themightyall

This place is funny. 1976 can't even bring him or herself to just say congratulations to a LL. Takes an Isles team that loses their best player in Tavares and leads them to the conference finals. Congrats to Lou. I love what he did for my team when he had the chance. I hope we get there again soon.

Wow; Ok. So I'm supposed to respond to do the Devils how? This is purely ad hominem. If everyone was were this way the Devils are going to be in deep shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite. Oh wait.

OMFG you think that real people are have time to read 12 pages in a couple hours' time?! The real answer is that the owners ARE the problem if they were brought up that often. You go live the 6ers plight with these douchebag owners and live it again with the Devils like i am. I'm sure you read it on this thread but that's it. Live it and you'll understand in another few years. Judging off this board, it'll take you a bit more.

Did you want to go full blown and measure dicks? Because I have no idea what this post means others than that.

We are definitely not a full re-build away. We just need to deal with the back end. Asset accumulation inevitably is talent and is leaned towards forwards. We need to deal with Defensemen and getting a solid goalie, both of which that takes time. We just need someone that knows how to build a team to get them together.

Real cool, Bro. Let's all just act real cool and not reference anything about how the owners also own the 6ers nor anything that is going on with that team at all either. Thereby we can not reference anything that was said and we can continue to complain about how "great" this "GM" was in just accumulating assets rather than building a team. It's almost as if Lou wasn't able to build a team that everyone on this board was laughing at a few years ago as abysmal and made them a contender. I love how ironic we are being. It's so super productive. If only the organization can be. Too bad that is a valley too far.

Blah Blah Blah. Solvent Solvent Solvent. I left because everyone was so in love with the owners' money. Tell me what they do! I live in Philly and grew up in Trenton. I grew up a fan of the 6ers, Devils and Eagles. I saw the 6ers dumpster fire for years before Harris even bought the Devils. I am just waiting for SOMEONE to actually just look at a team the owners actually have before they just blather on about solvency. These owners are leeches. They don't want to win; they want MONEY! That is why the made the team solvent; how else will they make MONEY!

I gave up on this website because how pro the ownership they were and randomly looked to see what people said with this. Only @dvelman is making sense. This ownership is a dumpster fire. They don't know how to build a team. At least on topic: What did Shero do that made this team ostensibly better? He tanked his way to some draft picks; anyone can do that. All you have to do is look at the 6ers. This ownership takes a GM to follow tanking to build talent. That GM knew how to build it up and then they fire them because of whatever reason good or bad (you think 6ers fans aren't saying the exact same thing you did a few years ago with Hinke?). This ownership doesn't want to win; they want to tease winning.

My "agenda" is not knocking Shero or anyone, just that it's premature to claim it a success or failure. What's your agenda against Lou?

I still am a Lou supporter and believe he should have never been let go. It's just not relevant discussion because there is no reason to beat a dead horse. That is my disclaimer for people that say that Shero's changes are so different than what Lou did. We are still an extremely low event team with the fewest shots in the league. It is way too early to tell whether Shero has done anything really and that is why I try not to muddle up my love for Lou with my learning to love what Shero is doing. I can't really applaud anything Shero has done because I sincerely doubt Stempniak is a landmark acquisition for the club. That's not knocking him, it's just saying he's building his team the way he wants and I just have to see how he does it. Thirty games (even a couple years) are hardly something to use to anoint a GM a success or failure.

Mason is a good goalie that just can't get out of his own way with injuries. Be it the coach throwing him in too early (last year Berube said Mason wouldn't play back from his second major injury right away and pulled Emery the first game back and got Mason injured for the third time because of this) or just generally having tiny nicks that affect him more than it should. Personally, I don't see them trading for the Ducks goalies just because no one in Philly is talking about it that much and it is that Hextall is committed to the long term build. Their D is young and because of that no one is up yet, which is why they still have McD/Schenn, Gudas, Schultz, etc up. That team has a chance to be good again but the problem is their D is a year or so behind ours and their forwards will likely be past their prime once they come up. I feel like that is what is happening to Crosby too. He has not been himself this year and I'd imagine it is because you are going up against men before your body is ready for it when you get into the league so early.

I can't help but think that the Oilers are a perfect example of why the whole "worst(esque) team gets the best player" concept. So many players are talented; it's about the development of those players into a system that accents those talents. The NHL changes the all star game every few years, why not change the concept of the draft every few years. It's stops teams from tanking because they don't know the structure of the draft every year, it leads to a more interesting draft order where the reveal is about how they decided it and it incentivizes teams to not rely on being so bad that they are rewarded for it.

Again, it's not like I refuse any and all changes. I like plenty of things they changed and other sports do it too. But no one is talking about the dimensions of the game. Did the MLB make the bases 80 ft apart so they could have more baserunners? We can exchange rule changes that one another finds "absurd and shortsighted" all day. You may find it completely reasonable to experiment with bigger nets. There's plenty of people that think that it fundamentally changes a game that has been tweaked earlier in its birth but has been played for decades the same way with regards to its dimensions. Objectively, I don't see enough people wanting the change for it to happen, that's why it's absurd to argue for bigger nets. This is obviously the biggest "problem" in regards to scoring. No one is talking about it because there's no way to make a rule change to force teams to be structurally unsound. It's not bad for the sport that defense exists, it's just bad that: I think this is the biggest reason why everyone is talking about more scoring. It's not about the goals being higher, it's about how those goals are scored. When a game ends 3-2 and it ends with Ovechkin clearly sniping a corner, it is so much better than the puck pinballing around 4 guys in front of the net to magically go 5 hole and you need 5 replays to see if it goes over the line and another 10 to see what player touched it last.

I would agree that the Devils are more light hearted without Lou. Like others have said though, that might not be such a good thing when they are losing. Being 7-2-1 in the last 10 is the real reason having fun is a good thing right now. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Just because some people got sick of Lou's ways doesn't mean that his way wasn't effective. That's also not to say that Shero isn't doing what he sees as an effective way either and he has won a Stanley Cup too. The other side of the coin is the Leafs. Winning two games so far this year, why would they look like they are having fun? Furthermore, Toronto has been "having fun" for years with weak-minded management. That team needs the structure. And I don't see why Derek would say, "despite Babcock." If anything it's because of Babcock and Lou. You shouldn't be happy with a loss. Babcock is notorious for that or do you not see his glares?

Well, my point about it is that goalie pads are the reason for low scoring but necessary only because of the composite sticks. So whenever I hear smaller pads, it's a fully thought out plan because then goalies would be getting injured unless they go back to wood. Personally, I don't like changing the important dimensions of the game. Greating a trapezoid, lengthening the O-zones, etc are whatever. But I just like the reset rink size, goal size, etc and don't think they should be changed. The NBA can shorten the nets by a couple of inches so more dunks can happen, the NFL can widen the field a couple of feet for the D to cover, and the NHL can add a couple inches to the top of the net (much more reasonable than forcing goalies to have new angles to play with widening it). I agree they aren't big changes and I agree that it will increase scoring/entertainment value, but it just doesn't sit right to me.

I argue this point so much and everyone seems to be so against it; I'm excited that others see the value of it. Obviously it won't change for so many other reasons but I always just saw it as the source cause of the lack of scoring. Baseball took a stand that said players were too good for metal bats, it could/should have been the same thing in hockey. Regardless, they didn't decide to ban composite so overall I would say change nothing too. Modifying the goal size is just sacrilegious. Why not just make it basketball on skates and have no goaltenders at all?

Goalies pads for the most part have to stay the same if we are going to keep composite sticks. The much more extreme shots that players are able to create with those sticks necessitates these goalie pads. I always find it interesting when something that was supposed to create more offense actually suppresses it. Faster shots led to bigger pads for safety which led to goalies relying on position rather than athleticism. Now even an average goalie is an allstar. I sort of like the idea of going back to wooden sticks for other reasons too. No more shots from the point with a stick exploding or a small stick check that turns into a slashing penalty.

How is it that only if Lou were here would you think that? Elias is hardly the player that Matvichuk was when it happened, he has been a career Devil that has been so at an extremely high level and we are no where near cap hell. Can't it just be that Elias has a bad knee instead of bashing Lou some more?

Just from the ebbs and flow of the league, there is no way that this trade happens, especially now. Larsson is an offseason acquisition type of player. I am not one to say that he is untouchable (no one is now on this roster), but there are times when you can get the most return on a player. This is not it for Larsson.

I would think Swedish folk troll would be less offensive than internet troll. At least for me. Nice to see you again, SD! I see you joined the bearded since your time with Kevin Smith.

When is this thread just going to die? It was brought up by speculation, retweeted by further speculation and furthermore discounted by the actual player involved that has a NTC. This just in: Cory Schneider said he wants out, it wasn't at all about his kid being born, he refuses to play for the Devils.

Yeah, the first thing we all think about how Lou operates is that when something happens he doesn't like, he runs to the media and airs his dirty laundry out. You even said, we have no idea about what happened with Daneyko. Lou may have found it reflective of the Devils/himself but there is no way you, me or anyone else would know about it outside the organization. It's just you hating on Lou and using a "protégé" to say Lou would do it the same way.

How many were coaching changes and how many were firings? You'd be surprised how few the latter were when we were winning cups. He's been great at picking coaches, just unlucky with them. Furthermore, the average lifespan of a coach is like 3 years. So with him not firing and a very short lifespan, I think Lou did pretty well. As for the other comments. Players have jobs to do just as the coach. We are already behind the 8 ball with the roster, we don't need a coach to shank a scratch as well. We can always go back to that this team isn't very good, but it is what it is right now. We still need to hold everyone accountable be it the first line, the fourth, the d, the goalie, the coach or the gm. If we have a fourth line that doesn't belong in the NHL, I'll say it because it's not the kind of team we want. The same with the coach. If we were a perfect team without a first line, we'd be in a much better spot than we are now. But we are missing so much more than that.

Interesting article. I saw someone say, I forget who, but about pulling the goalie during the Caps game was based on analytics. Analytics are useful for a great deal of things and love the they are making it a very strong part of the organization. But I worry sometimes about whether they are questioning the numbers or not. With so many stats that can be created, I feel like they can say whatever you want them to say if you have a motive for it. Sometimes basic logic is the best stat. The article hit a big pet peeve of mine too about "another coach that was fired could be going on to win the cup." Lou fired so few coaches and when he did he was well in the right to do so. Deboer needed to go. Julien was not going to win the cup with the team, the only problem I had was the Lou took so long to make the switch. Why act like Julien was the reason the Bruins won and use the logic to say that if he stayed coaching our team that he would've won with the Devils? He's not the reason we won or lost just like he wasn't the reason the Bruins won or lost for the most part. He's just Bill Dauterive in real life, in more than just looks. Him going in as the fullback for Hank Hill to block helped, but it was the all-state rb that scored.

It's just that he is the board's whipping boy. It doesn't matter that he was 3rd in 5v5 time, scored a goal, and the goal he was out on was Tootoo's fault.