Chuck the Duck

It is so much fun being at these games in a (relatively) full building. The energy from the crowd has been great from November on this season.

Stevens had 18 and 17, but never reached 20 with the Devils. He had 21 for the Caps in 1984-85. I thought Kurvers might have had 20, but his high was 16

Shows how much we took for granted when Marty was on this team. Not only was he a top netminder, but the guy almost never got injured and played 70 games a season. Blackwood has the tools to be a top 10 goalie in this league, but he can't stay healthy. Hopefully this injury is minor and he's out only a month.

Send Bernier to Utica for a conditioning assignment and try to showcase him for a trade at 50% retained down there. If no takers, put Bernier through waivers. If he's claimed, then good for him and it gets his salary off the books. If he is not claimed (which he won't be with that cap hit), then he's a really good insurance policy in Utica for the rest of the season. Owners will not like paying him $4.6 million to be an AHL G, and he will take time away from Daws and Schmid which is not ideal, but you really don't have much other choice. No point in releasing him and having a dead cap hit for the next 2 seasons from doing it IMO.

Totally makes sense to have Holtz on the 4th line playing 6 mins a game rather than in Utica where he is on the first line, getting PP1 time, and getting 18 minutes a night. If he isn't playing top 6, he should not be playing in the NHL. Let him develop in the minors and have Zetterlund play RW on that line.

Score more than the other team - for once Let's Go Devils!!!

I don't boo the team/players, and don't participate in chants for anyone to be fired. I get why some fans do it, but I don't believe in it personally. But we all are just sick of the losing and the play with no sense of urgency whatsoever. You can't win a Stanley Cup in October/November, but you surely can play you way out of contention for it in those months. Through 2 games, this team looks like an extension of the past few seasons which is bitterly disappointing. Hopefully they can turn it around with a good performance tonight.

I used the word might in a half-joking post meant to be overly dramatic. So you should relax yourself and not taking everything at face value. And honestly, I can't remember a start to a season where this much negativity ran throughout the fanbase right from the jump, where the head coach was booed during intros on opening night, and had chants to fire him ring out throughout the game. That is usually reserved for 5 games in. The loss to Winnipeg a few years ago was worse in that it was simply soul crushing, but to come out the way the Devils have these first 2 games, looking utterly listless in losing to a Flyers team (without Couturier) that is supposed to be in the Bedard sweepstakes, then a mediocre Red Wings team on a 2nd half of a back to back while we are playing in front of a full, energetic crowd in our home opener is pathetic. Can't wait to see how they play tonight in front of 32 of their closest family and friends. Maybe our goalies can come out and give up less goals than the other teams tender for once.

Reason 1087 why advanced stats are meaningless. Apparently the Red Wings and Flyers are getting caved in while starting the season undefeated and kicking our asses in the process while we are showing 2-way dominance and demanding that the coach be fired in what might be the worst start in franchise history. Makes tons of sense.

With Nico out, he likely will be as Mercer will probably shift to C on one of the lines. At least that is what I would do.

It wouldn't be as bad if they forced the broadcasters of the games to keep the ads static until there was a stoppage in play. For an ad to change as players are skating up ice is going to be incredibly annoying. The number 1 ad purchasers along the digitals board will be sports betting companies. They will have live odds and different prop bets constantly updating on that thing, kind of like they currently do with the boards around the fields in European soccer.

I've always been of the opinion that the franchise should stay in that city and just become defunct or dormant, regardless of where it is moved to. For example, the Scouts and their history should stay in KC, the Rockies should stay in Colorado, and none of that history should be transferred to NJ when the team was moved here. 99% of fans here in NJ do not care (or even know) about the teams fielded when the club played in KC and Denver. In the case of teams like Winnipeg or the Cleveland Browns where the team returns years later, the history and records attaches to that new team. Just my 2 cents

The US lost puck battles all over the ice last night. The Czechs neutralized their biggest strength (speed) and dominated them physically. Would the result have been different if Hughes doesn't get hurt? Probably not but it didn't help them since he was their best D and probably the best D overall in this tournament so far. To say he had a bad game is unfair considering he should not have even been playing after the hit towards the end of the first. He could barely transition and skate backwards which is not ideal for a defenseman at any level, let alone in the WJC. He battled through an injury that hobbled him and made him ineffective. The bling pass at the end was stupid, I will give you that. There was nothing else about that game that you can fault him for with the condition he was playing in.

Why invite the potential controversy that could arise out of it when NOBODY is asking for a Scouts jersey and crest from 1970-something to represent the NJ Devils in 2022? Like a bunch of others have said, if you have to go down this road (we don't - the NYI literally inverted the stripes and did nothing else to their regular home jersey the last time as their RR), then use the Scouts or Rockies jersey template with the Devils colors and logo and be done with it. I personally would rather see a black version of our cup winning jerseys, but they already have the Jersey Jersey abomination still out there for 2 more years, so there is no way they put out a black version of a jersey people want to compete with that sh!tshow for sales.

With a 36 save shutout