Colorado Rockies 1976

Well with soccer if I had endure watching a sport where way too many games end in scoreless ties or 1-0 final scores and it takes NINETY MINUTES to get there…yeah I might riot too. Yeah seems like NFL games in general see their fair share of fans fighting in the stands, parking lot, you name it.

Brutal third period but somehow the Devils win. Nice GWG by Haula.

Glad Holtz is in. Keep playing him.

No fanbase is perfect, and I’ve pointed out the “mutants” within our fanbase. But based on my own personal experience and observations, Ranger fans are the worst. Doesn’t mean every last one of them suck and I know some cool ones that I can actually talk hockey with, but a lot of them…they just suck.

I also feel like the Ranger fans cemented themselves as THE douchiest fanbase in the NHL with their behavior in our building throughout that series. They are just the absolute fvcking WORST.

The funny (for us) thing about this is that friggin’ Hextall decided that Marino’s salary was a PROBLEM! A guy locked up to EXTREMELY reasonable AAV and term who happens to be really REALLY good at what he does! Hextall just HAD to dump that salary to make room for Jeff Petry! I swear Hextall was the friggin’ anti-Fitz of GMs.

Damn, no one willing to take him for free?! Ouch.

Yeah, all guys who figured to be headed to Utica. No surprises there.

Re: Toffoli, I’m certainly not expecting him to repeat what he did last season…of course, I’m not really expecting Tatar to either. Tatar and/or his agent definitely didn’t take into account that GMs usually do some homework…prior to last season, Tatar had put up 15 goals and 18 assists in 88 GP…and was also getting healthy-scratched at times (and of course was now in his 30s). Not good…at the very least, not the kind of guy GMs look to sign to more than a year. Sure, he was a very pleasant surprise, but no way would I expect another season like that. Honestly I’m a bit surprised that Fitz even made him an offer…I would’ve just been happy that I’d gotten a good season out of Tatar in his walk year, and moved on. I like that Toffoli’s pure production ceiling should be a good bit higher than Tatar’s. I think Toffoli’s going to have a solid year…55-60 points, 25-30 goals.

Yeah, maybe on a bad team (or one in the very early stages of a rebuild) he plays out of necessity and his team is willing to let him take some lumps. The problem last year was that team simply turned the corner and the kid just wasn't able to keep up. I think he would've had a difficult year with the big club regardless based on what I saw, but getting 60+ games (like Jack did) would've been nice...it just couldn't happen, given that pretty much everyone else was ready to win (like you said, the Devils were just too good to try to live with such a raw kid's growing pains). Really seems like the kid put in some serious time and effort this offseason. Kudos to him for that.

Makes me curious to see how Dawson's negotiations will go when the time comes. Fitz has done a great job with re-signing guys so far, and Dawson does really seem to want to be a part of this thing going forward. Hope it goes smoothly.

So curious to see if Holtz makes the team out of preseason; of course he did manage that last year, but clearly wasn't yet ready, and that became obvious fairly quickly. Different feel early on so far (improved skating and he looked as good all-around as I've ever seen him in his first preseason game this season). Even if he did start the season with Utica (maybe due to simple early-season numbers crunch), I still think he would get a look up here before much longer. I hope he draws into the rest of the preseason schedule.

re: the bolded, for sure, I think those two are going to be excellent and I'm glad they're Devils. We just gotta remind ourselves that Luke just turned 20, and Nemec is only 19. As we know, when it comes to many young defensemen, there's bound to be growing pains and rough stretches. Hopefully most fans are willing to be patient with both of them, because I suspect we'll see our share of "huh what?!" games out of them early on. Obviously he's not a defenseman, but there were definitely some fans sounding the alarm bells when Jack didn't waltz into the league and immediately start tearing it up. You can definitely see that the ability and talent is there with both Luke and Simon...it will be fun to watch them put it all together.

I thought he played like a promising rookie tonight…you definitely saw both good and iffy moments. But yeah I think this kid is going to be terrific…the talent is absolutely there.

Lafreniere already in mid-season form…I barely noticed him.