GDT: Coyotes vs. Devils 7PM

[Nicomo]

1 minute ago, Crisis said:

C'mon, that puck bounced right over PK's stick.  He didn't mishandle it.  It's sh!t luck and anyone that plays knows that can happen at any time.

We lost this game because Blackwood played like garbage.  I cannot fathom why Hynes didn't start Schneider.

I mean, I totally get going right back to a goalie that just won 2 in a row, and had a shutout. I’m sure he asked Blackwood if he was ready to go. 

I’m more frustrated with his obsession with our mediocre 4th line. 

[Neb00rs]

11 minutes ago, Crisis said:

C'mon, that puck bounced right over PK's stick.  He didn't mishandle it.  It's sh!t luck and anyone that plays knows that can happen at any time.

We lost this game because Blackwood played like garbage.  I cannot fathom why Hynes didn't start Schneider.

Your premise is correct: the mistakes aren't such a huge deal. They happen. And on the flip side, we dominated much of the game and generated plenty of scoring chances. The issue is that we got a little bit of bad luck and not good enough goaltending - not that Blackwood was horrendous or anything - and on top of that, the bad decisions cost us.

But overall, the outrage towards Hynes over the lineup is so ridiculous on this board it's almost unbearable. And don't get me wrong, you're not the prime offender, I'm just using your post for the opportunity to call it out. Blackwood got the start this game, obviously, because he was really good last game - got a shutout. Schneider hasn't been that great either, so it's not like not starting Cory was unfathomable.

I made one small critique earlier about Gusev playing over Boqvist/Bratt and it blew up into all the same bullsh!t about people not wanting anyone on the fourth line to ever play again and wanting Bratt to play 20 minutes a night on the first or second line - another proposition completely ignorant of what's going on on the ice.

Hynes might not be getting the job done, but his lineup decisions (and line pairings) don't really deserve to garner the criticism they have. Most of what he has done in that regard - most - has made sense.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Neb00rs

[jagknife]

Whatever dipsh!t approved of the NHL schedule needs to get smacked in the fvcking head. How do you have a team play one fvcking game over 11 damn days not even 10 games into the season?!

[NJDevs4978]

There are things to get on Hynes about - starting with Zacha's dissapearing icetime - without second-guessing the goaltending choice, that's just silly.  It's not as if Blackwood was still ill.  He could have been bad not having played for a few days regardless.  Heck it's not as if he was all that great before the last two games, which earned him this start.  Cory could just as easily have had this game, god knows I've seen it from him a million times - give up the killer softy, the killer late period goals.  If Cory had had this game with Blackwood sitting after his two wins, the second-guessing would have been through the roof.

Edited October 26, 2019 by NJDevs4978

[Nicomo]

3 minutes ago, Neb00rs said:

Your premise is correct: the mistakes aren't such a huge deal. They happen. And on the flip side, we dominated much of the game and generated plenty of scoring chances. The issue is that we got a little bit of bad luck andnot good enough goaltending - not that Blackwood was horrendous or anything - and on top of that, the bad decisions cost us.

But overall, the outrage towards Hynes over the lineup is so ridiculous on this board it's almost unbearable. And don't get me wrong, you're not the prime offender, I'm just using your post for the opportunity to call it out. Blackwood got the start this game, obviously, because he was really good last game - got a shutout. Schneider hasn't been that great either, so it's not like not starting Cory was unfathomable.

I made one small critique earlier about Gusev playing over Boqvist/Bratt and it blew up into all the same bullsh!t about people not wanting anyone on the fourth line to ever play again and wanting Bratt to play 20 minutes a night on the first or second line - another proposition completely ignorant of what's going on on the ice.

Hynes might not be getting the job done, but his lineup decisions (and line pairings) don't really deserve to garner the criticism they have. Most of what he has done in that regard - most - has made sense.

Do you think the 4th line should have seen as much TOI as they did tonight? Especially in the 3rd...

[NJDfan1711]

8 hours ago, NJDevils1214 said:

Visiting my buddy again. I'll be at the Lightning game tomorrow against Nashville. 

Awesome. Enjoy the game, I know someone else going too and was offered tickets as , but I have a friend's wedding tomorrow evening.  

 

[Satans Hockey]

This sucked 

[Neb00rs]

9 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Do you think the 4th line should have seen as much TOI as they did tonight? Especially in the 3rd...

What is it with this "seen as much TOI as they did thing? The forwards with the least amount of ice time tonight were Rooney (10:54), Hayden (11:17), Gusev (11:25), and Wood (12:05). Btw, in the 9:15 that the fourth line was on the ice together 5v5, they won the shot attempt battle 7-4. Rooney had 4 SOG. This is despite their line having zero faceoffs in the o-zone.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Neb00rs

[Nicomo]

3 minutes ago, Neb00rs said:

What is it with this "seen as much TOI as they did thing? The forwards with the least amount of ice time tonight were Rooney (10:54), Hayden (11:17), Gusev (11:25), and Wood (12:05). Btw, in the 9:15 that the fourth line was on the ice together 5v5, they won the shot attempt battle 7-4. Rooney had 4 SOG. This is despite their line having zero faceoffs in the o-zone.

How many goals they score?

[NJDevs4978]

The fourth line shouldn't be playing at all when you're trailing in the third period, especially with one game in ten days.  What are the odds of freaking Rooney and company actually scoring a goal?  The odds are much higher they give one up like they did at the beginning of the period.  Don't give me shot attempts from fourth-liners, that's why we have Miles Wood doing dopey things like skating around the net and firing high and wide off balance shots from the blueline, to get his SA/60 up.

Edited October 26, 2019 by NJDevs4978

[Neb00rs]

The fourth line players averaged about 3 minutes each in the 3rd period. Ya'll are just screaming loud noises. If you don't think the fourth line should play at all in a one goal game in the third period, idk what to tell you, that's just unreasonable. There's still defensive hockey to be played.

I said earlier this was as painful a loss as possible in October. But that's not because the Devils sucked. It's because the Devils were pretty good and looked like a team that can really dominate when things click. And Hughes looks like he's not far off from being an elite offensive force - at 18. That's good news. There's a lot of star players in this league who take way longer to get it going.

Goaltending is an issue though - I'll admit that - how that situation unfolds is a mystery to me. Blackwood wasn't bad tonight but he didn't make the big saves - and when that's added to the entire picture of what he's done so far this season - that's not great.

 

 

[Satans Hockey]

I didn't read through the whole thread yet but man Simmonds is absolutely snake bitten, can't believe he couldn't bury that one tonight. 

[Neb00rs]

2 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

I didn't read through the whole thread yet but man Simmonds is absolutely snake bitten, can't believe he couldn't bury that one tonight. 

He's done exactly what we expect him to so far and I gotta imagine with as many pucks as he's put on net so far (29 shots on goal) he's the Wayne Simmonds we hoped we were getting. He's gotta pot some soon

Another bit of good news from a mostly good game, is that I though, in a small way, Gusev actually made improvements. He still looked bad, but took a slight step towards competence.

Everything sucks right now because we lost - so none of my posts are going to be popular right now - but as much as it seems like a stupid thing to say right now, the Devils are trending towards winning. I do get that people are getting impatient (including me) when it comes to that.

[Guadana]

It’s a fire on your heads! 

If they didn’t 1 mistake and diseased Mac made one more save we won it in 3-2 or 4-2. It’s completely different talk with only one-two difference in game. Team played well. I can say very well. Gusev made good positional moves in 2/3 of game, Zacha was a beast, Nico just returned and he wasn’t problem on the ice. Subban made his stupid things, but that is what he is, he made much work every time when he is on ice, he escalate the game, sometimes we pay for it. His moves are interesting, intriguing and big like hall’s moves and hall made pretty damn same mistakes, but they aren’t on a blue line because the position.  Yes 4th line is a waste of time, we all know that, like we all know that muller loses his zones. It’s still Hynes’s lose in microdecisions.  But that wasn’t a bad game. They dominated. In both zones. I hope it will translate in points. With Hynes or without. 

Edited October 26, 2019 by Guadana

[vadvlfan]

According to Chris Ryan, Hynes is trying to get "valleys" out of Bratts game. Bratt had 3 shot attempts in last 2 games?  I'm not sure.  The Devs played a pretty darn good, just couldn't get a timely save. I agree totally on Nico.

Hynes picked Blackie to play, nobody complained about that here beforehand.   

[Jerzey]

10 hours ago, Nicomo said:

Subban looked great tonight? You know he’s the black guy that wears 76, right?

I thought he was horrible. other than one nice keep in on the 1st goal. He is not worth 9 million a season if this is what we’re going to get for the next 3 years. 

I thought he did. The only bad play I can think of was when the puck bounced over his stick at the blue line. Other than that I recall multiple nice plays at the blue line, good dekes, good hard shots, and nice passes. 

[EdgeControl]

I'm going glass half full as much as this loss makes me want to vomit.. this team is fun to watch, with speed up and down the lines.. Zacha looks like a top 10 pick, Hughes can shoot way better than I expected.. we have depth. Vatanan is so much better as a second pairing..  we knew PK had issues, hockey sense , slow and positioning.. but he also is strong along the boards and handles he puck like a forward..  nico is a sweet skater who can make plays...  bad luck and bad goaltending with lack of goal scorers.. needs to be fixed.. I think our top 2 pairings are decent .. just not spectacular 

[Nicomo]

Last night was a perfect example of why Marty was so good. People always bring up how often he saw a low amount of shots, but honestly seeing only 16 shots can be harder on a goalie than a game where he sees 30. Marty was always so clutch when there did happen to be an occasional breakdown. Blackwood seems more like your traditional goalie that needs to be kept in the action a bit more. I’m not going to kill him for the breakaway goal, but a couple of the other ones he just seemed a bit off. 

Look at the goals it took to beat Raanta. A bad luck deflection off his own guy, an absolutely perfect shot from Hughes on the PP, and another well placed shot by Zacha (that’s probably the only one Raanta wishes he had back). He was definitely the better goalie between the two. 

[Neb00rs]

2 hours ago, Jerzey said:

I thought he did. The only bad play I can think of was when the puck bounced over his stick at the blue line. Other than that I recall multiple nice plays at the blue line, good dekes, good hard shots, and nice passes. 

Indeed. Subban had a really strong overall game. Though it's s not entirely unfair that he's getting criticized for the one or two bad choices he made - they do end up hurting us here and there. The bouncing puck was difficult - the only thing I can say there is maybe he shouldn't have tried to hold the zone there with Grabner in proximity. Though, I get it, it's a quick reaction to make. 

[Nicomo]

I had to check to see how many SOG Subban has had, and I’m surprised to see he’s tied with Palms (22) for 3rd on the team. It just seems like he’s not getting his shot through very much to me. 

[titans04]

I will respectfully disagree Subban  isn't remotely worth the 9M per to date imo.  If you take away his off ice persona that many here like it's even more apparent to me. Was kinda of hesitant when the move was made because I always thought he was more flash that substance but that opinion  was obviously from a distance.  Is he making this defense worse nope they had no way to go but up.  But I sure as hell hope he's not going to continue to decline the next two seasons. Is his cap hit hurting us, maybe not but he makes a hell of a lot of money for what he is, Good on him for that.

[pumpkin cutter]

Good news is we have a great pair of centers to build around. We need a lot of new toys to be a playoff caliber team. Schneider was amazing during the pre season, we need that. Defense, we need major upgrades/plural.  I have to give praise to zacha, he looks very poised and like a 1st rd pick. If he continues we will be solid down the center for years to come. 

Team is definitely better than how they are playing now. I hope they figure it out, but as of now this is not a playoff contender. As long as they don't make dumb trades as if this were a Stanley cup contender team I will be happy. Rebuild should basically have started last year. Ray better not f this up. 

[aclc79]

14 hours ago, Crisis said:

C'mon, that puck bounced right over PK's stick.  He didn't mishandle it.  It's sh!t luck and anyone that plays knows that can happen at any time.

We lost this game because Blackwood played like garbage.  I cannot fathom why Hynes didn't start Schneider.

At this level, shouldn't we expect our goaltenders to know how to play their angles?  That is a very basic skill they teach the very young learning to play the position.  And making the big save may not be in either goaltender's DNA.

[Crisis]

Mackenzie Blackwood: "I was sick with the flu for a couple of days, so I was trying to get my body back to good again. It was a weird game, there wasn't much action & then there was a scoring chance. I definitely could have been better, but I'll get back to that in practice."

This is exactly why Cory should have started.

[NJDevils1214]

On 10/25/2019 at 11:49 PM, NJDfan1711 said:

Awesome. Enjoy the game, I know someone else going too and was offered tickets as , but I have a friend's wedding tomorrow evening.  

 

It was a good time. Always a nice arena, and we were in the club seats again. Tampa blew a lead and Nashville basically stole one. Had more shots but Tampa has the quality chances and couldn't put it away. First time seeing Nashville live ans you can tell why Josi is so important.