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Also if Kovalchuk and Mark Fayne didn’t hit posts....😫🤮

I'll have to look into it more but this season might go down as the worst home record in the team's history at 4-17-3, good lord. Also we can be officially eliminated from the playoffs tomorrow if Boston wins their game to make it 8 of the past 9 seasons with no playoffs. Also next season will be a full decade since their 2012 run and our last playoff series win. We can yap about being spoiled in the 90s and 00s and blah blah blah but a full decade is a very long time. The good old days are long in the past at this point. fvck is it depressing.

https://www.nhl.com/devils/news/release-devils-sign-2020-first-rounder-alexander-holtz/c-323803098

Transcript of Holtz and Bratt’s conversation:

Holtz looks like a bit of a tank in this photo. Broad shoulders and looks like he has some upper body strength. Much needed , maybe he can get the rest of the young guys in the gym.

As much as I kind of want to see what he’s got, I think it’s a better plan to let him play in the AHL for a year (or a month, or whatever is left lol). He’ll still be 19 at the start of the season (if it starts on time) and turns 20 at the end of January.

The famed No-Name defense. They really rallied around the idea that they couldn't win because they didn't have a star on the back end that year. They seemed to have a lot of pride in that

Yeah that team had over 100 points in the regular season. That team wasn’t a fluke. That was a good hockey team that was on it’s last legs.

A decade of being bad is long. That's why I roll my eyes at those saying that this hasn't been all that long and blah blah blah. Maybe the official rebuild is "only" 6 years old, but a decade of being bad and squeaking into the playoffs once in those 10 seasons is pretty miserable.

This. We’re at the point where none of our fans under the age of 18 were alive/old enough to know when we last won a Stanley Cup. That’s long enough. And to be honest, I still see 2012 as kind of a fluke that we even made it that far. I don’t really think back and say “this team was great in 2012”. That’s why that year was sandwiched by missing the playoffs twice, and getting bounced in the first round three years prior to that. Not that we wouldn’t settle for making the playoffs at all at this point.

Another game, another example of where our underlying numbers were good but the result is a loss. Getting really, really, REALLY tired of this. Good on Jack showing some emotion there. That was a BS call and that seemed to fire the team up. The NHL is really turning into a gong show with how bad some of the officiating has been the past few years. Foote looked decent in his limited time. Big body and has a nice shot. The team is completely devoid of shooters. Sharangovich and probably Bratt are the closest things we have now and even then they are 2nd/3rd liners on most teams. Wood had his nice run earlier this season but that's about it; maybe we will see it again in 22-23. Zacha I still see more as a playmaker. Hopefully Foote fills in some of that void but this was his first game. I still think guys like Maltsev, Merkley and Studenic are marginal NHL players. They really shouldn't be regulars next season. Siegenthaler is horrible. He looks even worse than Mirco Mueller. He gave up a 3rd for this guy but Fitz couldn't find anyone to take Vatanen, who is marginally better. Fitz got gamed and admitted as much when he said that multiple teams put in claims for Vats. Severson had a rough game too. I will look forward to yet another article from one of those Devils blogs showing me charts and graphs that say he is actually Norris trophy-level talented. Nas and Recchi should be pounded into the moon a la Nuclear Man did to Superman in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Everything about our special teams is just historically bad. Why Nas is still here is beyond me with his track record with this team. I was hoping we get 2 points out of 8 in this series against the Rangers. We ended up with 0 out of 8. I guess the team is in full tank mode. So much for Fitz saying they will be competitive post-trade deadline.

https://www.nhl.com/devils/news/blog-zacha-bratt-skate-will-travel/c-323807530?fbclid=IwAR0-crzaV90EdEwicevqWsQo75pspB8E9qwz7rNfFj2GTybkJRkxw_n5JPQ

Team also went 12-4 in shootouts. Kovy (who was only a 25% shooter or so prior) suddenly became an automatic in them. The season before was obviously a weird one...hard to think that if MacLean hadn't been given as much of a leash as he was (or if a remotely competent HC had been there from the start), that the 2010-11 Devils wouldn't have gotten in. They were too talented to turn in such a mess of a first half. Yeah, the 2011-12 bunch was a fun team for sure (especially since they really weren't expected to go that deep), but yeah, you had a lot of things break right. Lots of contributions from unexpected sources (Clarkson with 30 G, an aging Sykora with 21 G, Ponikarovsky with 18 points in 33 GP, rookie Henrique putting up 34 points in a 35 game stretch, etc. Of course, two key core pieces were aging in Marty and Elias...the best of what Marty had left was used up over his last 50 or so GP of 2011-12. And then Parise left, Kovy followed... Also fair to point out that even if some fans want to blame current ownership for where the Devils are, they should at least realize if VBK had stuck around, it would been a sh!tshow regardless...he couldn't afford to own the team any longer. On another note, at times some have accused the owners of cheaping out, but it really seems to me that Shero was trying to set himself up for flexibility and a possible "We're ready, let's do this!" spending spree that never came to be, due to 2019-20 coming apart (I think re-signing Hall was part of the long-term plan at one point, before all went to sh!t). Fitz has inherited that flexibility and managed to create even more...if there's a big "perfect move" that he wants to make that costs a lot of coin and the owners overrule or block him, then I'll start to wonder what the hell is going on. Ditto if with all of this cap space, if there's any issues signing RFAs like Hughes, Smith and others as their times come up. Not saying you just give them tons of money and term for the sake of it, but there is going to be money under the cap to get them all signed without much difficulty. This is most definitely not a situation where multiple someones will have to be moved for draft picks, just to get money off the books.

Yay! Some good news for a change

Perhaps “outlier” would have been a better word than fluke. There are reasons for it, as you said. It’s certainly not like it was the late 90’s to early 2000’s when we were in the mix every year.

Headed to Binghamton (South) apparently.

I hate to be Mr. Remember When, but remember when we could roll out Elias, Kovalchuk and Parise in the shootout? Good times.

Speaking of Fayne, look at that ragtag blue line that came close to getting their names on the Stanley Cup. Peter Harrold!

I initially called them very good, but that was a stretch. They were good and got such a boost from the Game 7 win in Florida. Yes, the emergence of Gionta-Carter-Bernier, too. Really good fourth line.

We were loving Lou for getting Kovalchuk back then. We might have won the whole thing if he was healthy for the Kings series.

Amazingly, we are 2 goals away from the worst goal differential in the league, and we have a game in hand. We may very well finish last in that category. That, is quite jarring. I know there are some things this season that make you want to chalk this up as an anomaly, but fact of the matter is, it's a 56-game season - that's not a small amount of games. This season may have been different, but as I've said before, it's been different for everyone, and the games are still being played just like they would under a "normal" 82-game season. Granted they're a little more clumped together than they typically would be, but again, everyone's in the same situation, yet we're the ones who look considerably worse than almost anyone else in the league right now. Despite the circumstances of this unusual year, I'm having a hard time justifying anyone on the coaching staff keeping their jobs. The sad part is that Ruff won't get let go because it's his first year, and who knows if there would even be anyone else decent in the offseason to replace him, so I get it. It's just really hard to argue that this team has improved in any way whatsoever. I don't like the argument that goes something like "well, some of the young guys like Hughes and Kuok seem to be taking a step forward". You know why? They're young. It's their second or third seasons. They're bound to take a step forward after their rookie seasons, even if a monkey was coaching them. The PP and PK are atrocious. The guys are consistently out of position, particularly on defense, and it isn't even CLOSE. They're not even in the same fvcking zip code half the time. I'm really curious what the owners have to say right about now.

Yep both ownership groups walked away owing some STH their deposits back. Unthinkable imo.

Sure was- signing a new 10 year lease with Mercer county and bailing immediately after that and burning so many local vendors, Dr's, players housing you name it with months and months of unpaid bills/invoices. They really dicked over anybody else from being successful there going forward. Even though another group did try they were smoked before they even got started. I mean ffs Lou even had guys come in in the middle of the night and take some gym equipment and 20 something inch tv's off the walls in the locker rooms that were there when the Devil came in. They took some old FLyers players sticks that had been there since Trenton started play. When I say gym equipment we're talking about stuff some guys here would have in their homes. SMH. Never understood it, never will. The saddest part of the story for me is I would of thought things would of changed once Lou left and the new ownership group came in, this move would indicate nothing has changed.

I am very curious to see if those demands ever come out. That will be a huge factor as to which side is being the unreasonable one. I wonder if it had to with upgrading the arena as it is both old and on the smaller side even by AHL standards. However, the track record for the Devils and how their affiliates is possibly the worst in minor league hockey. Trenton, Lowell, Albany 2.0, now Binghamton. That's three, now possibly four, cities that they have left in a lurch and burn bridges. I am surprised anyone would take a chance on the Devils at this point (I guess Utica was desperate since the Comets are moving out to BC). What the Devils did to Trenton was borderline criminal.

If Nass and Recchi are back here next year.... I won't even know what to say.

I think that’s why you saw the reaction from Jack. That’s from a buildup of this sh!t all year.

Yes I need that to go with this.

Seriously, send Tennyson back to the ECHL then to Siberia, cannot stand that less-than-plug.

I agree they'll start small, but I also can see them continuously trying to push to see how far they can take it. The idea of having a Bud Light or Outback Steakhouse logo on the team's jersey just makes me wanna barf...and I don't even really think of myself as a fan of "tradition" or "Principle". If anything in our sport was untouchable by corporate sponsors it should be/have been the jerseys.

I wouldn't say we were within inches of winning yesterday, but maybe we were within a...Foote DM, if you need to ban me for that one, I understand

"Mitchell would not get into the details of the demands made by the Devils." Anyone see what these demands actually are? I'm curious if they were actually reasonable or not. That being said it's more a shame to me they are going back to Utica when we have a perfectly great arena in Trenton sitting empty so many nights of the year. I'd rather see them give back to the state with new jobs and revenue for Trenton than Utica but it definitely won't happen.

That's a sh>tty way to treat a city. They helped promote & made sure team was involved in community. Also, a sh>tty way to do business. they were happy to host the Devils. If i were the AHL, I'd make the Devils honor their last year & play in Binghamton.

Yeah more the depressing situation of continually destroying a local hockey team and then just walking away. It's not a good look. Also I feel you should develop a winning culture at every level. Doesn't do young guys harm working out how to win.