nessus

Echoing what others have said. Holtz looked excellent last night. I’ve definitely been one of his bigger advocates but last night he looked even better than I thought he could. This is the player I saw during the world juniors tournament in 2020-2021. Hit he continues to develop like this, he is going to be dangerous on Jack’s wing in the future. Really his play off the puck has been on another level. He’s skating all over the place, and doing good work on the boards. It would be nice to get a save from Vanecek, but at least none of those goals were horrendous on his part. To channel my inner Mike Brown: at the same time, you want your goalie to be able to bail you out sometimes. Jack, Luke, Nico, the rest of the Holtz line were also amazing. Jack has this way of adapting to other teams’ play. I think this is part of why the Devils have been such a bad first period team. Once he figures out what works and what doesn’t, he really starts to dominate. This could be mistaken for a coaching adjustment, which I don’t think it is. Dougie has not been great but it’s a bummer if he’s out. Maybe Nemec gets a couple of games.

I'm really not saying anything that everybody doesn't know but man did the goaltending situation turn into a disaster. For as solid as VV was last season, and as impressive as Schmid was in the playoffs, you'd expect that at least one of them could be dependable. I can't totally blame Fitz because it was a worthwhile gamble, especially since the alternative seemed like getting someone like Hellebuyck, which would cost a lot in both assets and AAV/term. Who would have thought that Jonathan Quick could have been the simplest and most effective solution? Jokes aside , one of the main reasons the team took such a huge jump last season (in my opinion) is that the goaltending didn't take the team out of the game early every single night from the start. It's more than just making the saves - when you're down 3-0 early, it can be hard to rally game after game after game. I didn't catch the first period last night, but from what I could tell, it seemed like one of those games. Fitz really needs to come up with a plan here, and have Schmid marinate some more in the AHL if he's able to bring someone in. But this goes beyond this season - there isn't much promising talent in the system at all right now. Maybe Malek, who has been solid in Liiga these last couple of years? One thing he could have been doing is working on a long term solution. Find a young promising prospect to develop in our system, which of course is easier said than done. Other than goaltending, I'm just so surprised that the team has regressed so much. The offense should be better with an acclimated Meier, Toffoli, and a developing group of young players. The defense certainly misses Graves and Severson, but you wouldn't think Luke and Miller would be much of a downgrade overall (if at all). A consistent lineup certainly helps, but at the end of the day, this looks like a group that needs some kind of change. Can't just depend on the power play forever.

I have hardly even noticed PWM tonight. Clearly not doing a good job playing with men tonight.

Not that Stutzle was ever going to go 1st overall in 2020, but I'm so glad the Rangers didn't take him

I always try to come up with the positives, but this is just getting tiring at this point. I liked what I saw from Holtz, too bad he couldn't cash in. Some of the analytics guys used to talk about how many wins Jack's impact gets the team over the course of a season. It's always surprisingly low, like 5 or something like that. I can't imagine we don't win at least a couple of these past few games due to Jack alone in just this short time he has been out. As good as the depth looks when Jack and Nico are in the lineup, the team really depends on those two guys a lot. It's easy to lose that perspective, but those two are arguably the Devils two most important players. Still doesn't make this stretch of games any more acceptable IMO. Nothing against Luke, but I'm starting to think Dougie needs more power play time, especially with Jack out of the lineup. He can't enter the zone like Luke can, but he is so dangerous when the Devils have possession. It seems the coaching staff is starting to move on from him already, which I don't think is the right move. I can't wait for Miller to be ready to go. If he is able to play the PK, I really hope he keeps Smith out of the lineup from here on. Disappointing preseason showing aside, he can't possibly be anything but an upgrade.

You do a much better ranger idiot impression than me so I won’t even try. But it’s pretty comical how quickly they all flipped from “get this scrub off the team” to “Laf really is showing he can be a star goal scorer”

The positives I took from this game: Meier and Mercer seem to be coming alive. They both were creating significantly more than they had been earlier this season. Particularly Meier, I thought he was showcasing the skills that made him so great in SJ. Bratt also is still doing his thing, no matter who is on his line. Schmid also was good. I personally am not super confident in the goalie situation right now, but Vanecek has been solid for most of this season so far, and a bad game like that can happen to anyone. It's not like they put in Schmid and he completely took us out of the game. Is it just me, or is Marino starting to tap into his offensive potential lately? I wouldn't say he has been quite as solid defensively this season as he was last season, but he is definitely adding a lot more on the offensive end. I'll echo everything that has been said about Holtz. I cannot figure out what he did to be in the doghouse in the way that he is. Was it when he took a penalty because someone couldn't hold on to his stick? Probably would have been a decent game to try him with decent linemates, when Palat continues to struggle. As far as the defense, this is starting to look like a problem. I think Luke will offset the loss of Graves from a defensive standpoint by the end of the season. But we are really feeling the loss of Severson. I know he isn't missed much by many people around here, but he really was such a luxury to have as a RD3 last season. He made those egregious mistakes every now and then, but I would argue that he was much more solid than he got credit for. I certainly felt more comfortable with him on the ice than I do with Smith or Bahl. Zadorov wouldn't be a bad fit here, but with Nemec coming up soon, I don't think it's worth giving up much for a player like that.

Toffoli really already has 8 goals this season? That was like our team leader by game 60 of the season in 2014.

That was a good setup by Marino there. Good shift by Holtz just before that goal. Stuck with Wood who was driving toward the net to prevent a goal, then created a couple of chances on the other end.

Holtz-Tierney-Bastian Not what I would have gone with but Lindy seems to hate Holtz for some reason

It'll be a real test for this group with Nico and Jack out. Let's see if the depth is really there. The silver lining is that this could be Timo's time to show what he can do.

For all the disappointment that the Devils fanbase has had to deal with in the years between 2012 and the current era, at least we never had to hear "Peter Chiarelli being considered for GM in NJ"

Byfuglien is another one who bounced between defense and forward. The rules typically don’t apply to him but that’s another example.

I've been quite impressed with Parent in both of the last 2 preseasons. I agree that there's probably something that is preventing him from translating his skill set to the NHL, but maybe he is just a work in progress. In other news, Seamus Casey is having a monster season so far with Michigan. 14 points through 8 games so far is just nuts. Between him, Nemec, and Hameenaho, the Devils have 3 very exciting prospects that will be coming up soon. It just becomes a matter of how they'll fit them in the lineup.

Last 10 first overall picks: 2014: Ekblad 2015: McDavid 2016: Matthews 2017: Hischier 2018: Dahlin 2019: Hughes 2020: Lafreniere 2021: Power 2022: Slafkovsky 2023: Bedard I'm taking Jack over almost all of them. For a while, people were saying the Devils got two "weak" first overall picks. Jack is just about as good as it gets.