Devils 2017-18 team discussion (player news and notes) VI - The Home Stretch

[JimEIV]

And I bet you if you put two 55 year old guys that carry cinder blocks next to each other for a month, there will be some days when one guy vastly outperforms the other.

Yeah but the slacker gets a mud knife thrown at him then he picks up the pace or gets into a fist fight and quits.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

always luv too compare pro sports to people in the normal workforce

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Path to 6 wins

Likely: Carolina, NYI, MTL, NYR
Tossup: SJS, TOR and WSH given they both may be resting players because they'll have their position locked up
Difficult: PIT x2, TB

Should be interesting.

 

[Triumph]

Playing back to backs has a very real effect, playing them both on the road more so.

Hockey players are also creatures of habit, they tend to practice around the same time, eat around the same time, and rest around the same time. Having games played 6 hours apart on consecutive days is going to mess with that routine.

The Devils definitely could've outplayed the Ducks and they could've won last night's game, but they would've had to overcome the real effect that the schedule and travel will have had on their play.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

And let's remember these are elite athletes vs elite athletes. If one side has even a slight advantage, that's often the difference between success and failure.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Path to 6 wins

Likely: Carolina, NYI, MTL, NYR
Tossup: SJS, TOR and WSH given they both may be resting players because they'll have their position locked up
Difficult: PIT x2, TB

Should be interesting.

Take care of the ones we should be beating, and I'm confident we can get enough points off the others.

The fact that we've done pretty well against PIT is a little encouraging too.

 

[Call Me Al]

i dont subscribe to this "x amount of points to get in." every year is different, and we are fighting with 3 other teams. 94 points might not be enough to get in. or 90 points could somehow be enough if other teams falter.

 

[MartyOwns]

Should be interesting to keep an eye on Florida.

Their road record is atrocious -- 13-16-4 I believe -- and they have 7 of their next 8 games on the road. Quality of competition might factor into that, but they can't afford to lose any ground in the race.

yeah. huge game tonight, florida v montreal

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

If Florida could royally poo the bed on their road trip that’d be great for my anxiety.

 

[Patrik26]

View attachment 105567

Agreed.

 

[JimEIV]

Playing back to backs has a very real effect, playing them both on the road more so.

Hockey players are also creatures of habit, they tend to practice around the same time, eat around the same time, and rest around the same time. Having games played 6 hours apart on consecutive days is going to mess with that routine.

The Devils definitely could've outplayed the Ducks and they could've won last night's game, but they would've had to overcome the real effect that the schedule and travel will have had on their play.

Of course there are going to be effects. And I don't think anyone was expecting to win every game on this trip... furthermore if we were going to lose, the 2nd of a back to back was most likely it...

That shouldn't excuse a very poor performance. A uniformly bad performance. 7 shots from 11 forwards...come on. Cause they didn't get their regular snack time? It's not necessarily the loss as much as the "How" You didn't even see a push back from the team.

There are levels of sanity here...
Exhaustion is on the ridiculous level. The exhaustion thing is a bit of a decadent exaggeration. Like Zsa Zsa Gabor complaining about how exhausting her spa day was.

Obstacles to overcome...sure, that still doesn't mean surrender.

 

[Blender]

Florida has 3 games in hand on us right now, but their in a tough spot as they need to both match our record down the stretch and win all 3 games in hand.

 

[Colin226]

Florida has 3 games in hand on us right now, but their in a tough spot as they need to both match our record down the stretch and win all 3 games in hand.

Plus they have a whole bunch of back to backs down the stretch here.

 

[Camille the Eel]

Path to 6 wins

Likely: Carolina, NYI, MTL, NYR
Tossup: SJS, TOR and WSH given they both may be resting players because they'll have their position locked up
Difficult: PIT x2, TB

Should be interesting.

Rangers, Islanders, Carolina will all be very very very tough. All of those teams will LOVE to spoil us and put us away. There are no gimmes down this stretch, we are going to have to claw for everything. Every damn point. I feel like the playoffs have already started.

Also if I'm Hynes, I'm bringing Kinkaid back in San Jose.

 

[GameSeven]

i dont subscribe to this "x amount of points to get in." every year is different, and we are fighting with 3 other teams. 94 points might not be enough to get in. or 90 points could somehow be enough if other teams falter.

That may be so, but you're putting all your eggs in a Panthers basket at 90 points.

I'd think PHI (3-6) and CBJ(4-6) beat that pretty easily. So you're hoping the Panthers, probably, fall short, needing something like (6-5-2 or 7-6) to reach 91. Notwithstanding they've got 5 likely favorable games against MTL, ARI, NYI, BUF, and CAR.

And this doesn't take into consideration tie-breaks at 90 points.

I agree that 94 points should be the target for a relatively "safe" total to get in.

 

[Call Me Al]

im not putting my eggs in any basket that's the point of my post. im not thinking about how many points we need 2 weeks from now im thinking about staying above them day to day.

you have no idea how the other three teams are going to do and neither do i

 

[Call Me Al]

it doesn't make any sense to me to project a hypothetical record for each team and measure us against that before any games are played. we need to win as many games as possible period.

there have been recent years where 91 points got you in and other years where 98 points would leave you out of it. if the playoffs were decided by "everyone above 94 points gets in" then it makes sense but there's no way to determine that so just win as much as possible and make sure it's more than the teams around you.

 

[GameSeven]

Obviously the goal posts will move as more games are played, but guys are looking to ballpark a "reachable" target that arrives at a playoff berth with "some" confidence. Obviously one or more teams could fall apart or get incredibly hot (FLA was, now CBJ is), and that will adjust your goals accordingly.

At the end of the day, all you can do is worry about winning your games and letting the rest take care of itself, but until the playoff question is answered, I think many will be performing the mental calculus to set a target and hope the team can reach it.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

it doesn't make any sense to me to project a hypothetical record for each team and measure us against that before any games are played. we need to win as many games as possible period.

there have been recent years where 91 points got you in and other years where 98 points would leave you out of it. if the playoffs were decided by "everyone above 94 points gets in" then it makes sense but there's no way to determine that so just win as much as possible and make sure it's more than the teams around you.

I don't think anyone has said 94 point will definitely get us in. It probably gives us at least an 80% chance of getting in and is a good realistic number to hit. Who the hell doesn't want to win every single remaining game?

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Rangers, Islanders, Carolina will all be very very very tough. All of those teams will LOVE to spoil us and put us away. There are no gimmes down this stretch, we are going to have to claw for everything. Every damn point. I feel like the playoffs have already started.

Also if I'm Hynes, I'm bringing Kinkaid back in San Jose.

They're all awful, they shouldn't be.

 

[OmNomNom]

if refs were slightly less against us this season and a few blown whistles went our way, i'd argue we'd already be at like 86 or 88 pts

 

[NJDevs26]

it doesn't make any sense to me to project a hypothetical record for each team and measure us against that before any games are played. we need to win as many games as possible period.

there have been recent years where 91 points got you in and other years where 98 points would leave you out of it. if the playoffs were decided by "everyone above 94 points gets in" then it makes sense but there's no way to determine that so just win as much as possible and make sure it's more than the teams around you.

What else are we gonna do? Not like we can control results. If we were players that'd be another story.

People project all the time, every year. Usually most projections before the trade deadline are junk cause the cutoff number ALWAYS goes up down the stretch as some teams sell off and others fortify and you're seeing that again this year. That's why they're called projections. Of course sometimes people take projections as absolute fact (and those percentage based sites only seem to take point totals and not schedule or recent play/injuries into account) and that's wrong but still.

And if you go into every single game thinking must win you're gonna drive yourself batty. If anything figuring out percentages is good to calm down SOME of the hypertenseness.

 

[JimEIV]

I hope we can move Cory this off season.

 

[DerekDevils30]

I hope we can move Cory this off season.

You willing to retain up to 50% of that contract?

 

[TheUnseenHand]

I'm going to guess Miles is probably done for the season if they are keeping it this quiet. Probably seeking multiple opinions. Or maybe it's just because we don't have anybody that covers the team that we haven't heard anything...