219 replies to this topic

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Even bad teams are pretty much guaranteed to find a way to win 20 games over the course of a full season...why not this game?

And for love of God, score more than one friggin' goal! PLEASE?!

So much for that...

[ice dog]

The Devils already look 200% better organized. This goes to show how bad of a coach MacLean indeed was or how much better a HOF coach can make a team. They may not be scoring but we are outplaying the opposition.

agree... probably a combo of both.
no doubt Lemaire is a genius...makes the comparison that much more stark.

[BlueSkirt]

Yes, now that JMac is finally gone the team looks better.
Now Brodeur appears to be our biggest weakness, because of the lack of offensive scoring. And the back of his neck must be sun-burned from that goal light going off so much lately.

2010 was an ugly year to be a Devils fan. Hoping 2011 starts off with some goals & ultimately some wins.

[HellOnICE]

Yes, now that JMac is finally gone the team looks better.
Now Brodeur appears to be our biggest weakness, because of the lack of offensive scoring. And the back of his neck must be sun-burned from that goal light going off so much lately.

2010 was an ugly year to be a Devils fan. Hoping 2011 starts off with some goals & ultimately some wins.

So much? - 2 goals last night.

[franconianhell]

Bad way to loose a game. They looked better organized, and i loved the way they tried to make goals. Unfortunately, again just one goal. But keep working like this devils.

at least we decreased the number of goals against us to three... next game 2, then OT, then 1-0 win!

[BlueSkirt]

So much? - 2 goals last night.

Lately = as in the recent games (0-5-0, 4.62 GAA, .802 SV in last 5 GP)

12/29 - 2 GA, .920 SV
12/26 - 3 GA, .786 SV
12/23 - 5 GA, .643 SV
12/21 - 5 GA, .821 SV
12/18 - 4 GA, .733 SV

[DaneykoIsGod]

looking at the Devils stats it's amazing that Clarkson has no PP points this season. He's been on the PP all year and hasn't even been able to accident his way into a point

This is mind-blowing. Great find on that stat, 731.


I missed the first period so I didn't see the softy everyone's talking about. In the two periods of hockey I saw, Marty stood on his head a few times and, for the first time in a long time, gave me multiple "How the hell did he keep the puck out of the net?" moments in one game. He's been struggling hard this season, but I liked what I saw in those two periods. A lot.

This is the second time this year we outplayed the Rangers and lost.

[LucifersDog]

Send Marty to Albany for conditioning and bring up Frazee to alternate with Hedberg and allow Frazee to get some NHL experience. Marty has been killing the momentum by allowing soft goals like the first GA.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Funny, in times like these, I think the first reaction for most fans is to find someone to blame...be it the coach, a player or player(s), ownership, the GM, cosmic forces, angry hockey gods, etc.

I've gone through some of that myself...I can't help but feel anger towards Kovy right now, though I think part of what ails him is that he got here at the worst possible time...but he continues to do little to help. But this isn't about ranting about Kovy.

I'm more thinking about guys I feel sorry for. As much as I've always hated the Rangers, I remember feeling sorry for Richter, because I always respected his ability, and he had to finish out his career during the Rangers' dark days. I feel that for Marty right now...he hasn't been good overall this season, no one can really dispute that, and has factored into the Devil's poor play...and we still don't know if this a slump or the inevitable beginning of the end. But the guy has meant so much to this franchise through the years, and is not just a face of the Devils, but very much one of the faces of the NHL. It's tough to see this, and see him going through it.

But the one guy I feel sorriest for is Lou Lamoriello. For so long this guy seemed to have almost all of the answers, and I think he loved knowing that about himself...that he knew he could always prove his critics wrong, that some small move that barely got noticed when it was made (like Corey Millen for Neal Broten) would find a way to pay huge dividends. He now seems to be a shell of that guy, reduced by the moves gone wrong that made perfect sense (like Rolston...yeah, he was a risk because of his age, but he seemed to fit what the Devils needed exactly) and grabbing-at-straws moves that have gone more and more against Lou's principles. He's got to bewildered and confused by it all, and I don't blame him one bit...I'm sure more than anything he would love to fix all of this, show everyone one last time that he can still ice a winner...but for maybe the very first time since he became the Devils' GM, I don't think he has the slightest clue where to begin (and I'm not implying that I or any of us do). And something about that saddens me.

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976, 30 December 2010 - 08:35 AM.

[ThreeCups]

Send Marty to Albany for conditioning and bring up Frazee to alternate with Hedberg and allow Frazee to get some NHL experience. Marty has been killing the momentum by allowing soft goals like the first GA.

We did not lose that game last night because of the weak goal allowed. We lost it because Queen Henrik has our number and we struggle to score as it is. If Hedberg was in there last night he would have given up 3 or 4 easily....

[DevsMan84]

We did not lose that game last night because of the weak goal allowed. We lost it because Queen Henrik has our number and we struggle to score as it is. If Hedberg was in there last night he would have given up 3 or 4 easily....

Why do you continue to stick your head in the sand and not see that Marty is costing us games now. That goal totally took the momentum away and every game now for the past year I have been expecting him to let in at least one soft goal. That is unacceptable. When he was younger I would expect a weak goal once every few games, but not every friggin game.
Yes we continue to score, but that makes every goal of ours count even more. When we take the lead, that is an instant confidence booster for this fragile group and to let a softie in less than a minute later is unacceptable and changed the momentum. Yeah we outshot them, but that was the case in the 90's when we would outshoot the other team, get only 1 or 2 goals, and then win the game. With Marty's play now, we cannot even do that. Marty needs to retire soon before he really taints his career.

[DaneykoIsGod]

The Devils have scored only one goal in:
- the last six games.
- nine of the last 12 games.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Why do you continue to stick your head in the sand and not see that Marty is costing us games now. That goal totally took the momentum away and every game now for the past year I have been expecting him to let in at least one soft goal. That is unacceptable. When he was younger I would expect a weak goal once every few games, but not every friggin game.
Yes we continue to score, but that makes every goal of ours count even more. When we take the lead, that is an instant confidence booster for this fragile group and to let a softie in less than a minute later is unacceptable and changed the momentum. Yeah we outshot them, but that was the case in the 90's when we would outshoot the other team, get only 1 or 2 goals, and then win the game. With Marty's play now, we cannot even do that. Marty needs to retire soon before he really taints his career.

Do you realize that this team team has scored 1 goal or less in 22 games (Two of them were 2-1 SO wins where the Devils were awarded a phantom goal for winning)? They're averaging 1.72 GPG...take out the phantom goals and it drops to 1.67. This is comically, laughably, insanely bad. Marty hasn't been good this year, no disputing that, but NO GOALIE ANYWHERE (even Marty playing at the top of his game) is going to be able to do much with a team that's this offensively impotent. I'd say there's plenty of other candidates costing the Devils games.

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976, 30 December 2010 - 09:21 AM.

[DevsMan84]

Do you realize that this team team has scored 1 goal or less in 22 games (Two of them were 2-1 SO wins where the Devils were awarded a phantom goal for winning)? They're averaging 1.72 GPG...take out the phantom goals and it drops to 1.67. This is comically, laughably, insanely bad. Marty hasn't been good this year, no disputing that, but NO GOALIE ANYWHERE (even Marty playing at the top of his game) is going to be able to do much with a team that's this offensively impotent. I'd say there's plenty of other candidates costing the Devils games.

The Devils were not known as an offensive powerhouse in the 90's to say the least, but they stayed competative. This was because of both Brodeur and to a bigger extent the defense. Hell in 94 our leading socrer was Stevens, so that says a lot about our offense during that time. Now that we have pretty much no defense, Brodeur's weaknesses are showing. He is in fact old and slow, and should retire gracefully instead of subjecting himself to Marty chants from opposing fans and letting in softies. I should not go to games now and expect our goalie (even those not named Marty) to let in at least 1 soft goal a game.

[skeeter]

The Devils have scored only one goal in:
- the last six games.
- nine of the last 12 games.

Marty's fault.

[DaneykoIsGod]

The Devils were not known as an offensive powerhouse in the 90's to say the least, but they stayed competative. This was because of both Brodeur and to a bigger extent the defense. Hell in 94 our leading socrer was Stevens, so that says a lot about our offense during that time. Now that we have pretty much no defense, Brodeur's weaknesses are showing. He is in fact old and slow, and should retire gracefully instead of subjecting himself to Marty chants from opposing fans and letting in softies. I should not go to games now and expect our goalie (even those not named Marty) to let in at least 1 soft goal a game.

Nobody (right now, at least) is disputing that Brodeur isn't who he was. But when the offense is this insanely inept, looking at the goalie is like paying attention to a bruised pinky when your arm is broken.

[coldply123]

mills is terrible too. mills, sestito, and gionta do not belong in the nhl, period.

Neither does Clarkson. He is TERRIBLE. And I will fight you on this til the end of time.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

The Devils were not known as an offensive powerhouse in the 90's to say the least, but they stayed competative. This was because of both Brodeur and to a bigger extent the defense. Hell in 94 our leading socrer was Stevens, so that says a lot about our offense during that time. Now that we have pretty much no defense, Brodeur's weaknesses are showing. He is in fact old and slow, and should retire gracefully instead of subjecting himself to Marty chants from opposing fans and letting in softies. I should not go to games now and expect our goalie (even those not named Marty) to let in at least 1 soft goal a game.

That '94 squad was actually quite good offensively: 306 GF (2nd in the NHL), and boasted 6 players to net 20+ goals. MacLean netted 36 and Richer 37.

As for the other 90s seasons, the Devils weren't nearly as bad on offense as you make it sound...here's where they ranked:

'93-'94 2nd out of 26 teams
'95 13th out of 26 teams
'95-'96 25th out of 26 teams (by far the worst)
'96-'97 16th out of 26 teams
'97-'98 9th out of 26 teams
'98-'99 2nd out of 27 teams
'99-'00 2nd out of 28 teams

So in three out of seven of these seasons, the Devils' offense ranked 2nd overall...in a 4th season, they were ranked in the top 10. So this whole "lack of offense" idea really is a myth.

Even the 25th-ranked offense of '95-'96 was managing to put in 2.69 GPG. Compared to this group's production, the '96 squad looks like '80s Oilers. Like I said, Marty at the very top of his game is going to have a hell of a time backstopping a team that flat-out doesn't score to many wins. Even if he managed to match his career-best regular season GAA of 1.88, that's still higher than this team's average output.

[overtime98]

Devils are 1-11 in december.

[jagknife]

Devils are 1-11 in december.

ticker tape parade down mulberry is scheduled for jan 2nd!