GDT: Your New Jersey Devils vs. Calgary Flames, 7 PM, MSGSN

[JimEIV]

Bad goal #2 of last night. I call this the Dick Trickler and this is easily the worst goal he allowed. We see about 10-15 shots like this on each goalie per game and it’s spectacularly rare when they aren’t saves. This looks extremely unthreatening as the shot is being taken (if you can forget that it’s Vanecek in goal) and it still leaks through him and it’s laying in the crease and put in behind him. Not to mention, the goal scorer admitted in the post game to laughing at how this went in.

I don’t wanna hear about anybody else doing anything wrong on this or Ruff’s system. EVERY system allows shots like this during games. Even the hardest systems to get goals against.

It’s an insult to Dick Trickle to even name these after him.

Bad goal #2 looked to me like Hatakka stopped playing before the whistle and didn't take care of his crease... But don't let me disrupt the storyline.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Bad goal #2 looked to to me like Hatakka stopped playing before the whistle and didn't take care of his crease... But don't let me disrupt the storyline.

That was really bad too. To some extent I'm ok writing that off as a learning experience for a young D man. Well, if I had any faith in this staff to reinforce the details of the game...

But I simply can't forgive Calgary number 91 being wide open for 15 seconds leading up to that goal. The system is just not something we can execute without the players we lost.

 

[Bcap88]

Goalies are definitely voodoo but the bad ones tends to stay bad with a lucky good year (vitek) and the good ones tend to stay good with a anomaly year of suck (shesterkin)

Bad goal #2 looked to me like Hatakka stopped playing before the whistle and didn't take care of his crease... But don't let me disrupt the storyline.

Or the goalie letting a floater squeak through

 

[JimEIV]

That was really bad too. To some extent I'm ok writing that off as a learning experience for a young D man. Well, if I had any faith in this staff to reinforce the details of the game...

But I simply can't forgive Calgary number 91 being wide open for 15 seconds leading up to that goal. The system is just not something we can execute without the players we lost.

Young or not ...play to the whistle is something that is drilled in your head from day one of any sport.... that's not a rookie mistake, that's lazy

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Goalies are definitely voodoo but the bad ones tends to stay bad with a lucky good year (vitek) and the good ones tend to stay good with a anomaly year of suck (shesterkin)

For sure. But there a enough good ones to count on one hand and the rest are bad. That's the issue.

 

[Devs3cups]

I hope so. The only person he seems to work with is Nico. Maybe they can try him and Palat with Nico and give Hughes, Bratt.

But that first line is one of the best analytically in the league so not sure I want to break it up.

Not worried about Timo. He’s probably injured right now, and he hasn’t been able to get into a rhythm while getting switched lines nightly. He also has the worst on-ice sv% at all situations for any forward.

 

[NJDevs26]

Eh I can’t fault the kid on that play, he thought his goalie had it and it was a split second decision. Play to the whistle is great in theory but you don’t want to take a dumb penalty hitting someone without the puck needlessly.

 

[Bleedred]

It's simply not going to happen. I hope you don't suffer a literal mental breakdown as a result. I am starting to get a little concerned for the actual mental well being of a couple of posters here. I really hope you can separate this from actual important things in life.

Yup

Because it's much easier to get on here and be negative and give worst case scenario on every impending situation.

Your ''It's simply not going to happen'' is yet another example of this.

Some of you (no offense, but you fit this description better than anybody) act like the sky is falling over everything, we'll probably never make the playoffs again, we may not win a game again (admitted hyperbole on my part) and that Ruff will be the head coach forever whether we like it or not.

 

[forceten]

Eh I can’t fault the kid on that play, he thought his goalie had it and it was a split second decision. Play to the whistle is great in theory but you don’t want to take a dumb penalty hitting someone without the puck needlessly.

Right and he looked back and that's when the CGY player rushed toward the net. Then he had to turn around and figure out what was going on. He had ZERO view of the puck behind Vanacek, so he had to react to the CGI player who reacted to the CROWD reacting to the loose puck. Sorry, I've been there, and as a defender you're kind of F'd there unless you routinely skate behind your goalie to make sure an easy save is indeed saved. Vitek thought he had it too.

Askarov gets a lot of positives because... he's > .910 everywhere in his career outside of the very first game he played in NHL for NSH. KHL, AHL, and NHL this year. Small sample size, but the indicators are good.

I think a new goaltender coach can improve our existing stable of goaltenders for sure.

I think a new head coach and associate coaches can improve our play and tailor a system that works for the team we have.

I think this team can win a cup with the roster it has if it plays better and gets hot at the right time.

 

[Bleedred]

Is Marty so instinctive and athletic that he cannot help?

f*** Marty

He brought in Rogalski. He needs to clean the mess up IMMEDIATELY. Let him interim goalie coach for the rest of the year.

I have no emotional attachment to Marty the front office person. I had to watch Marty the player go play somewhere else, so I couldn't care less if Marty f***ed off to the Islanders or Rangers (okay, that's pushing it, I admit it) in a front office or coaching role.

And like he played somewhere else, it's not like he hasn't also worked somewhere else already in the NHL before this.

 

[JimEIV]

Right and he looked back and that's when the CGY player rushed toward the net. Then he had to turn around and figure out what was going on. He had ZERO view of the puck behind Vanacek, so he had to react to the CGI player who reacted to the CROWD reacting to the loose puck. Sorry, I've been there, and as a defender you're kind of F'd there unless you routinely skate behind your goalie to make sure an easy save is indeed saved. Vitek thought he had it too.

Askarov gets a lot of positives because... he's > .910 everywhere in his career outside of the very first game he played in NHL for NSH. KHL, AHL, and NHL this year. Small sample size, but the indicators are good.

I think a new goaltender coach can improve our existing stable of goaltenders for sure.

I think a new head coach and associate coaches can improve our play and tailor a system that works for the team we have.

I think this team can win a cup with the roster it has if it plays better and gets hot at the right time.

As a defender I'm protecting my goalie from crease crashing and pokers after the shot. And I'm looking to clean up any loose pucks.

It was a lazy halfway effort.

 

[Bleedred]

I was much more mental over Blackwood last year. MUCH more insesntitive and meaner.

Which sucks, because I f***in HATE Vitek now more than I did Blackwood last year. It also helped that we didn't have to see Blackwood every other game. We probably would have early in the season if he hadn't gotten injured.

But I'm like the punk bands from the early 2000s. They used up so much of their energy under GWB that they had exhausted their creative energy by the time Trump came around. It also didn't help that those bands were then much older and their music also wasn't as good by that point.

I exhausted a lot of my creative energy on hating Blackwood last season that I've simply just run out of that kind of steam for Vitek.

I suppose I also believe that Vitek is mentally ill with this team and this is the greatest example at least of this season in the entire league of a player badly needing to be out of a particular destination. I could see him having a career year next season somewhere else, but he's beyond irredeemable here. Even with a new goalie coach and head coach.

 

[Bcap88]

Eh I can’t fault the kid on that play, he thought his goalie had it and it was a split second decision. Play to the whistle is great in theory but you don’t want to take a dumb penalty hitting someone without the puck needlessly.

The forward wasn’t even skating hard and he openly admitted to only to taking two extra strides because he heard the groans from the crowd

If we are going to nipick laziness let’s nitpick vitek for being lazy enough to not stay tight through his core through the whistle then

 

[Call Me Al]

Young or not ...play to the whistle is something that is drilled in your head from day one of any sport.... that's not a rookie mistake, that's lazy

in his defense even pee hockey goalies would have probably had that covered up

The forward wasn’t even skating hard and he openly admitted to only to taking two extra strides because he heard the groans from the crowd

If we are going to nipick laziness let’s nitpick vitek for being lazy enough to not stay tight through his core through the whistle then

lol i didn’t see that but it’s perfect

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Yup

Because it's much easier to get on here and be negative and give worst case scenario on every impending situation.

Your ''It's simply not going to happen'' is yet another example of this.

Some of you (no offense, but you fit this description better than anybody) act like the sky is falling over everything, we'll probably never make the playoffs again, we may not win a game again (admitted hyperbole on my part) and that Ruff will be the head coach forever whether we like it or not.

Oh I'm self admittedly terrible about that and you are absolutely right. I won't take offense to the truth. But outside of this forum this has 0 bearing on my life. It's usually noticeable too by the fact that I'm generally significantly more level headed after the game and especially the next day. It used to impact my life when I was much younger (in my teens) and that was incredibly unhealthy. I'm just a little concerned that some folks, given the way they talk on here, might take it outside of this forum and your mental health just isn't worth compromising for this team or this board. That's all. I'm just hoping you all are doing ok.

 

[Bleedred]

I watch every goal in the league on goalies.

Trust me when I tell you there's not many tricklers like goal 2 last night, that just sit in the crease.

There are a few that squeak through the goalie and go right in without stopping in the crease. But it's not often that it happens where the puck gets behind the goalie and just sits in the crease for either a defender to sweep out or for the opposition to put in.

Too bad there was actually a goal from center ice last night that saves that from being softy of the night.

 

[Bleedred]

Oh I'm self admittedly terrible about that and you are absolutely right. I won't take offense to the truth. But outside of this forum this has 0 bearing on my life. It's usually noticeable too by the fact that I'm generally significantly more level headed after the game and especially the next day. It used to impact my life when I was much younger (in my teens) and that was incredibly unhealthy. I'm just a little concerned that some folks, given the way they talk on here, might take it outside of this forum and your mental health just isn't worth compromising for this team or this board. That's all. I'm just hoping you all are doing ok.

Well I appreciate the concern. And I you're right that it simply won't happen where Fitz takes out one of Vitek/Rogalski before tomorrow night's game. But it will happen at year's end. I don't see how either survives this year with the team. I also thought Ruff was getting fired in 2022, but I'm much more confident these two will be gone after this year than I was in Ruff getting fired in 2022. And I was pretty damn confident in Ruff getting fired in 2022.

I suppose there's a chance Rogalski comes back, if they truly believe he's not a problem. Vitek will be gone next year. We're not gonna acquire another goalie and leave a $3.4 million backup on the roster. We could put that money towards someone else. Like Toffoli's replacement. Vitek will either go as part of the trade for another goalie or we'll have to pay someone (probably a 2nd? The Sharks maybe?) to take the last year of his deal.

 

[Camille the Eel]

what makes you think the devils aren’t bad?

I think we are both about average - the league has a ton of that this year. A handful of teams on a top tier - a vast middle group - and a handful of bottom feeders. We and Calgary are both in the middle or bubble group. A couple of years ago we were a bottom feeder.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Oh I agree, even at my most pessimistic times, that VV is likely not back next year and there is a real chance Lindy is not either. In a lot of ways I wish this garbage season would have happened with a healthy roster to remove that excuse, though...

 

[Bleedred]

And I also wanna say this

I really hope no one actually believes when I post clips of people getting killed and saying Fitz needs to do this to Rogalski/Vanecek that I'm actually literally suggesting he KILL somebody.

I would hope people realize this is metaphorical and that suggesting and hoping Fitz ''Kills somebody'' is him FIRING (Rogalski) or WAIVING (Vanecek) somebody.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

And I also wanna say this

I really hope no one actually believes when I post clips of people getting killed and saying Fitz needs to do this to Rogalski/Vanecek that I'm actually literally suggesting he KILL somebody.

I would hope people realize this is metaphorical and that suggesting and hoping Fitz ''Kills somebody'' is him FIRING (Rogalski) or WAIVING (Vanecek) somebody.

I think we got that

 

[NjDevsRR]

Devils are tied for 6th in goals forced per game.

They should be better than where they are in the standings.

 

[Camille the Eel]

See, this. THIS right here is what drives me f***ing crazy with the overtime points system.

It intentionally inflates point totals and distorts W/L records.

Neither the Flames nor the Devils are “above .500” in any meaningful way. Last year there were 1312 regular season games and 2926 points handed out. That means the average points earned was 91.4. The median was 92.5. NOT 82.

NJ has the 19th best record this season, and Calgary has 21. They are both BAD hockey teams and well below .500

Good point. Only I would say teams that are 18th and 21st out of 32 teams (with only a couple of regulation wins moving the standings about) are in a middle group I wouldn’t call either good or bad. I think average is a good term. Bad sounds more like what we were 2 seasons back. There ought to be a separate term for that level.

 

[Dylan9z9]

Bad goal #2 looked to me like Hatakka stopped playing before the whistle and didn't take care of his crease... But don't let me disrupt the storyline.

Yes let's blame it on the Rookie not the goalie who stood there like the Statue of Liberty (which seemed like a lifetime) not making sure he had it secured

 

[Camille the Eel]

Oh I'm self admittedly terrible about that and you are absolutely right. I won't take offense to the truth. But outside of this forum this has 0 bearing on my life. It's usually noticeable too by the fact that I'm generally significantly more level headed after the game and especially the next day. It used to impact my life when I was much younger (in my teens) and that was incredibly unhealthy. I'm just a little concerned that some folks, given the way they talk on here, might take it outside of this forum and your mental health just isn't worth compromising for this team or this board. That's all. I'm just hoping you all are doing ok.

I do get down when I watch them lose though. Not depressed. But it’s a minor bummer for the evening. Crazy I know.