GDT: Buffalo @ Devils 7:00 PM MSG+ Reverse Retros?

[Brewskies]

Hot goaltender in the third for Buffalo. 

[Nicomo]

24 minutes ago, Brewskies said:

Hot goaltender in the third for Buffalo. 

He made some fantastic saves for sure. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Underlying numbers have been pointing to a regression for a while...save% at ES for the Devils remains unsustainably high (now .949, and lots of luck with posts and crossbars last night...Blackwood has put up an insane .965 mark).  They’re also continuing to get slammed in scoring chance and high danger opportunities...their opponents are accounting for about 64% and 65% of such chances overall in such situations.  And of course, there’s the special teams.

Now it’s a question of hoping that this current roster can get more comfortable with each other and figure things out enough, to where they can continue to hang in these games in spite of themselves (they were managing this previously).  For now, it’s really about how much Mac can keep covering up...and if nASS can ever figure out how to ice an even acceptably bad PK.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[mfitz804]

8 hours ago, Nicomo said:

50-100? I feel like it’s the same 10 people that regularly post here lol

Can’t be more than 20 even if you just count the guys who only show up for the GDT’s...

[Brewskies]

2 hours ago, mfitz804 said:

Can’t be more than 20 even if you just count the guys who only show up for the GDT’s...

 

 

Is that bad?

[EdgeControl]

This season has turned fast, now we can talk tank and prospects like we intended before we got tickled

[jagknife]

13 hours ago, NJDevs4978 said:

I'm not a Nas fan at all, I'm shocked Fitz (presumably) made Ruff keep him but it's not like the D as a whole has been bad and the PK has been good with Nas in past years.  The PK is just a perfect sh!tstorm of suck this year though.  No training camp, having to replace a bunch of your key PK'ers from past seasons (Greene, Coleman, even a Rooney type) and getting no in-season practice time to fix it because everyone's coming off of COVID and we're stuck getting tatooed with top five PP's for like six straight games now with the Sabres and Caps.

 

I understand your point, but even if we changed literally EVERYONE on the back end, a PK rate in the 60s is horrendously unacceptable and needs to get changed, immediately. Last two games alone, the one timer has been wide open, zero adjustments by the staff. At this point, i don’t care if they ask dancing earl to run the PK, just anyone but nASS. There is no justification anymore that he is still here, let alone such an integral part of our staff. I’m tired of the “well he has a good rapport with the players so it’s okay.” Its Lindy’s team now, let him make moves freely.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

4 minutes ago, EdgeControl said:

This season has turned fast, now we can talk tank and prospects like we intended before we got tickled

Part of me is hopeful that once Nico and others get more comfortable, that they'll pick it back up.  The other part of me can only ignore for so long the numbers that tell me that they've been pretty lucky to date...but I do see signs of what they can be, once they turn the corner.  I just don't know if this roster will be able to turn that corner, even with Mac doing everything that he can, and a much-improved Hughes showing more and more flashes of becoming a legit star.  

[EdgeControl]

1 minute ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Part of me is hopeful that once Nico and others get more comfortable, that they'll pick it back up.  The other part of me can only ignore for so long the numbers that tell me that they've been pretty lucky to date...but I do see signs of what they can be, once they turn the corner.  I just don't know if this roster will be able to turn that corner, even with Mac doing everything that he can, and a much-improved Hughes showing more and more flashes of becoming a legit star.  

If Mac doest steal games things get average quickly. One thing noticed is  It seemed like buffalo had little trouble with our forecheck.. Will that continue 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

18 minutes ago, jagknife said:

I understand your point, but even if we changed literally EVERYONE on the back end, a PK rate in the 60s is horrendously unacceptable and needs to get changed, immediately. Last two games alone, the one timer has been wide open, zero adjustments by the staff. At this point, i don’t care if they ask dancing earl to run the PK, just anyone but nASS. There is no justification anymore that he is still here, let alone such an integral part of our staff. I’m tired of the “well he has a good rapport with the players so it’s okay.” Its Lindy’s team now, let him make moves freely.

Think about this for a minute:  if the Devils somehow killed their next 10 power play against opportunities, that would put at them at 66.7% for the season...which is STILL "All by themselves" pathetic.  They'd have to kill off 56 in a row just to get to 80% on the season (currently that's about middle-of-the-pack).  All but one other team is at least at 70% or better.

I've never seen anything like this.  And outside of apparently being a real swell guy, I have no idea what the hell nASS brings.  Or has ever brought.   

Edited February 24, 2021 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

8 minutes ago, EdgeControl said:

If Mac doest steal games things get average quickly. One thing noticed is  It seemed like buffalo had little trouble with our forecheck.. Will that continue 

Yeah I've pointed out his ES Save% (and the team's) a lot.  When that inevitably regresses, hopefully that's when the special teams stop being a trainwreck.  But I haven't seen much from either the PP or PK units that lead me to believe that they're going to pick it up anytime real soon.  

[Devilsfan118]

I mean start the video at 2:45 and just watch for the next minute - it's absolutely horrendous penalty killing.  Players are way out of position, no one is blocking shots/lanes... it's essentially a shooting gallery.

The player at the top of the box/diamond - whether it's Nico or Zajac or someone else - is just way out of position.  

I just can't believe someone hasn't stepped in and fixed this.

[mfitz804]

Let’s also add that our offense is nothing to write home about either. We’re presently 21st in the league in goals per game. and 23rd in PP%. 

If you are going to score at a low rate, then your defense and PK have to be stellar. And they are not. 

Everyone wants to blame the PK, and it does suck and should be blamed, it’s clear that our team does not have one thing to fix. There are tons of issues. 

[SterioDesign]

31 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Let’s also add that our offense is nothing to write home about either. We’re presently 21st in the league in goals per game. and 23rd in PP%. 

If you are going to score at a low rate, then your defense and PK have to be stellar. And they are not. 

Everyone wants to blame the PK, and it does suck and should be blamed, it’s clear that our team does not have one thing to fix. There are tons of issues. 

this is why i've been saying from the start of the season that we should have very low expectations of this team and not get upset when we have bad games. We'll get more bad games than good games with such a young group and not a very impressive roster yet. So when i saw many many fans getting too excited thinking this roster was awesome after good wins here and here, i knew this would happen sooner than later haha

 

[Devilsfan118]

38 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Let’s also add that our offense is nothing to write home about either. We’re presently 21st in the league in goals per game. and 23rd in PP%. 

If you are going to score at a low rate, then your defense and PK have to be stellar. And they are not. 

Everyone wants to blame the PK, and it does suck and should be blamed, it’s clear that our team does not have one thing to fix. There are tons of issues. 

For sure this is a flawed team, and one that's probably still not playoff-calibur. Got a ways to go yet, no doubt.

That said, the offense is average-to-below-average. I'll take and accept that for now while Hughes is still growing, Nico was out and Palms couldn't buy a goal for 10 games. They need to improve, big time, but it's not historically bad.

There's absolutely no excuse for the penalty kill being this bad, though. I'm going to look up the stats later today (unless @Colorado Rockies 1976 beats me to it) but if the season ended tomorrow I'd have to imagine this would probably rank up there as one of the worst PK %'s of all time.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Devilsfan118

[mfitz804]

9 minutes ago, Devilsfan118 said:

For sure this is a flawed team, and one that's probably still not playoff-calibur. Got a ways to go yet, no doubt.

That said, the offense is average-to-below-average. I'll take and accept that for now while Hughes is still growing, Nico was out and Palms couldn't buy a goal for 10 games. They need to improve, big time, but it's not historically bad.

There's absolutely no excuse for the penalty kill being this bad, though. I'm going to look up the stats later today (unless @Colorado Rockies 1976 beats me to it) but if the season ended tomorrow I'd have to imagine this would probably rank up there as one of the worst PK %'s of all time.

No doubt, through 13 games the PK is worse than the offense. I just feel like a lot of people think that is the only thing that needs to be fixed, when it clearly isn't. 

Hopefully it does get fixed. We're still only 13 games in to a new coach and what, like 50% a new team?

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

36 minutes ago, Devilsfan118 said:

For sure this is a flawed team, and one that's probably still not playoff-calibur. Got a ways to go yet, no doubt.

That said, the offense is average-to-below-average. I'll take and accept that for now while Hughes is still growing, Nico was out and Palms couldn't buy a goal for 10 games. They need to improve, big time, but it's not historically bad.

There's absolutely no excuse for the penalty kill being this bad, though. I'm going to look up the stats later today (unless @Colorado Rockies 1976 beats me to it) but if the season ended tomorrow I'd have to imagine this would probably rank up there as one of the worst PK %'s of all time.

For the hell of it, I decided to check every season from 1969-70 (I was born in 1970, so figured why not start there?).  Was very easy to do on Hockey Reference.  

I had to search all the way back to 1979-80 to find a team that finished a full season under 70% on the PK (it was the Kings)...the Kings managed to pull off that "feat" in 1982-83 as well.  Both times, they were pretty well outside of the pack (though not as insanely far back as the Devils currently are this season).  No other team was that pathetic from the 1969-70 to the present...depending on the season, the bottom teams were anywhere from about 70% to 79%...there was even one season where every single team was over 81% (2002-03).  

I would guess that the Devils will find their way into the low-70s by the end of the year.  I'd put the final O/U on their PK% at 73.  

Edited February 24, 2021 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[NJDfan1711]

20 hours ago, Nicomo said:

50-100? I feel like it’s the same 10 people that regularly post here lol

I know it seems small, but when you search through some of the common/popular threads on here and just start tallying names, it gets closer to 50 than you think. When I say "regular" I mean someone that might check in once a week, maybe even once every two weeks.  Granted that's not a lot of activity, but it's at least enough for people to remain relevant to the point that they don't show up after a few months hiatus and a lot of us go "oh yeah, I remember that guy, where's he been?".  Of course this place does have its fair share of those people who do exactly that, but on the other hand it also has the people that you're probably referring to, myself and you included, who post almost every day, and several times a day at that.

[NJDevs4978]

On 2/24/2021 at 12:02 PM, Devilsfan118 said:

I mean start the video at 2:45 and just watch for the next minute - it's absolutely horrendous penalty killing.  Players are way out of position, no one is blocking shots/lanes... it's essentially a shooting gallery.

The player at the top of the box/diamond - whether it's Nico or Zajac or someone else - is just way out of position.  

I just can't believe someone hasn't stepped in and fixed this.

Fix it how, without a practice? That’s the other issue with canning Nas, whoever you bring in has that same handicap the rest of the season.

By all means punt Nas at year’s end but an assistant coach switch isn’t going to be an elixir for their problems now when the extent of coaching and corrections is computer diagrams over zoom.

Edited February 25, 2021 by NJDevs4978

[EdgeControl]

If we take on the skinner contract will buffalo promise to stop kicking our ass?

[SterioDesign]

I mean if you look at buffalo's roster. They have a pretty good team. They've been underachieving for awhile so it's not like we're losing against detroit constantly. Sometimes you matchup against certain teams better than others bases on systems and i guess we're just struggling against them.

Well... we'd struggle against any team able to get powerplays i guess

[mfitz804]

24 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

I mean if you look at buffalo's roster. They have a pretty good team. They've been underachieving for awhile so it's not like we're losing against detroit constantly. Sometimes you matchup against certain teams better than others bases on systems and i guess we're just struggling against them.

Well... we'd struggle against any team able to get powerplays i guess

Also, we do not have a pretty good team.