GDT: Devils @ Islanders 3/11 7:00pm MSG

[MadDog2020]

19 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

or maybe Blackwood is just a goalie like most goalies.

Yeah, nah. Are you familiar with covid and it’s after-effects? It fvcks your sh!t up. My old boss had it and was dealing with fatigue and headaches weeks after he was covid-free. It’s no joke. 

[SterioDesign]

1 minute ago, MadDog2020 said:

Yeah, nah. Are you familiar with covid and it’s after-effects? It fvcks your sh!t up. My old boss had it and was dealing with fatigue and headaches weeks after he was covid-free. It’s no joke. 

Well of course it could be that. But he could also just be having a slump. Both are as equally possible.

Anyone here pretending like they KNOW if it's one or the other is straight up just believing what they want to believe. 

 

[mfitz804]

17 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

Well of course it could be that. But he could also just be having a slump. Both are as equally possible.

Anyone here pretending like they KNOW if it's one or the other is straight up just believing what they want to believe. 

 

Anyone with a pair of eyes can see the difference in Blackwood pre and post Covid. Could it just be a slump? Sure. Is that likely? No. 

[MadDog2020]

15 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Anyone with a pair of eyes can see the difference in Blackwood pre and post Covid. Could it just be a slump? Sure. Is that likely? No. 

 

[Nicomo]

1 hour ago, Devs3cups said:

Kuok, Maltsev and Hughes with the goals tonight. Thank god for our young players. Carrying the load once again.

Maltsev has 4 goals in 11 GP averaging 10 minutes a night. 

Palmieri has 4 goals in 22 GP averaging 18 minutes a night...

Bratt needs to find the back of the net once in a while, too. One measly goal in 17 GP. 

Other than Zacha and Wood it’s been all the first and second year players doing all the scoring (what little of it there’s been anyway). 

[Devs3cups]

4 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Maltsev has 4 goals in 11 GP averaging 10 minutes a night. 

Palmieri has 4 goals in 22 GP averaging 18 minutes a night...

Bratt needs to find the back of the net once in a while, too. One measly goal in 17 GP. 

Other than Zacha and Wood it’s been all the first and second year players doing all the scoring (what little of it there’s been anyway). 

Exactly. I consider Wood and Zacha as part of the young core too, I don’t necessarily see them as “vets”, even though they’ve been here a while.

[mfitz804]

4 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Maltsev has 4 goals in 11 GP averaging 10 minutes a night. 

If Maltsev has Gusev’s spot on the roster right now, he should get to keep it. 

[MadDog2020]

34 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

If Maltsev has Gusev’s spot on the roster right now, he should get to keep it. 

 

>>>>>>

Edited March 12, 2021 by MadDog2020

[mfitz804]

1 minute ago, MadDog2020 said:

 

>>>>>>

I woulda gone with a bottle of Grey Goose to keep the theme, but I’m OCD. This works and only disturbs me a little. 

[AEWHistory]

3 hours ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

This is what ownership gets kicking Lou to the curb. Fvxking embarrassing 

A huge part of this team’s struggles are exactly because of Lou.  I will always love what he did for this franchise, but his last years here were atrocious and left the Devils with the least young talent in the NHL and an empty farm system.  I am happy that he seems to have had a rebirth in Toronto and New York, but what happened in NJ was necessary to stir him from complacency.  

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

4 hours ago, AEWHistory said:

A huge part of this team’s struggles are exactly because of Lou.  I will always love what he did for this franchise, but his last years here were atrocious and left the Devils with the least young talent in the NHL and an empty farm system.  I am happy that he seems to have had a rebirth in Toronto and New York, but what happened in NJ was necessary to stir him from complacency.  

Whatever criticisms there are to be leveled at Lou, I can’t ever imagine him being complacent...that wasn’t the issue here at the end.  Years of bad drafts coupled with a refusal to properly blow things up were the real problem.

I don’t want to take too much away from what he’s done with the Islanders, but it’s fair to point out that he inherited some solid talent.  Also saw a fine coach become available at just the right time (to his credit, he went right out and got him).  He’s done a good job with the goalies too.

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

Palmeiri now has 1 point in his last ten games. 

He put up 60% of his points this season in 4 games in February. 

He hasn't had a single point in 14 of his 22 games this season. 

He has just been flat out bad. 

[Devils Pride 26]

5 hours ago, AEWHistory said:

A huge part of this team’s struggles are exactly because of Lou.  I will always love what he did for this franchise, but his last years here were atrocious and left the Devils with the least young talent in the NHL and an empty farm system.  I am happy that he seems to have had a rebirth in Toronto and New York, but what happened in NJ was necessary to stir him from complacency.  

Yeah I’m fully aware. However, you would never see a Lou team this heartless, this uninspired, and most of all this unstructured. There was always a solid system in place, it was always team first. These guys do not play for each other

[Suck_My_Puck]

Another 5 burger for the fab defense and goaltending units. 🤷🏼‍♂️. If we can all recollect, glory days was about solid goaltending and great defense. Dano, Stevens, neidermayer, rafalski, white.and when one left for greener pastures another one stepped right in his place . I haven’t seen a solid defenseman on this team in years.!!!

[vadvlfan]

What frustrates me about this team mostly is there lack of physicality (cept #44, #20, & # 14) the rest of the team rarely finishes checks. We don't drive play, we react to what they're doing. We hope we can catch them napping,  or lousy line change. We cough the puck up so easily. Play a lil more angry.

Carry on!

[Suck_My_Puck]

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

8 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

Well of course it could be that. But he could also just be having a slump. Both are as equally possible.

Anyone here pretending like they KNOW if it's one or the other is straight up just believing what they want to believe. 

 

I think it sits somewhee between the two. He is probably having. A few challenges this season with the workload and the compressed schedule. Look at Carter Hart's numbers. It's a funny old season. 

And he is probably a bit off due to COVID as well. 

[Nicomo]

10 minutes ago, Suck_My_Puck said:

Another 5 burger for the fab defense and goaltending units. 🤷🏼‍♂️. If we can all recollect, glory days was about solid goaltending and great defense. Dano, Stevens, neidermayer, rafalski, white.and when one left for greener pastures another one stepped right in his place . I haven’t seen a solid defenseman on this team in years.!!!

You’re seeing one now. His name is Ty Smith, and he’s going to be a stud. I had high hopes for him, but he’s already exceeded them honestly. He has true top pairing potential. He’s fallen off a bit lately, but it doesn’t help that his partner (Severson) has been playing like total ass all of a sudden. 

[Jerrydevil]

1 hour ago, Chimaira_Devil_#9 said:

I think it sits somewhee between the two. He is probably having. A few challenges this season with the workload and the compressed schedule. Look at Carter Hart's numbers. It's a funny old season. 

And he is probably a bit off due to COVID as well. 

There's a voice inside me saying that Blackwood's really not that good, but I'm trying not to listen to that overly reactionary, negative voice.

[NJDfan1711]

14 minutes ago, Jerrydevil said:

There's a voice inside me saying that Blackwood's really not that good, but I'm trying not to listen to that overly reactionary, negative voice.

I don't really know how you could say that - he's still really young, has been playing in an extremely condensed schedule (up until this season, he was babied in terms of the workload this organization gave him because they were still attached to Cory), and he also contracted Covid.  Not to mention the defense in front of him is still pretty putrid.  

[Jerrydevil]

Just now, NJDfan1711 said:

I don't really know how you could say that - he's still really young, has been playing in an extremely condensed schedule (up until this season, he was babied in terms of the workload this organization gave him because they were still attached to Cory), and he also contracted Covid.  Not to mention the defense in front of him is still pretty putrid.  

Yes, that makes a lot of sense and I hope you're right.

[AEWHistory]

5 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Whatever criticisms there are to be leveled at Lou, I can’t ever imagine him being complacent...that wasn’t the issue here at the end.  Years of bad drafts coupled with a refusal to properly blow things up were the real problem.

I don’t want to take too much away from what he’s done with the Islanders, but it’s fair to point out that he inherited some solid talent.  Also saw a fine coach become available at just the right time (to his credit, he went right out and got him).  He’s done a good job with the goalies too.

I should have explained myself, my bad.  Yes, it is hard to imagine Lou being complacent; he always seemed so driven and committed.  However, when the scouting department was failing him year after year for nearly a decade he did nothing.  For me, that is complacency.  He knew that he made the Devils and it was unthinkable for a very long time that we would go on without him.  See what I mean?  Maybe I am seeing things with a “glass half empty” view?  I admit that my image of Lou is deeply colored by those last years.

[AEWHistory]

4 hours ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

Yeah I’m fully aware. However, you would never see a Lou team this heartless, this uninspired, and most of all this unstructured. There was always a solid system in place, it was always team first. These guys do not play for each other

Good point.  I certainly can’t argue that.  Even at the end Lou’s teams had heart.  What they lacked was talent.  Now we have talent and more coming... but no heart.  I guess we are off to see the wizard......

[Nicomo]

Idk that I agree this team “has no heart.” The comment from Severson just last night seems to suggest the opposite really 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

2 hours ago, Suck_My_Puck said:

Another 5 burger for the fab defense and goaltending units. 🤷🏼‍♂️. If we can all recollect, glory days was about solid goaltending and great defense. Dano, Stevens, neidermayer, rafalski, white.and when one left for greener pastures another one stepped right in his place . I haven’t seen a solid defenseman on this team in years.!!!

Re:  the bolded...as far as defensemen go, not really.  You don't just replace two Hall-Of-Famers, a very dependable lunchpail guy who was here forever, and the others that easily.  What the Devils were able to do well for quite a while (as those guys left) was integrate new or young players into the system and get some solid results (they even got a stretch of passable play from Sheldon Brookbank)...for a while it really did feel like you could plug in the Mike Mottau types and get more out of them than you had any right to expect...the system was keeping the team competitive for many years, even as there was less and less talent on the team (with the exception of 2012, they were starting to get hammered in the playoffs, where they often looked two steps slower and easily overwhelmed).  But the list of players you provided never really saw similar guys step up to take their places...and given some of the talent there, that was going to be a very tall order.

22 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Idk that I agree this team “has no heart.” The comment from Severson just last night seems to suggest the opposite really 

I get as annoyed as anyone else "in the moment" during some of these games, and I really have a pet peeve about losers being able to hang around...that's why I hate that nASS is still here...Devils should've just broke clean.  

BUT, as much as I know I've mentioned this a lot, I think we really forget how much Covid could be messing these guys up (in the heat of the moment, I definitely do).  They were getting some good fortune in going 6-3-2, but they've looked like a much different team for most of the games since the outbreak...especially Blackwood.  Mac had a .916 save% coming into this year, and was off to a terrific start this season.  He has an .826 save% in his last 5 GP.  Could very well be a brutal slump, but I get the feeling he's been severely affected by his Covid bout...enough so that if the Devils decide to sit him for an extended period of time or even the rest of the season, I have no issue with it.  Ditto Nico, if he doesn't seem like he'll ever be 100% this year.