GDT: Devils vs. Blackhawks - 7:00PM MSG+

[Burner Account]

He had a fantastic start. But he has played some uninspiring hockey for the last two weeks. How is this wrong? Its not.

He is better than this. Idc about his point production. I care about the effort. It hasn’t been there lately. He almost looks like he is playing injured these past few games. Maybe he is but that would be the only excuse for his lackluster play. Zajac cannot come back sooner because that will take a lot of pressure of Henrique and maybe force him on the 3rd line where he will flourish in my opinion.

The team as a whole played their most uninspired hockey in the last two weeks, and four of their six losses came during that time. I guess I just don't understand why Henrique gets singled out when that was unquestionably the worst span of games for the team as a whole. You can isolate and examine any eight games in any player's career to support a narrative, but in the big picture he is performing almost identically to how he has throughout his career and I see no cause for concern.

 

[NjDevsRR]

The team as a whole played their most uninspired hockey in the last two weeks, and four of their six losses came during that time. I guess I just don't understand why Henrique gets singled out when that was unquestionably the worst span of games for the team as a whole. You can isolate and examine any eight games in any player's career to support a narrative, but in the big picture he is performing almost identically to how he has throughout his career and I see no cause for concern.

This is not hard...other players were still playing well during the losing streak. Hall was flying like his usual self, Bratt was making plays, Boyle was winning faceoffs and contributing to the fore check etc etc. Henrique has not been moving his feet and has been pretty much irrelevant. When he is not moving his feet he is not playing to his potential. Henrique has been getting abused on the boards and making horrendous plays in the neutral zone. Like I said a few times...he is better than this.

 

[Burner Account]

This is not hard...other players were still playing well during the losing streak. Hall was flying like him usual self, Bratt was making plays, Boyle was winning faceoffs and contributing to the fore check etc etc. Henrique has not been moving his feet and has been pretty much irrelevant. When he is not moving his feet he is not playing to his potential. Like I said a few times...he is better than this.

Can you spare me the condescension? It is hard when you don't provide any quantifiable evidence to support your claims. No need to get frustrated when someone else doesn't see your completely subjective argument.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Can you spare me the condescension? It is hard when you don't provide any quantifiable evidence to support your claims. No need to get frustrated when someone else doesn't see your completely subjective argument.

I am not an advanced stats guy. I have been watching Henrique for 6 years now and I know when he is not playing like he should. His play over the last two weeks has been irrelevant and uninspiring. He is one of the vets, he needs to contribute more and lead by example. When he is not moving his feet he is such a mediocre player. That is what we see for good portions of the year. As we get better players this act gets old and will eventually be expendable.

 

[Oneiro]

I don't know how anyone, in the midst of this season, could actively search for misery after the last five years we've endured. But alas...

 

[NjDevsRR]

I don't know how anyone, in the midst of this season, could actively search for misery after the last five years we've endured. But alas...

I did not have to actively search for it when a veteran forward has been giving a lackluster effort for two weeks straight. Henrique is a better player than what he has shown lately. How dare I talk about that. When he has a fire lit under his butt he is such a good player. It is frustrating when he goes through these stretches.

EDIT: Also that damn stache. Didn't he have lousy Novembers the last two seasons as well? Shave it Adam!

 

[Burner Account]

I am not an advanced stats guy. I have been watching Henrique for 6 years now and I know when he is not playing like he should. His play over the last two weeks has been irrelevant and uninspiring. He is one of the vets, he needs to contribute more and lead by example. When he is not moving his feet he is such a mediocre player. That is what we see for good portions of the year. As we get better players this act gets old and will eventually be expendable.

I'm not an advanced stats guy either. I provided some very elementary stats to challenge your claims.

Everyone else on this board has also been watching Henrique for six years. And during that time the knock on him has always been his speed. It's very possible that that has been magnified on this faster team.

I think if you want him to contribute more, you're going to be disappointed. Because over the course of this season - not in an isolated sample - Henrique is contributing at a rate that you should expect having watched him for six years. Henrique is playing like a 40-50 point second line center, and over the course of his career that is what he has proven to be.

 

[NjDevsRR]

I'm not an advanced stats guy either. I provided some very elementary stats to challenge your claims.

Everyone else on this board has also been watching Henrique for six years. And during that time the knock on him has always been his speed. It's very possible that that has been magnified on this faster team.

I think if you want him to contribute more, you're going to be disappointed. Because over the course of this season - not in an isolated sample - Henrique is contributing at a rate that you should expect having watched him for six years.

For the second or third time, this is not about his production. He has been awful these last two weeks and that is even with Bratt playing well and creating on his wing. I feel bad for Bratt, he deserves a better center.

 

[MadDevil]

To me Henrique looks exactly like he does every other time he goes cold. Which is frustrating, but not really worth repeating numerous times every game. It's just who he is as a player. It's not like he's Michael Ryder out there when he's not scoring.

 

[NjDevsRR]

To me Henrique looks exactly like he does every other time he goes cold. Which is frustrating, but not really worth repeating numerous times every game. It's just who he is as a player. It's not like he's Michael Ryder out there when he's not scoring.

Oof. Besides Andrew Peters I have never loathed a player in a Devils sweater more than Michael Ryder.

 

[billingtons ghost]

He has indeed improved his game tremendously which is amazing. I will keep calling him out on games where I see it. I thought he was bad on Saturday night with many egregious plays but my God what a game he had last night. If he can find some consistency and improve the little things then he will be one tremendous player for us. He is trending upwards.

Also he has learned when to use his speed and when not to. That was key. He can now slow the game down and setup plays.

Just wait until Mcleod joins the roster. My goodness, DAT SPEED.

I think what you say here might be a big part too - Last year, he was going 1-on-2 or 1-on-3 all of the time -
This year he has some guys who can speed along with him, and like you said, he's being more selective of when to turn it on.

Also his linemates like Bennett and others weren't guys who would go into the corners and battle. Put him with Noesen, Gibbons, Coleman, or even Boyle or Hayes and you have some guys who are hard on the forecheck.

I think his head has improved alot from last year - but honestly - he's doing alot of the same things that he did last year, but I just think the team around him has gotten better too.

He's displayed vision with his passing, he's displayed pretty good hands and a pretty good shot - he's displayed a pretty good hockey sense and timing, at least in the offensive zone, and then there's the fact that he's a bull with speed.

 

[NJDevs26]

Oof. Besides Andrew Peters I have never loathed a player in a Devils sweater more than Michael Ryder.

I was pretty down on Rolston 2.0, at least until he was waived and reinvented himself under Lemaire 3.0.

To me Henrique looks exactly like he does every other time he goes cold. Which is frustrating, but not really worth repeating numerous times every game. It's just who he is as a player. It's not like he's Michael Ryder out there when he's not scoring.

Thing is he kind of is. What else does Henrique add when he's not scoring? That's one reason people get frustrated over his streakiness. And yes people probably expect more offensively than they should, cause he's had a 30-goal season and big playoff goals.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I’m no fan of Henrique right now, but it seems odd he is the current topic of discussion after the game we just had.

 

[Bleedred]

Do the people who are not unhappy with Henrique, at least agree that we should not be re-signing him after this contract? Can we all at least agree on that?

While a new contract is almost 2 years away, he becomes eligible for an extension on July 1st of this coming year. So then it becomes time to explore maybe trading him, rather than doing it at the 2019 deadline, where we could (just hypothetically speaking) be in first place and not wanna sell anyone on the team.

It's not a wise economical decision to re-sign him after this deal though. I think some GM is eventually gonna get fired for giving him a stupid contract, unless he really falls off the cliff for the next 1 and 4/5th's seasons.

The idea should be that hopefully JQ or Zacha are ready to replace his 40-45 points between now and then. It's just like during the Lou era, we had to part ways with guys who were getting older, and due for raises/big money. I think in 2 years from now, we'll hopefully be close to spending to the cap and Henrique is not a great investment.

 

[Burner Account]

For the second or third time, this is not about his production. He has been awful these last two weeks and that is even with Bratt playing well and creating on his wing. I feel bad for Bratt, he deserves a better center.

I think we’re going in circles. If you would like to provide some evidence to help me understand why Henrique has been so bad - and how this team is off to what I believe is a franchise record start in spite of his poor play - feel free.

 

[Bleedred]

Here's a HUGE problem with Henrique, at least going forward.

Right now, his shooting percentage is at 9.3% on the season, which is not bad. That's about league.

Henrique has been far ABOVE league average at shooting percentage throughout his career. His career shooting percentage is 15.2%.

Suppose his shooting percentage permanently regresses to the league average when he's 29/30 years old. Instead of scoring 20-25 goals, he scores 13-18 goals instead. That could be a complete albatross if he's signed for $5+ million on his next deal.

His two lowest shooting years were 11-12 at 12.3% and 14-15 at 12.6% and he ONLY scored 16 and 15 goals in those years. He did miss 8 and 7 games, those seasons, but that's awful. Can you imagine having him on our cap, making that much money, scoring that little? It would be a disaster waiting to happen. If Henrique shoots at league average, he's pretty much a 15 (at best) goal scorer. Maybe only a 12 goal scorer. And I expect his personal shooting percentage to regress into his 30's, and I don't expect his ability to shoot the puck towards the net to get any better to compensate for it. He lacks the ability to get shots big time, he just does a good job at capitalizing on the sparing ones he does get.

 

[NjDevsRR]

I think we’re going in circles. If you would like to provide some evidence to help me understand why Henrique has been so bad - and how this team is off to what I believe is a franchise record start in spite of his poor play - feel free.

Evidence? Yeah, the entire game film from the last 8 games. Enjoy.

 

[glenwo2]

They actually stole it from the Flyers I think. Rangers had lost like 5 or 6 in a row to fall out of first place. Philly had overtaken them on the last day and their coach Ken Hitchcock had even assumed they locked it up since the Devils looked like they were going to lose. He was told during philly’s postgame tha the devils had come back to win lol

Philly doesn't count in my mind because as you said, they became the division leaders on the last day of the season.

So as far as I am concerned, the Devils stole the Division right from under the Rags noses. Flyers who?

 

[glenwo2]

I have a feeling that train gif has been used for much different reasons than Hockey....

Anyway, Nothing is stopping this train, Rip.

NOTHING.

 

[BenedictGomez]

If Miles Wood decided to quit hockey tomorrow, he'd rank in the top-300 NHL players of all-time by games played for a 4th Round pick.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by BG, both to reinforce his frequent claim that most hockey fans overvalue 4th - 7th round picks, and to note that it's probably a good idea to not be too heavily critical of a 20 year old 4th Round selection already.

 

[RememberTheName]

I'd say that if we were to trade Henrique, the time would be now. We have a ton of young talent being infused into the lineup and are going to be running into some problems (good ones) with who will we have to sit. Trading Henrique could possibly open up a spot for McLeod this year or next, and bring in a player of similar caliber or a pick and prospect or 2. If we hold off for a while and he doesn't improve at all, then we might not maximize the return that we can get on him. I understand that he is a fan favorite, but the goal is to win games. If Rico isn't helping us win games anymore, there's no reason we still need him on the team, especially when we have players that can replace him like Quenneville, Blandisi, and McLeod

 

[Burner Account]

Evidence? Yeah, the entire game film from the last 8 games. Enjoy.

Even more impressive that he’s producing at his career average without even moving his feet.

Maybe we can have a rational, non-passive aggressive discussion at the end of the season when Henrique finishes as a 40-50 point second line center like he does every year.

 

[glenwo2]

Nice to be able to start putting last year comparisons to bed. The wheels had come off by this point last season.

Oh my god....you're right.

Before we beat Florida, I was thinking.....Here we go again.

But now that we won 2 straight and put 9-3-3 in the rear view mirror, I can freely say "UP YOURS, DEBOER!!"

 

[glenwo2]

Last night was nice - hell, scoring 7 is amazing...but we're not out of the woods yet. By all accounts on the Blackhawks board, Chicago is a complete trainwreck this season. Even Toews is getting flack.

(Edit: btw, not to do the 'my fanbase is better than yours thing, but...' they are on like pg15/post400 from last night and I think we typically drive up to 1500 posts on the gdts... maybe they are fat and lazy from sipping champagne from cups and we're hungry?)

Nice that we got a couple wins in our pockets against teams that have always been tough for us not too far in the past... but we aren't playing great hockey yet - so I'm hesitant to get too optimistic about this.

On the bright side, if you'd have shown me Palmieri, Henrique and Mojo's point totals at this point, I would have thought we wouldn't have 5 wins.

The secondary scoring from unexpected sources thus far has been really really encouraging.

Are you serious with this post?

Even if the Hawks are struggling this year, they're STILL the Blackhawks and I guarantee you that the team last season would've lost 5-1. Give SOME credit to a Devils team that actually showed Heart and came back to win, man!

 

[glenwo2]

I am one who is harder on Wood. He has indeed improved his game tremendously which is amazing. I will keep calling him out on games where I see it. I thought he was bad on Saturday night with many egregious plays but my God what a game he had last night. If he can find some consistency and improve the little things then he will be one tremendous player for us. He is trending upwards.

Also he has learned when to use his speed and when not to. That was key. He can now slow the game down and setup plays.

Just wait until Mcleod joins the roster. My goodness, DAT SPEED.

Oh really now.....

Wood was incredible last night.