GDT: Devs @ Rags 7:00 PM TNT/Tru TV

[Devilsfan118]

21 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

These final games should have been used to get more of a look at Hatakka and DeSimone. Playing Smith (who absolutely can’t be part of the plan next season) is inexcusable. Make it make sense. 

I think this is the last game that "mattered" - I think you'll get your wish for the rest of the games.

Curious to see if they shut Jack down now.

[ButlerBulldog]

Just now, njbuff said:

Luke is the only L Dman that's worth anything right now.

He has tremendous upside if his team doesn't fail him. 

The Devils badly need to find a defensive coach who knows what he’s doing, as all the defenseman have bad habits that must be coached out of them.  Adding 1-2 veterans who can play will help, too.

[Satans Hockey]

Darren Pang and the stupid drink story needed to be shown and talked about 34 times during the game, riveting stuff. Glad I watched on delay so I could fast forward all of it. 

Edited April 4 by Satans Hockey

[ButlerBulldog]

Just now, Devilsfan118 said:

I think this is the last game that "mattered" - I think you'll get your wish for the rest of the games.

Curious to see if they shut Jack down now.

I don’t know.  I thought Siegenthaler wouldn’t be back even after clearing the concussion protocol because Hatakka and DeSimone were playing well, yet here he is.  Moreover, the coaching staff refuses to bench Smith no matter the circumstances, so we might be stuck with him for another twelve days.

[ButlerBulldog]

2 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

Darren Pang and the stupid drink story needed to be shown and talked about 34 times during the game, riveting stuff. Glad I watched on delay so I could fast forward all of it. 

I hate Darren Pang.  It’s obvious that Thorne and Clement carried him all those years he worked for ESPN.

[Puckbuster]

11 minutes ago, Satans Hockey said:

Darren Pang and the stupid drink story needed to be shown and talked about 34 times during the game, riveting stuff. Glad I watched on delay so I could fast forward all of it. 

It was as annoying as the Ray Bourque storyline 23 years ago. 🤮

[NJDevs4978]

Well at least they got the shenanigans part of the game right...predictably the game itself was the usual sh!tshow

[slasher72]

Most comedic thing I read all night was on the Rangers board, that Laf is as good or better than Jack. 

When that team comes back to earth (which always happens after Laviolettte's first season), it'll be enjoyable to watch. 

[NJDfan1711]

2 hours ago, Puckbuster said:

They need a decent starting goalie and a great coach.  This team has a sh!t ton of talent.

I don't know that they do. We brought in a guy like Toffoli in the offseason to bolster the team, and by all accounts he did what he was brought here to do. And now he's gone. 

We lost McLeod, who was a great faceoff guy, great penalty killer, and had the heart of a lion.

We replaced those guys with guys like Tierney, MacDermid, and Nosek. Then we have guys like Haula who is slow and takes too many penalties.  And then guys like Palat who make nice plays now and then, but he's showing his age (he also makes too much money for how little he contributes, but that's another conversation). 

Lazar is a nice player for what he is, but he really should be a fourth liner, but, to this exact point I'm making, because of the lack of depth which we didn't think was a problem, we were playing him on the third line at times. 

Then you have a guy like Bastian who can produce on the PP at times when he's in front of the net, and sometimes uses his body, but he's kinda injury prone and doesn't really bring much else. 

Mercer also has a really disappointing year. Maybe expectations were too high, and he's still young so I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but right now we're really counting on him to be a top 6 guy and he did not play like it at all this year. 

Switching gears to the blue line, Smith sucks and also takes too many penalties , but thankfully he should be gone. Siegs though, is an offensive black hole, and lately has been awful at his native positions too. Then you have Bahl who isn't terrible but isn't really great either.  He's a Meh defenseman. And then finally you have Luke. As discussed before, he's so young and he has a good offensive year, but he was pretty bad defensively. He's gotta improve on that next year, big time. 

The way I see it, our lines heading into next year look something like this right about now:

Mercer - Hughes - Meier

Bratt - Hischier - Holtz

Palat - ? -  Haula

MacDermid - Bastian - ?

Hamilton - Hughes

Marino - Nemec

Bahl - ?

? / Allen

So the way I see it, we need at s minimum a center, right wing, and second or third line defender, assuming a guy like DeSimome is re-signed as a 7th depth option and Hatakka also plays that role , and forwards like Clarke and Stillman don't make the big club. And that's assuming that Mercer has a bounce back year and is deserving of playing on the first line, and same for Holtz on the second line. 

Basically, I think we have some series holes to fill this offseason, which is not how I felt last offseason after we got bounced from the playoffs.  Last year I thought we needed to add a piece or two, and we did with Toffoli which was awesome. Had we not added him I was still feeling pretty confident heading into this year because I felt like certain guys like Mercer and Luke with a year now under their belt would only improve. But too many things went wrong (Dougie hurt, goalies suck, coaches stupid, defenseman suck, McLeod fiasco). 

Fitz has his work cut out for him.  I'm not sure he has what it takes to build and add what this team needs.....but I guess I'll stay optimistic. 

[PacificDevil]

2 hours ago, NJDfan1711 said:

I don't know that they do. We brought in a guy like Toffoli in the offseason to bolster the team, and by all accounts he did what he was brought here to do. And now he's gone. 

We lost McLeod, who was a great faceoff guy, great penalty killer, and had the heart of a lion.

We replaced those guys with guys like Tierney, MacDermid, and Nosek. Then we have guys like Haula who is slow and takes too many penalties.  And then guys like Palat who make nice plays now and then, but he's showing his age (he also makes too much money for how little he contributes, but that's another conversation). 

Lazar is a nice player for what he is, but he really should be a fourth liner, but, to this exact point I'm making, because of the lack of depth which we didn't think was a problem, we were playing him on the third line at times. 

Then you have a guy like Bastian who can produce on the PP at times when he's in front of the net, and sometimes uses his body, but he's kinda injury prone and doesn't really bring much else. 

Mercer also has a really disappointing year. Maybe expectations were too high, and he's still young so I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but right now we're really counting on him to be a top 6 guy and he did not play like it at all this year. 

Switching gears to the blue line, Smith sucks and also takes too many penalties , but thankfully he should be gone. Siegs though, is an offensive black hole, and lately has been awful at his native positions too. Then you have Bahl who isn't terrible but isn't really great either.  He's a Meh defenseman. And then finally you have Luke. As discussed before, he's so young and he has a good offensive year, but he was pretty bad defensively. He's gotta improve on that next year, big time. 

The way I see it, our lines heading into next year look something like this right about now:

Mercer - Hughes - Meier

Bratt - Hischier - Holtz

Palat - ? -  Haula

MacDermid - Bastian - ?

Hamilton - Hughes

Marino - Nemec

Bahl - ?

? / Allen

So the way I see it, we need at s minimum a center, right wing, and second or third line defender, assuming a guy like DeSimome is re-signed as a 7th depth option and Hatakka also plays that role , and forwards like Clarke and Stillman don't make the big club. And that's assuming that Mercer has a bounce back year and is deserving of playing on the first line, and same for Holtz on the second line. 

Basically, I think we have some series holes to fill this offseason, which is not how I felt last offseason after we got bounced from the playoffs.  Last year I thought we needed to add a piece or two, and we did with Toffoli which was awesome. Had we not added him I was still feeling pretty confident heading into this year because I felt like certain guys like Mercer and Luke with a year now under their belt would only improve. But too many things went wrong (Dougie hurt, goalies suck, coaches stupid, defenseman suck, McLeod fiasco). 

Fitz has his work cut out for him.  I'm not sure he has what it takes to build and add what this team needs.....but I guess I'll stay optimistic. 

Lack of depth is concerning. Part of it is indeed McLeod, you lose your best  faceoff person who was also on the upward trajectory to boot all of sudden you’re left scrambling. 
 

Its kinda interesting point that Fitz started trading UFAs such as Miller and Toffoli thinking that season is lost but in reality there was still a lot to play for given how inconsistent the wildcard-holding and chasing teams started playing. Was there really that important to trade Miller? - a little more depth on D wouldn’t have hurt development of Nemec and Hughes even if there was a playoffs miss in the cards

[Nicomo]

They were completely mediocre even with McLeod. They haven’t won more than 3 straight games all season. To me Luke is already better than Severson (or it’s at least a wash) and Ryan Graves doesn’t make or break a team. The two guys they obviously missed the most were Dougie and Brunette. 

[slasher72]

3 hours ago, Nicomo said:

They were completely mediocre even with McLeod. They haven’t won more than 3 straight games all season. To me Luke is already better than Severson (or it’s at least a wash) and Ryan Graves doesn’t make or break a team. The two guys they obviously missed the most were Dougie and Brunette. 

Fitz whiffing on Brunette while sticking with Ruff was such a  blunder. Not as monumental as Wellington Mara failing to promote Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry and losing both, but a huge blunder nonetheless. 

Fitz MUST hire Berube. There's no other coach I want. If he hires another "offensive minded" player's coach, he should lose his job. 

[MadDog2020]

13 minutes ago, slasher72 said:

Fitz whiffing on Brunette while sticking with Ruff was such a  blunder. Not as monumental as Wellington Mara failing to promote Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry and losing both, but a huge blunder nonetheless. 

Fitz MUST hire Berube. There's no other coach I want. If he hires another "offensive minded" player's coach, he should lose his job. 

Berube is my top choice, but I’m also hoping Sullivan is let go by Pittsburgh and is available. Either of those guys would be good. 

Edited April 4 by MadDog2020

[ButlerBulldog]

14 minutes ago, slasher72 said:

Fitz whiffing on Brunette while sticking with Ruff was such a  blunder. Not as monumental as Wellington Mara failing to promote Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry and losing both, but a huge blunder nonetheless. 

Fitz MUST hire Berube. There's no other coach I want. If he hires another "offensive minded" player's coach, he should lose his job. 

Yes, the new coach must be all about three things: defense, toughness, and accountability.  No more benching Holtz while worse players screw up time and again and receive no punishment.

[MadDog2020]

28 minutes ago, ButlerBulldog said:

Yes, the new coach must be all about three things: defense, toughness, and accountability.  No more benching Holtz while worse players screw up time and again and receive no punishment.

💯💯💯💯💯

[NJDfan1711]

4 hours ago, Nicomo said:

They were completely mediocre even with McLeod. They haven’t won more than 3 straight games all season. To me Luke is already better than Severson (or it’s at least a wash) and Ryan Graves doesn’t make or break a team. The two guys they obviously missed the most were Dougie and Brunette. 

Absolutely agree about Dougie, and while I think Brunette definitely had a positive impact on the team, it's really a hard pill for me to swallow that a coach leaves and the team simply forgets everything they were taught and regresses ten fold literally at the start of the following season. 

Now if you make the argument that the team was simply following and playing a new style that they were now being taught to play I would believe that for a little bit, but number one I don't think the team would immediately be masters at that new style, and on top of that when it's clear that that new style isn't working, I think that they would try to make changes and play the way they were playing previously when they were successfu, and that obviously didn't happen.

[Nicomo]

37 minutes ago, NJDfan1711 said:

Absolutely agree about Dougie, and while I think Brunette definitely had a positive impact on the team, it's really a hard pill for me to swallow that a coach leaves and the team simply forgets everything they were taught and regresses ten fold literally at the start of the following season. 

Now if you make the argument that the team was simply following and playing a new style that they were now being taught to play I would believe that for a little bit, but number one I don't think the team would immediately be masters at that new style, and on top of that when it's clear that that new style isn't working, I think that they would try to make changes and play the way they were playing previously when they were successfu, and that obviously didn't happen.

Look what he’s done with the Preds. The results speak for themselves. That was not a particularly good team he took over.

[Nicomo]

1 hour ago, slasher72 said:

Fitz whiffing on Brunette while sticking with Ruff was such a  blunder. Not as monumental as Wellington Mara failing to promote Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry and losing both, but a huge blunder nonetheless. 

Fitz MUST hire Berube. There's no other coach I want. If he hires another "offensive minded" player's coach, he should lose his job. 

My Bengals letting Bill Walsh get away was right up there… 

[titans04]

Best news is there's now one less game in this sh!tshow season that was based on a complete lack of leadership from Fitzsnoozer on down.  Like past seasons imo the players don't get a free pass in anyway. Complete waste of time, sadly.

Edited April 4 by titans04

[Jimmy Leeds]

What's the draft simulator saying now?

[RunninWithTheDevil]

17 minutes ago, Jimmy Leeds said:

What's the draft simulator saying now?

Got this on the first try today 

 

[MadDog2020]

15 minutes ago, RunninWithTheDevil said:

Got this on the first try today 

 

I’d love to get that pick just to see every other fanbase lose their sh!t. 

Edited April 4 by MadDog2020

[RunninWithTheDevil]

2 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

I’d love to get that pick just to see every other fanbase lose their sh!t. 

I'd love to see the look on Bettman and Daly's face as they flip the card over to see a Devils logo 😂

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

3 hours ago, ButlerBulldog said:

Yes, the new coach must be all about three things: defense, toughness, and accountability.  No more benching Holtz while worse players screw up time and again and receive no punishment.

We have managed to gather together some of the NHL's most gifted attacking players and all of a sudden there is a drive for defense and toughness?

Every coach will argue they bring accountability and will implement it in their own way.

What this team needs is a proper system and to be coached properly.

[titans04]

1 hour ago, Chimaira_Devil_#9 said:

We have managed to gather together some of the NHL's most gifted attacking players and all of a sudden there is a drive for defense and toughness?

Every coach will argue they bring accountability and will implement it in their own way.

What this team needs is a proper system and to be coached properly.

While I totally agree with having gathered some gifted offensive players imo if they don't figure out how to play a much more sound defensive game from the goalie on out and including  those gifted players as well, I think we'll be in the same spot going forward.  We're the 6th worse in the league in goals against, only behind, Sharks, Jackets, Ducks, Hawks, Sens.  That's putrid. 

I don't think you can teach toughness, guys either have it or don't, again imo.

While +/- is sometimes frowned upon these days, many of those highly talented offensive guys are near the top with team worst -. #'s  Nico is a minus 1, which is great,  Lazar a team best +10.  

 

Edited April 4 by titans04