GDT: Devils @ Vancouver

[95Crash]

Chico summed up the postgame show well, "It's all about Scott Clemmensen, keeping the confidence level up."

He also added that he talked to Sutter in private and that Brent was very happy with the way the team played.

Edited January 14, 2009 by 95Crash

[Devils731]

Can someone explain to me what exactly the staff sees in this guy? To let him make a killer mistake or three every game with Jay Leach in the press box after playing well is just mind-boggling. It's not like he's some big prospect we have to play or a veteran who's earned a bit more rope. He's 27 and never showed any of his so-called potential here other than in too-short spurts.

Could be the team does see Salmela in that spot by the playoffs if no trade is made but they'd rather have Salmela get big minutes in Lowell to grow and then play Salmela the last 5-10 games of the season to get up to NHL speed. The NHL is also more wearing than the AHL so Salmela would be more likely to be fresh in the playoffs the more AHL he plays. Also, the team could be hoping Greene has a spurt of solid play which may make him interesting to other teams to acquire.

[Triumph]

Could be the team does see Salmela in that spot by the playoffs if no trade is made but they'd rather have Salmela get big minutes in Lowell to grow and then play Salmela the last 5-10 games of the season to get up to NHL speed. The NHL is also more wearing than the AHL so Salmela would be more likely to be fresh in the playoffs the more AHL he plays. Also, the team could be hoping Greene has a spurt of solid play which may make him interesting to other teams to acquire.

i doubt most of this. i think salmela became persona non grata and he's in the AHL for good barring 2 injuries, and i don't think the devils have ever been the kind of team to put trade concerns over winning the next game.

the truth is that greene does have more potential than jay leach and he has had some good games, but he's really not much of a PP point man or anything else at the moment. i don't know where he hid the guy who played in the 2007 playoffs.

[Devils731]

i doubt most of this. i think salmela became persona non grata and he's in the AHL for good barring 2 injuries, and i don't think the devils have ever been the kind of team to put trade concerns over winning the next game.

the truth is that greene does have more potential than jay leach and he has had some good games, but he's really not much of a PP point man or anything else at the moment. i don't know where he hid the guy who played in the 2007 playoffs.

Just throwing out ideas because it doesn't appear to me that Greene is keeping his spot on defense through his play. If Brookbank had some of the games he has had he'd be benched for 10 games....although that happens anyway.

[SatansDevils]

Cangelosi just said, "Clemmensen on Friday vs. Columbus (Nash might play now) and Weekes on Saturday vs. the NYI where he has already won over the NYI."

[Cowutopia]

Leach has been solid, Greene has not. I'm sick of him. He needs time off to get his sh!t straight.

ANYWAY Yes, Satans. Salvador also has been playing generally poor since he came back from injury as well, and tonight was another C effort from him. But Greene is terrible. Someone ought to tell him not to pinch or crash anymore, and someone else ought to tell him not to aim for deflections when he shoots, but should instead try to just shoot it on net for a while before trying to get fancy. Since it doesn't seem that he can get anything on net.

[Devils731]

Leach has been solid, Greene has not. I'm sick of him. He needs time off to get his sh!t straight.

ANYWAY Yes, Satans. Salvador also has been playing generally poor since he came back from injury as well, and tonight was another C effort from him. But Greene is terrible. Someone ought to tell him not to pinch or crash anymore, and someone else ought to tell him not to aim for deflections when he shoots, but should instead try to just shoot it on net for a while before trying to get fancy. Since it doesn't seem that he can get anything on net.

That one Greene shot when he was looking for a deflection in, I think, the 3rd was brutal, he put it 3 feet wide of the Devils stick and 6 feet wide of the net.

[Triumph]

i think greene keeps his job because he can play the PP, supposedly. so if you put him out there, you can then leave oduya to come out with salvador or white or mottau the next shift, instead of having a white-leach, white-salvador, etc. house of horrors.

but i wouldn't be surprised to see him sit next game. if i had to guess, i'd think that the coaching staff put far too much stock in the fact that he had 6 points in 6 games before his injury.

[SatansDevils]

That one Greene shot when he was looking for a deflection in, I think, the 3rd was brutal, he put it 3 feet wide of the Devils stick and 6 feet wide of the net.

I was saying the same thing to myself like, "where the fvck is he shooting the puck?" he did it more than once I believe. It is not just Greene. It's Salvador and Mottau as well.

The funny thing is we all can nit-pick every player each and everyone of us does not care for, when the sad part is the Devils WON the damn game and some still not satisfied. like Chico said, "the Devils got the win no matter how you look at it." Many of us here (myself included) need to stop nit-picking every little player. It has become ridiculious especially after a win.

[Random Poster]

Cangelosi just said, "Clemmensen on Friday vs. Columbus (Nash might play now) and Weekes on Saturday vs. the NYI where he has already won over the NYI."

That was his guess, not a set in stone fact.

[Cowutopia]

I'm staying on Greene because he's been horrible every single game. This is a trend.

[SatansDevils]

That was his guess, not a set in stone fact.

I agree with him and hopefully Sutter does as well. All along the plan I think for Sutter and the Devils is to start Weekes vs. LA and the NYI on this 6-game road trip. Clemmer will have 2-plus days off till Friday night in Columbus.

[Bringbackbrylin]

great win, pretty sure that the pulling of LaBarbera was a NHL record

[Have Another Donut]

No doubt. But its not only the goals. Clems still looks like he doesnt have a clue how to handle the puck behind the net. He looks like he's got a rubber stick.

That's what she said (sorry, it was a tap in )

and yes, he certainly takes his time before making his usual bad puck "handling" decision and then lumbering back to the net.

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

Haha some of the worst goaltending i have ever seen, and only 25% of it came from Clemmensen.

Those first 3 devils goals were hilarious.

Glad we got the win, its always good to see a load of different names on the scoresheet.

Once again the Offense bails us out.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

He made some good saves to keep the Devils up by the two and three goals for the most part of the game. He is fine and he got the win. Jeez, HE GOT THE WIN (16-9-1 not bad at all). The defensive breakdowns were bad in the end of the 3rd period and they turned the puck over way too much under the Vancouver pressure. It was not all Clemmer.

Considering what the expectations were, 16-9-1 is a pipe dream. If someone had told us all that Marty would go down and Clemmy would fashion a 16-9-1 record, we'd all have signed up for that in a heartbeat.

Yeah, he's starting to come back to Earth a little bit, but to ask him to continue stopping 92% of the shots coming his way is probably asking too much. We're talking about a lifetime AHLer here who's never gotten this kind of workload at the NHL level. To hold him to any kind of NHL standard is tough to do...I'm just happy he played as well as he did for as long as he did, and with his now 5th straight game where he's failed to stop 90% of the shots, it looks like we've likely seen the best he's had to offer, and he probably won't match what he did in his first 20 games. Oh well...that's 20 games more than any of us had any right to expect.

The Devils are now 6-6 in their last 12 games...I won't be terribly surprised if they continue to play at about that rate (hopefully a little bit better) until Marty comes back, barring Clemmensen getting hot again, or Weekes suddenly taking the #1 job and running with it (both scenarios are unlikely). The good news is that the Devils are already 10 games over NHL-.500, so if they can hover around that level until Marty comes back they should be OK. Let's face it...most of us thought they'd be lucky to go .500 over the entire length of Marty's absence, so 19-13-1 to this point is pretty damn good.

Edited January 14, 2009 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Don]

I hope Clemmensen gets injured so we can see if these "Weekes = Our Savior; Clemmensen Sucks" people are right or not....

[CRASHER]

I hope Clemmensen gets injured so we can see if these "Weekes = Our Savior; Clemmensen Sucks" people are right or not....

I never called Weekes "our savior" I just feel he's been thrown under the bus and never got a FAIR shot to show what he can do for this team in this non-Brodeur era... NEITHER one of these guys should be playing 22 of 23 and so on!

[overtime98]

I never called Weekes "our savior" I just feel he's been thrown under the bus and never got a FAIR shot to show what he can do for this team in this non-Brodeur era... NEITHER one of these guys should be playing 22 of 23 and so on!

....I think everyone wanted to See the "carolina hurricanes Weekes".... they wanted to see the goalie that killed us during the playoffs in '02.

not sure if weekes can top that performance.

[CRASHER]

....I think everyone wanted to See the "carolina hurricanes Weekes".... they wanted to see the goalie that killed us during the playoffs in '02.

not sure if weekes can top that performance.

He gave you a SUPERIOR third period in LA... right about the same time the other guy stumbled in Vancouver

[overtime98]

He gave you a SUPERIOR third period in LA... right about the same time the other guy stumbled in Vancouver

Hey, when brodeur went down, I didnt care which goalie got most of the starts, as long as one of them gave a us a chance each night until Marty returns, I'll be content....

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

I never called Weekes "our savior" I just feel he's been thrown under the bus and never got a FAIR shot to show what he can do for this team in this non-Brodeur era... NEITHER one of these guys should be playing 22 of 23 and so on!

Clemmensen got hot and Sutter went with it. Under the circumstances how much better could the Devils have been expected to do record-wise since Marty's been hurt? How much better could it have really been with Weekes starting a few more games? What has Weekes ever done in his career to earn a "fair" shot? Just about everytime he's been given a shot in the past he hasn't gotten it done...hence the reason, at the not terribly old age of 33, he finds himself relegated to backup status, with no one interested in his services as a #1.

Weekes has played for eight teams and failed to be a long-term solution for all of them for a reason. By all means, let's give some starts to the guy with the 101-162-6 record, 2.89 GAA and .902 save% more starts at the expense of the guy who had a little something going. It looks like he'll start getting more time because Clemmy's cooling off, and that I can understand. But I can also understand why Sutter saw he had a little mojo going to with Clemmer and chose to milk that for as long as he could.

Anyway, Clemmy's now 2-3 with a 3.48 GAA and .877 save% in his last five...if that continues and Weekes has a couple of strong games he'll get his shot very soon.

Edited January 14, 2009 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[devilsrule33]

Clemmensen got hot and Sutter went with it. Under the circumstances how much better could the Devils have been expected to do record-wise since Marty's been hurt? How much better could it have really been with Weekes starting a few more games? What has Weekes ever done in his career to earn a "fair" shot? Just about everytime he's been given a shot in the past he hasn't gotten it done...hence the reason, at the not terribly old age of 33, he finds himself relegated to backup status, with no one interested in his services as a #1.

Weekes has played for eight teams and failed to be a long-term solution for all of them for a reason. By all means, let's give some starts to the guy with the 101-162-6 record, 2.89 GAA and .902 save% more starts at the expense of the guy who had a little something going. It looks like he'll start getting more time because Clemmy's cooling off, and that I can understand. But I can also understand why Sutter saw he had a little mojo going to with Clemmer and chose to milk that for as long as he could.

Anyway, Clemmy's now 2-3 with a 3.48 GAA and .877 save% in his last five...if that continues and Weekes has a couple of strong games he'll get his shot very soon.

And for the comment about Weekes on those 8 teams...lets break it down.

- Kevin Weekes starts his career on an awful Panthers team that finished second last in the league. John Vanbiesbrouck, a great goalie throughout his career, had awful stats himself on this team.

- Weekes than goes to the Canucks, a team that was somehow worse than the Florida Panthers, and finished with 58 points.

- Weekes next stop is the Islanders. Guess what...58 points, and third worst team in the league. Weekes actually plays a lot, and does as well (or bad) as Roberto Luongo.

- Now Weekes goes to the Lightning, and you know I kept saying all those other teams he played on were 2nd worst or 3rd worst. Well that is because the Lightning were always the worst team. Well the Lightning finish with 59 points, 2nd last to the Islanders.

- He then goes to the Hurricanes...wear despite only playing two games in the regular season, he dominates the Devils in the playoffs.

- Finally...he goes to the Rangers where he was completely outplayed by Lundqvist...

But looking at past records and past success is stupid. No goalie has played for a worse bunch of teams to start his career than Weekes. And it was all coincidence since these teams sucked before he got there, and sucked after he left. None of those teams made it to 60 points. Can you imagine if Clemmensen played on some of those teams.

Clearly Clemmensen played very well, and deserved the starting role, but he only got that chance after making mistakes and shaking off the rust, which is something the Devils never gave Weekes the opportunity to do.

Weekes lost his first game 2-0. but it was one of the best goalie performances by a Devils goalie this season, and one of the worst games played by the Devils this year. He wins his next game, but lets in a goal he should have had against the Wings. He then gets absolutely let out to dry in a game against the Rangers.

Clemmer loses his first two, and then in his third gme gets bailed out by the offense in a 6-5 win over the Caps. Evn though Weekes wins his next start, Clemmensen becomes the ful-time starter. And he did quite well, you can't deny that. But that is why people don't think Weekes got the same fair shot as Clemmer.

Edited January 14, 2009 by devilsrule33

[Triumph]

it is not at all coincidence that he ended up on bad teams. weekes was never thought of as a highly rated goaltender and was thought to have locker room issues at the time (in vancouver, he was late to either a practice or a game because he said he got mugged). he was also thought to be better than he was playing, though, so he got passed around the league a lot.

when he was a starter in carolina he played reasonably well in 2002-03 and 2003-04. hockey analytics ranks him the 17th overall most valuable player and 15th highest goaltender (above martin brodeur, interestingly).

but yeah he's a backup now and he will have to count himself lucky if he is in the league next year. that's not to denigrate him or say he shouldn't play, but i think the idea that there is an enormous disparity between weekes and clemmensen is pretty much nonsense, and that riding the hot hand with clemmensen was perfectly reasonable.

[RowdyFan42]

Clearly Clemmensen played very well, and deserved the starting role, but he only got that chance after making mistakes and shaking off the rust, which is something the Devils never gave Weekes the opportunity to do.

Weekes lost his first game 2-0. but it was one of the best goalie performances by a Devils goalie this season, and one of the worst games played by the Devils this year. He wins his next game, but lets in a goal he should have had against the Wings. He then gets absolutely let out to dry in a game against the Wings.

Clemmer loses his first two, and then in his third gme gets bailed out by the offense in a 6-5 win over the Caps. Evn though Weekes wins his next start, Clemmensen becomes the ful-time starter. And he did quite well, you can't deny that. But that is why people don't think Weekes got the same fair shot as Clemmer.

Exactly. Clemmensen was given more leeway in the beginning than Weekes was, and based on the past few games, he is once again being given more leeway than Weekes was the first time. It's obvious that Clemmensen is losing the "hot hand" that he's had the good fortune of riding so far, and in the game and a third that Weekes was allowed to play last week, he proved that it's time to give him another chance.

I thought Weekes should have been the starter against Vancouver. Obviously Sutter felt differently. However, make no mistake about it, there is something seriously wrong if Weekes does not get at least one start by the end of this road trip.

Edited January 14, 2009 by RowdyFan42