GDT: Home Cookin' - Blues (11-3-1, 1st in West) @ Devils (9-3-1, 2nd in East), 7 PM, MSG+2

[NJDevs26]

Fair enough but it really seemed like more to me.

It also seemed like the Blues had nine skaters on the ice in the third period but that wasn't the case either

Boyle calling it like it was

 

[Emperoreddy]

It also seemed like the Blues had nine skaters on the ice in the third period but that wasn't the case either

Boyle calling it like it was

Definitely an issue. Allen was not giving up rebounds and we were not doing enough to apply screens or deflect pucks in front.

 

[Zippy316]

Devils were just completely gassed.

They had absolutely no legs mid-way through the second and it showed. This is the type of game where we needed to win the special teams battle in order to come out on top and the Blues dominated there.

I wouldn't take much from this game to be honest. They went toe-to-toe with them through two periods and shot themselves in the foot with the Coleman penalty.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I don't understand the bitching about Henrique. He's not a top tier talent, so I'm not sure why people expect him to bring something special every night. Guy has scored at least 20 goals and 40 points every season except the lockout year. What more are fans expecting from a player of his caliber? That's excellent consistency in the grand scheme of things from a player who doesn't have primary scoring talent. Not to mention that he has scored many clutch goals, even during the regular season.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Devils were just completely gassed.

They had absolutely no legs mid-way through the second and it showed. This is the type of game where we needed to win the special teams battle in order to come out on top and the Blues dominated there.

I wouldn't take much from this game to be honest. They went toe-to-toe with them through two periods and shot themselves in the foot with the Coleman penalty.

Special teams were definitely the story. We took too many penalties and we didn’t cash in on any of our PPs

 

[NJDevs26]

I don't understand the *****ing about Henrique. He's not a top tier talent, so I'm not sure why people expect him to bring something special every night. Guy has scored at least 20 goals and 40 points every season except the lockout year. What more are fans expecting from a player of his caliber? That's excellent consistency in the grand scheme of things from a player who doesn't have primary scoring talent. Not to mention that he has scored many clutch goals, even during the regular season.

The clutch player thing is an overstated meme, Henrique's not Claude Lemieux. Yes he scored the two biggest goals of the 2012 playoffs (or two of the three along with Zajac's OT winner against the Panthers in Game 6). But the Devils played 24 games in that postseason, Henrique scored two goals in the other 22 games.

 

[Bleedred]

I don't understand the *****ing about Henrique. He's not a top tier talent, so I'm not sure why people expect him to bring something special every night. Guy has scored at least 20 goals and 40 points every season except the lockout year. What more are fans expecting from a player of his caliber? That's excellent consistency in the grand scheme of things from a player who doesn't have primary scoring talent. Not to mention that he has scored many clutch goals, even during the regular season.

I'm usually the last one to call him out, because I'm comfortable enough with the fact that he's not a top tier talent.

Which is also why I have said that re-signing him when this contract ends in 2019 (barring a discount) would be a mistake.

 

[Zippy316]

Special teams were definitely the story. We took too many penalties and we didn’t cash in on any of our PPs

Yup. Devils didn't have the legs in the third and they added to it by being sloppy with the puck. Even then, it was still a one goal game. A few opportunities to tie the game in the third on PP that we didn't cash in on.

Blues are the best team in the league for a reason. They're structured, well-coached, and difficult to play against and we went toe-to-toe with them for most of the game. That's a huge difference from previous years.

The clutch player thing is an overstated meme, Henrique's not Claude Lemieux. Yes he scored the two biggest goals of the 2012 playoffs (or two of the three along with Zajac's OT winner against the Panthers in Game 6). But the Devils played 24 games in that postseason, Henrique scored two goals in the other 22 games.

Henrique is what he is, a good second line forward. I think some people have unrealistic expectations of him since his rookie year.

He's dominant when he's on, but he's still a useful all situations player when he isn't. He's valuable.

 

[Sir Fenwick Corsi]

I don't understand the *****ing about Henrique. He's not a top tier talent, so I'm not sure why people expect him to bring something special every night. Guy has scored at least 20 goals and 40 points every season except the lockout year. What more are fans expecting from a player of his caliber? That's excellent consistency in the grand scheme of things from a player who doesn't have primary scoring talent. Not to mention that he has scored many clutch goals, even during the regular season.

These are solid points but I think being a veteran and the fact that he has shown flashes of high level play and clutch scoring, he’s kind of expected to “step up”, so to speak. The other thing is that he can tend to look uninvolved often. I mean it’s pretty clear that he can’t drive a line or play elite level hockey so I agree that it’s pointless to bag on him for it. I mentioned it earlier but it is what it is with him. Push him down the depth chart and on the wing and he’ll look like a much better player.

 

[guitarguyvic]

The clutch player thing is an overstated meme, Henrique's not Claude Lemieux. Yes he scored the two biggest goals of the 2012 playoffs (or two of the three along with Zajac's OT winner against the Panthers in Game 6). But the Devils played 23 games in that postseason, Henrique scored two goals in the other 21 games.

"Clutch player" in general is probably a bit of a myth. That being said, it's not just that playoff run. He has scored some big goals in the regular season as well.

That's an aside anyway. Point is, why are we expecting great consistency from a secondary player, especially at times when he's being asked to do a bit more than is appropriate for his talent level? He's a consistent 20 goal scorer who has a knack for scoring goals at opportunistic times and on the PK short-handed. Complaints about his inconsistency are misplaced in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Yup. Devils didn't have the legs in the third and they added to it by being sloppy with the puck. Even then, it was still a one goal game. A few opportunities to tie the game in the third on PP that we didn't cash in on.

Blues are the best team in the league for a reason. They're structured, well-coached, and difficult to play against and we went toe-to-toe with them for most of the game. That's a huge difference from previous years.



Henrique is what he is, a good second line forward. I think some people have unrealistic expectations of him since his rookie year.

He's dominant when he's on, but he's still a useful all situations player when he isn't. He's valuable.

I’m not sure he even is a good second liner. I expect more consistency on the second line.

 

[Zippy316]

I’m not sure he even is a good second liner. I expect more consistency on the second line.

He's a 40-50 point scorer every year. That's a second line player.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I liked what I saw from Boyle, at least in the first two periods. Not sure how the numbers looked (pretty much everyone got hammered corsi-wise) but I thought he looked very strong on the puck and created some chances. He’s gonna be a solid 4th liner when we get our depth back.

 

[Sir Fenwick Corsi]

This was definitely Boyle’s best game thus far. Figure it will take at least ten games or so until he’s up to pace with the rest of the team.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Yeah definitely Boyle’s best game so far.

 

[Zippy316]

Boyle will be a nice compliment to the more erratic play of Coleman, Gibbons, Wood, and Noesen on the fourth line.

 

[Patrik26]

Just got back from the game. Basically 1:30 or so of brain fart play was the game. Giving up a late goal, the high-stick with 9 seconds left in the period, and finally the PP goal at 32 seconds of the 3rd.

Butcher struggled again.

Nico is going to struggle until he grows some - he gets knocked off the puck too easily.

I don't ever want to see Greene and Lovejoy on the ice at the same time again unless it's warmups.

We need Palmieri, Johansson and Zajac in the worst way.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Boyle will be a nice compliment to the more erratic play of Coleman, Gibbons, Wood, and Noesen on the fourth line.

Tonight showed to me why Hynes has been sitting Noesen. His play is erratic and he is prone to some really poor decisions with the puck. Especially on the defensive side of things.

 

[Bleedred]

It also seemed like the Blues had nine skaters on the ice in the third period but that wasn't the case either

Boyle calling it like it was

He hasn't been on many losing teams, so It's nice to hear this kind of very blunt critique from him.

 

[Jets012]

He's a 40-50 point scorer every year. That's a second line player.

not that simple when your Points Per 60 on the 5 on 5 and your possession stats look like a 3rd/4th liner. He's a 3rd liner in an ideal situation. If he played a complete game like Zajac does, then he'd be a 2nd liner.

 

[Emperoreddy]

He hasn't been on many losing teams, so It's nice to hear this kind of very blunt critique from him.

He was right too. Not nearly enough traffic in front of Allen. No one around to get the few rebounds he did give up.

 

[Bleedred]

not that simple when your Points Per 60 on the 5 on 5 and your possession stats look like a 3rd/4th liner. He's a 3rd liner in an ideal situation. If he played a complete game like Zajac does, then he'd be a 2nd liner.

I have a friend, who doesn't watch many games, at least not Devils games, but he overrates the hell out of Henrique. So every time he sees Henrique scored a goal, he'll say ''You told me he was terrible though?! I'm gonna tweet at him and tell him you hate him!''. Now this friend is half joking, as he makes cracks about his insane career shooting percentage all the time, and he knows that I never once said that I've hated Henrique. In my arguments though, I mentioned that his points per 60 isn't that impressive, and he usually counters with ''Well Zajac's points per 60 is even worse, since he plays more and scores barely any more than Henrique!'', which I have to point out that It's a bad comparison, as Zajac does things that Henrique does not do, even though Henrique is much better at scoring goals, at this point in their career's.

Henrique is the kind of player that I'm happy to have right now, but would like to move on from, before he becomes UFA. We could very likely replace his production in 2 years, by a player that's on a much more cost effective/cap friendly contract, than what Henrique will be making when he's 29 and well into his 30's. And he’ll likely get $5 million per year, maybe even more.

Can you imagine this in two years from now, where a $5.5 million/just about 30 year old Henrique needs to play all these minutes to score and has these kinds of point droughts? Imagine if he made $6 million.

I was actually more than happy with his game this season, up until the road trip.

 

[Emperoreddy]

A lot of fans in other parts of the internet vastly overrate Henrique and it is all because of 2012.

We needed him with Zajac hurt because we were asking so much of young centers, but long term he is not a integral cog in our rebuild.

We need to cash out on him in the next offseason IMO, hopefully for D help.

 

[Bleedred]

A lot of fans in other parts of the internet vastly overrate Henrique and it is all because of 2012.

We needed him with Zajac hurt because we were asking so much of young centers, but long term he is not a integral cog in our rebuild.

We need to cash out on him in the next offseason IMO, hopefully for D help.

This has been my exact feelings for at least a year now.

We don't need to make a decision on him right now, but if there's a deal to be had, then by all means, pull the trigger.

But we will need to make a decision on him, between the draft/July of next year and the trade deadline of 2019, or else we'll lose him for nothing. And I don't think we should be signing him either.

I think he'll be a guy we move on from, which we saw a lot in the Lou era. There were several guys that Lou didn't even bother offering a contract to, as they weren't worth it. Or lowballed (rightfully in many cases) because they weren't worth nearly what someone else thought they were worth. I don't think we offered a contract to guys like Gionta and Gomez, because we needed the cap space back then and they were overpaid. We lowballed Clarkson, which was the right move quite easily, as he probably wasn't even worth what we wound up giving Clowe.

 

[Emperoreddy]

We also do need to see how Mojo fits in over the course of a full season. If for some reason he doesn’t then he is the one we need to cash out on.

Right now the problem with Rico is we most likely will not be able to afford paying Hall, Mojo, and Rico and still have money leftover to pay our kids and any additional D help.