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This last week has been a very disappointing situation for the overall health of NJDevs.com. I was dismayed to find out in the midst of moving that some members of the website decided to take crap posting to a new level. Some members revealed themselves to be quite racist and insensitive and some members egged these members on. As I said, I was directing movers, and packing frantically. I don't have time to babysit. Quite frankly, the New Jersey Devils as a product are at their best in years and look to hopefully make the playoffs...but some of you are still miserable and bringing the rest of us down. You will notice some popular people did not make the return with the website. I won't name names but suffice to say the three of them have either run off or controlled the topics on this site for too long. I tried to placate them, joked along with them to get them to settle down but they would just return and begin it all anew. The fourth member posted some unfortunate posts himself and will also not be back. If you are reading this and can't log in, you were probably banned, I don't owe you an explanation, you knew what you were doing. No, you won't be coming back, it's forever this time Its not us, it was you. To the rest of us, let's get back to enjoying the forum to talk about the Devils and Thank you to everyone that literally called or texted me to find out what happened. Thanks, DM

Can we shoutout @DevilMinder for keeping this place alive during the dark years? Couldn't have been a ton of traffic while the team was collecting draft picks. Feeling incredibly lucky to be able to celebrate with y'all right now. LFGD!

Back on January 13, 2020, it was hard to tell exactly where the Devils might be headed; Ray Shero, the man tasked with trying to build something out of the rubble and ashes left behind by Lou, had just been shown the door, much to our collective shock. Just one month before, a key building block and the player responsible for one of the most dynamic regular seasons ever for a Devils forward in Taylor Hall had been dealt for a bunch of pieces that didn't figure to bring any immediate help. In 2017-18, even if it was partly fool's gold, there seemed to be every reason to believe that the Devils might be headed in the right direction; less than two years later, we were back to wondering if the Devils were ever going to get this thing turned around...even with a pair of promising 1OAs in the lineup, in Nico and Jack, the future still felt very murky and uncertain. And of course as we know, it didn't exactly get better right away. Gotta give Fitz a ton of credit here, even if he obviously inherited a hell of a lot more than his predecessor did. For one, when the Devils needed to sell, he did a hell of a job selling. For another, with the assets that he snagged from those deals and through other smart dealing, he was able to turn those assets into useful players who have helped to turn things around much more quickly than we really had any right to hope for...Dawson, Muk, Siegs, Marino, VV, etc. He then went and managed to pull off something no one ever thought he could: land a big UFA fish, in Dougie Hamilton. And though people act like the Devils have never struck it big with big names at or near the deadline (guess people forget about Lou acquiring Gilmour, Mogilny, and Kovalchuk, among others), Fitz obviously hit the big time in snagging Meier. No GM even bats 1.000 and not like Fitz has been perfect, and I don't think the mess that was the Devils' season last year was a part of his plan, but enough went wrong (especially with the goaltending) that even with the overwhelming frustration that came with what felt like another "punt it away" kind of season, Fitz was right to ignore our pleading and bitching in not trying to make any quick-fix moves that wouldn't have moved the needle all that much. The fact is that nASS and Recchi were still in the fold and no player acquisitions were going to be able to overcome those two. Fitz wisely held onto his bullets and lost the battle to win the war, and we're in a much better position today because he was willing to be that little bit more patient than most of the rest of us. From this fan (and I'm sure many others), thank you Tom. Not since Lou's finest days have I felt this confident about the Devils' future being in the right hands. You were spoken of highly in terms of being a potentially excellent GM someday, and all you've done is prove everyone right. You've not only made watching this team fun again, but it sure feels like you're making New Jersey a destination that players actually WANT to come to; that's no easy task. Thank you for restoring pride to our New Jersey Devils! The future is suddenly blindingly bright.

With our travel day tomorrow, and the season now on pause, figured what better time than to do my annual post bump. Over the past few weeks, I became a certified Standards of Conduct, Sexual Assault Prevention, and Suicide Prevention instructor. It’s been about three years coming but finally the timing worked where I was able to make it happen. On Monday, in an effort to think outside the box for the instruction, I relieved the events of 5 years ago in narrative form and emphasized to the attendees the importance of how the warning signs, even looking back now, weren’t there at all. We talked about how a simple text literally can change someone’s path and that no one should be afraid to ask for help nor reach out to help. There’s plenty of protections for individuals who get help that they can still continue their careers, and absolutely be successful in doing so without blowback from saying “hey, I need a wingman…” It felt great to hear the feedback of, “wow, finally an instructor who shares their experiences instead of just reciting the slides” pretty frequently from the 4 courses I taught that day alone. With COVID deciding to be a Dick again and possibly screwing up a lot of people’s plans, be that helping voice folks. See if your buddy’s from years ago are still doing well, or that friend you just saw yesterday and pounded a beer with us actually good when they got home. Lord knows us Devils’ fans need it (see, deep posts can still have some humor.) I appreciate all of you guys, wishing the best as always. - Jag

I'm going to end this season with a haiku, if you guy's don't mind. It started off great, Coronavirus said wait, Lotto here we come.

I'm a humble guy, but I'd love some likes. It will make me sleep better tonight:)

Luke was so good, he is going to be a superstar like his brother. And shout out to mcleod, he really stepped up this post season. He was downright an anchor for the team to stabilize from at points.

Aaaaaaaaaand Jack pulls it off! Jack: 43 G, 56 A, 99 Pts PWM: 44 G, 54 A, 98 Pts Aaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha!

McLeod has been absolutely outstanding all playoffs

1% Battery on my phone came to post this

PATTY 🤣🤣

It’s beyond nice to not deal with this sh!t anymore.

Jack with 2 G and 1 A tonight, PWM with an assist. Jack: 35 G, 32 A, 67 Points PWM: 35 G, 47 A, 82 Points Yep…Jack now has as many goals in 50 games this season as Kakko does for his entire career…heh heh

if the devils have 27 wins in their first 41 games played this year, I will donate $5 to this website for every like this comment gets.

Fitz to Jesper

i may be wrong but this is how i interpreted it personally... gotta be honest. it sounds crazy but it might work

And you thought you couldn’t possibly love Ty Smith anymore than you already do...

I haven't posted here in a long time but something about tonight makes me want to. Maybe it's the return of Devils hockey. Brutal first period but they got it together in period 2 - they're going to give some teams trouble with all that speed. Sharangovich drawing 3 penalties, pretty great, him being drilled into the boards, not so great. Thought there were some nice moments for Kuokkanen and Boqvist. And obviously if Blackwood isn't as incredible as he was, we're talking about a lot of different stuff.

Checking in from the Rock with the fam. Twins are raging already. LFGD

This is mine…I’ve put these up before. If I’m not at the game, this is where me and my daughter are watching.

What an overall absolutely amazing season that none of us remotely expected. Such a huge turn around from last season, the biggest ever. Most wins ever, Hughes with the most points ever. Beating the rangers in 7 for the 1st time. Actually playing in May. Beats the absolutely misery of the past decade with nothing to give a sh!t about besides stupid draft lottos and draft picks that I don't give a fvck about besides hoping they turn out good. I had an absolute blast attending home games this year and watching this team. Love seeing our fan base rejuvenated. Was nice to finally balance out all those miserable nights I've spent watching dog sh!t hockey the past decade at the rock. Thank you Devils!!!

Just got back. First thing…shared intermission brews with @Lateralous and @MadDog2020 and that was a blast. Great meeting Lateralous for the first time and seeing MD2020 again. Obviously lots to love about this game…especially so many guys finding the net…maybe now the damn dam breaks for both Nico and Timo. Not going to kill VV but at the same time pucks are just not finding him during these playoffs. Luuuuuuuuke…just keep playing him Lindy. Guy might indeed be one of those fast-trackers who can handle the NHL quickly. And is it possible to healthy-scratch Brewnet?! It’s getting dangerously close to feeling like he’s getting advice from Recchi at this point.

Stan woke up in a mood! Hahaha...

Let's give a round of applause for Schmid. What an amazing three games.

Side note but how awesome is it that Jack isn’t just a regular season guy but also turns it on in the playoffs?? Some skill guys shrink away from physical playoff hockey but Jack is thriving in it. I say it a lot but I cant wait to see what he does in his prime

It was an honor to create the NJD 22-23 regular season thread for this incredible season and now, it is an even greater privilege to be able to kick off the playoffs against the wretched Rags with you beautiful people. Not a lot of information is available about the game yet but I think this gif can capture the essence of the upcoming battle that has been laid before us.

Checking in for a long night from Belfast, Northern Ireland 📍 LGD

How badly did we crush the 2018 draft coming out with Ty Smith and Sharangovich considering we went into it with the 17th overall and then nothing until the 4th round? It kind of makes up for pissing away our 2nd on Grabner (which made sense at the time)

Game 3 for the boys tonight. After great performances vs. the bruins, WE WANT MORE!!! NHL.com Preview: https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/njd-vs-nyr/2021/01/19/2020020046 LGD!!!

I'm partially glad they won, just so there's no negative karma associated with the new jerseys lol.

I made this with saved up bottle caps and put it above my bar. That's about it haha

@PierreVLeBrun Devils and Timo Meier have agreed to an 8 year deal worth $8.8 M AAV per season https://twitter.com/PierreVLeBrun/status/1674102195959001088?s=20

MB3’s son is out of surgery (was 8.5 hrs long) and though he’ll have a long recovery ahead, at least this part is over. Passing this along as he asked me to let everyone know. Also wanted to thank all for the well wishes and prayers. Hope they all get through the tougher days still ahead.

Had to dvr. Just finished watching. What a wild game. Congrats Devils!!! A few thoughts: 1. Luke was missed in games 1 and 2 and I absolutely love his game even despite a bad turnover on PP. 2. I like the 7D roster. Canes forecheck is hard to handle. 3. Canes got beaten bad, but this team can always find another gear. They never lost composure, so don't be fooled by the score. Game 4 will be much tougher. 3 SHG must never happen again. 4. VV makes me nervous 5. McLeod is amazing Let's go Devils!!!!!!!

A room with a view

Injuries and this management's lack of admitting defeat with him. Want proof? They gave him two of the biggest games down the stretch and had our number 1 start throw away games that you or I could have probably kept the team competitive in (hello, CBJ). We're concerned greatly because the team plays a completely different style when trashwood is in net. I'm not going to dig for the numbers, but besides the eye test, the advanced stats show a staunch dip when 29 is between the pipes. Sure, the rosters have no limit, awesome. Problem is, this team needs to have a reliable backup in net on the bench because of the possible fluke injury. You cannot trot 29 out there in relief of VV. Schmid has 100% proven and earned himself the backup role, but now Father Time behind the bench is pretending he didn't watch Schmid make his presence known earlier this year. The old man seems to love Blackwood and I have few doubts he won't have him as the number 1 back up. That is a big problem, especially with Schmid here. He earned it. Blackwood has had countless chances, his time is over.

Hey I thought you got banned

Went over to HF Boards to check in on all the trade stuff, and man did I forget how awful that place is. Just one uncivil know-it-all after another. I’m so thankful for this site. Especially after the recent purge here.

I almost created a new thread for what I'm about to say, but it doesn't deserve one, nor do I want to change the direction of this thread since it's meant to be the generic thread about the team for this season, however, since the last few posts have alluded to what evidently went on here recently (I didn't read or see any of it, btw), I just want to put it out there. When I went to visit this site over the weekend and saw it was down I was assuming either 1) The hosting provider had some issue and it was out of DM's control or 2) DM was doing maintenance to the site as he does occasionally, and it would be back up in a short amount of time. After a half day passed and the site wasn't back up, I was mildly concerned like I'm sure most others were as well, but still figured DM would get to whatever the issue was when he could (as he pointed out, he happened to be in the middle of a move, which is totally understandable, not that he needs any excuse or reason for how he spends his time - he could vacation for a week and turn off his computer and phone and if the site goes down and is unavailable for that time, oh well - we'll all have to live with it). When the half day turned into a full day, and a day that the Devils were to play a game no less, part of me did start to think that we were about to read a post from DM saying NJ Devs is no more, I was not only sad to potentially lose this site, but also feared that perhaps something happened to DM himself. Thankfully that's not the case, however it occurred to me that I really don't have a way of connecting with many of you, and that I'd be sad to lose out on a really great place that I love coming to often, year after year. Running a site like this isn't easy and we all do our part to try and support DM each year to keep the lights on and make this place an enjoyable and sustainable place to come to, but with that said I would like to publicly state and volunteer to take over this place (or build another) should the time come when DM ever has to step down. I've been part of other online communities and forums in the past 20 years and I've seen some of them shut down. It's unfortunate for the members and people who've formed a bond in a unique way. But life does go on. In the event that this place ceases to exist, I think some type of contingency plan would be helpful so that those members who do wish to stay connected can do so if they wish. I don't know what the best way to go about this would be, but perhaps some type of Facebook Group or Reddit thread. Please, please, please, let's not derail this thread too far, that's not the point of this. If people agree, perhaps a like/thumbs up to this post would at least confirm if I'm not alone and others share these thoughts, and anyone can private message me if they have ideas or want to come up with some type of backup plan just to be prepared.

sh!t, saw this thread and thought he died or something. Phew.

For far too long I thought the lyric to that song was "I ain't no hollow black girl" and was like "how is Gwen not getting pulled up on this?"