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2023-2024 NJ Devils season thread


MadDog2020

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1 hour ago, Satans Hockey said:

I don't care that people like the advanced stats stuff but I don't watch sports to listen to math lectures or read about them. All the graphs, charts, heat maps, x this, I don't give a sh!t. 

 

1 hour ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

I don't mind them as part of a conversation, depending on how they're used.

When I see an article full of metrics acronyms and graphs and charts though, yeah, I just find that...not a whole lot of fun.  And it doesn't like seem a whole lot of metrics are terribly reliable (or at the very least, reliable or representative enough).

I also LOATHE when people use analytics as the ONLY aspect of their argument, then act so flipping smug about theirs being the “correct” model that they will NOT entertain ANY dialogue contrary to their opinion.

Like cool, you found a way to make Joe Blandisi look amazing, he still fails the eye test and absolutely sucked

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5 minutes ago, jagknife said:

I also LOATHE when people use analytics as the ONLY aspect of their argument, then act so flipping smug about theirs being the “correct” model that they will NOT entertain ANY dialogue contrary to their opinion.

Like cool, you found a way to make Joe Blandisi look amazing, he still fails the eye test and absolutely sucked

You completely summed up the majority of the hardcore metrics crowd to a T.  There is absolutely no give-and-take or back-and-forth with so much of that bunch.  

Of course, their fallback when the results don't match the metrics is "luck".  And of course luck is always going to factor into sporting events...bounces, bad calls, sh!t happens.  But metrics aren't the fvcking be-all end-all, and yeah, I've seen my fair share of "metrics darlings" not look good on the ice.  Pretty sure Seves was always a metrics guy.  

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976
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6 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

You completely summed up the majority of the hardcore metrics crowd to a T.  There is absolutely no give-and-take or back-and-forth with so much of that bunch.  

Of course, their fallback when the results don't match the metrics is "luck".  And of course luck is always going to factor into sporting events...bounces, bad calls, sh!t happens.  But metrics aren't the fvcking be-all end-all, and yeah, I've seen my fair share of "metrics darlings" not look good on the ice.  Pretty sure Seves was always a metrics guy.  

I’m thinking of literally one person in particular that is toxic as hell, then is the first to pull the victim card when challenged. Drives me nuts to see cause people quote tweet and I mute the clown.

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1 minute ago, jagknife said:

I’m thinking of literally one person in particular that is toxic as hell, then is the first to pull the victim card when challenged. Drives me nuts to see cause people quote tweet and I mute the clown.

Someone in the press?  

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12 minutes ago, jagknife said:

Failed front office worker of multiple teams that now works for some website, I think

If I saw the name then I'd probably recognize it.  I think I know who you're talking about...sounds familiar.

Anyway a couple of good things:

6 goals in 6 GP for Toffoli.  It's waaaaaay early but he seems to be trying to make a case to get an extension, and I think that's exactly what he'll have to do...I don't think Fitz's Plan A originally called for that.  

Timo's suddenly put up 5 points since he was benched...and taken only one penalty.

 

I cannot figure out Mercer...he's as hot-and-cold as any Devil that I've ever seen offensively.  Really hope he finds some consistency as he reaches his mid-20s.  It did take Bratt about four seasons for it all to come together, from a pure points perspective.  

 

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Crazy stat:  dating back to last season, Erik Haula has 10 goals in his last 13 regular season games.  He had 8 in his first 73 games as a Devil.

He’s shooting well over 25% over this run, so of course he’ll cool off…but for a guy who was SO snakebitten for so much of last season, it’s great to him suddenly popping so many in.

Last night he was asked about how much quicker he got to 4 goals this year over last, and he gave the reporter a death glare and asked “Why would you even bring that up?”  Much of last season had to be frustrating as hell for him, even with the team having so much success.

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16 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

Agree with Novo 100%

Agree with both the idea that the Devils could potentially come up with a black jersey that isn’t unintentionally goofy this time around…

…and that the Ranger jersey is really really awful.

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37 minutes ago, jagknife said:

Unless he comes in and actually wows, I’m on the “Miller was a mistake” train… 

As far as Fitz's potential missteps go, the decision to sign Palat as opposed to keeping that cap to keep Graves ranks much higher on my list. Miller was always going to be a depth guy and was only 1.9M then he is gone after this year. Palat....I just hope he can show he belongs in the top 6 here soon.

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52 minutes ago, jagknife said:

Unless he comes in and actually wows, I’m on the “Miller was a mistake” train… 

Only cost a Devils a 5th-rounder and he was coming off a solid year.  Still time for it to work out, but yeah, so far it hasn’t paid dividends.  

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On 10/26/2023 at 10:36 AM, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

You completely summed up the majority of the hardcore metrics crowd to a T.  There is absolutely no give-and-take or back-and-forth with so much of that bunch.  

Of course, their fallback when the results don't match the metrics is "luck".  And of course luck is always going to factor into sporting events...bounces, bad calls, sh!t happens.  But metrics aren't the fvcking be-all end-all, and yeah, I've seen my fair share of "metrics darlings" not look good on the ice.  Pretty sure Seves was always a metrics guy.  

I think PDO is the luck metric.  I think analytics have a place in the overall analysis of a team or player.  However, I do believe there are intangibles that analytics cannot quantify.  

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8 hours ago, NJDevils1214 said:

As far as Fitz's potential missteps go, the decision to sign Palat as opposed to keeping that cap to keep Graves ranks much higher on my list. Miller was always going to be a depth guy and was only 1.9M then he is gone after this year. Palat....I just hope he can show he belongs in the top 6 here soon.

I don’t think Palat is a top 6 player on this team.  I don’t think he is fast enough or can even play the system that Ruff wants.  His veteran presence was important at the time he was signed and it showed that free agents want to play in NJ.  That said, that contract is not aging well. There are 4 more years left after this season.  However, there is still a lot of season left and he could shine in the playoffs.

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Devils’ Lindy Ruff defends Brendan Smith after another bad game - nj.com

According to Hockey Stat Cards, a site that tracks players’ game scores – which incorporates goals, primary and secondary assists, shots, blocked shots, faceoffs, Corsi differential, goal differential, among others – Smith has a minus-4.40 total game score in 2023-24 and an average score of minus-0.55 per game. Of the 127 defenseman with at least 8 games played this season, Smith’s game score ranks 122nd. On a micro level, Smith ranked dead last among Devils defenseman in expected goals percentage (39.79%) Sunday.

Despite this, coach Lindy Ruff defended Smith for a minute straight after the game.

“You can look at any scoring play and any breakdown. What if we don’t get the save right away in the first on Kaprizov? If we don’t get a save like that, who am I going to look at? Do you know who it is? Probably not because it didn’t go in the net,” Ruff said. “You only remember the ones that go in the net. (Smith) got on the wrong side of his player and ended up getting scored against. There’s probably 15 other chances inside the game that if we want to point to chances or the third goal of the game that they got, I can give you two or three individuals that need to be better on that play.

“Every one of those opportunities, the ones that don’t go in, nobody usually brings up. The one that does go in, you go ‘Hmm, I don’t know what did you think of so-and-so on that play?’ Yeah, he didn’t play it very well. We’d love to have that play back. However, I thought his energy and intensity in the game, and some of his killing was real good. The play on that goal, it wasn’t good enough.”

 
I gotta admit, it would be easy to rip Lindy as sounding clueless here (and having pure blinders on for Smith), but I think it's more of a question of Lindy knowing that with Miller's injury and no one else ready at the moment to take Smith's spot, it won't help the Devils' cause much to bury this guy in the press.
 
Basically, if Smith were to get benched, it would be for...Cal Foote.  I can't stand Smith one bit and I can't wait until he's not a part of the every-game lineup, but can I really make much of an argument for Foote, other than he's Not-Smith?
 
Hopefully Miller's injury isn't long-term and eventually he can at least give the Devils an option worth considering.  But for now we're just going to have to deal with Smith likely being the best of the meh options for the 6th spot.  
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Holtz got less than 7 minutes of ice time last night...he's a -4 over his last three games (though he did score a goal).

Despite that -4, I haven't really seen much in the last three games that screamed "WTF is he doing?" or "Damn this guy sucks!" (Like everyone else, I DO see this with Smith).  Just seems like those minuses more came out of Alex happening to be on the ice when a goal was scored against the Devils (and of course the goalies are still trying to settle in).

Something underlying that we're missing?  Holtz is obviously very much a work in progress but guess I'm just wondering aloud why his ice time was so minimal.   

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16 hours ago, Puckbuster said:

I don’t think Palat is a top 6 player on this team.  I don’t think he is fast enough or can even play the system that Ruff wants.  His veteran presence was important at the time he was signed and it showed that free agents want to play in NJ.  That said, that contract is not aging well. There are 4 more years left after this season.  However, there is still a lot of season left and he could shine in the playoffs.

I wonder if he will end up having any trade value as the season progresses, could consider maybe moving him along to somewhere else 

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4 minutes ago, 2ELIAS6 said:

I wonder if he will end up having any trade value as the season progresses, could consider maybe moving him along to somewhere else 

Nah; Palat is here for veteran leadership. It’s not so much about the regular season for him. You saw what a beast he was in the playoffs last year. Plus, his contract is pretty unmovable, even if that was something we were looking to do. 

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5 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

Nah; Palat is here for veteran leadership. It’s not so much about the regular season for him. You saw what a beast he was in the playoffs last year. Plus, his contract is pretty unmovable, even if that was something we were looking to do. 

I do like palat, I don’t really see anything wrong with his game, he plays a specific role as you mentioned and I think his locker room value is significant but was wondering if around the league he would carry much value to other teams looking for a player like himself

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