mouse Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I was on the anti-DeBoer side at the beginning of the season, but the team's improvement has forced me to somewhat reconsider. I'm not fully eating crow, but here are some thoughts. 1) I thought the team quit earlier in the year. I was wrong. They were uncomfortable, but as the last couple months have shown, they're clearly trying. Good job by DeBo keeping the locker room, even when very little was going right. 2) He's done damn near everything right with the forwards. At this point, we know who we can trust, and whom we can't. He may like Gionta more than many of us, but none of the replacements when Gionta got hurt exactly lit it up. Hopefully, Cam gets benched when the team gets healthy, but DeBoer's done a great job getting productivity out of guys like Cam. Way to make the most out of a bad situation. 3) His big test will be how he handles the young players when the team gets healthy. Having to use Gellinas (and Larsson in a bigger role) because of injuries not only benefited those players, it benefited the whole team. We have to hope that when Sal and Larsson get back, DeBo doesn't go back to playing the old guys because they're experienced. IMO, if/when the d is healthy, Larsson, Gelly, and Greene absolutely need to play. Otherwise, there should be healthy competition for the other three spots. I have no problem with sending Merrill back down for seasoning. He's still got work to do, but I don't want to see Zid, Volch, and Sal get free passes at Fayne's expense, and I don't want to see Gelly lose minutes. All in all, I'm somewhat impressed with DeBoer, but also somewhat concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ELIAS6 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 wow a positive deboer thread... i cant believe it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Eco Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 They never quit, at any point in the season, which is why I've given DeBoer my vote of confidence since last season. Their compete level has been high in just about every game but maybe one or two (the Philly home game, and Detroit)... He's kept a rag-tag roster's spirits high and compete level up and they'll come around eventually. The system's working its magic.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onddeck Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Personally I like the guy and would like to see him stay with us. But you forgot to mention the goalie situation... Probably his worst attribute 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ELIAS6 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) Personally I like the guy and would like to see him stay with us. But you forgot to mention the goalie situation... Probably his worst attribute i like deboer as well ... just some of his decisions i dont quite understand. Edited December 23, 2013 by Sik02gt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Brown Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I like Deboer. He just makes questionable lineup choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Great Xs and Os, not so good with the Jimmys and the Joes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucifersDog Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Great so we are out of the woods and and we are going to win the cup! Vote of confidence for DeBoer. Fire his ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devilsfan118 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Can't help but question some of his personnel decisions..but he's in the locker room, and we're not. So..have to give him the benefit of the doubt someti- WAIT, GIONTA'S PLAYING ON WHAT LINE?!GRAB YOUR PITCHFORKS 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redruM Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I have always like him, the lin juggling gets mind numbing at times . He has undoubtly found a #1 line, ZZ Tops is awesome, but he needs to find another line to help, the 3rd period in Wash he had them on the ice every other shift becuase no one else could seem to play at all!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeControl Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Deboers system held this team together until our scorers started finding the net. he's changed things up where needed (crashing the net way more out of our cycling) line juggling until some chemistry was found. and yes this team never gives up. guys a solid coach and lou knows that. what replacement would extract as much from this lineup? (question Im asking as a jets fan right now BTW) lots of people here couldn't trade andy greene fast enough too LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewarkDevil5 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I have always like him, the lin juggling gets mind numbing at times . He has undoubtly found a #1 line, ZZ Tops is awesome, but he needs to find another line to help, the 3rd period in Wash he had them on the ice every other shift becuase no one else could seem to play at all!!! I prefer to think of it as the JaZZ line.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 The mob is fickle brother. I always liked to DeBoer, and was never on the bandwagon that he should be fired, at least not this season. Sometimes his lineup moves can be frustrating from the fan's standpoint, but some perspective is needed. People turned on Gionta pretty quickly. And although I could live without him in the lineup, let's not kid ourselves that Josefson was going to be some WAR dynamo if there were such a stat in hockey. I think he's also handled the goaltending situation pretty well. He's basically giving Schneider every chance to be the true number 1 goalie, and he managed to do it in a way that Marty didn't throw a hissy fit. Schneider is not the number 1 yet because he hasn't seized the opportunity completely, and Marty has exceeded expectations up until now (or maybe until about a week ago). He also does not have some animus against younger players, as we're seeing with Gelinas playing in every game, as well as Boucher playing in every game since he's been called up. People get mad at him for not playing Larsson every night when he was healthy, but if it weren't for where he was drafted most of us would be saying he is a borderline NHLer at this stage of his career. How he handled Fayne might have been the most frustrating thing he did all year. But Harrold was playing pretty well, and it just wasn't realistic to say that he would play over Salvador and Volchenkov, the latter of whom seems to have recovered from a dreadful year last year. In the end, Lou would do us all a favor by trading one defenseman before the Olympics, when presumably Harrold, Salvador and Larsson are all healthy. I'm holding out some hope that he trades Salvador for whatever just to get rid of his salary for next year. The other dream scenario would be to trade Larsson for Evander Kane, but that would probably take a moment of unclarity from Jets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilsrule33 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I love Deboer. I loved him in 2011-2012 (obviously), loved him last year, and love him this year. If the Devils kept playing like they did earlier in the season, I always said it had to be Lou gone before Pete. The effort is there 97% of the time with this team. The system works well for the personnel, and they generally out-chance the other team. I think a real sign of a good coach is how the team responds when things aren't going there way. It's very easy to coach when you win games and get good goaltending. But that hasn't been the case for the Devils over the last two seasons, and that's been damn impressive. No one feeling bad for themselves. Everyone fighting hard until the end. No leadership concerns or issues. No lockerroom chatter. He doesn't call anyone out publically, and I like that. This is a team that lost 10+ games in a row, and it was business as usual (and that was calm, professional, and playing pretty solid hockey all things considering). There are issues I have disliked, but only personnel ones (goaltending, Fayne/Harrold/Larson, Gionta, Janssen Josefson, but these are all relatively minor for the most part. The goaltending one is probably not, but that's about it. I doubt Deboer was ever close to being canned, but he would have been hired by another team in minutes (not to go all Rob Ryan on everyone). He's well respected around the league, and most people would put the blame on all the personnel the Devils lost and didn't replace over the last few years as the reason and rightfully so. I don't see many coaches doing a better job with the roster over the past two years than Pete. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vadvlfan Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Personally I like the guy and would like to see him stay with us. But you forgot to mention the goalie situation... Probably his worst attribute How better can he handle it when Marty probably still has input? How should he have handled it? I'm sure he discusses daily with Lou about how he rationalizes every personal decision. I think he's a great coach. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh>t. 41 yr old top producer?? top line? If anyone thinks PDB is the problem w/ this team to date, well I don't think so. PDB hopefully is going no where. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devils Pride 26 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Goaltending has been killing him. Offense getting the job done scoring a lot lately. Give Schneider the nod against some of the crappy teams. The whole thing seems to workout as Schneider getting a tougher team and Marty getting the weaker ones - no kidding Brodeurs going to hang on longer that way. But we can't lose scoring 4 goals to Columbus and such Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Eco Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 I think he's also handled the goaltending situation pretty well. He's basically giving Schneider every chance to be the true number 1 goalie, and he managed to do it in a way that Marty didn't throw a hissy fit. Schneider is not the number 1 yet because he hasn't seized the opportunity completely, and Marty has exceeded expectations up until now (or maybe until about a week ago). Here's the only thing I disagree with you on. He gives Schneider the "chance" to be number one by giving him one game once a week (at best) against some of the league's toughest teams. And even when he stole that win of ours we got in L.A., he didn't play for a whole week after that. I generally appreciate DeBoer and what he does with the lineup he has, but his only shortcoming is the Schneider/Brodeur situation... Although, I admit, it could be MUCH WORSE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATLL765 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Goaltending has been killing him. Offense getting the job done scoring a lot lately. Give Schneider the nod against some of the crappy teams. The whole thing seems to workout as Schneider getting a tougher team and Marty getting the weaker ones - no kidding Brodeurs going to hang on longer that way. But we can't lose scoring 4 goals to Columbus and such Exactly. That and he needs to play a few games in a row. This play a game, sit a week thing is not conducive to getting in a groove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneax Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 What are you going to say when PDB puts marty in net tonight after letting in 4 goals on like 20 shots? Will you be singing his praises then? The guy has a great system, and he keeps the players playing hard. We all know he has those positives, the negatives however are INFURIATING. He is one of the most stuborn coaches ive seen when it comes to personel decisions. That is why people rail on him. For what its worth hes making a team that just lost 2 star players and 1 decent scoring piece, into a fringe play off team, and that is impressive. Just wish he would stop doing retarded things with the roster. I mean for fvcks sake, the guy has been benching mark fayne for peter harrold for like 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PWW Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 When you put Gionta on the ice in OT, you've lost me forever. I hope the team wins obviously, but I will never trust our coach not to do something absolutely insane at any given moment that costs us a game, and that's a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devil Dan 56 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 His goaltender handling is confusing at times, but for the most part it seems obvious that he's trying to get Schneider to seize the top spot. He has a locker room that is for the most part very loyal to Marty, and he needs Cory to win them over by taking the spot outright. Cory took it earlier in the year, but got hurt. Now, even though he has the better numbers, Marty keeps getting the W's. You go back to that LA game... Cory wins. Marty loses 3 in a row. Cory wins his next 2. Then Marty loses another. It seems Cory is taking the spot again, but then Cory loses 2 in a row. They are worried about wins and losses, and they really need Cory to make the choice obvious. LA - CS 2-1 W SJ - MB 2-1 L WPG - MB 3-1 L CAR - MB 4-1 L CAR - CS 5-2 W BUF - CS 1-0 W MTL - MB 3-2 L MTL - CS 4-3 SOL DET - CS 3-1 L NYR - MB 4-3 W CLB - MB 5-4 L PIT - CS 3-2 L TB - MB 3-0 W OTT - MB 5-2 W ANA - CS 3-2 OTL WAS - MB 5-4 W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaRay Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Deboer has done a great job, with the hand he has been dealt. Making it to the Stanley Cup finals riding Gionta and Salvador was a miracle. He has done a great job of getting the kids involved and being responsible. Kudo to DeBoer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilsrule33 Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Deboer has done a great job, with the hand he has been dealt. Making it to the Stanley Cup finals riding Gionta and Salvador was a miracle. He has done a great job of getting the kids involved and being responsible. Kudo to DeBoer Keep trolling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Brown Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 The players love playing for him. That is the most important attribute for a coach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeControl Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 The players love playing for him. That is the most important attribute for a coach. Thank you Rex Ryan! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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