Lateralous

I know I’ll probably get the “every loss counts” response from those super focused on the draft position but I would love to see a few more wins like this with multipoint efforts from Hughes, Smith Zacha, McLeod and Nico (Almost!) down the stretch.

Beat me to it on the alternate Unis

We won wearing green no less. Who saw that coming?

Boom goes the dynamite!

I would like to see Nico seal this

I agree with you guys. This isn’t nearly a ls bad as it seems right now. For the most part, we’ve seen improvement from all the young guys. Hockey is a funny sport because when you are this bad, it’s doesn't necessarily mean you have to get rid of everybody. It’s amazing how much better we would look if everyone was properly slotted down the lineup. This is a huge offseason for Fitz. We’ve got to get beyond the half assed moves for the MoJo, Gusev and Johnssons of the world. He needs to buy or trade for some significant talent this summer that can give these young guys some chance to succeed. Next year is a big year for the young core. If Fitz does his job, then we really need to see Jack and Nico take the next step towards being stars in this league. Zacha and Bratt need to show that they are at least second line wingers. If we’re in the same position at the end of next year where the centers are both under .5 ppg etc, we may be in big trouble.

Nice play by McLeod and Bastian. Bastian tried to flub it

Jeez, this season can’t end soon enough.

As the team leader on a streak this bad, he absolutely has to finish that. It would be a good sign if he comes out pissed off tomorrow and pots a couple.

Ugh, Nico!

Well then, at least his +/- wont get worse.

As usual, let's just see some points from Hughes, Nico, Bratt, Zacha and Smith please. LGD!

Now we're doing better than the Rangers. They're down 6-1. They really blow goats!

Going off memory but Zibenejad didn’t really “blossom” until about that age either. Next year is where we really need to see improvement. This season has been an abortion with the limited camp, compressed season, injuries and Covid stoppage. Long term, I think we’ll be happy we bombed to another top 5 pick while also seeing guys like Jack Hughes, Ty Smith and Pavel Zacha show significant development. At least that’s what I’m going with at this point.

Yeah, we have a terrible record of absolutely decimating minor league franchises for like 2 decades now. From personal experience, Trenton titans games used to be a lot of fun and then the Devils got involved...and I say that as a Devils fan.

I think we’ve reached that part of the season again where I just can’t do it anymore, especially on a relatively nice Saturday afternoon. Hopefully Nico and Hughes can at least get on the scoresheet today.

How about 4 times in a row?

I was just making a general statement. Tracking Pavelpoints was one of the more enjoyable aspects of this season.

Once again, no Pavel, no points

It saved you 30 minutes of your life you would never get back.

These analogies don’t make any sense in this situation. Again, why does the salary matter in a cap world where we have a top and bottom limit and struggle to hit the latter? Whether or not he was a Devil, everyone in the league knew it was a bad contract during most of his tenure in NAS, hence why we got him for nothing. If PK Subban was playing anywhere close to his salary at any time in the last half decade, he’s probably not a New Jersey Devil in the first place. If you know you’re buying a lemon in advance and still buy that lemon, that’s on you. It’s a simple concept. We bought super low because he was a drag on Nashville’s salary structure as their 4th D at 9 million. He also happened to be better than what we had at the time. He was still never ever, ever close to a player that justified a 9 million dollar salary from the day we traded for him so why pretend like we should expect that from him? Its like trading for 2020 Cory Perry but holding him to 2011 Cory Perry even though its clear he lost a step to anyone that watched any 2 consecutive games he’s played in the last few years.

The most maddening example was that article last week about how bad Zacha’s advanced stats were. It tried to make the point that he was a drag on line mates and proceeded to use Palmieri’s points when paired with PZ and then when he was moved away. I swear that if Kyle could execute a simple tap in this year, he would have had 6-8 more goals with Zacha getting the primary assist. I think there were like three of these in OTs alone, yet Zacha was somehow the boat anchor. Hell, one of the few goals Palmieri did actually score for us was Zacha banking it off him.

I don’t think that analogy works in this case because we acquired PK for pennies on the dollar from Nashville specifically because it had become obvious he was wildly overpaid. He was pretty clearly their 4th best defenseman at best his last season there and they wanted out. I know you’re not a fan of him but if there was anyone that was under the impression we were ever getting a player that justified the salary in that deal, that’s on them. What we gave up in the trade made that pretty clear. That being said, its possible for him to have both a terrible contract and still be a big upgrade from what we were sending out on D each night.

http://www.mynhldraft.com/NHL-Mock-Draft/ Brandt Clarke it is! 😉

I don't understand bringing up his salary when we are nowhere near the cap and you're not the one cutting the checks. As fans, what difference does it make? He's expensive filler preventing young guys from being tasked with more than they can handle early on in their career.