DJ Eco

And the travel is even less tolling due to the reshuffled divisions. Freakish year, but the situation makes sense for them. Hope Palmieri re-signs with us after!

Tough pill to swallow, but some version of this was inevitable, and it doesn't look like a seller's market out there. I'm fine with the 1st, I'll be even better if we weaponize our cap a bit more, and think we can at least use the 1st in a trade. Remember, that's the return from Lou for 19 games of these players. It's a weird local/regional season, they don't really have to move and not a lot about their travel/family situation is going to change, they may thank Fitz for the chance to go for a Cup and decide to re-sign in a few months.

Wooooooo what an ending Belarus in the housel

Yep, he was acting like he didn't put a d-man at center to take the draw, and set the tone. Our line could've gone either way, but he escalated by moving Stu Bickel to center to start the game, what a self-righteous douchebag lol

Good to be back in here! Saw some good things Thursday, especially considering the 3 pretty important players missing, hope they can build on that today.

We are biased, BUT my expectation (and many who were looking at the two players objectively) was that Kakko would maybe have the better first 1 or 2 seasons, while Hughes has the higher ceiling and more dangerous weapons over time. I personally bought into the "Kakko is ready to play with men" argument, Rangers fans can be delusional, but you look at the two players' bulk and that was a pretty straightforward prediction. Many expectations were also that Kakko would definitely score more goals while Hughes was the playmaker who'd rack up more assists; fair predictions in my opinion. They're neck and neck which speaks better to Hughes than it does to Kakko. 15-25 pts is what I would've pegged Hughes to be at this point of the season, whereas Kaapo "more NHL ready" Kakko I thought would be closer to 25-30. I could be wrong but I think Kakko was given significant time with Panarin where he wasn't converting. 10 of his 16 points were on the PP and he has fewer goals than Hughes, whereas so much of Hughes style of play is playmaking, and so much of what's been wrong with our team this season has been lack of finish (his linemates miss on so many tremendous opportunities he creates for them). ...So all of that together, and I think the objective grade is that Hughes is maybe where people thought he would be, while Kakko is a little bit behind. Neither is lighting up the league or in the running for the Calder, but comparing just the 2 against each other, I think Hughes has had the more positive start. Kakko has shown a few reasons for concern.

Yep, same as last year: a bunch of plugs, and really boring "get dominated, but counterattack occasionally" system, but their record is what it is, so strange they can get away with this in the new game, but Trotz is a guy who knows what he's doing.

Political suicide!

It's funny how partisan politics are in 2019 that a governor can't write a pretty harmless tweet about his state in good fun without people berating him and saying that the guy who played political checkers with mayors around the State by holding pieces of steel 9/11 wreckage from the Twin Towers as quid-pro-quo leverage is "decent" compared to him, but here we are, there's nothing between going 0 and 90 mph on everything anymore, I guess lol

I've told my brother many times this season, I think Coleman will escape this pretty crappy era of Devils hockey as one of the fan favorites or faces of the team we can fondly look back on in future years. In a decade where there aren't too many positives that come to mind, he sticks out. Even now, with 16 points, I still think he's underrated by most of the fanbase; we still see him as this scrappy grit player, but there he is, 3rd in points, and 2nd in goals, with 3 more goals than Taylor "About to Make $11+ Million/Year" Hall, many times in big moments..

great comment followed by an amazing reply good work boys

I get the feeling Shero sees what a lot of us see. Hall's 25 points in 29 games is pretty good window dressing on what has still been a pretty lackluster 1/3 of the season so far. Hall just doesn't seem like the player who can command a game on his stick or pull something out of nothing, the way he looked his Hart year. His goals haven't been in big moments, he hasn't made big game-changing plays the way some others on our team (much younger than him) have. Those 25 points look good from the outside and help cover up some pretty inconsistent play, so it makes sense if Shero's trying to push this trade as soon as possible while his value is intact.

this is anecdotal i guess, but what's funny is that in the last year or two, it's now the 50-60+ year olds i see most on their phones at sporting events, they leave millennials in the dust

I'm still giving Subban somewhat of a benefit of a doubt. That he doesn't have any PP points whatsoever is just freakish, and really points to a fundamental deficiency in the systems and powerplay setup our coaches have set up. His shot alone makes him an asset on any marginally well-coached PP in the league, you have to try hard to make his one-timer NOT to make a dent in a single PP this season, and for at least the first 10-15 games, I noticed the PP was not drawn up to set P.K. up for the shot; and when he took it upon himself to create the shot, there were never any bodies in front, so that says it all. Our coaches have misutilized him, as they have many of our players, in a woefully ineffective system. Everyone knows players like Ovechkin or Weber or Burns are going to take the big one-timer on the PP, but their PP is designed foolproof to make sure they get the shot anyway, and the same should've been in place for Subban. Put him on the 2nd PP unit (where we have fewer tools), and set it up so he can get 2-3 one-timers every PP with 2 bodies in front, it's that simple, but you watch our PPs and everyone's just free-skating around trying to make the perfect plays.

Re: Nasreddine being picked as interim: Fitzgerald just spent a couple weeks watching mission control from the bench, I trust that he's seen enough of the dynamic to weigh in on whether Nasreddine is the right guy to be named interim coach, or that they have a replacement plan up their sleeve in short order. We can complain all we want, but no matter who you pick of the bunch to be interim coach, they were all in charge of an aspect of our game that is god awful no matter what (special teams, offensive play, defensive play), so I trust Fitzgerald saw enough to weigh in with Shero that Nasreddine is the guy for the short term future til a head coach is available.

I get the feeling Shero is waiting for Tampa's Jon Cooper to be made available, it's really the only thing that'd make sense of all of this. Toronto's Babcock domino fell and Shero probably felt like Tampa's right behind them. Tampa's holding on though, and meanwhile the situation in New Jersey has become that untenable; Hynes is doing such a bad job, he couldn't even buy Shero an extra week or two. My guess is Nasreddine is taking over because Shero has no other backup plan other than to wait for Jon Cooper to get let go from Tampa (which could happen shortly for all we know) and swoop in for a quick hire of a great American coach.

I've been really trying to give Shero the benefit of the doubt for as long as I can, but it's really starting to enter that territory.

I almost see it as his own making though. Even a couple weeks ago, with our record the way it was, I did not have much distrust in the job Shero did. I still saw it as, "Shero did his job, and Hynes, a subpar coach who's used to untalented gritty rosters, is sabotaging it." Shero could wash his hands of this at any moment and he'd be justified, the fanbase would still be on his side and cheer him on; but the longer he waits, the more of the buck he's starting to absorb for himself. Like others have said, if this isn't enough to get a coach fired, can we have any faith that Shero knows what he's doing in picking a coaching staff? We didn't need to be in a hole this deep, but it's first week of December now, and his resolve in sticking by his man Hynes is, in so many words, signaling he sees this season as a throw-away already; and that's not really acceptable, Ray.

Yep, that's all it comes down to. Shero can do and has done dozens of good things; great trades, fairly good drafting up to this point; but none of it means squat if he can't cut our losses when a bad coach is clearly way in over his head. We have a talented roster, we have a roster that's good enough to go on a run and pull a 2019 St. Louis, but every day Hynes is still in the position is a day that inevitable jumpstart happens later and later at the point of no return; inevitable, because there's NO WAY Hynes survives this! Let's be real... It's another wasted season by now, this is all Hynes' sinking ship, and Shero could wash his hands of it right now, but he's chosen not to, so now it's a reflection on him too, when it didn't have to be...

Every day that Hynes is still head coach of the Devils is an insult to the fanbase and its intelligence of what it can plainly see and hear with its eyes and ears. The players have stopped playing for him, stopped caring, and it's entering well-worn territory of, I'm sure, doing more damage to our budding prospects and long-term players than the good that stability can do. Stability in absolute failure is not good.

What frustrates me is that then these guys come back (Zacha, Bratt, Gusev) and have some productive games, and, judging by his track record, Hynes really seems to think it was the benching that did it... and not just the fact that, law of averages, the more you play these guys, they're likely to produce for us. He hits us with that, "We gave them a break for a couple days, they came back and responded..." like, no, no, no, 9 times out of 10 that's not what happened. You gave them a couple games off, our grit guys didn't do anything during that time when the guys you benched could've, and then they came back and you think they "responded."

Coleman-Gusev pairing and the success they're finding together is the unlikeliest partnership I would've imagined this season; it's kind of funny almost, like it should be a show from the 80s/90s: scrappy Texan with a highly skilled Russian player, and they don't understand a word the other is saying at all times; almost polar opposites of players... funny AF

Recipe for disaster. You're putting way too many Devils legends in the crosshairs of ruining their legacy if that team goes wrong; not worth it one bit. Also, not sure if you can call it a rebuild if you inject a bunch of guys who played a very specific style/system of play that worked in the 90s/00s, but is dinosaur hockey now. We would really need to see if their mind is wrapped around today's game before even considering any of them.

It's a 1pm game, FYI

Correct. The Canes' writer is like Amanda on her worst days, but consistently. I'm mostly cool with how Amanda has adjusted this season, and think she's doing a pretty good job. Maybe we're getting old (I'm 32) and don't understand the point of social media anymore? I don't know when whiny, relentless, and smug petulance became a draw; like a bunch of young Mike Milburys running around being annoying everyday, but they all get hundreds of likes no matter what.