AEWHistory

It is frankly amazing how often what you write was already in my head…….. Get out of my mind CR76! Just kidding, there’s a lot of empty space up there so feel free to settle in. I just hope you aren’t too badly affected by the horror show that is my mind.

Not that I’m an expert, but I did play goal for quite a few years. Imho, this is mental. He has always been a backup, right? Now that he has gained a starting position this year he has a lot to lose if it went poorly. For the most part he did fine though. Then when the pressure of the playoffs hit he melted. I’ve experienced the same in my life and that’s what I’ve seen here. Again, just my $.02.

I have an honest query here. People have complained all season that Ruff wasn’t making adjustments. I think these critiques are valid, given what people saw. My question is: was this intentional? After the first couple weeks of the season the Devils were pretty much safe to make the playoffs. So why not minimize the options shown to other teams and save that for the playoffs? Maybe I’m overthinking this, but it just seems so interesting that Ruff was basically rigid in the regular season but in the playoffs he has been willing to make what have mostly been the right adjustments when the team underperformed. This would, in theory, give the Devils some advantages during the playoffs since there wouldn’t be as much tape to study on how he makes changes, right? This is done in the NFL all of the time, but I’m not sure if hockey strategists work the same way so I’d be interested in what you folks think.

Here is hoping you end up drunk on your ass from stout! LGD! PS- and keep that triple IPA closed brother. We gotta win this tonight!

Holy sh!t! Hockey is played on ice!?

In re to the bolded: true, but he has at least scored. We aren’t going to win a SC based on Lazar’s play, but I haven’t seen any reason to bench him when he has actually produced something.

I’m not sure I agree. I told my wife before the playoffs started that the young core guys would probably hit a wall never having played hockey this much—especially with this much intensity. They look worn and slower than they normally play. Perhaps that’s Brind’amour’s coaching shutting us down, but I see guys winded. After all, this is why rookies and younger players hit walls all the time. You come into the league playing, what? 35-50 games a year? Now you’re playing 82. Then you make the playoffs and they’ve played 9 games so far. Even if we lose this series in a sweep the guys will have played almost 15% extra of a season this year. Nico, Jack, Bratt, etc. have never done this. I would love to see a study of this, if one exists, but I suspect that most players wear out in their first playoffs because they’ve never been pushed this hard before. Time, conditioning, and experience should remedy much of this. And one more thing: move Bratt for another Timo. I agree with all of you saying Bratt is done here. He only seems to shine when there is no pressure. Great for a losing team to get some scoring, but if you’re trying to win a Stanley cup that won’t do.

OMFG, you’re so right!

Howdy everyone, I just wanted to follow up with some info that may be useful to you all. I splurged and got the free-trial of Fubo and they do carry MSG, you would need a NY zip code. OTOH, I simply changed my zip in the Fubo panel and got MSG. Not sure if this will last, but for now it seems I can watch the Devils win tomorrow night.

So I have a confession to make: I have never set up a VPN. I’m pretty sure it stands for Virtual Private Network, but there my knowledge begins and ends. Anyway, this is probably an ignorant question but how does a VPN help watch the devils? Because you can set it to different broadcast areas? I suppose this would be a solution to being blacked out in certain areas. Hopefully last question: are there different VPN apps? Any recommendations for someone simply minded. 😋 as always, thanks!

So the title gives away the plot: essentially I am trying to nail down a way to watch the Devils in the playoffs. I’ve looked in thestreamable.com and it says I can get MSG on Fubo and DTV. Hwoever, neither of them shows MSG as being available and if the Fubo/DTV websites don’t mention MSG I would think it is because they’re not carrying it, no? So I am confused—it happens easily so that’s not a surprise—how do you guys get MSG? please don’t say thru your cable provider…. But probably thru cable? Also, do we know if other networks might carry the Devils like one of the ESPNs? As always, thanks for any help, aaron

Not sure this is worthy of a thread, but I figured the JC Superstar reference would at least give everyone a smile. So how has Spencer Davidson—the author—mistaken Mackenzie Blackwood for an all star!? Did Blackwood actually make an all star game or something? Most importantly, will Andrew Lloyd Weber make a rock opera about Blackwood the way he did for that carpenter? https://sports.yahoo.com/m/c25a06e1-bea8-36d4-afad-b75e86ebf53d/devils-all-star-goalie.html

My biggest worry is that this team isn’t ready for the playoff grind, no matter how good they are this season. Perhaps I’m looking at it the wrong way, but my POV is this: this is a team that thrives on speed, but very few of our players have spent much time in the playoffs. Palat is the obvious exception, but I can’t help but worry about how our speed game breaks down as the fatigue of the playoffs sets in and the games get more punishing. For my money, I think run with this team as it is constructed and let them learn to win. Assuming they make the playoffs—a virtual certainty that I hope I didn’t just jinx—they’ll get their first real taste of the intensity of playoff hockey in the NHL. After this year I would begin to earnestly make moves for a cup, but for now I’d leave it. Then again, maybe this is why I’m not a GM. As an aside, I recall reading (maybe on this site?) that Fitz doesn’t like deadline trades. Assuming that’s correct, I think he won’t do anything much this season and run with this team. If we hadn’t gone on such a tear then I’d say we move Sev for more assets or an upgrade somewhere. As it is now, though, I think Fitz let’s this team figure out how far they can get. Thats my two cents. Good thread CR1976. I never followed Tatar prior to his joining the Devs, but was the knock on him poor playoff performance? Or poor regular season? Or something else? I want to say I heard his issue was the playoffs, but maybe I’m thinking of Marino. Anyway, I’m a curious as you about his turnaround. Maybe he’s finally motivated now we have a chance to win something? Edit: oh wow, I just looked him up and he’s been in the league over ten years!? He started around the time my kids were born and I was up to my neck in crappy diapers, but I thought he’d only been around about 5 years. Looking at his history, I feel like he has returned to form I suppose, but I’d be curious what other people think about him. Not sure if that’s worth a thread tho…

Whoa people, slow down! I can’t get to all these replies…. Seriously, I thought this might create some historical discussion? EDIT: don’t make be beg…. Because I’ll do it and it isn’t pretty….

So I have a theory about the unpredictability of goalies. I suspect that the bar has been raised about as high as it can go for goalie stats to be considered good. A consequence of this, imho, is that even the best goalies struggle to maintain stats that we’d consider great today. Perhaps I’m leaving something out of my thought process but look at the best save percentages over a career and I think the very highest is something like .930 and I think that is Hasek. OTOH, today a great goalie is a expected to have a save % around .920, which would mean that their margin for error is excruciatingly small. EDIT: so looking it up it appears that the best all time is .922! This means that the current expectation for a great goalie is to have a save percentage that only a few people have ever attained. There are only six people that have a 92% or better save percentage. So is it any wonder that goaltending seems inconsistent when the expectation has been skewed so high that every goalie is expected to be a HoF candidate in order to compete in the modern NHL. I just don’t think many people can do this and virtually no one can do it consistently. As much as it pains me to say this, players like Brodeur and Hasek are generational talents, so the likelihood that we will find another is quite small. I’d hope that the NHL finally realizes this and forces goalies to wear smaller pads. This would add to scoring but it would also make goaltending a bit more like it was 30+ years ago…… or so I have hoped. Just my $.02. https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/nhl-goalies-all-time-save-percentage-leaders.html

Okay, so it is the off-season (for us anyway) and, besides what we might do with our shiny new number 2OA pick., there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. This got me wondering about an idea that has flitted through my mind from time to time: what if LL had kept Lemieux after the first cup win. Essentially, the question here is if Lemieux was that missing piece that kept the late 90s devils from winning more cups? Or would things have stayed the same. From my POV the Devils were one of the last teams that had a chance to become one of the great NHL dynasties. To do that would’ve required being in at least 4 Cups in 4 or 5 years and winning most of the cups they were in, if not all. Even as it is the Devils came painfully close to being a true dynasty, as did the Red Wings. Looking back at those late 90s teams it always seemed that what they lacked were playoff performers. They were unquestionably a very good regular season team (although missing the playoffs after winning the cup was not a great look) but underperformed in the playoffs. The answer, for me, was Lemieux and I submit that Devils missed out on at least one cup appearance because Lemieux was no longer with the team. So that’s my opinion and I’m curious about we’re you all fit in this debate.

From your keyboard to G-d’s ears…..

Well, that just goes to show you how out of touch I am with other teams—I was totally unaware that they had released the jersey. I like your idea though. I have a soft spot for the Rockies because so many of the players I started out following as a wee one played for the Rockies. Even now my all time favorite Devil is still Resch. He was the beating heart of that team early on.

I get where you’re coming from, and maybe I’m the lone lunatic here, but I did become a Rockies fan when there was talk of them moving to NJ. I was just a wee thing and started out as a Flyers fan back in 1979 or so. (I’ve since been treated with strong antibiotics and I feel much better.) I remember talk in 81-82 about the Rockies moving to NJ and started to follow them with some excitement. I even have a few newspaper scraps that might still be around. So I’d welcome a Rockies throwback. For me that is where it all started and we owe Colorado, and maybe even KC, a special thanks for being silly enough to let this team go! Okay, I kid…. But I’d still like a Rockies retro jersey honoring the Devs past. I think I would want a “Lanny McDonald was almost a Devil” sort of jersey. I thought he was awesome as a kid.

YES! BCS isn’t as intense as BB mostly, but it is a fascinating character study. Hard to argue that, but as much as I like the whole BB series I liked Deadwood even more. Deadwood is, IMO, the best written show in television history.

Burrrrrnnnn!

I love Scarlett Johansen but I thought the movie was really mediocre. It was trying to be too clever for its own good, not to mention that the character, Black Widow, just doesn’t carry the movie all that well. There is a reason why they had Iron Man in a Spider Man film and a slew of other heroes in Captain America films: most of these characters are best playing off each other and as part of a “world” of super heroes. The only solo hero films that have been pretty good were Downey’s first forays as Iron Man. Otherwise the whole MCU has really thrived when they cross over instead of trying to hold down whole films with one character. I saw last week that sales of the BW film on Disney+ have really dived and it really isn’t surprising. It is a shame, but I’m not surprised.

Yea, but doesn’t it feel good knowing that they basically have the entire hockey world trying to help them and they still can’t manage more than about one cup every half century? I mean, seriously, what a testament to ineptitude.

Here is what I don’t get: I remember being young and sex was still novel to me. What I don’t remember is being in the throes of passion and thinking, “wait, lemme get my phone and document this.” Maybe it is generational, but the things I wanted to play with were all on my partner’s body and none of them were on my phone….

I couldn’t agree more. This is doubly true given that the former culture of winning above all else and discipline that Lou installed has basically been lost. Now it needs to be rebuilt and that requires people with strong character—people who put being great above wanting things like saving a little driving time to get to practice. Oh how I miss Ken Daneyko’s toughness, Stevens leadership, toughness, and will to dominate, Elias’s brilliance (I think you deserve the HoF Patty!) and Brodeur’s amazing consistency (not to mention Lemieux’s clutch performances and many other wonderful players). Man, I can’t wait to get home and fire up my VHS copy of Heaven and the other cup run videos. Now to hook up my VCR….. my kids will be very confused.