Dougie Broken Jaw. Nico Hurt Foot. Zacha and Govy-COVID

[mfitz804]

Just now, Brewskies said:

I understand your point, it didn't come as a surprise to me. I realize that the Devils are a losing team and won't make the playoffs again in a league that almost 50% of the teams make them and they probably will miss again next season. So that being the case without moral victories why bother to even watch this team. There are so many other talented teams to follow that will continue onto the playoffs. 

I chose to watch them if for only moral victories, they played well in a difficult situation. Let's give then credit for that. 

If your name isn’t Jack or occasionally Dawson, you don’t get much credit for anything on this board. 

[MB3]

2 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

If your name isn’t Jack or occasionally Dawson, you don’t get much credit for anything on this board. 

yes we should all be more like you, who gives credit to everyone and loves everyone and definitely doesn’t make memes about how terrible they are and definitely definitely doesn’t call 18-and-19 year olds “busts” when they have a rough stretch.

[DevsMan84]

23 hours ago, Satans Hockey said:

And @DevsMan84... 

 

Your 2021-22 NJ Devils ladies and gentleman.  The only major league level professional sports team whose news coverage is crowd-sourced.

[mfitz804]

2 minutes ago, MB3 said:

yes we should all be more like you, who gives credit to everyone and loves everyone and definitely doesn’t make memes about how terrible they are and definitely definitely doesn’t call 18-and-19 year olds “busts” when they have a rough stretch.

You live in your own world. Show me any instance where I called an 18-19 year old a bust where it wasn’t sarcasm. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

37 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

If your name isn’t Jack or occasionally Dawson, you don’t get much credit for anything on this board. 

Not really fair...I've seen Johnsson get lots of credit for the way he was playing earlier on (and no one's gotten on him despite his production dropping off as of late).  People are also giving credit to Bratt for what he's done after a slow start, to Hamilton, to Siegenthaler (who seems to be settling in), to others...it's not really that bad here.  When a team goes through a stretch where they win 3 out of 18 games (with some truly hideous losses in there), not like there's an abundance of credits to be doled out anyway.  

Re:  Brewskies' comments about last night, outside of Deadwood (who really did hurt them last night), they did about all that I could've asked them for...they were down a LOT of guys, and key players to boot, and playing against a team that iced more talent than the Devils had for that game.  Getting two goals off breakaways probably made the game look closer than it actually felt, but I don't know how much more that they could've done, outside of Deadwood giving up at least two less softies.  There's games where I've ranted plenty about the results/the coaching/etc, but outside of the most obvious culprit, I can't kill them for losing this time.   

[NJDevils1214]

I think Vesey has fit in really well. Granted, I didn't have high expectations so his bar was low, but I can't knock his play or effort. There were games where the team seemed pretty flat but he showed up to play.

[mfitz804]

Just now, NJDevils1214 said:

I think Vesey has fit in really well. Granted, I didn't have high expectations so his bar was low, but I can't knock his play or effort. There were games where the team seemed pretty flat but he showed up to play.

Definitely has been a nice surprise. He seems to have accepted that 3rd-4th kind of role pretty well. Given that his other option was playing in a lesser league, I guess that makes sense. 

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

Good news. 

 

 

[mfitz804]

On 1/4/2022 at 1:47 PM, Satans Hockey said:

This guy has been right enough to have me concerned. This absolutely fvcking sucks if it's true and Nico did block a shot last game so it probably is true... 

 

 

Edited January 5 by mfitz804

[Satans Hockey]

51 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

 

Haha, I'm thrilled that guy's wrong 

[SterioDesign]

11 hours ago, mfitz804 said:

If your name isn’t Jack or occasionally Dawson, you don’t get much credit for anything on this board. 

I feel i deserve a lot more credits than i get for pointing out for years that Subban was absolutely terrible defensively, never ever learn and about his slew foot/dirty plays.

[mfitz804]

6 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

I feel i deserve a lot more credits than i get for pointing out for years that Subban was absolutely terrible defensively, never ever learn and about his slew foot/dirty plays.

Is there written proof of this? I mean, without a post being quoted, how can we be sure that ever happened??

[SterioDesign]

10 hours ago, mfitz804 said:

Is there written proof of this? I mean, without a post being quoted, how can we be sure that ever happened??

gathered a handful of evidences here yes lol I mean, there's a lot more as everyone know but it's just me saying the same thing over and over and over again through the years up to now lol 

Proof of mentions for slewfoot, diving, him not learning, him sucking defensively, him being difficult to deal with, etc etc all documented there for years lol

Edited January 6 by SterioDesign

[mfitz804]

I mean, you’re a graphic designer…I don’t believe that we can consider those credible. Too easy to recreate after the fact. 

It’s clear you have loved Subban up until 2021-22. 

[MB3]

mfitz was being very tongue in cheek and it’s borderline alarming that you didn’t pick up on that. 

it’s well known on this forum how much you despise PK, almost with the same intensity that you love Lou / are a LouLam apologist.

[Devil Dan 56]

6 hours ago, MB3 said:

mfitz was being very tongue in cheek and it’s borderline alarming that you didn’t pick up on that. 

it’s well known on this forum how much you despise PK, almost with the same intensity that you love Lou / are a LouLam apologist.

Oh no please don’t get him started on how much he loves and misses Lou!! 

[Nicomo]

Speaking of Lou, I see Palms and Parise still only have a combined 2 goals between them. Those signings are really working out!

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, Nicomo said:

Speaking of Lou, I see Palms and Parise still only have a combined 2 goals between them. Those signings are really working out!

Palms hasn't played since 12/16, due to injury (not like he's missed a slew of games, given that the Isles have played in just in three of them since then), but yeah, there's no way to sugarcoat it...he's mostly been a disaster since being dealt there.  3 G and 8 A in 42 regular season GP.  He did score 7 G in 19 playoff GP last season, but he's put up 10 G and 10 A in 61 GP overall as an Islander...that's just...really not good.  He should playing against the Devils on 1/13 (against the Isles in their new digs...I'm going to that one), but I've seen blurbs that he might start getting healthy-scratched if he doesn't pick it up soon.  Crazy to think, given that he's signed for three more seasons after this one, at a $5 million cap hit to boot.

Of course, one of the dummies at Pucks and Pitchforks tried to make it sound like the Devils were heavily rumored to want to bring him back, which is complete nonsense...it's all speculation of course, but the guess here is that Fitz offered Palms a year or two "Show me" deal due to Palms looking very meh for much of last season as a Devil, he and his agent wanted more, and Fitz said negotiations done, soyonara.  So with Palms turning in one of his worst seasons and looking like he's on a swift decline, Fitz is going to take on a $5 million hit for the next three years?  Yeah right. 

Parise is a different story...Lou signed him for absolute pennies as a classic "Well what the hell, why not?" move, and only for one season.  As we've seen, with quite a few of those "Wow this could be a killer bargain if..." kind of signings, you tend to get what you pay for...but at least with such a low-risk, low-cost move, the Isles can simply move on from him whenever they want...and to be fair, I don't think that Lou was expecting THAT much production out of Parise (though I'm sure it was more than one goal to this point).   

If what we've seen from Palms as an Islander is roughly what he's going to be going forward...yikes.

Edited January 7 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Nicomo]

I had completely forgotten Palms signed for four years. No idea why I thought both him and Parise were on one year deals. Oof

[mfitz804]

9 hours ago, MB3 said:

mfitz was being very tongue in cheek and it’s borderline alarming that you didn’t pick up on that. 

it’s well known on this forum how much you despise PK, almost with the same intensity that you love Lou / are a LouLam apologist.

No wait you think he wasn’t playing along???

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, Nicomo said:

I had completely forgotten Palms signed for four years. No idea why I thought both him and Parise were on one year deals. Oof

Re:  Palms, in the past I've usually been able to understand what Lou was going for, with most of his moves...but this one is impossible to defend.  For one, anyone who knows much about Palms knows how much he loves this area...so it's not like he was looking to make his services available to a wide swath of teams.  The Devils had clearly moved on, and I'm not sure if the Rangers or Flyers had any interest, so many options did he really have?  For another, who the hell was Lou bidding against exactly?  Was there a team even remotely willing to cough up 3+ years for Palms, based off his 2020-21 season?

Given that Lou could offer the one thing no one could or was willing to (a chance to stay in the Tri-State area, and play on a team that had just enjoyed two deep playoff runs to boot), he really should've offered Palms a one-year, $5.5 million deal or thereabouts.  OK Kyle, you have a bounceback year, and we can talk something long-term.

Just guessing, but the money that wound up going to Tatar...I suspect that was pretty close to whatever "Final and best" offer Fitz made to Palms' camp.  It was money Fitz already had included in his budget for 2021-22 and 2022-23, so he aimed a little higher in trying to land Saad, and when that didn't happen, it was easy to find a similar-to-Palms player, in terms of age and general production (and who would also be looking to bounce back off a meh kind of year).  

Their numbers are actually quite eerily similar for their careers:

Player Comparison: Tomas Tatar vs. Kyle Palmieri | Stathead.com

Palms (per 82 GP):  24 G, 23 A, 47 Pts, 2.42 SPG, 12.1 shooting% (as he got more of an opportunity with the Devils, his Devils numbers are better than his career numbers)

Tatar (per 82 GP):  23 G, 26 A, 49 Pts, 2.14 SPG, 13.1 shooting%

Palms has played in 637 games and Tatar in 657.  And going strictly by quick-glance numbers, Tatar has picked up almost exactly where Palms left off...in his last season here, Palms put up 8 G and 9 A in 34 GP.  Tatar has 8 G and 9 A in 32 GP so far this season.  

Edited January 7 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[mfitz804]

2 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

  Tatar has 8 G and 9 A in 32 GP so far this season.  

He's been getting criticized a lot, and he did have 2-3 garbage time goals, but honestly, he is 7th on the team in scoring and third (with 3 guys tied for 2nd) in goals.

Did anyone expect more from a guy that was healthy scratched during the playoffs? Sure, he's getting $4.5m a year, which we know is irrelevant to us since we have zero cap concerns. 

Plus, the fact that people call him Tuna really pleases my high school sense. Ask my high school friend Anthony "Graham" Crecca. 

[Nicomo]

That goal he scored last night was gorgeous. Plus him and his wife went to Devils Halloween as Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace, so I want to like him.

[MB3]

I called the Palmieri decline a mile away, took a lot of sh!t from all of you because of it, and feel pretty fvcking vindicated right about now  

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 minute ago, mfitz804 said:

He's been getting criticized a lot, and he did have 2-3 garbage time goals, but honestly, he is 7th on the team in scoring and third (with 3 guys tied for 2nd) in goals.

Did anyone expect more from a guy that was healthy scratched during the playoffs? Sure, he's getting $4.5m a year, which we know is irrelevant to us since we have zero cap concerns. 

Plus, the fact that people call him Tuna really pleases my high school sense. Ask my high school friend Anthony "Graham" Crecca. 

He's a classic stopgap signing...you hope to get around 45-50 points per 82 GP from him (right in line with his career numbers), and then hopefully by then Holtz is ready to rip...Tatar might even be a guy the Devils deal off before next year's deadline.  Like I said, I think that money was initially Palms' to accept, before he was dealt...if anything, Tatar's deal might even be for a little less, AAV-wise.  

2 minutes ago, MB3 said:

I called the Palmieri decline a mile away, took a lot of sh!t from all of you because of it, and feel pretty fvcking vindicated right about now  

There's a decline and then there's going on milk cartons.  Wanna tell me there was a chance Palms could become a 20 G/40 Pts per 82 GP kind of player, sure, that can happen to a guy entering his 30s.  But I don't ANYONE could've seen the off-the-cliff nosedive his career has taken.  Like I've pointed out elsewhere, even though you had your issues with the guy, for his five years as a Devil, his overall numbers per season were remarkably consistent.  Last year they dropped off, but with NJ were still not too far off from previous seasons (even though he did look pretty bad, can't argue against that).  What he's done (or HASN'T done) with the Isles is baffling...I haven't been watching him at all, so I don't know exactly what the issues are, but to go from right around a 30 G per 82 GP rate over five seasons to a 12 G per 82 GP rate (from the start of last season, and even that rate is trending down), I don't think anyone could've seen that kind of dropoff.  Lou sure as hell didn't think it was going to continue.