly those 21 wins in 24 games where we were destroying teams was just a fluke. Any truly good team would be able to keep up that pace over the course of a long season.

Only truly good teams would've sustained this 66 win pace lol.

 

[NJDevs26]

He will become the perfect scapegoat for Ruff.

Nah if Lindy lets him sink the Titanic then he's going down with the ship too

 

[Emperoreddy]

Wrong. They played like garbage against the Isles, no doubt. They played good and well enough to win against the Rangers, Dallas, Philly and arguably tonight.

They played well against the Rags up to Jack's missed PS. The rest of the 2nd and 3rd they did not play well and then a pathetic OT.

We never challenged Wedgewood in that Dallas game. We lost that game very easily, never threatened to come back.

Tonight was the same. Bob did not have a difficult night.

Team is scared of the middle of the ice and even bad teams are exploiting that.

 

[NjDevsRR]

One half of tank brigade is coming back from Utica so give goaltending is about to be an issue again

“I don't understand where the confidence that they can suddenly turn it around against yhe best and hottest teams in the league when they haven't been able to do it against mediocre or outright bad teams.”


so if they lose the next 5 they are just going to wrap it for the season? Nonsense. They will literally still be in a playoff spot or near it. The key is to keep competing in games and fine tuning things. Again, theyve been in every single game, hell, even the only one they got creamed in at, the Isles.

 

[Devs3cups]

They played well against the Rags up to Jack's missed PS. The rest of the 2nd and 3rd they did not play well and then a pathetic OT.

We never challenged Wedgewood in that Dallas game. We lost that game very easily, never threatened to come back.

Tonight was the same. Bob did not have a difficult night.

Team is scared of the middle of the ice and even bad teams are exploiting that.

Agree to disagree. They've played good in most of the games in this bad streak, except for the Isles game, which was gross.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I don't understand where the confidence that they can suddenly turn it around against yhe best and hottest teams in the league when they haven't been able to do it against mediocre or outright bad teams.

It took 5 games for you to lose all confidence in the team’s ability to win some games. We were literally just the best and hottest team in the league not long ago. That’s all over now, these 5 games have ended the season, sadly.

 

[Emperoreddy]

It's very possible, bordering on likely the winning streak was a fluke.

Team has to prove it wasn't and they are failing at that right now.

You don't get the benefit of the doubt when you have been a basement franchise for like 10 years

 

[guitarguyvic]

I don't understand where the confidence that they can suddenly turn it around against yhe best and hottest teams in the league when they haven't been able to do it against mediocre or outright bad teams.

You don’t understand how anyone can believe that a team that won 20 of 22 games and were steamrolling other teams as recently as 3 weeks ago could turn it around?

I’m trying to figure out how someone can be so convinced the team can’t play as good as they did for a large stretch previously.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Problem is I'm not sure deep down we're even 100% convinced this is a good team yet, other than those who use the charts for everything I suppose. Another few of these losses and we may well be struggling to make the playoffs again. And not making the postseason after the start we had would almost be worse than another Mr. Irrelevant season, it would kinda cement the loser mindset tbh.

I think the guys who've been paying attention the last N years know that this is a fast, young, talented team. When it plays within the system with discipline and confidence and gets quality goaltending it can skate with most teams in the league, defend well, and with a little bit of luck score quite a bit.

Until we get more experienced there's always going to be a razor's edge there of sorts.

Until we get veterans in the lineup with some measure of physicality who know the proper way to respond when the other team mixes it up, we'll have problems.

This team is down Bastian. It is down Palat. Wood is dinged up. I know we steamrolled a bunch of teams that didn't take us seriously earlier in the season when there wasn't any sort of stormcloud on the horizon and we didn't have Palat, but now teams are gunning for us, they have a blueprint that is abundantly clear on how to beat us. Palat would've helped tonight on the ice and in the lockerroom. I'm sure Smith did a little bit when he went after Ekblad.

We'll go on some winning streaks, and we'll lose some games - but the real question here is:
When do Jack, Nico, Bratt, Rango, Mercer, Tatar and the rest of the core put on their man pants. Can't expect it to be Holtz or Boqvist.

I think you can see it in McLeod. He's grown the past 10 games and is headed towards Ryan Callahan type of player and that would be great. I think you can see it in Zetterlund - that he's a gamer and even though he gets knocked around he'll get back up and backcheck and hit people and make plays.

Clearly Siegs has been panicking a bit the past few games, but I hope he'll come around. Graves and Marino aren't as comfy as they were, but they are taking on tall assignments and doing pretty well. Hamilton, for his gaffes and hate he took tonight was still very much a leader nd involved the past group of games. He's taking lots of shots. That's good.

The problem is that list above that is our 'core'. How many of them grow into playoff performers and how long does it take and does Fitz instead need to go find someone from the outside or do you just plain trust the process and the growth cycle and let these guys go through fire this year and maybe fall flat so that they grow next year.

Nico at the beginning of the season was a beast in comparison to previous seasons. We need to see more of that again, and now from the rest of the guys.

 

[NJDevs26]

Agree to disagree. They've played good in most of the games in this bad streak, except for the Isles game, which was gross.

Tonight was NOT a good game, at all. They had ten good minutes at the start and five at the finish, the other forty-five they pretty much flatlined. Dallas was an average game at best. The Islanders game was a no-show until the third period as well.

 

[NjDevsRR]

It's very possible, bordering on likely the winning streak was a fluke.

Team has to prove it wasn't and they are failing at that right now.

You don't get the benefit of the doubt when you have been a basement franchise for like 10 years

Unlikely with how they were playing in those games. They completely dominated that stretch. This wasn’t a BS buffalo stretch where half were in shootouts and ots

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Tonight was NOT a good game, at all. They had ten good minutes at the start and five at the finish, the other forty-five they pretty much flatlined. Dallas was an average game at best.

Yeah, you win games where you play meh sometimes. You don’t lose every time you don’t outright dominate every minute of the game. We actually managed to lose some games we’ve outright dominated!

 

[Bleedred]

Nah if Lindy lets him sink the Titanic then he's going down with the ship too

Yup

Doesn’t mean I think he’ll be smart enough to resist the temptation though.

And as much as I’m still trying to cling to #teamoptimism other than the goalie thing (which probably parks me on #teampessimism), I don’t think Lindy is safe for the year. His replacement is already here and if we find ourselves on the bubble or starting to creep closer to 500, I think he’s done.

Keep in mind I’ve been skeptical the entire time that a playoff berth definitely gets him extended. Especially if they don’t wanna lose Brunette and you know teams will come knocking this off-season if we don’t promote him.

I think there was only one coaching vacancy last offseason after he was fired and it was the Sharks, who reportedly talked to him before hiring Quinn.

 

[Devs3cups]

“I don't understand where the confidence that they can suddenly turn it around against yhe best and hottest teams in the league when they haven't been able to do it against mediocre or outright bad teams.”


so if they lose the next 5 they are just going to wrap it for the season? Nonsense. They will literally still be in a playoff spot or near it. The key is to keep competing in games and fine tuning things. Again, theyve been in every single game, hell, even the only one they got creamed in at, the Isles.

That's something that I find VERY encouraging. In our 31 games this year, there are maybe a handful where we were really outplayed.

Honestly, maybe like 2 or 3. That wasn't the case last year. When we lose, we put up way more of an effort and usually we come out of it feeling like we could've won and that played fine to good. That's a positive for me.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Tonight was NOT a good game, at all. They had ten good minutes at the start and five at the finish, the other forty-five they pretty much flatlined. Dallas was an average game at best. The Islanders game was a no-show until the third period as well.

There hasn't been one point during this stretch where it felt like it was inevitable they would come back and win.

Hasn't felt like that since the Nashville game. Every third period these two weeks have felt pointless.

 

[NJDevs26]

Yeah, you win games where you play meh sometimes. You don’t lose every time you don’t outright dominate every minute of the game. We actually managed to lose some games we’ve outright dominated!

They already won a couple of meh games just before the actual losing started. That bill's coming due about now.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I think the guys who've been paying attention the last N years know that this is a fast, young, talented team. When it plays within the system with discipline and confidence and gets quality goaltending it can skate with most teams in the league, defend well, and with a little bit of luck score quite a bit.

Until we get more experienced there's always going to be a razor's edge there of sorts.

Until we get veterans in the lineup with some measure of physicality who know the proper way to respond when the other team mixes it up, we'll have problems.

This team is down Bastian. It is down Palat. Wood is dinged up. I know we steamrolled a bunch of teams that didn't take us seriously earlier in the season when there wasn't any sort of stormcloud on the horizon and we didn't have Palat, but now teams are gunning for us, they have a blueprint that is abundantly clear on how to beat us. Palat would've helped tonight on the ice and in the lockerroom. I'm sure Smith did a little bit when he went after Ekblad.

We'll go on some winning streaks, and we'll lose some games - but the real question here is:
When do Jack, Nico, Bratt, Rango, Mercer, Tatar and the rest of the core put on their man pants. Can't expect it to be Holtz or Boqvist.

I think you can see it in McLeod. He's grown the past 10 games and is headed towards Ryan Callahan type of player and that would be great. I think you can see it in Zetterlund - that he's a gamer and even though he gets knocked around he'll get back up and backcheck and hit people and make plays.

Clearly Siegs has been panicking a bit the past few games, but I hope he'll come around. Graves and Marino aren't as comfy as they were, but they are taking on tall assignments and doing pretty well. Hamilton, for his gaffes and hate he took tonight was still very much a leader nd involved the past group of games. He's taking lots of shots. That's good.

The problem is that list above that is our 'core'. How many of them grow into playoff performers and how long does it take and does Fitz instead need to go find someone from the outside or do you just plain trust the process and the growth cycle and let these guys go through fire this year and maybe fall flat so that they grow next year.

Nico at the beginning of the season was a beast in comparison to previous seasons. We need to see more of that again, and now from the rest of the guys.

This is a perfectly reasonable post. Not like these “pack it up boys this team ain’t gonna win any of the coming games and will fall out of playoff spot because they’ve played mediocre the last eight games after kicking everyone’s ass for the first 23” hot takes.

 

[NjDevsRR]

 

[Devils090]

We’re in our 2021 mode, make it change

Until it does then yeah I’m gonna be negative

 

[Devs3cups]

It's very possible, bordering on likely the winning streak was a fluke.

Team has to prove it wasn't and they are failing at that right now.

You don't get the benefit of the doubt when you have been a basement franchise for like 10 years

I can't believe this is actually real lol.

Something that has been done a handful of times in the history of the league is a fluke. Jesus.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Sherry sees it. That shit was massively concerning. That's a team poised for a long losing streak when they play that gutless

 

[NjDevsRR]

I can't believe this is actually real lol.

Something that has been done a handful of times in the history of the league is a fluke. Jesus.

I mean it definitely CAN be.

But a team creaming the teams in regulation, in the eye test and analytically? Most likely, no, not a fluke.

 

[MadDevil]

I don't understand where the confidence that they can suddenly turn it around against yhe best and hottest teams in the league when they haven't been able to do it against mediocre or outright bad teams.

Because you seem to think they're playing worse than others think they are. Tonight was not great but they had chances that they couldn't finish, which has been a theme during this stretch. But guess what, it happens over the course of a long season. Just like goal scorers sometimes have bad stretches of finishing, so do teams. I mean for f*** sake we see this all the time in this league where a team either has abnormally good or bad shooting, sometimes for long stretches of games.

I'd be a lot more concerned if we were getting outplayed on a nightly basis, which we haven't to this point. The pace they had for 24 games was insane and nobody is going to keep up that pace for an entire season. What I've seen the last 5 games is a hot team coming back down to earth a bit. It doesn't mean they're a fraud or not actually good, just that they're going through some adversity. It's certainly not impossible that they fold under it and collapse, but I think people are just assuming because of past results that future results will be the same.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

They already won a couple of meh games just before the actual losing started. That bill's coming due about now.

Yes, as every single other team has done. Probably even more so, considering our top of the league underlying numbers.

But playing a 50/50 game against a couple pretty good teams isn’t worth getting so upset. If we manage to lose every single 1 goal game the rest of the way, we’re done I guess.

 

[Devs3cups]

Good to know that that message was sent by the coaches.