GDT: Devils vs. Penguins - 1:00 PM - MSG+

[Hisch13r]

I think the best offensive players should play on it but to be fair it hasn’t worked all season no matter who has played in it.

I imagine it can't be easy either with them jumbling the lines all the time too.

 

[MadDevil]

I think the best offensive players should play on it but to be fair it hasn’t worked all season no matter who has played in it.

I don't necessarily agree the best offensive players should play on the PP. I think it depends on your PP strategy and the personnel you have. You do need players who can retrieve pucks in the corners, and try to be a nuisance in front of the goal. That role may not be one of your best offensive players.

I barely watch the games anymore though, so I don't what our strategy even is on the PP. That might be the problem.

 

[Maine Fan]

I didn’t claim we would win those five games, and in particular I don’t see how saying we will “theoretically some day beat the Capitals” can be seen as optimistic. The Flyers have been struggling and we’re 3-0-1 against Boston, just I just don’t see how we’re clearly doomed to go 0-5-0 either. Philly in particular is at least doable, they’re 15-10-3 overall and 4-6-0 in their last 10 games and we’re 3-5-2 in the our last 10 games. The other teams in their last 10 games: Boston is 5-3-2, Pittsburgh is now 7-3-0 (and yet we beat them) and Washington is, uh, 9-1-0. (Hence the purely theoretical aspect of our future win against the Caps.)

Last 10 game numbers won't decide who will win or lose. As I said lets wait until April Fools Day.

 

[My3Sons]

I don't necessarily agree the best offensive players should play on the PP. I think it depends on your PP strategy and the personnel you have. You do need players who can retrieve pucks in the corners, and try to be a nuisance in front of the goal. That role may not be one of your best offensive players.

I barely watch the games anymore though, so I don't what our strategy even is on the PP. That might be the problem.

Watching the games it looks like the PP strategy is to reenact some of those scenes from scooby Doo where the gang runs in and out of different doors in a hallway that don’t seem connected but in this case Helter Skelter plays in the arena. That plays at the away games also somehow.

 

[Eggtimer]

I expect GMs of Canadian teams are making calls now and will try to get their moves in early. We might end up seeing an early pseudo-deadline, one for Canada<->US trades two weeks early and another for inter conference deals.

I live in Calgary , Sportsnet the Fan 960 has some very good analysts on every day. Friedman an a bunch of other analysts more or less said this exact same thing. Canadian teams have their own deadline for trying to make deals with US teams. About 2 weeks prior to actual deadline

 

[Eggtimer]

Hughes is dreadful in the faceoff circle. Hopefully he improves at that because if he is going to a be a center in this league winning 1 out of every 4 faceoffs isnt going to cut it.

This is the least of our worries.
Winning face offs above 50% rate takes a ton of experience and practice / strength. Mackinnon Crosby etc all sucked on face offs until about 4 years into the league

 

[Patrik26]

Anyone remember that home game last season against the Oilers where the ref blew the whistle but they let the (McDavid) goal count? How the **** was that a goal but this isn’t?!?

McDavid. Devils. McDavid. Devils. McDavid. Devils. I think I figured it out.

 

[Bleedred]

I understand the handling of Johnsson, as we’re stuck with this guy and just trying to get him going.

I don’t know why we placate Gusev. He’s a pending UFA and there’s no need to re-sign him. And they know he’s bad, as they’ve scratched him already, but he gets treated like a star when he’s in there with the power play time. It’s a joke.

 

[Quest for Stanley]

Yeah! Just like Seney!

29th place

 

[MauDevils]

Wait...you're telling me there's supposed to be some kind of a plan?

 

[Woncka]

I understand the handling of Johnsson, as we’re stuck with this guy and just trying to get him going.

I don’t know why we placate Gusev. He’s a pending UFA and there’s no need to re-sign him. And they know he’s bad, as they’ve scratched him already, but he gets treated like a star when he’s in there with the power play time. It’s a joke.

From a longer term perspective than just this season, I can see the reasoning for keeping him in the lineup

Not only to Attempt to raise value and confidence, but to see whaT you have in a guy who has less NHL games than most his age.

As fans we quickly write off players - but in management you cant afford to be as loose with it or it can create problems (even when it seems obvious; though some wait too long, but Gusev Id argue isnt too long considering the seasons circumstances and The teams position in the rebuild)

 

[Bleedred]

From a longer term perspective than just this season, I can see the reasoning for keeping him in the lineup

Not only to Attempt to raise value and confidence, but to see whaT you have in a guy who has less NHL games than most his age.

As fans we quickly write off players - but in management you cant afford to be as loose with it or it can create problems (even when it seems obvious; though some wait too long, but Gusev Id argue isnt too long considering the seasons circumstances and The teams position in the rebuild)

Regardless, I see no need to offer Gusev another contract here, so it’s not like we need to audition him for that.

 

[MauDevils]

Regardless, I see no need to offer Gusev another contract here, so it’s not like we need to audition him for that.

Now don't be too hasty. How is he at handing out towels?

 

[Maine Fan]

This is the least of our worries.
Winning face offs above 50% rate takes a ton of experience and practice / strength. Mackinnon Crosby etc all sucked on face offs until about 4 years into the league

I disagree, faceoffs are our worry. As a team we suck at faceoffs except Zajac who is good and is the only one that is good. Show me a team that does poorly at faceoffs and I will tell you that's a constantly losing team.

 

[Guttersniped]

I disagree, faceoffs are our worry. As a team we suck at faceoffs except Zajac who is good and is the only one that is good. Show me a team that does poorly at faceoffs and I will tell you that's a constantly losing team.

We suck at face offs except for Zajac? Nico was 51.7% at FO last year and 58.7% in the 5 games he played this year.

Zacha is 51.7%, this is the first season he’s managed to get over >50% (his career average is 45.3%). Zajac is only slightly better at 51.8%.

McLeod is 48.5%, which is actually worse than his previous call-ups (2018-19: 21GP 53% & 2019-20: 12GP 50%).

Hughes is real bad obviously at 34%, after finishing last season at 36.1%, and the rookies have struggled (Maltsev is 43.8% & Sharagovich is 28.1%).

 

[OtherThingsILike]

Honestly, Jim Rutherford is an unbelievable Gm. Having Crosby and Malkin helps but he has kept them as a solid playoff team for quite a while now even when people think they might fall off or Crosby or Malkin are injured. Every time I watch them I think that they have so many underrated players that maybe don’t put up a ton of points or get a ton of attention but are effective players. He seems to have a great eye for underrated players in my opinion. I know he’s gone now.

Nope honestly my post had more to do with the fact that I always like so many players on penguins that I think are underrated. No clue how much credit Rutherford should get for that or exactly what kind of moves he’s made. Just kind of attributed it to him because he was the Gm for so long and they have been a good team for a long time.

It depends on which players you're talking about. Some of the players were Rutherford draftees or signings, such as Zach Aston-Reese or Brian Dumoulin (Dumo was acquired from Carolina when Rutherford was their GM). Some others were Ray Shero's picks, such as Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel (both 3rd rounders).

 

[Spoiled Bratt]

If Subban and Palmieri aren’t shooting, we’re trying to pass the puck in the net.

This team needs a f***ing sniper, someone selfish who’ll rip shots from everywhere cause we have a roster that is composed of pass first players.

It’s blatantly obvious and that stat alone couldn’t explain it any better.

 

[Call Me Al]

eh i mean it’s true that it’s a lot of pass first players but they barely even got their pp set up in those 4 power plays. it was basically like watching a tennis match with the puck going back and forth between the zones

 

[Maine Fan]

We suck at face offs except for Zajac? Nico was 51.7% at FO last year and 58.7% in the 5 games he played this year.

Zacha is 51.7%, this is the first season he’s managed to get over >50% (his career average is 45.3%). Zajac is only slightly better at 51.8%.

McLeod is 48.5%, which is actually worse than his previous call-ups (2018-19: 21GP 53% & 2019-20: 12GP 50%).

Hughes is real bad obviously at 34%, after finishing last season at 36.1%, and the rookies have struggled (Maltsev is 43.8% & Sharagovich is 28.1%).

My mother told me that you can't make chicken salad with chicken manure. Got the message regarding your point.

The best team face off wise is the Boston Bruins at 56.4 % the worse team is the Rangers at 44.8 %. Where do the NJ Devils stand out of 31 teams? They own the 30th spot at 45.7 % that includes yesterday's #28 game.

I will make my chicken salad with chicken meat. You continue with manure.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIBRAC&usg=AOvVaw3tCCb44Evg_FJjrp5YXcK8

My original statement was the Devils are bad with faceoffs. You come back with individual Devil's player stats. Usually when saying a team is bad it is by comparing teams in a league not players within a team.

Have a nice day, later

 

[Combat Koala]

Wait...you're telling me there's supposed to be some kind of a plan?

What do you mean? Have you not seen their drop pass zone entries? Amazing.