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Devils Midseason Report Card: Team in midst of misery


Rock

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There's an inclination by some to cut him a break because the whole team is terrible, but there is only one player who signed a $100 million deal (and took two months to do it), who the Devils have surrendered assets and picks to get in addition to the money. I hold him to a higher standard. It's fair. He cost a lot to get, and he's been such a disappointment. He's not even exciting. He's sometimes invisible.

Sorry, I'm not gonna pick on Brodeur similarly. He's built up a lot of equity here. Kovalchuk is the new stiff in town. He gets no slack.

actually, he took 2 weeks. the league took 2 months.

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Fixed.

I think the point is, Manta, is that people get kind of tired by your lamenting about the same thing. I'm sure many on this forum have second guessed the wisdom of the Kovy deal but they don't retread over it. It seems like every post you have has to have a dig at the Kovalchuk signing. Bottom line, Manta, we signed Kovy, he's here whether you like it or not, now be a Devils fan and contribute to the discussion instead of b&tching about Kovy this and Kovy that.

Oh come now, you guys are just as bad as they are. To not even acknowledge the Kovy deal and its aftermath as 'one' of the causes of this season (not to mention his own hideous play) is just living in denial. You don't just go from having your best start in '09-10 to two points off your worst start in '10-11 without dramatic causes.

Besides, Manta offered publicly to cut it out and most of you said he had the right to free speech so you guys can't whine about it now.

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Conversely:

Bergfors while playing 7 less games than Kovy has 9 goals, the same amount of points (23) and doing this for $5.7 Million less than Kovy this year.

Yes, but at this point Atlanta is overall doing much better than NJ. Bergfors is 7th in goals and 8th in points on their team. Our entire team has been in a state of disarray all season long. If you want to blame that entirely on Ilya, thats your prerogative, but as far as I can tell, no one else is really burning it up either.

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Conversely:

Bergfors while playing 7 less games than Kovy has 9 goals, the same amount of points (23) and doing this for $5.7 Million less than Kovy this year.

Which is good for 7th on the Thrashers in goals. Kovalchuk's 10 goals account for about 13% of all Devils tallies this year. Bergfors' 7 goals account for 5% of Atlanta's.

It's all relative, my dear Watson.

Edit: Somehow had Bergfors' team ranking in goals wrong. Whoops! Fixed now.

Edited by DaneykoIsGod
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Yes, but at this point Atlanta is overall doing much better than NJ.

Why is that? What is the common denominator between Atlanta's rise and New Jersey's fall?

Could it be that by dealing their albatross to New Jersey they freed up salary room and where able to stock their team with the quality depth and defense?

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Oh come now, you guys are just as bad as they are. To not even acknowledge the Kovy deal and its aftermath as 'one' of the causes of this season (not to mention his own hideous play) is just living in denial. You don't just go from having your best start in '09-10 to two points off your worst start in '10-11 without dramatic causes.

Besides, Manta offered publicly to cut it out and most of you said he had the right to free speech so you guys can't whine about it now.

I'm pretty sure we all would acknowledge that the Kovalchuk deal was a contributing factor. Manta typically mentions it as the only factor(or that's at least the appearance from his posts).

And I'm all for Manta expressing his "free speech." That doesn't mean we don't have the right to harp on it.

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Why is that? What is the common denominator between Atlanta's rise and New Jersey's fall?

Could it be that by dealing their albatross to New Jersey they freed up salary room and where able to stock their team with the quality depth and defense?

Atlanta did not rise after they dealt Kovy last year.

Also, importing half of Chicago's Stanley Cup team helps a bit.

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I had a friend who had a brother who was waaay into wrestling and the movie, The Boiler Room. Everytime I saw him that's all he used to talk about. Eventually it got pretty annoying but I let it go because he had Asperger's Syndrome. Manta Ray is kind of like my friend's brother in that all he talks about is the Kovy Debacle. I don't know if he has Asperger's.

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I had a friend who had a brother who was waaay into wrestling and the movie, The Boiler Room. Everytime I saw him that's all he used to talk about. Eventually it got pretty annoying but I let it go because he had Asperger's Syndrome. Manta Ray is kind of like my friend's brother in that all he talks about is the Kovy Debacle. I don't know if he has Asperger's.

People ask questions, or make statements: I respond.

Put me on ignore then.

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I'm not putting you on ignore. Sometimes you come in with some good points. It would be nice if you would comment on more than just how everything is the fault of the Kovy deal. There's many threads on this board like the one on Landeskog, but I'm sure you would find a way to get in a jab at Kovy there.

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Atlanta did not rise after they dealt Kovy last year.

Also, importing half of Chicago's Stanley Cup team helps a bit.

OMG. Please tell me your kidding.

Atlanta is currently the 8th ranked team in the East and 4 points out of first in their division.

Had they kept the albatross they would not have been able to deal with Chicago.

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I think the Devils need to take a real hard look this offseason to try and find out what kind of team they need to enable Kovalchuk to be successful.

First and foremost, the Devils do need a solid offensive defenseman, preferentially a guy with good speed and puck-handling/passing skills. Doesn't have to be a guy who can score a ton of goals.

While defensively in front of the net, the Devils are horrible, they suffer as much from an inability to control the puck effectively/position themselves for outlet passes and breakouts. Teams don't fear a single defenseman on our team from having the puck or passing it out of our own zone. Andy Greene is a back-pairing defenseman getting a ton of minutes and being put in PP, PK, and 5-5 situations.

Also, they need to find out what kind of linemates Kovalchuk needs and what Kovalchuk is most comfortable and effective at doing from an offensive standpoint. While I think Josefson could be the center for Kovalchuk going forward, it's not impossible Lou may have to go out and get another center in the offseason. I havent seen enough chemistry or cohesion between Zajac and Kovalchuk to think it'll work.

Also, I just don't think MacLean was a very good coach. Yeah, Lou left him a few ingredients short of having what he needed, but it's become abundantly clear MacLean had no idea what he was doing or how to handle this group.

There is no question Lou has his work cut out for him.

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OMG. Please tell me your kidding.

Atlanta is currently the 8th ranked team in the East and 4 points out of first in their division.

Had they kept the albatross they would not have been able to deal with Chicago.

I meant they did not rise last SEASON (Feb-April 2010) After we dealt Kovy. It was more they traded and aquired half of the Blackhawks in the offseason. They did not use Oduya, Bergfors, or Cromier in that deal, so all that is left is a couple of picks (low on the draft scale since we did well last season).

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OMG. Please tell me your kidding.

Atlanta is currently the 8th ranked team in the East and 4 points out of first in their division.

Had they kept the albatross they would not have been able to deal with Chicago.

C'Mon, Dude, seriosly? This is your argument?!?! Like Atlanta's GM had the foresight(or psychic ability) to know that Chicago would win the Cup and then have to cut salary by getting rid of Ladd, Byfuglien, Eager and Sopel specifically.

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C'Mon, Dude, seriosly? This is your argument?!?! Like Atlanta's GM had the foresight(or psychic ability) to know that Chicago would win the Cup and then have to cut salary by getting rid of Ladd, Byfuglien, Eager and Sopel specifically.

It was a VERY known fact that the Hawks were against the 8-Ball with this year's cap based on that team and the terrible mistake Tallon had made a few seasons before as GM (hell it got him fired), and it didn't take SUPER GENIUS to walk in and cash out on it....

Credit to them to have the balls to make Ba-Fugly a defenseman though......

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It was a VERY known fact that the Hawks were against the 8-Ball with this year's cap based on that team and the terrible mistake Tallon had made a few seasons before as GM (hell it got him fired), and it didn't take SUPER GENIUS to walk in and cash out on it....

Credit to them to have the balls to make Ba-Fugly a defenseman though......

Point taken, but moving these specific players all to one team, that's another story.

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C'Mon, Dude, seriosly? This is your argument?!?! Like Atlanta's GM had the foresight(or psychic ability) to know that Chicago would win the Cup and then have to cut salary by getting rid of Ladd, Byfuglien, Eager and Sopel specifically.

C'Mon Carp, your smarter than that. As soon as they signed Hossa they had to start shedding salary. That was a HUGE story last summer.

Edited by MantaRay
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C'Mon Carp, your smarter than that. As soon as they signed Hossa they had to start shedding salary. That was a HUGE story last summer.

See my above post. Atlanta knew that Chi had to shed salary but I don't think they knew they would fall a$$-backwards into a deal with those 4 players involved.

From what I can recall Atlanta tried to keep Kovalchuk, it's not exactly like they were pushing him out the door.

Edited by CarpathianForest
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C'Mon Carp, your smarter than that. As soon as they signed Hossa they had to start shedding salary. That was a HUGE story last summer.

Hossa was a part of that, but from what I remember a bigger contributor was Tallon did not (or forgot) to submit offers to his restricted free agents a couple of offseasons back. Cost them quite a pretty penny and pushed them against the cap.

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See my above post. Atlanta knew that Chi had to shed salary but I don't think they knew they would fall a$$-backwards into a deal with those 4 players involved.

It didn't matter, Atlanta held the cards. Your best GM's exploit the cap problems of other teams: Paul Holmgren essentially fleeced Nashville's by stealing: Hartnell, Timmonen, etc. and then turned around and added Pronger because of Anaheim's cap problems.

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Point taken, but moving these specific players all to one team, that's another story.

Why make painful trades with a bunch of teams when you can get the talent rape over with in one convenient destination?? B )

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