Fire Hynes

[slasher72]

1 hour ago, Aitchmack said:

I said last season they should get rid of Nasreddine and he hasn't done anything to change my mind. I really can't see Hynes doing it though.

He wont. Hynes will never fire him. Nasreddine is terrible.

[Neb00rs]

5 hours ago, NJDevs4978 said:

It's that they blew the season/home opener in craptacular fashion after an offseason of optomism and big acquisitions, then got housed 7-2 on the road the next night in both seasons (yes the Caps Game #2 in 2010 was the exact same score)

Yeah it's only two games but they look BAD, MacLean level bad.  You lose 7-2 to the freaking Sabres that takes some doing.  Sometimes losses like Opening Night really provide a gut punch and prove to be a harbinger.  And yes I know the predictable response will be 4-0 last year, it's a lot harder to get out of a malaise than it is to level off after a winning streak though.

And funny how people were defending all the line juggling last night, where was it tonight when they were getting caved in?  Fix something when you're up 4-0 but stay the course when you're losing big early.  The staff outthinks itself trying to get cute, assuming they even think.

Okay, if it's "The first two games from this year are eerily similar to the first two games from 10-11," then fine, but you'll concede of course that's not a lot to go on. We know Hynes isn't an Xs and Os guy who can outwit the opposing coach in real time and the question has always been "is that a fatal flaw that prevents him from being the guy who gets us to the promised land?" This season was supposed to be the answer to that.

However, I think a mistake on our part was the offseason of optimism, as you put it. If you wanted to fire Hynes this whole time, then fine, but game 1 and 2 of this season shouldn't be inspiring any changes in one's position in that regards. The team isn't very good right now. Every one penciled in Subban, Hughes, and Gusev, and saw a stacked lineup. The problem is, if you swing Hughes from elite center to complete liability, then the entire complexion of the roster changes. Now, do the same for Gusev and we're in bad shape. Actually, right now we're one line, as has been the usual for the past few years.

If this team keeps losing into November, Hynes' job is in jeopardy no doubt. But between now and then, his usefulness as a coach is going to be reflected in Jack's improvement. That's what Hynes is supposed to be good at right? Teaching. So let's see if Jack, and Gusev for that matter, learn to do smart, NHL-type things with the puck rather than just attempt to beat everyone with skill and let's see if they learn how to play defense. Unfortunately, the learning curve looks real big and that means it might be a while before this team can win. If either Hall or Subban goes down long-term, that could be the end of the season, so hopefully we stay healthy there.

[Triumph]

Buffalo embarrassed Pittsburgh on opening night.  It's possible that Buffalo is good this year.  I'm not counting on it but early returns are pretty good.

As for all this 2010 nonsense - the Devils went 9-21-1 from this point.  If you want to bet that this team will go 9-21-1 or worse from this point, I will be very glad to do so at even money.  

Things will go better.

[mfitz804]

19 minutes ago, Triumph said:

Buffalo embarrassed Pittsburgh on opening night.  It's possible that Buffalo is good this year.  I'm not counting on it but early returns are pretty good.

As for all this 2010 nonsense - the Devils went 9-21-1 from this point.  If you want to bet that this team will go 9-21-1 or worse from this point, I will be very glad to do so at even money.  

Things will go better.

Definitely. It is Zacha’s breakout year, after all!!

[titans04]

11 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Definitely. It is Zacha’s breakout year, after all!!

thanks for the laugh, it's greatly appreciated.

[aclc79]

20 hours ago, HellOnICE said:

I just can't look at our D, see the young guys and I just feel they aren't taking the next step. You can't change the players. Change the coaching staff. Nasreddine doesn't know what he's doing.

That really showed up in the Mueller/Severson pairing.  The latter looked absolutely clueless as to where he was supposed to be.  Mueller kept looking to see where Severson was, and not paying attention to the play in front of him.  Is N that bad of a teacher, or have they stopped listening to him?

[mfitz804]

5 minutes ago, aclc79 said:

That really showed up in the Mueller/Severson pairing.  The latter looked absolutely clueless as to where he was supposed to be.  Mueller kept looking to see where Severson was, and not paying attention to the play in front of him.  Is N that bad of a teacher, or have they stopped listening to him?

Or do they just suck that much?

[aclc79]

2 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Or do they just suck that much?

That could very well be the case!  I stand corrected.

[Nicomo]

2 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Or do they just suck that much?

Severson might never live up to what we had hoped, but he doesn’t suck. Neither does PK, Vatanen, or Butcher. 

There is no excuse for the defense to be this bad. 

[mfitz804]

26 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Severson might never live up to what we had hoped, but he doesn’t suck. Neither does PK, Vatanen, or Butcher. 

There is no excuse for the defense to be this bad. 

I’m not sure you’re right about Severson, at least on the defensive end. 

But what I was responding to was only about Severson and Mueller, the other guys aren’t relevant to my point. 

And, I agree, those three don’t suck generally, but they sucked as a unit for the last 125 minutes. 

EDIT: Incorrect, I’ll give them the first 40 minutes. Only 85 minutes of suck. 

Edited October 7, 2019 by mfitz804

[vadvlfan]

Let's collectively take a deep breath.  Let's not fire everybody.  I understand goaltending concerns. I'm concerned about D zone coverage. Seems like we're always chasing. Do we play man for man in our D zone?  And as much as Hynes changes lines, why worry about Woody playing with 86. At least he can keep up, and he's relatively physical. I think 86, 97 & Bratt is a soft line, will never win board battles.  Something needs fixin now. You know Shero/Hynesy are talking it up quite a bit. They read social media.  

[mfitz804]

4 minutes ago, vadvlfan said:

I think 86, 97 & Bratt is a soft line, will never win board battles.

Agreed, I don’t like that line at all. Hughes should be playing with a shooter on one side (Palmieri, perhaps) and someone physical on the other. I thing Hughes and Wood would both benefit from each other’s presence. 

[Daniel]

There’s the Islanders who everyone says should suck, yet they just keep winning.  It’s almost as if having a head coach who knows what he’s doing actually matters.

 Nah, I’ll just say “luck”... sounds sophisticated and statistical and stuff.

[Triumph]

22 minutes ago, Daniel said:

There’s the Islanders who everyone says should suck, yet they just keep winning.  It’s almost as if having a head coach who knows what he’s doing actually matters.

 Nah, I’ll just say “luck”... sounds sophisticated and statistical and stuff.

Yes, everyone is putting up a false argument except you - you're the only person with true beliefs.   If only you knew how ridiculous that sounds!  But you can't.  It's not possible to know how dumb that sounds.  It just has to be that everyone else is faking to try to sound smart.

There are usually several teams who exceed expectation and several who fall well short, and given those things, we should expect each team to return closer to what we expected.  Obviously there's large mitigating factors here, but in the case of the Islanders, I don't see them - they didn't have a breakout superstar (at least not one that they kept).  Looking up the concept of regression towards the mean might help you understand this - the idea that, given an inordinate result, the next result is likely to be closer to average.  

The Islanders have won one (1) game so far this year.  They're 1-1-0.  Crushing it so far.  

 

[NJDfan1711]

It's too early to fire Hynes, or anyone, but if this team is sub .500 by November or mid-November, it needs to be examined very closely.  The season can still be salvaged with someone else at the helm.  There's too much talent on this roster to be choking up 4-goal leads and giving up 7, but both the team and the coaching staff need, and deserve, some time to get it figured out and develop chemistry.  I give them 15-20 games.

[jagknife]

4 hours ago, NJDfan1711 said:

It's too early to fire Hynes, or anyone, but if this team is sub .500 by November or mid-November, it needs to be examined very closely.  The season can still be salvaged with someone else at the helm.  There's too much talent on this roster to be choking up 4-goal leads and giving up 7, but both the team and the coaching staff need, and deserve, some time to get it figured out and develop chemistry.  I give them 15-20 games.

Nasraddine should have been on the hot seat for a long time now, just with how atrocious his defensive system is. He now has more talent on it and they still look lost or behind the play. He is one person I'd be perfectly okay with them stapling a pink slip to his forehead any day now.

[SterioDesign]

20 minutes ago, jagknife said:

Nasraddine should have been on the hot seat for a long time now, just with how atrocious his defensive system is. He now has more talent on it and they still look lost or behind the play. He is one person I'd be perfectly okay with them stapling a pink slip to his forehead any day now.

well to be fair our D is basically the same + Subban. So yes there's more talent because of Subban. But he's also one that doesnt do that well in a system, he does his own thing which brings some good and some bad. 

So we're basically at square 1 when it comes to our D corp. The good thing is that playing Subban on the top line is pushing down someone who shouldnt be on the first pairing though.

[Daniel]

2 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

well to be fair our D is basically the same + Subban. So yes there's more talent because of Subban. But he's also one that doesnt do that well in a system, he does his own thing which brings some good and some bad. 

So we're basically at square 1 when it comes to our D corp. The good thing is that playing Subban on the top line is pushing down someone who shouldnt be on the first pairing though.

Subban does not turn players he doesn't play with into grenade throwers in the defensive end.

[SterioDesign]

5 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Subban does not turn players he doesn't play with into grenade throwers in the defensive end.

what does that have to do with anything? Im just saying Nasraddine's system won't get that much better with Subban. We've seen a very below average D-corp able to make it to the stanley cup final. The system is often more important than talent. 

In this case there's likely a problem with the system

[Aitchmack]

2 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

what does that have to do with anything? Im just saying Nasraddine's system won't get that much better with Subban. We've seen a very below average D-corp able to make it to the stanley cup final. The system is often more important than talent. 

In this case there's likely a problem with the system

I totally agree with this. The D has looked pretty bad every year (except the first iirc) that Nasraddine has been in charge of it. I'm still on the side of keeping Hynes but Nas? You are the weakest link. Goodbye.

[Devils01]

Here’s how the lineup looked in practice:

FORWARDS

Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Nikita Gusev

Jesper Bratt - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri

Blake Coleman - Jack Hughes - Wayne Simmonds

Miles Wood - Kevin Rooney - John Hayden

Pavel Zacha, Jesper Boqvist extra

 

lol.. what’s going on...

Edited October 7, 2019 by Devils01

[vadvlfan]

A philosophy:  An entire 4 line(s)  of 12 Ryan Nugent Hopkins, couldn't beat  4 lines of John Madden (in his prime of course) playing against each other if you get my drift.  You mean to tell me all that talent doesn't match up against  quality checking lines? 

34 minutes ago, Devils01 said:

Here’s how the lineup looked in practice:

FORWARDS

Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Nikita Gusev

Jesper Bratt - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri

Blake Coleman - Jack Hughes - Wayne Simmonds

Miles Wood - Kevin Rooney - John Hayden

Pavel Zacha, Jesper Boqvist extra

 

lol.. what’s going on...

I like these lines kept Zacha over Hayden anyday. 

[NJDevils1214]

23 minutes ago, vadvlfan said:

I like these lines kept Zacha over Hayden anyday. 

I keep Zacha over Rooney. 

[Aitchmack]

59 minutes ago, Devils01 said:

Here’s how the lineup looked in practice:

FORWARDS

Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Nikita Gusev

Jesper Bratt - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri

Blake Coleman - Jack Hughes - Wayne Simmonds

Miles Wood - Kevin Rooney - John Hayden

Pavel Zacha, Jesper Boqvist extra

 

lol.. what’s going on...

Well I can understand the first three lines but the fourth? Rooney & Hayden over Zacha & Boqvist? Why?

[T0asterleav1ns]

We need forwards who can play some D with Hughes, so im fine with that line. Zacha and Boqvist should be over rooney and hayden(or wood) respectively.

 

Ugh.