GDT: Devils @ Capitals - 7:00 PM - MSGSN2

[vtdevils2k]

I hate to say it, but it looks like it’s over regarding the playoffs. I really thought they were going on a run. There’s still a possibility but doubt it. It’s probably time to follow the draft. Injuries and players underperforming and goaltending killed us. Coaching or GM change coming, maybe.

Fitz is not going to be fired. Lindy, hopefully yes because there are too many red flags and no shows by this team... but Fitz isn't going anywhere after he just received a promotion and last year's success. Fitz better learn though from Shero and not wait too long to fix the coaching or else in the future he may very well be gone.

This team is underachieving though, injuries or not. They should be better than this. Complete embarrassment last night losing to the Capitals.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Nemec was never going to play and we anticipated zero injuries?

Come on.

Fix the engine with bubblegum and crazy glue and say "it was working an hour ago."

I'm not saying that I disagree, I think we all thought if we would struggle it would be at the feet of the transition our blueline would go through this year, but what would you suggest the alternative should have been defensively?

Bringing back Severson or Graves was never going to happen at what they commanded on the market. Luke was always going to get his chance this year, as was Bahl who had a strong showing in the latter part of the year last year. Miller is a perfectly fine player to have be your 3rd pairing RD behind Hamilton and Marino. Smith isn't an ideal player by any means, but I don't see the harm in him being the spare guy. And Nemec was going to be the contingency if health went sideways, which it did and he's played relatively well.

I don't know what the other solution would have been, but I think it's easy to claim there was one in hindsight. This was always the risk that would come with icing a young defensive group, and unfortunately, it's come to fruition. Being as banged up as we've been has only made matters worse. Missing Siegenthaler for over a month, Hamilton for several months, Miller missed the first couple of weeks, etc.

 

[glenwo2]

I hate to say it, but it looks like it’s over regarding the playoffs. I really thought they were going on a run. There’s still a possibility but doubt it. It’s probably time to follow the draft. Injuries and players underperforming and goaltending killed us. Coaching or GM change coming, maybe.

The Draft Thread is already up :

Prospect Info: - 2024 NHL Draft Thread

2024 NHL Draft Thread We're most likely drafting middle of the pack this year. Time to talk about eligible prospects for the 2024 NHL Draft, which will be held on June 28th and 29th 2024 in Las Vegas. Here are a few lists: TSN - McKenzie's mid-season draft ranking TSN - Craig Button's...

forums.hfboards.com

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

I am the exact opposite...I don't know how anyone thought this could work.

How are you going to be successful when 50% of the Defense started the season with a total of 68 games of NHL experience? And the emergency contingency is Miller and Smith? That's a joke.

This was a bad decision from the beginning....and I just can't blame Ruff for it.

Ruff has lost the room Imo....They come out flat hasn't addressed it and can't ignore the losses to bottom feeders and his inability to adjust his system....His bs doghouse crap but play guys who eff up pretty consistently is mind boggling....See your points but easiest fix is moving on from Ruff....Does all blame fall on him no but do you look at that team and feel he has the room?

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Nemec was never going to play and we anticipated zero injuries?

Come on.

Fix the engine with bubblegum and crazy glue and say "it was working an hour ago."

Nemec as your 4th RHD is an extremely good situation. There was no planning for losing Dougie. That’s not a thing that can happen. Maybe we could’ve brought in a left handed dman? Who, for what price, what term, etc.? IDK? It would’ve been a mid player that would have minimal impact on our record in all likelihood.

 

[Triumph]

The one thing I can get on Ruff for last night is not playing DeSimone and instead going with an L-L pair. Smith-Hughes has already proven to be terrible, why go with that pairing? Luke was overmatched at RD all night and was on the ice for 3 goals against, two of which he was a large factor in. Scratch one of Bahl or Smith and play the RHD.

 

[Devs3cups]

The one thing I can get on Ruff for last night is not playing DeSimone and instead going with an L-L pair. Smith-Hughes has already proven to be terrible, why go with that pairing? Luke was overmatched at RD all night and was on the ice for 3 goals against, two of which he was a large factor in. Scratch one of Bahl or Smith and play the RHD.

Many, many head scratching decisions by Ruff this year.

Imo, not maximizing the talent of this roster.

 

[JimEIV]

I'm not saying that I disagree, I think we all thought if we would struggle it would be at the feet of the transition our blueline would go through this year, but what would you suggest the alternative should have been defensively?

Bringing back Severson or Graves was never going to happen at what they commanded on the market. Luke was always going to get his chance this year, as was Bahl who had a strong showing in the latter part of the year last year. Miller is a perfectly fine player to have be your 3rd pairing RD behind Hamilton and Marino. Smith isn't an ideal player by any means, but I don't see the harm in him being the spare guy. And Nemec was going to be the contingency if health went sideways, which it did and he's played relatively well.

I don't know what the other solution would have been, but I think it's easy to claim there was one in hindsight. This was always the risk that would come with icing a young defensive group, and unfortunately, it's come to fruition. Being as banged up as we've been has only made matters worse. Missing Siegenthaler for over a month, Hamilton for several months, Miller missed the first couple of weeks, etc.

We knew we weren't going to be able to sign Severson and Graves for a long time...and there really was no contingency...Miller was a ufa pickup and nothing else was done.

Do you honestly believe that was adequate? You know you are losing two 20+ minute a night defenders, goaltending is shaky and Miller is the solution? It's unjustifiable.

If Jack has 120 points, Nico scores 90+ points, Timo scores 50 goals it was always going to be a tenuous situation defensively. Now we pay the piper

 

[StevensRocks]

All of those points are fair. But I am not sure blaming Ruff is appropriate.

It's more like an effect of dealing with a bad situation.

Defense sucks and they don't want Jack down low and want to free him from the D responsibilities. Losing a 60% faceoff center is probably also weighing on their mind leading to the decision.

To many Right wingers for Timo....can't get Holtz and Mercer any time if Timo is taking a RW spot.

Marino out was going to forc someone to play their off side with Siegenthalers return. Makes perfect sense that it should've been the most veteran D on the roster on the 3rd pair.

I can't blame Ruff for improvising with the roster... it's more of the hand he was dealt than poor coaching. The roster has too many holes and it's made 20x worse by injuries and inexperience.

That's not say I think Lindy is the path forward...just this shit show is more personnel and lack thereof than coaching in my opinion.

 

[JimEIV]

Nemec as your 4th RHD is an extremely good situation. There was no planning for losing Dougie. That’s not a thing that can happen. Maybe we could’ve brought in a left handed dman? Who, for what price, what term, etc.? IDK? It would’ve been a mid player that would have minimal impact on our record in all likelihood.

Nemec was always playing this season....it was inevitable. Injuries or not he was getting 20 or more games. There is no way he was going to be stashed in Utica for the entire season.

Dougie isn't even that big of loss defensively...it's the cumulative effect of losing so much experience (and size and strength) on the backend that's the problem.

And injuries always happen. The back up plan was Miller after losing Graves and Severson. It was done to sign Bratt and Timo to their contracts. It really is that simple.

 

[Better Call Sal]

We knew we weren't going to be able to sign Severson and Graves for a long time...and there really was no contingency...Miller was a ufa pickup and nothing else was done.

Do you honestly believe that was adequate? You know you are losing two 20+ minute a night defenders, goaltending is shaky and Miller is the solution? It's unjustifiable.

If Jack has 120 points, Nico scores 90+ points, Timo scores 50 goals it was always going to be a tenuous situation defensively. Now we pay the piper

Again, this doesn't answer the question. Hamilton and Marino were your top 2 defenders in terms of ice-time the year before, so I have no problem with Miller taking Severson's role as the 3rd pairing RD with Nemec available if someone goes down.

Siegenthaler and Luke were always going to go into the season being the top 2 LDs. I think the only remedy would have been to have an additional LD, but I don't think there was one that would have had much more of an impact that Luke or Bahl are currently having. It's easy for me to say that, I know, but I can't point to an available LD that would have made much more of a difference.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Nemec was always playing this season....it was inevitable. Injuries or not he was getting 20 or more games. There is no way he was going to be stashed in Utica for the entire season.

Dougie isn't even that big of loss defensively...it's the cumulative effect of losing so much experience (and size and strength) on the backend that's the problem.

And injuries always happen. The back up plan was Miller after losing Graves and Severson. It was done to sign Bratt and Timo to their contracts. It really is that simple.

Replacing Graves and Severson with a combination of Miller, Luke, and Nemec was a fine plan. Nemec has handled his tough minutes exceedingly well. How many defensemen that moved in the offseason have been more effective than him?

 

[Rhodes 81]

There's not really any use in complaining about the plan defensively. Miller is a solid veteran that has mostly performed well when he's played. Smith is versatile and while we knew he wasn't good, he was serviceable last year at least. That should have been a fine 1-7 with Nemec, Foote, and Hatakka as call ups, assuming they got lots of support from an elite forward unit.

Hughes and Nemec had to get time eventually. There's no way around that. The sooner you break them in, the less window you waste with your forward corps. What they needed was for Hamilton to not suffer a potentially career altering injury and for Marino to not regress to the degree that he did. If The top two pairs were available and performing up to the standard they set last year you could absolutely deal with working the rookies in and playing through their inconsistency. Hell, Nemec has been relatively consistent anyway.

They also needed the forwards to help out by scoring and holding onto the puck more than they have but we spent multiple games with Justin f***ing Dowling as our 2C and Max Willman getting absolutely caved for 13 games. They needed the goalies to bail them out sometimes and we all know the story there.

 

[forceten]

I don't know why we bothered claiming DeSimone if he wasn't playing last night. It was the perfect time to insert him in.

 

[Triumph]

Honestly, the thing that concerns me the most defensively about this team are the low-percentage shot and pass choices in the offensive zone that lead to scoring chances the other way.

 

[Whaddagoal]

I had a whole wall of text about the current situation, but I threw it out.

Bottom line is, the players and the coaching has to be better. If this team cannot find a way to make the playoffs and be any consistent with their game, this season will be a failure.

It's a joke we have given up 18 points to bottom or lower standing teams. Even giving up half of that is a problem. We could have had at least 8 to 10 more points from those games.

And it's on coaching, players and the GM.

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

Nemec was always playing this season....it was inevitable. Injuries or not he was getting 20 or more games. There is no way he was going to be stashed in Utica for the entire season.

Dougie isn't even that big of loss defensively...it's the cumulative effect of losing so much experience (and size and strength) on the backend that's the problem.

And injuries always happen. The back up plan was Miller after losing Graves and Severson. It was done to sign Bratt and Timo to their contracts. It really is that simple.

When you draft defense heavy that transition has to happen and Ham logs minutes and his offensive ability helps to keep teams more honest when he's on the ice....Nemec has been an outright stud but of course both will make rookie mistakes....Look at Severson and Graves both fan bases have not liked those acquisitions for their teams....This is a growth year and time to move onto the next coach ....team was flat last night don't care about what the win meter says they looked flat....That's on the coach....

 

[glenwo2]

I had a whole wall of text about the current situation, but I threw it out.

Bottom line is, the players and the coaching has to be better. If this team cannot find a way to make the playoffs and be any consistent with their game, this season will be a failure.

It's a joke we have given up 18 points to bottom or lower standing teams. Even giving up half of that is a problem. We could have had at least 8 to 10 more points from those games.

And it's on coaching, players and the GM.

Even HALF those points would've had us in a Playoff spot which is the most aggravating part of it all.

 

[JimEIV]

When you draft defense heavy that transition has to happen and Ham logs minutes and his offensive ability helps to keep teams more honest when he's on the ice....Nemec has been an outright stud but of course both will make rookie mistakes....Look at Severson and Graves both fan bases have not liked those acquisitions for their teams....This is a growth year and time to move onto the next coach ....team was flat last night don't care about what the win meter says they looked flat....That's on the coach....

When you neglect drafting defense for 5 years in a rebuild the timeline of your defenders is going to be way off of the rest of the team.

 

[SansaStark]

Jack has also seemingly gone off the rails this year. Just completely immature out there since his first injury while making stupid selfish decisions with the puck. Who’s teaching this kid the tough lessons of what it takes to win as a team in this league?

instead we may have a situation where his opinion may be dictating the GM’s decisions about the coaching staff?

I don’t know how true that is but seeing how passive Fitz has been it really makes you wonder about the culture and accountability.

He’s been absolutely awful. And I can’t stand the constant slapping his stick on the ice calling for the puck like he’s going to do something great and then makes a bad pass or shoots it straight in the crest.
He is completely ineffective lately and it’s incredibly frustrating

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

When you neglect drafting defense for 5 years in a rebuild the timeline of your defenders is going to be way off of the rest of the team.

Ok fair point ...All this aside the team does not come out to play game in game out all year...Who is that on? Do you think Ruff can come back and turn that around?

 

[Whaddagoal]

Honestly, the thing that concerns me the most defensively about this team are the low-percentage shot and pass choices in the offensive zone that lead to scoring chances the other way.

This drives me nuts. They pass up a slot shot but a wide angled shot which the goalie will get 85% of the time just by naturally being in the right positioning/angling.

The constant back pass instead of driving hard to the net, also. At some point mercer figured out he was good going to the net. But then he stopped that move.

Jack, Bratt, Nico in that order are guilty of constantly doing this crap. Nico had some visible ones most recently last bunch of games.

 

[HoliksGhost]

Man that was a chit show last night… Ruff has to be held accountable

 

[NjDevsRR]

Man that was a chit show last night… Ruff has to be held accountable

 

[devilsblood]

When you neglect drafting defense for 5 years in a rebuild the timeline of your defenders is going to be way off of the rest of the team.

But the guy responsible for that is long gone.

Fitz quickly addressed the issue, but there was going to be a transition issue in terms of integrating in the drafted d-men. We are now in that transition.