Colorado Rockies 1976

He's coached in every single NHL season since 2001-02 (obviously not all full-season campaigns). Maybe the guy should sit out for just one season? I guess he loves to coach, how could he not, to keep coming back year after year after year...but in all this time, he's reached three SCF (he did win one, though that was a kooky season). His teams have made the playoffs a bunch but often haven't done that much upon getting there. Feels like an uncreative "safe" hire by Drury here, in a lot of ways. I don't think is necessarily the best hockey mind to have behind the bench, but his players do genuinely seem to like him, and they do play hard for him. In some ways I think they almost played a little TOO hard for him, crazy as that sounds...I think in the years to come, the kids will realize that finishing with as many points as possible isn't THAT important in the NHL...I think you will a handful of games where the Devils will simply say "We're not killing ourselves tonight...we're effectively taking this night off, and then we'll be in better physical shape to handle some other games)." Of course no one wants to see those games and it sucks if it's a game you bought tix to, but given some of the goofy scheduling that ALL teams have to endure, I get that there will be 5-7 games where some teams simply know that it's not happening those nights. On a side note, that makes the idea of an 84-game schedule absurd to me. I'd rather see the NHL go back to 80 myself. But of course, the new thinking among commishes is that more is somehow better. It isn't. These guys need breathers and occasional rest within a long season.

When your best friend is a Ranger fan... I will admit, this dude is like family to me...and our families are like families to each other. We have a great time every time that we all get together...as we did this past Memorial Day weekend. BUT, he is a Ranger fan...not nearly as bad as some, but when you have a friendship that works on literally EVERY other level, you simply gotta bite your tongue... ...like when said best friend for life says "Jack Hughes is a punk. He'd better watch it!" (I have no idea what he possibly meant by this...I've NEVER heard Hughes called a punk, not even by other Rangers fans, who seem to actually respect him as much as they can, given that he wears the red and black). All I said to that was "C'mon man, you KNOW you wish you had him! Are you happier with LaFailure and Kakko?" He then said "Well, not like we had a chance to take Hughes." So I HAD to remind him "Yeah, I get that fully, but YOUR FAN BASE cheered the Devils taking Hughes so that the Rangers could nab Kakko with their pick, at the draft. And Valiquette actually said for all to hear that he felt Kakko would be the better player!" Him: "I like Valiquette" Me: "So, how about those friggin' Mets" (We're both Mets fans so might as well move on to common ground) Some random stuff that he said about the Rangers: He's done with Panarin. Seems to be more and more Ranger fans who feel the same way. He's losing patience with LaFailure. If they go with Laviolette, he is not going to be happy with that choice. Also is quickly becoming convinced Drury is not the right man to be the GM.

I actually find that rather amusing. 2-3 years later he and Drury will be shown the door. And 2-3 more years will have gone by without the Rangers winning a Cup. I did see that and it's a (much needed) start.

Yeah think DBA's time as a NHL head coach might be up. And it would be nice to stop seeing all of these retreads getting chance after chance. Feels like the NHL coaching ranks need some new blood.

Didn't see or hear anything about Brylin going elsewhere. Just did a quick search and nothing came up.

I was all for him too initially but not impressed with his work with the Devils' power play. I suspect he took the "associate" coach job with the understanding that the head coaching gig would be his before too long. And though Lindy's obviously been given some vote of confidence, I think the fact that he's still here is more of a reflection of Fitz souring on Brunette just enough. Not sure the whole golf cart incident did him any favors. Maybe Dineen joins the big club's coaching staff? Maybe Brylin's tasked with more? Yeah no idea where Fitz goes next.

They’re doing EXACTLY what a .500 team does. Teases followed by bad losses. Not to mention the offense is too inconsistent and the pitching staff is just not good.

One of those kooky Colorado games…Mets fall behind 6-0, then take a 7-6 lead, then lose 10-7. Alonso hits his 20th and continues to be the prototypical modern-day low-event hitter…a HR, a walk, or a K.

Why is Vogelbach still a thing here? Along with clearly having gained all his weight back and then some, the guy with the .219 career average damned near never gets a hit. Enough already.

Is the assumption that he doesn’t currently have any on the team?

This isn’t the NBA. And as the guys paid to bounce balls in that league have proven many times, it’s not as simple as one or two players suddenly deciding that they’re capable of being GMs and feeling like they should be calling the shots as to how their team’s roster should be constructed. Players play. GMs assemble teams.

Tkachuk held all the cards, in terms of where he wanted to go. Not to mention exactly how many 100-point players did the Devils have to give back in a deal?

Just glad neither one suffered an injury.

Bob is sure doing a passable imitation of Quick, that's for sure. Bob is a guy who put up a -12 GSAA as a Panther coming into these playoffs, and hadn't exactly torn it up in prior playoff seasons...I know he has a pair of Vezinas to his name, but goddamn this guy has just come out of almost nowhere to shred...an .846 QS% and 14.7 GSAA in these playoffs. That's just insanely great.

Yeah I think the 2022-23 Devils simply went as far they could. Fortunately that shouldn't be the top of the mountain for them.

I think fans can absolutely blow up the captaincy to be more than it is...some fans think captains are full of Hollywood inspirational speech moments and can somehow routinely will their teams to victory. That being said, what Benn did was just SO unworthy of a good captain that no matter how much those within the Stars organization try to back him, I think he should absolutely be stripped of the C. And that absurd excuse as to why what happened happened...I can't even really take him all that seriously anymore.

As we know, the Canes are now the victims of THREE straight ELC sweeps...(2009 vs Penguins, 2019 vs Bruins, and now 2023 vs Panthers). At least if they reach another one, that's something that will get brought up to them quite a bit, maybe enough that if they fall behind 0-2, that'll start to get inside their heads.

Yeah on the WFAN this morning, they were rightly pointing out all of the (unsustainable) miracles that the Mets needed just to win all of five games by one run each. Not good. I've said this before but Senga sucks. I know the ERA isn't terrible, but this friggin' guy walks 5.8 per 9 IP and also has a 1.521 WHIP. Those are pure sh!t numbers. Unfortunately going the Jap route really is like a box of chocolates...some of those guys succeed here and some just flat-out don't. Stroman's a joke...dude, you're a friggin .500 pitcher and you haven't won d!ck. I'd tell him to act like he's been there before, but he wouldn't know, because he HASN'T been there before, really. He's not some scrub, but good lord...you're not THAT good pal. BTW your team isn't even playing .500 ball, just like last year...just sayin'.

Boston was one. I forget the other.

MB3’s son is out of surgery (was 8.5 hrs long) and though he’ll have a long recovery ahead, at least this part is over. Passing this along as he asked me to let everyone know. Also wanted to thank all for the well wishes and prayers. Hope they all get through the tougher days still ahead.

https://twitter.com/travisyost/status/1661414606873726977?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Didn’t realize that Carolina has now lost eleven straight ECF games. And being that they didn’t win any games in the first of those series, a loss tonight would represent a third straight ECF where the Canes were swept right out. D’oh!

I don’t have enough laugh emojis for this one…this is fvcking hysterical.

Oh sure Jamie guess now everyone’s stupid?

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/devils LOTS of cap room and LOTS of players to sign. And yeah lots of opportunity for Fitz to be creative. Only one more year for Schneider and Kuokkanen’s dead hits, and then all that’s left is one more year of Kovalchuk’s annual $250k recapture penalty. Devils should have ALL of their money to work with after the 2024-25 season.