GDT: Your New Jersey Devils (33-23-6, 72 Pts) @ Dallas Stars (39-19-2, 80 Pts), 8 PM, ESPN+/Hulu

[Mgd31]

Well that sucked. Granted I did not expect a win tonight but what an awful way to lose.

Plug some holes by Friday and try and catch a hopefully tired Winnipeg team sleeping on a back to back

 

[Satans Hockey]

She's taking a story out of this that didn't seem there. I watched Timos post game, he showed no signs of verge of tearing up.

Dillon seemed frustrated and maybe overwhelmed frustrated at outcome but not like she contextualized.

She went to Dillon and was "like the emotion in Timos interview." To Dillon.

I didn't see it. I see they care lot but he wasnt on the verge of breaking down lol .

At least Dillon admitted the D was atrocious giving up stupid plays and dumb stuff at end.

So she's really French fake news.

 

[njdevils1982]

I’m dwelling

i'm home

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Our 3C is actually a 4C and our 4C is an AHL level player at this point unfortunately.

It's actually wild how much Haula has regressed.

He can’t be on the team next year. Don’t even want him on the team now. Dowling is a zero offensively but at least he’s been suppressing chances. Haula has been one of the worst players in the league.

 

[Patrik26]

She's taking a story out of this that didn't seem there. I watched Timos post game, he showed no signs of verge of tearing up.

Dillon seemed frustrated and maybe overwhelmed frustrated at outcome but not like she contextualized.

She went to Dillon and was "like the emotion in Timos interview." To Dillon.

I didn't see it. I see they care a lot but he wasnt on the verge of breaking down lol .

At least Dillon admitted the D was atrocious giving up stupid plays and dumb stuff at end.

Amanda = Devils propaganda for the casual fan.

 

[Whaddagoal]

So she's really French fake news.

Definitely tonight for sure.

Amanda = Devils propaganda for the casual fan.

I get it, but it doesn't convey a good look for the team

 

[Derps]

I have really grown to hate Amanda's commentary, not gonna lie.

Glavlit in full force tonight

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Really doubt that's true. I'm pretty confident he'll have another year.

Don't see how anyone would have confidence in him, good chance he's fired if they miss after this debacle of a season

 

[guitarguyvic]

Rely. That’s the word that sticks in my head when I think about this organization now. Can’t rely on the team to score when they get chances. Can’t rely on them finding ways to win, or not finding ways to lose. Can’t rely on the team to meet expectations for a full season. Can’t rely on the players to not constantly get injured every season. Can’t rely on all three of goaltending, defense, and scoring to be competent at the same time. Can’t rely on management to draft well for all the different positions. Can’t rely on the GM to address weaknesses or make difficult but necessary decisions urgently during the season. Can’t rely on the GM to construct a well balanced team with a consistent identity. On and on and on and on.

 

[Bleedred]

We are going to miss playoffs at this race, wouldn’t be surprised if blue jackets and rangers surpass us

I’ve been saying that for 1.5 months (not the Rangers so much until recently ) and somehow the Jackets still haven’t passed us.

They’re riding a PDO shooting bender and are probably the second highest shooting percentage in the league behind the Capitals last I looked.

I think the Rangers and Jackets are both near the top in toughest remaining strength of schedule. We might be around middle of the league after the Winnipeg game.

Some of our toughest remaining opponents were actually on this trip and the first game back from this trip.

However, that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. We had a soft schedule for a very long stretch between middle of January right through to the break and I’m pretty sure we went 500 in that stretch. And Vegas were the only particularly good team we played in like an 8 or 9 game stretch at point, with Ottawa I think being the only other team even in a playoff spot at the time of the 8-9 teams we played in that stretch. We also played Philly 3 times in like 1.5 weeks and managed to only go 1-2-0 against them.

 

[jkrdevil]

Really doubt that's true. I'm pretty confident he'll have another year.

He doesn’t fix things and it could be 4 out of 5 years in his tenure missing the playoffs, with an awful collapse in that league 5th year.
Next year basically starts the clock on Nico approaching UFA status. If Tom isn’t the guy, then this offseason is the year to make the front office changes to give the new people runway going into that year before free agency window where you have to extend Nico or trade him.

 

[Patrik26]

There are too many losses to look back on this season, but if we miss the playoffs by 1 point or lose a tiebreaker, somebody please tell me again - do faceoffs matter?

 

[Edmonton East]

It's crazy our hope of turning this team around rests on the shoulders of a guy who caused the massive issues with the team in the first place and willingly extended MacDermid for multiple years at 1.15 million.

You know, I actually forgot about that contract. I still thought Fitz was an overrated hack though. Jfc

 

[Camille the Eel]

I think the guys can build off of this. Bratt, Nico and Timo had very good games. Let's see what happens. e can continue to be competitive but have got to avoid the stupid mistakes and

The game winning goal was deflected of Noesen's leg/pants. Markstrom isn't the reason they lost. The Devils were lucky to get out of the 1st period being down just 1-0. He made a bunch of big stops. Blame Kovacevic , the Refs and Haula for this loss.

Agree this wasn’t like the San Jose or Detroit game goals but I still want him to make that stop. Can’t help it. Just so disappointed and bummed out by it and he’s the last line of defense. And it was one of his weaker games as a whole.

 

[Whaddagoal]

It cannot be understated how Mercer not progressing and Haula's play collapsing absolutely f***ed Fitz over. Lazar not doing much doesn't help either. That 3C/4C combo is dreadful.

He needs to correct it, and quick, but man, all those things going bad all at once was hard to predict.

Mercer failing like this season, now 2 seasons of long stretches of shit, might be the end of him on this team.

I honestly don't know what he brings right now, except for stable PK partner for Nico.

You can get that from any other JAG not for that contract.

He, like Haula are not winning board battles/50/50s, not scoring (literally no goals and assists are hard to come by), not good in the dot (when called upon), not really doing anything for PP2.

Really sad regression from him. Hard to justify keeping him part of the core at all. He's in a rut, but he was in same rut last season to start and almost never got out of it. Now you add that and this season together, you have a full season of general suck, in aggregate by him

 

[Better Call Sal]

 

[Patrik26]

Definitely tonight for sure.



I get it, but it doesn't convey a good look for the team

Agreed. It's so blatantly obvious.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Rely. That’s the word that sticks in my head when I think about this organization now. Can’t rely on the team to score when they get chances. Can’t rely on them finding ways to win, or not finding ways to lose. Can’t rely on the team to meet expectations for a full season. Can’t rely on the players to not constantly get injured every season. Can’t rely on all three of goaltending, defense, and scoring to be competent at the same time. Can’t rely on management to draft well for all the different positions. Can’t rely on the GM to address weaknesses or make difficult but necessary decisions urgently during the season. Can’t rely on the GM to construct a well balanced team with a consistent identity. On and on and on and on.

This is the famous "accountability" we hear about so much yet don't seem to see it that often. Unfortunately it ends up being the goalies who end up saying it's on them more often than not when we know it was the 18 mistakes leading up to that more often than not.

Bratt learn to lift that backhand buddy.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Beyond a disgrace what this bottom 6 has done to this team and Fitz for sitting on his f***ing hands for a second straight year when the team's issues were evident in f***ing November. December rotted everyone's brains when it was the outlier and not the norm of this team

 

[Edmonton East]

There are too many losses to look back on this season, but if we miss the playoffs by 1 point or lose a tiebreaker, somebody please tell me again - do faceoffs matter?

Heresy!

 

[guitarguyvic]

There are too many losses to look back on this season, but if we miss the playoffs by 1 point or lose a tiebreaker, somebody please tell me again - do faceoffs matter?

I don’t usually partake in the faceoff debate, but I think it’s pretty save to say that THAT face off tonight definitely mattered.

Still can’t believe that Haula couldn’t come through on just one f***ing crucial thing for the first time in months.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Rely. That’s the word that sticks in my head when I think about this organization now. Can’t rely on the team to score when they get chances. Can’t rely on them finding ways to win, or not finding ways to lose. Can’t rely on the team to meet expectations for a full season. Can’t rely on the players to not constantly get injured every season. Can’t rely on all three of goaltending, defense, and scoring to be competent at the same time. Can’t rely on management to draft well for all the different positions. Can’t rely on the GM to address weaknesses or make difficult but necessary decisions urgently during the season. Can’t rely on the GM to construct a well balanced team with a consistent identity. On and on and on and on.

I made this point early on in the year too, they don't play a full 60 as a group together. Then December happened and I thought it finally clicked but even then, nope

 

[Marv4Life]

If Fitz doesn’t fix things by Friday, he isn’t going to be here at the start of next season.

If they somehow sneak in the playoffs he'll probably stay another year for one more chance.

If he does fix the problem(s) by Friday, you're(not you, much of the fanbase) probably not gonna like the way he does it. If he has the guts to do what needs to be done, that is.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

There are too many losses to look back on this season, but if we miss the playoffs by 1 point or lose a tiebreaker, somebody please tell me again - do faceoffs matter?

I guess they do if you make a stupid ass play before center ice like Kovacevic did. But since we're doing this faceoff debate tonight, they won the faceoff before the Duchene slash got called but I guess that wasn't remembered huh lol

 

[Bleedred]

Damn

We actually have the 20th remaining strength of schedule.

Winnipeg and Minnesota both twice and once against Edmonton being the toughest.

We still got one against the Hawks, shitty Philly, the Islanders and two against both the shitty post-deadline Bruins and Pens.

Almost all of those should be wins if the team is really serious. We shouldn’t need Jack Hughes to win most of those games.