GDT: Your New Jersey Devils (28-17-6, 62 Pts) @ Philadelphia Flyers (22-22-6, 50 Pts), 7 PM, MSGSN

[guitarguyvic]

I think majority here have expressed concerns with the depth. Ive been asking for two forwards all season. Fitz will eventually do that.

Everyone just says this so confidently, as if acquiring two quality players mid-season is routine. Fitz managing to pull this off is basically 50/50 at best. We could wind up with a couple of Maroons…or a couple of Grabners.

We have no idea. And at this rate I’m starting to wonder if even just two bottom six guys is enough.

This team is underwhelming, and no one epitomizes that more to me than Timo. And he’s supposed to be a top six piece.

 

[Eggtimers]

Tatar was garbage by the end of his first stint here.

Dude stinks out loud this second time around. Feel like most of us said it at the time, but what a lame signing.

There is a reason why he is always scratched come playoff time ( Was healthy scratched in Montreal , here , team prior to that ) . He can’t play playoff style hockey . And that style is what teams have been playing against us for the last dozen or so games . Everything to the outside , along the boards , forced to dump and chase and bang and crash and fight to get to the middle of the ice. Tatar can’t do any of that . Can’t hit . Can’t win many board battles ( save his hard working goal against the Habs just recently) . He will be a healthy scratched come playoffs once again. That’s if we make the playoffs at this point .
Our entire bottom 6 is trash . Mercer is meh . I had hopes he could be a 2nd/3rd line tweener …. He diessnt look like he can be that right now . Hopefully I am wrong .
Bastian is useless . Tatar useless . Haula useless . McD is useless . Lazar is a dime a dozen player . I’d say Mercer and Cotter are average / decent bottom 6 players but that’s 2/6 . We need some help up front and need it fast .
I am probably one of the only few that wants Miller . If not him , we need at least two more forwards . Someone like Granlund , Evans , Nelson , Palmeri , Gourde , Crouse

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

This team’s depth stinks. Some of us have been saying it since last year but of course we get shouted down by the crowd that doesn’t ever seem capable of recognizing potential issues until well after the fact.

The Baghdad Bobs here are just as bad as the perma-doomers.

No, the "see I told you so" crowd is the worst of them all. No one gives a shit what you may or may not have said last year

 

[Devilsfan118]

Wildcard team, at best.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

2 injuries to your team where Curtis Lazar is your 2C in defensive situations is remarkably bad depth.

Now this is what a contender dealing with a couple injuries looks like

This team would be just swell losing multiple centers too:

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Now this is what a contender dealing with a couple injuries looks like

View attachment 968247
This team would be just swell losing multiple centers too:

View attachment 968248

They would use Nylander or Domi at 2C like they've done on the past lmao, Tampa Bay won a conference final 3 years ago with Nick Paul as their 2C when Brayden Point blew his hamstring apart. It's not even a comparable situation you're making it out to be. It's not something that's inherently wrong with this team, it's just depth. It's something they can fix with a good offseason or two. The annoying thing is that Fitz overcompensated because he has a size boner and this is where we are now because of it.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Must be a good workout patting yourself on the back all the time.

The forward depth was unlikely to be something to be fixed because of where the Devils spent their money this off-season. They could've tried to roll with Bahl and gotten another forward; they valued someone like Dillon more. I'd much rather try to upgrade at forward at the deadline than on defense, and I think the UFA market this season is much better for forwards than defense too.

I don’t care what the reasoning is. I’m talking about simply assessing what this team really is or is likely to be in its current iteration. I’m tired of the hype. Year in year out. We’ve had one season with this core where the hype matched the results. Outside of that there’s always one excuse or another. A team that requires every variable to break their way all season long just to meet the hype shouldn’t be getting hyped up to begin with.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Wildcard team, at best.

Nah they'll be Metro 3, people are overreacting. I didn't think they'd win tonight because of the center situation and after the failed double minor + Flyers scoring right after, it just felt like their heads were shot after that. Allen didn't help with that awful second goal

I also think the Canes matchup is fine, the Devils will have the better goalie + make adds the deadline. It's just their skaters which ironically was a strength in 2023 and has probably taken a back seat to Carolina's as a totality.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I don’t care what the reasoning is. I’m talking about simply assessing what this team really is or is likely to be in its current iteration. I’m tired of the hype. Year in year out. We’ve had one season with this core where the hype matched the results. Outside of that there’s always one excuse or another. A team that requires every variable to break their way all season long just to meet the hype shouldn’t be getting hyped up to begin with.

This is the most "I'm gonna be mad just to be mad" post I've ever seen lmao

How about let's see how the season plays out....?

 

[guitarguyvic]

No, the "see I told you so" crowd is the worst of them all. No one gives a shit what you may or may not have said last year

Of course you don’t give a shit, that would require you to get off your high horse and acknowledge that you aren’t always right.

This is the most "I'm gonna be mad just to be mad" post I've ever seen lmao

How about let's see how the season plays out....?

Dude I am f***ing mad. Should I be ashamed to say I’m a dedicated fan who’s pissed at being continuously disappointed by this squad?

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I don’t care what the reasoning is. I’m talking about simply assessing what this team really is or is likely to be in its current iteration. I’m tired of the hype. Year in year out. We’ve had one season with this core where the hype matched the results. Outside of that there’s always one excuse or another. A team that requires every variable to break their way all season long just to meet the hype shouldn’t be getting hyped up to begin with.

They haven't gotten everything to go their way this year and they're Metro 3 right now....? They had a pairing miss a full first month of the season, they're getting destroyed by injuries now. The things you can pin on Fitz is not being more proactive at center in case injuries happened there and the size boner he's had since the Carolina series loss. Other than that, this team has been fine.

 

[Triumph]

I don’t care what the reasoning is. I’m talking about simply assessing what this team really is or is likely to be in its current iteration. I’m tired of the hype. Year in year out. We’ve had one season with this core where the hype matched the results. Outside of that there’s always one excuse or another. A team that requires every variable to break their way all season long just to meet the hype shouldn’t be getting hyped up to begin with.

Of course you don't care what the reasoning is. Luke and Pesce have absolutely fallen apart. Do I think Luke Hughes is going to be a superstar defenseman for whom the sky is the limit? Yes. Is he playing like garbage lately? Yes, he is. I don't know why he is. The thing is, Luke Hughes is 21 years old.

It's just taking that step back and realizing, hmm, why are things bad, why are things not working out - that step you just never take. It's always just pointing and saying 'bad'.

 

[McDuffz88]

Wow, spot on with your assessments, and you are the first person to mention how McLeod was never replaced on this team. I said this all along. He won a high percentage of face-offs and wasn't nick-named motor mike for nothing. He was relentless to play against, another was Miles Wood.

McLeod was such a huge loss it's actually devastating in more way than one. Nico has to do all the hard work with no one else to help him out. With McLeod he had a shared workload of all the defensive minutes. We need a guaranteed faceoff win? Send out McLeod, we are jammed in our own zone? Send out McLeod. Now it's all Nico. By having a player like McLeod not only does it make Nico's job a lot easier but now Nico's line can do more offense (another reason I think a player like Meier is getting dragged down). Anyone playing with Nico is playing the hardest minutes on the team & it's not even close. If we can get a McLeod replacement everything falls into place. Nico's line gets better match ups & gets more offensive minutes, and we can roll 3 deep lines. I said in another board I'm all for trading Casey (love the guy) if we can land a high end 3c/okay 2c with a few years left on a decent cap hit. It would allow all our players to flourish & give us a good chance at multiple cup runs rolling an insane top 9. I'm also not opposed to moving on from Mercer if it means we can get an upgrade. Timo needs to be moved to RW and we need to utilize him properly. He's our highest paid winger and getting him going should be our priority over other players who plays RW.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Expecting this team to be a well oiled machine night and night out is unfair to players and how good rest of the players in this league are. Bad stretches happen for players, I much rather this shit happen in January/Feburary where the management can assess and try to fix the issue mid year then say in the round of the playoffs and you're doomed. They'll be fine, everything that's been said about this team has been issue all year. The depth/finishing are the biggest issues plaguing this team horrendously. The good players are playing meh to bad right now, they should change here soon. They're also on their backup goalie ffs

Of course you don’t give a shit, that would require you to get off your high horse and acknowledge that you aren’t always right.


Dude I am f***ing mad. Should I be ashamed to say I’m a dedicated fan who’s pissed at being continuously disappointed by this squad?

This is the last place I'd want to be when angry, lol. You're just stressing yourself out more, man.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

They would use Nylander or Domi at 2C like they've done on the past lmao, Tampa Bay won a conference final 3 years ago with Nick Paul as their 2C when Brayden Point blew his hamstring apart. It's not even a comparable situation you're making it out to be. It's not something that's inherently wrong with this team, it's just depth. It's something they can fix with a good offseason or two. The annoying thing is that Fitz overcompensated because he has a size boner and this is where we are now because of it.

You’re looking at a team with Pontus Holmberg at 2C and David Kampf at 3C after losing 1 center. Using Nylander or Domi at C are horrible options, like using Mercer.

I don’t care about a Tampa team from a couple years ago. Show me how that lineup looks down a 1C and a 3C. Where is the depth?

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Enough with McLeod already. f*** him.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Of course you don't care what the reasoning is. Luke and Pesce have absolutely fallen apart. Do I think Luke Hughes is going to be a superstar defenseman for whom the sky is the limit? Yes. Is he playing like garbage lately? Yes, he is. I don't know why he is. The thing is, Luke Hughes is 21 years old.

It's just taking that step back and realizing, hmm, why are things bad, why are things not working out - that step you just never take. It's always just pointing and saying 'bad'.

No it’s not that. I didn’t even bring up Luke, holy non-sequitor.

No the issue is that some of us just don’t have a bottomless reserve of patience. Exasperated by increasing hype every year.

 

[Bleedred]

First goal is entirely on Tatar not getting the puck out of the zone and causing the power play.

They were all garbage, all game long

We need a save here and there. A point shot from 60 feet out that grazed a guy 30-40 feet out. Then the horrendous rebound on goal 2.

Ersson was doing it. Granted, as I keep saying, this year’s Devils team has done a masterful job of making every swingin Sam, Dan, Elvis and Anton look great.

But Allen didn’t have a good game. If this is gonna be a normal game from Allen until Markstrom gets back then we need to try a rotation with Daws.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

No it’s not that. I didn’t even bring up Luke, holy non-sequitor.

No the issue is that some of us just don’t have a bottomless reserve of patience. Exasperated by increasing hype every year.

Then stop watching man. The "I deserve this!" fan absolutely sucks.

 

[Satans Hockey]

Nate has no excuse there, should have his head up and the guys should be yelling from the bench to warn him too.

I'm ready for the 4 Nations break, this team needs it.

 

[dendazen]

Is it only me, or this team is just not good enough? I think Fitz is just not a smart GM to be honest. I was always hesitant about Palat, Meier contracts, bringing back Tatar, drafting Nemec, didn't seem to me like good decisions. Never really solved goaltending, we have like 2 goalies who are on the verge of their careers and not a whole lot of hope with prospects.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Then stop watching man. The "I deserve this!" fan absolutely sucks.

How about you stop telling others how to be a fan?

Is it only me, or this team is just not good enough? I think Fitz is just not a smart GM to be honest. I was always hesitant about Palat, Meier contracts, bringing back Tatar, drafting Nemec, didn't seem to me like good decisions.

Woah woah woah…this kind of talk is gonna get you in trouble ‘round here.

 

[Bleedred]

Need 2 wins before the break, they can 100% get that with 4 games being against the Flyers/Pens/Sabres/Habs but I don't expect them to have any shot v Vegas. We'll see what happens.

I can somehow see us beating Vegas after losing to the Flyers yet again, along with one of or both of Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

Followed by a loss to Montreal with a recalled Cayden Primeau in net, because Montembeault and Dobes are both on the terlet pissing out their asses.

 

[Bleedred]

Is it only me, or this team is just not good enough? I think Fitz is just not a smart GM to be honest. I was always hesitant about Palat, Meier contracts, bringing back Tatar, drafting Nemec, didn't seem to me like good decisions. Never really solved goaltending, we have like 2 goalies who are on the verge of their careers and not a whole lot of hope with prospects.

Some of these I agree with you on and some of them are fine.

There have been people calling out the forward depth since the offseason and saying he may have over corrected the last two offseason’s. I’m kind of in agreement on that at this point, even though not all the moves were bad.

Toronto under Keefe did not have a history of shooting below league average, but this year’s Devils currently are. There’s no evidence to support this being a Keefe thing as much as it’s a Devils offense/forwards aren’t good enough thing.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

You’re looking at a team with Pontus Holmberg at 2C and David Kampf at 3C after losing 1 center. Using Nylander or Domi at C are horrible options, like using Mercer.

I don’t care about a Tampa team from a couple years ago. Show me how that lineup looks down a 1C and a 3C. Where is the depth?

Nylander and Domi still yield better offensive results, they suck defensively at C, cool. If you're using them as a replacement for injury, why is that gonna matter?

And it's tough for you to swallow but Toronto and Tampa Bay's top end talent is better than ours. They're able to get away with injuries more easier than we are. This team can't rely on simply being a Jack/Nico/Bratt team like they're currently constructed, they need adequate depth. The one time they had it, they were 110+ point team. Would be nice to get back to that.