GDT: Penguins @ Devils - 7:00PM - MSG+2

[SterioDesign]

important to point out that in my eyes we're not really a bottom 5 team. that's just the results from this year. i mean our captain played 5 games, TONS of rocky on the team who all played quite well for rookies. And we almost all our losses were by 1 goal. We're closer than it seems. 

Add a year of development / growth to all our rookies, remove some dead weight and getting back Nico and we're a LOT better already without adding any pieces

And i mean... honestly it's not like we were making the playoffs and we know we were in a rebuild. Why does it matter that much where we finish with that in mind? Other than our sort of pride... it's fine. And technically with the draft it's better that way. So again, to me its all good with context. Being a team that should be more of a middle of the pack getting a top 5 pick. That's a good way to potentially get better faster

Edited April 11, 2021 by SterioDesign

[Devils Pride 26]

25 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

important to point out that in my eyes we're not really a bottom 5 team. that's just the results from this year. i mean our captain played 5 games, TONS of rocky on the team who all played quite well for rookies. And we almost all our losses were by 1 goal. We're closer than it seems. 

Add a year of development / growth to all our rookies, remove some dead weight and getting back Nico and we're a LOT better already without adding any pieces

And i mean... honestly it's not like we were making the playoffs and we know we were in a rebuild. Why does it matter that much where we finish with that in mind? Other than our sort of pride... it's fine. And technically with the draft it's better that way. So again, to me its all good with context. Being a team that should be more of a middle of the pack getting a top 5 pick. That's a good way to potentially get better faster

You are what your record says you are. Period. 
 

Winning is contagious, so is losing. If these kids continue losing, that’s probably an indicator that they aren’t going to be as good as we think they are. I’m not advocating buying at the deadline. We have young players, we have prospects knocking on the door, and we have picks. It’s not 2015 anymore. The cupboard isn’t bare, we have young players here and in waiting. 

 

To me, it’s preposterous to think finishing closer to 31 is more beneficial to the future than finishing near 20, for where we are in the rebuild. The core of the rebuild is already here. Hughes, Hischier, Zacha, Smith, Blackwood, etc. Them stepping up and picking up wins down the stretch will be much more developmental than losing out and hoping for a better pick. Spare me

[mfitz804]

35 minutes ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

You are what your record says you are. Period. 

Nope. Anticipated win % isn’t everything, it’s the only thing lol. 

[SterioDesign]

56 minutes ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

You are what your record says you are. Period. 
 

Winning is contagious, so is losing. If these kids continue losing, that’s probably an indicator that they aren’t going to be as good as we think they are. I’m not advocating buying at the deadline. We have young players, we have prospects knocking on the door, and we have picks. It’s not 2015 anymore. The cupboard isn’t bare, we have young players here and in waiting. 

 

To me, it’s preposterous to think finishing closer to 31 is more beneficial to the future than finishing near 20, for where we are in the rebuild. The core of the rebuild is already here. Hughes, Hischier, Zacha, Smith, Blackwood, etc. Them stepping up and picking up wins down the stretch will be much more developmental than losing out and hoping for a better pick. Spare me

Well no it's not that simple. Context matter. Just the fact that we were missing our captain for the whole season is a very important thing and not an indicator of the teams true form. Take out any team top player for a whole season and you'll see they wouldnt be getting the same results. It's common sense.

Also even if players are losing. If you made it to the NHL you're a competitor and you don't just settle with losing, you always want to win. And quite frankly, teams going through rough patch actually learn a lot. See teams who steamroll through a season where everything goes well and then hit a wall in the playoffs.

And finishing closer to the bottom simply gives you a way better shot a potentially landing a key impact player that will impact your franchise. One player can make a WAY bigger impact than a few extra wins through a season, come on now. You think Colorado wish they would have won a few extra games in 2016 and land Liam Anderson instead of Makar? You TRULY think those few extra wins would elevate that group more than makar can? Plus every offseason there's a lot of changes and all. Every season is a reset, a few extra wins is really not having any sort  of impact. That's just you trying to convince yourself of that

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by SterioDesign

[Devils Pride 26]

40 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

Well no it's not that simple. Context matter. Just the fact that we were missing our captain for the whole season is a very important thing and not an indicator of the teams true form. Take out any team top player for a whole season and you'll see they wouldnt be getting the same results. It's common sense.

Also even if players are losing. If you made it to the NHL you're a competitor and you don't just settle with losing, you always want to win. And quite frankly, teams going through rough patch actually learn a lot. See teams who steamroll through a season where everything goes well and then hit a wall in the playoffs.

And finishing closer to the bottom simply gives you a way better shot a potentially landing a key impact player that will impact your franchise. One player can make a WAY bigger impact than a few extra wins through a season, come on now. You think Colorado wish they would have won a few extra games in 2016 and land Liam Anderson instead of Makar? You TRULY think those few extra wins would elevate that group more than makar can? Plus every offseason there's a lot of changes and all. Every season is a reset, a few extra wins is really not having any sort  of impact. That's just you trying to convince yourself of that

 

This isn’t a “rough patch”. This is going into 5+ years of a rebuild. Tell me what Blackwood is learning getting lit up every night. Tell me what good going 0-4 vs the Rangers this week would do for Hughes going forward. No thanks. True growth for the franchise would be Hughes potting more points. Zacha stepping into the Zajac role and shutting down the NYR top dogs. I want to see Bratt stop being so god damn lazy in the dzone and on the forecheck. I want to see this team develop an identity instead of playing out the string. If you don’t think showing positive growth in Ruff’s system is an important step going into next season, I don’t know what to tell you. 
 

I’m not trying to convince myself of anything. Winning, at this point, is good. You’re trying to convince yourself that the toxic culture and acceptance of losing which has seeped into this franchise is a positive. The team we have now is largely going to be the same team we start next season with. Sitting here and perpetually increasing your odds to bump up a slot in the draft in hopes of drafting the right player is a defeatist attitude. For every Makar you point to, I could bring up a Barzal passed over. 

[SterioDesign]

57 minutes ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

This isn’t a “rough patch”. This is going into 5+ years of a rebuild. Tell me what Blackwood is learning getting lit up every night. Tell me what good going 0-4 vs the Rangers this week would do for Hughes going forward. No thanks. True growth for the franchise would be Hughes potting more points. Zacha stepping into the Zajac role and shutting down the NYR top dogs. I want to see Bratt stop being so god damn lazy in the dzone and on the forecheck. I want to see this team develop an identity instead of playing out the string. If you don’t think showing positive growth in Ruff’s system is an important step going into next season, I don’t know what to tell you. 
 

I’m not trying to convince myself of anything. Winning, at this point, is good. You’re trying to convince yourself that the toxic culture and acceptance of losing which has seeped into this franchise is a positive. The team we have now is largely going to be the same team we start next season with. Sitting here and perpetually increasing your odds to bump up a slot in the draft in hopes of drafting the right player is a defeatist attitude. For every Makar you point to, I could bring up a Barzal passed over. 

We've seen growth this season if you havent seen it i dont know what to tell you. The whole "toxic culture" and acceptance of losing is just something you made up in your head and getting upset about. Nobody is happy and okay with losing in the organization. But they understand that it's a process. They are literally the youngest team in the league still working the kinks and learning sh!t, what do you expect?

it's not a defeatist attitude its a realistic attitude. It's fans like you who didn't want the team to ever take a little step back when it was still time to reload / invest in our future and just wanted to win as much as possible and fvck the future, that got us in this situation to start with. We ran the team to the ground to the point we had to build from scratch. But now you're not happy that it takes too long, don't you see the problem?! If you don't understand that we NEED to do this because of that, you won't ever get it. It's not that i LIKE that we NEED this, i wish it would have been taken cared of long ago so that we didnt get in this scenario. 

[Jerrydevil]

20 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

The whole "toxic culture" and acceptance of losing is just something you made up in your head and getting upset about.

The Devils are not winning yet but they are competing well, and there are a lot of good stories this year with the progress of individual players. I don't know if there is an acceptance of losing but I kinda sense that there isn't. I agree with you that this is a process and there are legitimate reasons to believe that the Devils are going in the right direction. Personally, I like watching this team whereas the 2016 team wasn't all that fun to watch, LOL! If this is a ride, I'm enjoying the ride.

I would like to see more physical play, but that may be an NHL problem more than a Devils problem. I don't see a whole lot of body checking in non-Devils games, too.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Jerrydevil

[mfitz804]

9 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

The whole "toxic culture" and acceptance of losing is just something you made up in your head and getting upset about. Nobody is happy and okay with losing in the organization. But they understand that it's a process.

I feel like that’s correct, it’s a concept made up by people online who are upset with the Devils progress. 

[Nicomo]

Losing absolutely takes a toll on players. I remember posting these comments from Severson earlier in the season...

 

I’d personally rather see them win as many games as possible as opposed to worrying about a few draft spots here and there. We already have two #1OA’s, and two top 10 picks (once Holtz gets to the NHL). When the draft is actually here sure I’ll be happy with the highest picks possible, but I’m well past the point of being ok with losing games during the season just to help out with draft position. And I guarantee the players don’t give a sh!t about that either. We need these young guys win games and build their confidence. That’s the most important thing going forward, imo. Not whether we pick 6th, 9th, 10, etc. 

[Devils Pride 26]

14 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

We've seen growth this season if you havent seen it i dont know what to tell you. The whole "toxic culture" and acceptance of losing is just something you made up in your head and getting upset about. Nobody is happy and okay with losing in the organization. But they understand that it's a process. They are literally the youngest team in the league still working the kinks and learning sh!t, what do you expect?

it's not a defeatist attitude its a realistic attitude. It's fans like you who didn't want the team to ever take a little step back when it was still time to reload / invest in our future and just wanted to win as much as possible and fvck the future, that got us in this situation to start with. We ran the team to the ground to the point we had to build from scratch. But now you're not happy that it takes too long, don't you see the problem?! If you don't understand that we NEED to do this because of that, you won't ever get it. It's not that i LIKE that we NEED this, i wish it would have been taken cared of long ago so that we didnt get in this scenario. 

When we were barren, it made perfect sense to tank. I’m not “anti tank no matter what”. I’m anti tank year 5/6/7 into a rebuild with a stocked cupboard. Losing 100% takes a toll on the players. 
 

The Devils sucking down the stretch would be a warning sign that “hey maybe these players aren’t quite as good as we thought they were/need them to be.” The longer time you spend in the wilderness, the longer it takes to get out of it. 

[lazer]

that zohorna guy is gigantic, they say 6'-6"

[SterioDesign]

3 hours ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

When we were barren, it made perfect sense to tank. I’m not “anti tank no matter what”. I’m anti tank year 5/6/7 into a rebuild with a stocked cupboard. Losing 100% takes a toll on the players. 
 

The Devils sucking down the stretch would be a warning sign that “hey maybe these players aren’t quite as good as we thought they were/need them to be.” The longer time you spend in the wilderness, the longer it takes to get out of it. 

There's ways to learn through losing. All the kids need is the right mindset, which is what ive been saying all along. We've seen young guys like McLeod turning the puck over in his zone against the bruins and we got scored on because of that. Well you can be sure that he learned something that day. I said it before, it's also possible with the wrong mindset and winning all your games easy that it's not helping. See tampa and toronto in the playoffs for example. Teams who do well in the playoffs are often teams who struggled and got their sh!t together. See Colombus a few years ago. It's all about the players mindset.

There's a difference with saying that losing is taking a toll on guys or that there's a losing culture... actually it's like the complete opposite lol So which one is it ?

 

[Devils Pride 26]

On 4/11/2021 at 7:16 PM, SterioDesign said:

There's ways to learn through losing. All the kids need is the right mindset, which is what ive been saying all along. We've seen young guys like McLeod turning the puck over in his zone against the bruins and we got scored on because of that. Well you can be sure that he learned something that day. I said it before, it's also possible with the wrong mindset and winning all your games easy that it's not helping. See tampa and toronto in the playoffs for example. Teams who do well in the playoffs are often teams who struggled and got their sh!t together. See Colombus a few years ago. It's all about the players mindset.

There's a difference with saying that losing is taking a toll on guys or that there's a losing culture... actually it's like the complete opposite lol So which one is it ?

 

Hey bud, anytime you want to get around to covering the lessons learned from the last four games I’d appreciate it 

[SterioDesign]

1 minute ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

Hey bud, anytime you want to get around to covering the lessons learned from the last four games I’d appreciate it 

Well there's many plays where players certainly learn something. McLeod trying to breakout to the center and Smith pitching too high is what created that 2 on 1 goal when mcleod turned the puck over. That's the type of plays you can expect from rookies and I'd like to think that those 2 players learned something there

[Devils Pride 26]

1 minute ago, SterioDesign said:

Well there's many plays where players certainly learn something. McLeod trying to breakout to the center and Smith pitching too high is what created that 2 on 1 goal when mcleod turned the puck over. That's the type of plays you can expect from rookies and I'd like to think that those 2 players learned something there

We’ve seen that all year. With a quality coach, system, and culture it would’ve been nipped in the butt by now. 
 

I’m being a d!k. No one is learning anything positive from this sh!t show, imo. 

[SterioDesign]

1 minute ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

We’ve seen that all year. With a quality coach, system, and culture it would’ve been nipped in the butt by now. 
 

I’m being a d!k. No one is learning anything positive from this sh!t show, imo. 

Depends on the players. Some learn and some players like Subban is STILL making rookie mistakes 10 years in

[Devils Pride 26]

1 minute ago, SterioDesign said:

Depends on the players. Some learn and some players like Subban is STILL making rookie mistakes 10 years in

In fairness to PK, they are putting him out there as a shutdown D which he never has been. That’s a failure on the organization and coaching staff. 

[SterioDesign]

1 minute ago, Devils Pride 26 said:

In fairness to PK, they are putting him out there as a shutdown D which he never has been. That’s a failure on the organization and coaching staff. 

That doesn't excuse many of his mistakes. Just this year twice he had the puck around le left circles and instead of sending it deep he would send a high lob pass across the blue line or dump the bump across to the board on the other side that his partner couldnt possibly handle, leading to a turnover. That's so incredibly basic.