We Suck

[NJDevs26]

something i still dont understand, and was expecting. why not give up a 29th 1st round pick? stupid.

 

The philosophy is that a pick today is worth more than a pick two years from now.  It's a philosophy I don't agree with when you're talking about giving up dramatically different-valued picks in those years though.  If they wind up having to give up a late teens early 20's pick, I'm fine with that.  The difference is negligible at that level.  

 

If they have to give up a top ten next year on the other hand, it's a disaster.  There was always a lot more chance they have to give up a top ten than a bottom ten with Marty's age and potentially even more gaping holes opening up on our forward core this offseason.

[devlman]

I hate to say I agree with this, but I agree with this. Tonight was my breaking point. I've tried to stay positive throughout this whole stretch, but I've reached the point where I've seen enough to know what the deal is. As I said after the Boston game- it just isn't our year. Here's to hopefully a top 10 pick and success in 2014.

You may have been understandably positive about things, but what about all the people who defended this awful hockey the past two months and absolutely lambasted those who dared point out flaws in the game...where are they now?

[ATLL765]

You may have been understandably positive about things, but what about all the people who defended this awful hockey the past two months and absolutely lambasted those who dared point out flaws in the game...where are they now?

Well, the people who were saying, 'trade everyone, we're terrible, wahhh' are still big babies and need to get over it. I'm still here! Buyouts are coming in the offseason, just get over us not going all in on a half season. It wasn't going to happen that way unless the stars aligned. Now just be happy that we have tons of cap space for next year and we'll be in one of the best positions in the NHL to sign bought out talent.

[Devil Dan 56]

They're paying the price now for making too many mistakes since last year. Bad contracts to old guys, not replacing or even trying to replace Parise, no fresh blood, old defense with hardly any offensive talent, nobody back there with a decent shot from the point during the PP...

They also should've forfeited their 1st rounder last year. I mean, it was clear it wouldn't get any lower and why did they draft Matteau?!? C'mon. Guys like that are a dime a dozen. Another hard working, non scoring winger. Just forfeiting the pick would have been the right thing to do. No they will do it next year when it will be a top 10 pick or s.th. like that. Boy, would that suck.

With this team, and that is the only positive, you can simply go to bed when the other team scores first. So much extra sleep! Even a 0-1 deficit is too much for the Devils to overcome. There is just no offensive talent. So frustrating.   

 

They're paying the price for 20 years of top 10 finishes. They lost franchise players that can't just be replaced through free agency. Stevens, Niedermayer, Rafalski, Parise... these are guys you either draft early or get lucky in acquiring. 

 

I agree that last year's pick should have been forfeited but if Matteau can be another Zubrus, he will be very valuable to this team. Part of me thinks they kept the pick in hopes that Subban or Vasilevski would be around at 29th overall. 

[gardenstatepkwy]

The title of this topic appears to be accurate.  +1.

Edited April 7, 2013 by gardenstatepkwy

[munichdevil]

They're paying the price for 20 years of top 10 finishes. They lost franchise players that can't just be replaced through free agency. Stevens, Niedermayer, Rafalski, Parise... these are guys you either draft early or get lucky in acquiring. 

 

I agree that last year's pick should have been forfeited but if Matteau can be another Zubrus, he will be very valuable to this team. Part of me thinks they kept the pick in hopes that Subban or Vasilevski would be around at 29th overall. 

 

Sure it's tough to have low draft picks year after year. No doubt you're losing out on the biggest talent that way. However, that is no excuse for handing out long term contracts to already old, slow defensemen or overpaying for Zajac. They NEED to buy out Volchenkov and Salvador in the summer. Of the UFAs, I would try to resign Elias, Zubrus and Clarkson only and let the others walk. Elias and Zubrus should get 2 years max, if they want more than that it has to be good bye. As for Clarkson, I would not overpay to keep him like we did with Zajac. There will be lots of FA available in the summer, we have to go shopping there. We need another goalie too. 

[NJDevs4978]

They're paying the price for 20 years of top 10 finishes. They lost franchise players that can't just be replaced through free agency. Stevens, Niedermayer, Rafalski, Parise... these are guys you either draft early or get lucky in acquiring. 

 

I agree that last year's pick should have been forfeited but if Matteau can be another Zubrus, he will be very valuable to this team. Part of me thinks they kept the pick in hopes that Subban or Vasilevski would be around at 29th overall. 

 

I was the guy's biggest fan and I wouldn't put Raf in with those three talent-wise at all.  Plus the Devils 'could' have kept Raf if they really wanted to, Lou was blase about giving him an offer really both times he hit UFA but he didn't want to leave until Detroit got rid of Schnieder and made him a good offer.

[Devil Dan 56]

I was the guy's biggest fan and I wouldn't put Raf in with those three talent-wise at all.  Plus the Devils 'could' have kept Raf if they really wanted to, Lou was blase about giving him an offer really both times he hit UFA but he didn't want to leave until Detroit got rid of Schnieder and made him a good offer.

 

Yeah, true, he isn't on that Hall of Fame defense level, but I felt he was a real big part of the team post-Stevens and Nieds. He was another loss that wasn't too easy to replace. I think they thought Paul Martin could, but he never turned into a big offensive threat and couldn't wait to escape NJ. 

[SterioDesign]

 

 

They're paying the price for 20 years of top 10 finishes. They lost franchise players that can't just be replaced through free agency. Stevens, Niedermayer, Rafalski, Parise... these are guys you either draft early or get lucky in acquiring. 

 

I agree that last year's pick should have been forfeited but if Matteau can be another Zubrus, he will be very valuable to this team. Part of me thinks they kept the pick in hopes that Subban or Vasilevski would be around at 29th overall. 

 

if thats true that they we're hoping to get Subban or Vasilevski it's probably bad news that Wedge and Kinkaid are not developing like the organization would like them too, would also explain why Deboer didnt even consider giving Kinkaid a start. I certainly hope not though.

Edited April 7, 2013 by SterioDesign

[Devil Dan 56]

if thats true that they we're hoping to get Subban or Vasilevski it's probably bad news that Wedge and Kinkaid are not developing like the organization would like them too, would also explain why Deboer didnt even consider giving Kinkaid a start. I certainly hope not though.

 

That was just a guess by me. I don't know if that's why they kept the pick. And I don't think it would have anything to do with they other guys maybe not developing right. Especially not Wedge, as he hadn't even played a full pro season yet. Personally, I just think you can never have too many high end goalie prospects when your team has 2 old goalies, and Subban or Vasilevski would fit that bill.

 

All just speculation on my part, of course.

[Devilsfan118]

The future looks bleak right now, but a lot can happen in one offseason.

Lou's a magician, he won't let this team go into the season next year like this.

[munichdevil]

The future looks bleak right now, but a lot can happen in one offseason.

Lou's a magician, he won't let this team go into the season next year like this.

I really don't think the future looks all that bleak. There will be a lot of movement during the summer, but Lou has to be willing to cut off deserving players. Actually, this summer is a great chance to change the look of the franchise big time. There is a lot of defensive talent in the system, not just in Albany, but also in juniors (Scarlett for example), and he should start dealing some of it for offense. Also, we probably will miss the Playoffs and draft high. This is a great draft. Maybe we can even trade up a little and get somebody real good. The core is not bad and I am confident Lou will change the face of the team and do it well. Heck, we're one year removed from the finals, it can't be all bad. 

Edited April 7, 2013 by munichdevil

[SterioDesign]

honestly we can blame luck all we want the season, at a certain extend i agree we've been really unlucky. I'd put luck our 10th problem right now, but there's 9 before that...

 

1- It all starts by signing and putting the C on our worst dman, what the fvck was that? When things go back young guys and the whole team have to look up at their captain to bring them to another level, how can you possibly feel inspired or anything when your captain is your worst player? Im sure they all love him but it got to piss off some dmen that they are sitting instead of him, it's common sense.

 

2- That 8 dmen carousel of mediocre at best dmen is hurting Larsson big time, he even admitted it. It's absolutely useless and incredibly bad management of our rookies. There's absolutely NO point of sitting 2 nhl dmen every game of the season. Unless they are really a 7th old veteran being okay with that role. Not top rookies who could play and develop either in the AHL or by playing regularly.

 

3- About 20% of our scoring from last year is gone and Lou didnt replace that. That's a LOT to cover from within the team, and that % is even more important considering we've win a LOT of games by only 1 goal.

 

4- While by looking at our depth i tend to tell myself, we have a pretty good depth when healthy... things that we saw all year like burning a year off Matteau's contract when the kid couldnt even crack his junior national team, guys having to fill roles they simply couldnt and we're asked to do way too much i.e. Gionta steady on the PK. Then a guy didnt even had a spot on another NHL team who we're acquired for the future and depth on our AHL team got called up after JJ's injury and became our best player on the top line. Great great move by Lou but im convinced he never thought he would turned out this good this quickly. Got lucky there.

 

5- Our newly signed top center (who should really be a 2nd line center imo) is awfuly underperforming, it's sad to see it's hard to hate on the guy for a reason or another but he really need to get it going.

 

6- Our PP is really not good. Some will argue that our PP is good cause we get shots on nets... but come on, just look at it. Its not good at all, we're 20th in the league i think and we're seen HORRIBLE PPs on a regular basis, where we couldnt even set up or get one shot in a 2 minute, even not even a shot on a 5 on 3.

 

7- Our goaltending has been terrible for most part, i wouldnt blame brodeur cause he's been "decent" enough to give us chances to win but our lack of scoring never gave him room for mistakes. On the other hand Moose absolutely killed any momentum we could ever get. And how often we're we really close to score you could feel it coming, we were buzzing around the net coming close, just to see the other team break out and scoring off the rush? seriously... how many times guys?

 

8- We can't score, we're last or 29th in the league in scoring and really there's no excuses. Looking at the team play we're really not creating lot's of good scoring chances, I rarely feel like we're dangerous in the offensive zone. We've seen it from time to time but not on a regular basic. 

 

9- We're bad on faceoffs, and often we're caught in our zone icing the puck 3-4 times in a row and it's only waiting to end up in our net.

 

Something has to happen cause unless something drastic happen, most of those problems will still be there next season. Obviously simply more luck could have helped A LOT, a few well timed goals here and there could have have us a few more wins thats for sure. But all around we've been bad on a regular basic in all those areas.

That was just a guess by me. I don't know if that's why they kept the pick. And I don't think it would have anything to do with they other guys maybe not developing right. Especially not Wedge, as he hadn't even played a full pro season yet. Personally, I just think you can never have too many high end goalie prospects when your team has 2 old goalies, and Subban or Vasilevski would fit that bill.

 

All just speculation on my part, of course.

 

oh i know i know i was just adding to your speculation. I simply think Lou kept the pick knowing that player would likely be able to help us sooner, big risk but thats the only explanation i can think of

[ATLL765]

honestly we can blame luck all we want the season, at a certain extend i agree we've been really unlucky. I'd put luck our 10th problem right now, but there's 9 before that...

 

1- It all starts by signing and putting the C on our worst dman, what the fvck was that? When things go back young guys and the whole team have to look up at their captain to bring them to another level, how can you possibly feel inspired or anything when your captain is your worst player? Im sure they all love him but it got to piss off some dmen that they are sitting instead of him, it's common sense.

 

2- That 8 dmen carousel of mediocre at best dmen is hurting Larsson big time, he even admitted it. It's absolutely useless and incredibly bad management of our rookies. There's absolutely NO point of sitting 2 nhl dmen every game of the season. Unless they are really a 7th old veteran being okay with that role. Not top rookies who could play and develop either in the AHL or by playing regularly.

 

3- About 20% of our scoring from last year is gone and Lou didnt replace that. That's a LOT to cover from within the team, and that % is even more important considering we've win a LOT of games by only 1 goal.

 

4- While by looking at our depth i tend to tell myself, we have a pretty good depth when healthy... things that we saw all year like burning a year off Matteau's contract when the kid couldnt even crack his junior national team, guys having to fill roles they simply couldnt and we're asked to do way too much i.e. Gionta steady on the PK. Then a guy didnt even had a spot on another NHL team who we're acquired for the future and depth on our AHL team got called up after JJ's injury and became our best player on the top line. Great great move by Lou but im convinced he never thought he would turned out this good this quickly. Got lucky there.

 

5- Our newly signed top center (who should really be a 2nd line center imo) is awfuly underperforming, it's sad to see it's hard to hate on the guy for a reason or another but he really need to get it going.

 

6- Our PP is really not good. Some will argue that our PP is good cause we get shots on nets... but come on, just look at it. Its not good at all, we're 20th in the league i think and we're seen HORRIBLE PPs on a regular basis, where we couldnt even set up or get one shot in a 2 minute, even not even a shot on a 5 on 3.

 

7- Our goaltending has been terrible for most part, i wouldnt blame brodeur cause he's been "decent" enough to give us chances to win but our lack of scoring never gave him room for mistakes. On the other hand Moose absolutely killed any momentum we could ever get. And how often we're we really close to score you could feel it coming, we were buzzing around the net coming close, just to see the other team break out and scoring off the rush? seriously... how many times guys?

 

8- We can't score, we're last or 29th in the league in scoring and really there's no excuses. Looking at the team play we're really not creating lot's of good scoring chances, I rarely feel like we're dangerous in the offensive zone. We've seen it from time to time but not on a regular basic. 

 

9- We're bad on faceoffs, and often we're caught in our zone icing the puck 3-4 times in a row and it's only waiting to end up in our net.

 

Something has to happen cause unless something drastic happen, most of those problems will still be there next season. Obviously simply more luck could have helped A LOT, a few well timed goals here and there could have have us a few more wins thats for sure. But all around we've been bad on a regular basic in all those areas.

 

oh i know i know i was just adding to your speculation. I simply think Lou kept the pick knowing that player would likely be able to help us sooner, big risk but thats the only explanation i can think of

I'm telling you, changes will be drastic this offseason. When I say drastic, I mean drastic by Lou standards, not by what the actual word, "drastic" means. Still, things will be different here.

1. We're signing a buyout player, I can feel it. My bet is a top 6 winger. Probably not gonna be a top flight talent, but who of the buyouts is? Most likely a former 1st line player, signed as such, only to have underperformed, but is still someone you wouldn't mind on your 2nd line or PP and is likely willing to sign a favorable contract to avoid the situation he just escaped. Just my guess.

2. Probably going to buy out Volchenkov, bringing us to 7 D.

 

3. We're trading Tallinder next year since it's his last contract year and someone will take him then. That leaves us with 6 D, my guess is that we put in a young guy until he shows he's not ready for playoffs, which is when we put in our #7, likely to be Harrold, if he(Urbom/Gelinas/Merrill) shines, well, then we won't see much of Harrold.

Edited April 7, 2013 by ATLL765

[SterioDesign]

were gonna have to pay a high price and even though i dont like Clarkson... we pretty much HAVE to sign him... from our last "success" season we're already missing about 20% of our scoring from that year, and we didnt even get the job done with  Clarkson, without him it's 36% of our scoring from 2012 gone for absolutely NOTHING in return other than cap space that we didnt even used this year.

 

Again i may not like Clarkson but his amount of goals he has right now is pretty fair to what we expected from him (13 goals in 38 goals is pretty fair) who really expected him to continue on that streak and finish with like 30 goals in 48 games really?

 

but bottom line is... we cant let go production and then add some, it will only bring us back to a similar results than this year, we have to keep what we have, hopefully get more from some guys like Zajac and Zubrus and add some more through free agency.

Edited April 7, 2013 by SterioDesign

[Devil Fan]

It is beyond "suck". This team is insulting the word "suck" by doing worst than "suck". The Senators overcome the injuries and sitting at 6th but this team could not do anything right. No offense and PP is coffee time. Both goalies are not stealing games for us anymore. The defensemen are trying to kill themselves. Coaching staffs have made many questionable moves. Zubrus cannot make the difference and I doubt Kovy can turn this around.

[Muevelos]

Really really great game by St Louis and Detroit. Wish we played with the intensity and forecheck like these two

[Pepperkorn]

As far as #2 -- I'm glad I never heard anything like that our of Larsson because it's his stupid job to step up -- if he's in the NHL then he's got to consider himself developed and take the fvcking bull by the horns.  If he can't do that -- if he's sitting back waiting to be taught something he can go play with himself in the shower. 

 

No one thinks for success on this team.  That's the way it looks.  Take some fvcking ACTION so you can be told what to do.  If you give NOTHING but an almost there effort - what's there to work with there?  You all say Well they just suck - what did you expect.  That's so sad.  That's a team full of losers.

[NJDevs4978]

As far as #2 -- I'm glad I never heard anything like that our of Larsson because it's his stupid job to step up -- if he's in the NHL then he's got to consider himself developed and take the fvcking bull by the horns.  If he can't do that -- if he's sitting back waiting to be taught something he can go play with himself in the shower. 

 

No one thinks for success on this team.  That's the way it looks.  Take some fvcking ACTION so you can be told what to do.  If you give NOTHING but an almost there effort - what's there to work with there?  You all say Well they just suck - what did you expect.  That's so sad.  That's a team full of losers.

 

What other team continually scratches someone like Larsson (high draft pick who was a regular most of last season) on a consistent basis after he's somewhat established himself in the league?  The Devils are culpable for most of what's happened to Larsson and a lesser extent Fayne.  It's absurd that a top five pick last year is a consistent healthy scratch, along with the highest-paid defender on the team for that matter.

 

It's almost to the point where I don't care if they make the playoffs or not, there's just too many things wrong with this team to even think it'll all magically get straightened out in three weeks.

Edited April 7, 2013 by NJDevs4978

[SterioDesign]

As far as #2 -- I'm glad I never heard anything like that our of Larsson because it's his stupid job to step up -- if he's in the NHL then he's got to consider himself developed and take the fvcking bull by the horns.  If he can't do that -- if he's sitting back waiting to be taught something he can go play with himself in the shower. 

 

No one thinks for success on this team.  That's the way it looks.  Take some fvcking ACTION so you can be told what to do.  If you give NOTHING but an almost there effort - what's there to work with there?  You all say Well they just suck - what did you expect.  That's so sad.  That's a team full of losers.

 

the thing is Larsson has played well enough to be played ahead of Salvador and A-Train, thats a no brainer to me. it's unfair what he's going through, Larsson is not fighting for a spot in 6 slot, he's fighting for 1 spot in 4 spots cause Greene and Salvador won't be benched. 

[Muevelos]

Nor should Greene be. Larsson got a chair in the locker room today. Nice way to build his morale smh

Edited April 7, 2013 by CarterforPresident

[Pepperkorn]

I dont know...   I'm a blurter.  I'm responsible for my own morale.  I dont know what Larsson is seeing -- but to be frank and yes I would do it I'd 100% fvcking do it --- I'd ask Stevens if he knew what the fvck he was doing.  I'd ask Stevens to tell me if DeBoer knew what the fvck he was doing - then what the fvck is Lou's problem???  I'd ask if they SEE Salvador.  I'd ask what the fvck I was supposed to HONESTLY be learning.  I dont understand right here and now and if I was Larsson I'd say I dont understand and unless you dont want me to learn - tell me what the fvck is going on and what I can do to change it besides sit my ass down.  I woudn't waste me time with teammates.  it'd only harm things. It never occurs to me I'm not supposed to talk to the boss.

 

I get hyped about lesser failures and better vision than this Salvador caper.  I dont know though... I get away with a lot - prolly cuz I'm so cute   

 

I dont understand standing for that kind of sh!t though.  I have to assume it's been explained  I have to assume that Fayne and Larsson have had the love of the game to say: You know what I'm saying -- you know I see it -- and if this all pans out the way I'm saying I expect a BIG fvckING KISS ON MY ASS next season.  You've earned my respectful understanding -- if I'm right then I better have earned your trust.  I'm a freak and I'm calm now and I'm sorry but I had to have you hear that -- TADA  that's what I do.  I can't stand it -- I can't stand this type of situation.  I know what it's like to be in it and I understanding being patient and I understand I make things too important but man...  I'm not there and it all make ZERO fvcking sense to me as a fan.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Pepperkorn

[1Guy3Cups]

Meltdown

[CarpathianForest]

I think they've especially treated Fayne badly. He proved his mettle playing 57 games in 10-11 and playing 82 last year. He needs to be a permanent fixture on D.

 

The only motivation I can think of from Lou and PDB is that they already see the writing on the wall. Volch and Sal will be gone in the off season and it's not worth it to risk injury to two solid D men in a season that is already lost.

Edited April 7, 2013 by CarpathianForest

[1Guy3Cups]

Hmmmm Maybe they should practice shoot outs.. Why would they do that.. Pete time to go..