GDT: #17 New Jersey Devils v.s. Pittsburg Penguins: Slapshot Edition

[devilsblood]

Last night, on top of the past several years, shows you how from the Pens perspective focusing on stacking your offense and neglecting the defense is going to make it difficult to do much in this league. The offense can do so much but it's that pyramid/domino effect, how can they do much when they don't have a good support base behind them?

Part of that is Sheros doing from his time there.

But now that Shero had that go around, hopefully learned some things along the way and being that he has a nice base in place to build on here, you hope he will be able to see how having this solid defense in place and building from the net out is going to be beneficial in this league.

I thought Shero was always big on puck moving d-men?

But to your point, and I said this in the off season, this was a really good situation to step into for Shero. Goaltending was high level, D was high promise, and looked to be on the verge. And given how bad we were expectations would be low. Even the good start, not great, that we've had has fans super excited.

 

[JimEIV]

One of the biggest criticisms of Shero in Pittsburgh was that he too highly valued puck moving defenseman and didn't draft enough forwards to help Crosby, so it's not like he neglected the defensive side of the puck. When you look at first round picks like Joe Morrow, Simon Despres, Derrick Pouliot, and Olli Maata, you can't say he only focused on forwards.

I think that criticism is more fans unrealistic view of the draft than reality personally.

We see it here all the time, 5 years later a fan is ripping off "why he no draft the better player" or the player the fans perceive they need at the moment.

 

[NJDevs26]

I thought Shero was always big on puck moving d-men?

But to your point, and I said this in the off season, this was a really good situation to step into for Shero. Goaltending was high level, D was high promise, and looked to be on the verge. And given how bad we were expectations would be low. Even the good start, not great, that we've had has fans super excited.

Well right now it's a good start not great cause of the 0-3-1 in the first four games. 10-3 in the last thirteen is outstanding tbh. Kind of reminds me of the Mets start of the season actually when they had a ten-game win streak out of nowhere then fell off later in the season before the trade deadline.

 

[JimEIV]

If this team gets some bottom 6 scoring they will be able to maintain this I believe. As long as the goals against stay in the top 1/3 of the league they'll be in every game.

 

[Wingman77]

Can you really blame Shero? Crosby and Malkin fell into his lap from horrible teams before him. When you get two players like that you are evenyually forced to use a huge portion of your cap to satisfy them...and other needs become almost impossible to fill.

It's what happened in Tampa in 2004 with Vinny, Richards and St.Louis getting massive pay days.

To be fair, Shero inherited a team with Malkin, Crosby, and Fleury. Malkin and Crosby turned into superstars so he basically had to give them the deals he did. Once that happens, then you have too many eggs in one basket and the team around suffers a bit unless you develop well which they failed to do since they tried to trade away assets/picks to contend each year.

Now, Shero inherits Schneider, Larsson, Merrill, Severson, Henrique, and Gelinas but few forwards. Henrique and Schneider are signed to incredible deals (Thanks Lou) and Shero locked Larsson up to a killer contract. This team is going to be built like Lou wanted it to, but with Shero's ideas of how to build it. And right now, we are getting a lot of value for our contracts.

Fair points on what Shero had inherited when he took the GM reigns, however I think this goes into a different and potentially interesting discussion - did Shero (and even Tampa) need to give some of those deals out that they did which hand-strung both organizations from being able to build elsewhere on the team?

We saw how Lou built team after team and was able to sustain consistent success for all of those years. Shero and Tampa had those options to either let a player(s) walk or move them for picks/players that would help build add and enable them to build elsewhere.

You look at teams like the Pens and Tampa back when they won the cup and their cores were built around 1 position. You look at teams that have sustained consistent championship success in the league in the last couple of decades, us, Avs, Kings, Wings, Hawks - the difference is those teams had their cores built around several different positions.

I thought Shero was always big on puck moving d-men?

But to your point, and I said this in the off season, this was a really good situation to step into for Shero. Goaltending was high level, D was high promise, and looked to be on the verge. And given how bad we were expectations would be low. Even the good start, not great, that we've had has fans super excited.

It is a solid foundation to build on and while it is early, the direction they've shown to be leaning towards since Shero was hired looks to be positive.

 

[devilsblood]

I think that criticism is more fans unrealistic view of the draft than reality personally.

We see it here all the time, 5 years later a fan is ripping off "why he no draft the better player" or the player the fans perceive they need at the moment.

Well given that we were a non playoff team for the last 3 years and that, and that we have a total of 2 fwds on the roster who have scored a goal this season, I don't think those criticisms were unwarranted.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Cammalleri is tied for 9th in the league in scoring with 17 points

 

[Zippy316]

Fair points on what Shero had inherited when he took the GM reigns, however I think this goes into a different and potentially interesting discussion - did Shero (and even Tampa) need to give some of those deals out that they did which hand-strung both organizations from being able to build elsewhere on the team?

We saw how Lou built team after team and was able to sustain consistent success for all of those years. Shero and Tampa had those options to either let a player(s) walk or move them for picks/players that would help build add and enable them to build elsewhere.

You look at teams like the Pens and Tampa back when they won the cup and their cores were built around 1 position. You look at teams that have sustained consistent championship success in the league in the last couple of decades, us, Avs, Kings, Wings, Hawks - the difference is those teams had their cores built around several different positions.

For Tampa, the salary cap is what costed them. They had St. Louis, Lecavalier, B. Richards, and Khabibulin who were all very good players at that time. I believe they had to chose two out of the four when they salary cap rolled around and they obviously chose St. Louis and Lecavalier.

But it's easily to look in hindsight and say the Penguins should've traded Malkin and Crosby. But there's really no way in a salary cap era that you will ever get a deal that makes that worth it. A lot of it is getting lucky draft-wise and getting marquee players at each position. Their Staal trade was their way of replenishing their team.

 

[JimEIV]

We have lots of forwards who will contribute in the very near future. As a matter of fact I would argue that this forward prospect pool is better than any period of time since the mid to late 90's. I argued that last year as well. Still very much believe it.

Zacha, Wood and Quenneville are a better group than we've had in 15 plus years and the secondary group is full of hopefuls as well. Blandisi, Boucher, Matteau, Coleman, Pietila can all possibly be NHL contributors in various ways.
I aslo still believe people like Ben Thomson and Graham Black are viable .
I'd be willing to bet we have at least 3 maybe 4 regular NHL contributors in this group right now.

We had a gap in talent because Parise left. He doesn't take his ball and go home the forward situation wouldn't have looked all that bad for the Devils. But I believe the pieces are there to ice a respectable deep group of forwards in the next couple of years.

Couple that with the defense and goaltending.

 

[devilsblood]

While I do like how the fwd prospect pool is growing. I'm not expecting much in terms of significant near term contributions.

Wood's and Q are most likely not on the squad till the start of the 2017 season. Zacha Pietella and Coleman producing much next year is very wishful thinking.

Funny but your secondary group is most likely where the best chance of near term contribution lie, namely Boucher and Blandisi. And really all things considered I'd put those 2 right up there with the best of our fwd prospects.

 

[EliasFTW]

What is going on in this pic?

https://instagram.com/p/-F4mLdqHy8/

 

[devilsblood]

What is going on in this pic?

https://instagram.com/p/-F4mLdqHy8/

ha ha "letang going 5-hole".

 

[JimEIV]

What is going on in this pic?

https://instagram.com/p/-F4mLdqHy8/

Don't judge.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

I wonder if they played the video montage over the jumbotron during the third star announcement too?

Next game Farnham takes the warm up wearing a leather gilet

 

[Emperoreddy]

We are currently 4th in the eastern conference after 17 games.

Who predicted that?

 

[Bleedred]

We are currently 4th in the eastern conference after 17 games.

Who predicted that?

I don't think anyone.

But I do know there were some people that predicted the Blue Jackets to win the division and the cup finals!

 

[JimEIV]

What would this team look like with a healthy Elias? I don't expect Elias to be a world-beater at this point in his career, but I mean what if we add another 15 goal 30+ point 1/2 point per game player to this roster as it stands right now in Elias? And what if Boucher could get back into the lineup and contribute in anyway? And what if in February or March one of Blandisi, Pietila or Coleman could step into a 4th line role?

 

[Mgd31]

I am very intrigued about Elias's return.

His comments about his knee issues finally being put to rest, and this being the best he's felt in 2 years. That's exciting.

 

[Emperoreddy]

He is no spring chicken but he is still one of the smartest guys on the ice.

Wouldn't be surprised if this knee issue was causing him problems last year

 

[Mgd31]

What would this team look like with a healthy Elias? I don't expect Elias to be a world-beater at this point in his career, but I mean what if we add another 15 goal 30+ point 1/2 point per game player to this roster as it stands right now in Elias? And what if Boucher could get back into the lineup and contribute in anyway? And what if in February or March one of Blandisi, Pietila or Coleman could step into a 4th line role?

Elias would hopefully pick up the inevitable drop off from 1/2 guys in the current top 6 right now.

Boucher coming in riding a wave from his current AHL form would be excellent.

No reason this team couldn't stay competitive then.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Man if JJ could start to bury some of his chances. Not would we be set.

To his credit he is shooting more and getting more pucks on net. Just still not going in for him.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Man if JJ could start to bury some of his chances. Not would we be set.

To his credit he is shooting more and getting more pucks on net. Just still not going in for him.

JJ was all over the ice last night, like you said, everything but.

If he continues to play that well the goals will come and hopefully they are timely.

 

[Emperoreddy]

JJ was all over the ice last night, like you said, everything but.

If he continues to play that well the goals will come and hopefully they are timely.

Is his doing almost everything right. I think once he breaks through it will come if he keeps this kind of play up.

And if he does and the third line starts to score. I will start to strongly believe we can maintain our current position because that's 3 lines that can score. A really good defense (despite what Valiquette thinks) and a top 5 goalie in net.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

I'm a day late but this game ****in' ruled. Almost made me wanna boot up GCL just to watch it again with the Penguins feed.

 

[Devils Dominion]

When was the last time we can can say the Devils are a faster skating team than Pitts?