GDT: New Jersey Devils vs. Calgary Flames 7pm: Just the facts edition

[Cheddabombs]

There were plenty of games down the stretch where it was like pulling teeth to get them going in the first period, plenty of no-show games against bad teams before this three-game stretch where they somehow wiped the slate clean with a lot of people.

Conversely, there were games where other teams did the same, where we won games when we flat out shouldn't have against teams that are just better than us. It happens. Over the course of an 82 game schedule, for the most part, everything evens out and teams finish where they should. Our roster is that of a mediocre team, not quite a bottom feeder but not quite playoff material. And that's where we find ourselves today, and most likely where we'll find ourselves at season's end. It's frustrating because we're so used to playoff appearance after playoff appearance but the sad reality is, this team isn't good enough for the playoffs.

 

[NJDevs26]

And one guy I'd REALLY have booed out of the building was Gelinas. Of course he doesn't do **** when Larsson and Elias get clocked right in front of him against the Caps, but he throws a hissy fit late in the third period tonight when he gets love tapped himself. Ryder's another one obviously...the guy floats so much I'm shocked he doesn't get lost in outer space.

 

[goawaygary*]

And one guy I'd REALLY have booed out of the building was Gelinas. Of course he doesn't do **** when Larsson and Elias get clocked right in front of him against the Caps, but he throws a hissy fit late in the third period tonight when he gets love tapped himself. Ryder's another one obviously...the guy floats so much I'm shocked he doesn't get lost in outer space.

Ryder just looks so slow and disinterested right now. Honestly I wish we could scratch him and put Boucher in his place for some speed and energy. Ryder looks like Holik in his last year here. He's like Andreychuk slow

 

[Suddenly Zyuzin]

I hope Calgary doesn't make the playoffs for the next 20 years. **** em. Maybe they'll hang a banner for this game. Lmao, dumping the puck down the ice preserving a meaningless game.

I loathe franchises like this. Absolutely ****ing loathe them.

Lmfao.

 

[njdevils1982]

And one guy I'd REALLY have booed out of the building was Gelinas. Of course he doesn't do **** when Larsson and Elias get clocked right in front of him against the Caps, but he throws a hissy fit late in the third period tonight when he gets love tapped himself. Ryder's another one obviously...the guy floats much I'm shocked he doesn't get lost in outer space.

this has been an issue with me for a while. (not gelly per se)

the team as a whole needs SOME balls… step up…defend your teammates and goalie too.

and finish a check. ****ing gionta at least does it…… too bad that line sucks as a 3rd line in the long run….. ****ing injuries.

 

[Bleedred]

This is ground control to major Ryder. Haha.

Holik in his last season wasn't nearly as bad as Ryder, maybe in that last playoff series.

Wait what last season of Holik though? When he came back in 08-09 when he was old and played on the 4th line? Or the 01-02 pre Rangers Holik?

And Ryder is Andreychuk slow. Like 42 year old 2005 Dave Andreychuk. The Devils Andreychuk was never this slow.

You know what former Devil Ryder is reminding me of? Steve Thomas. I ****ing hated that bum. Really poor mans compensation for Claude. If I was on here back in 1997-1998 I would have had an avatar for him and bashed the **** out of him on here. I think I used to hit up AOL message boards back in those days and torch the hell out of Steve Thomas. It really didn't help matters that Claude was my favorite player at the time, and that's who we got in return.

 

[njdevils1982]

This is ground control to major Ryder. Haha.

Holik in his last season wasn't nearly as bad as Ryder, maybe in that last playoff series.

Wait what last season of Holik though? When he came back in 08-09 when he was old and played on the 4th line? Or the 01-02 pre Rangers Holik?

And Ryder is Andreychuk slow. Like 42 year old 2005 Dave Andreychuk. The Devils Andreychuk was never this slow.

You know what former Devil Ryder is reminding me of? Steve Thomas. I ****ing hated that bum. Really poor mans compensation for Claude. If I was on here back in 1997-1998 I would have had an avatar for him and bashed the **** out of him on here. I think I used to hit up AOL message boards back in those days and torch the hell out of Steve Thomas. It really didn't help matters that Claude was my favorite player at the time, and that's who we got in return.

how about that Andreychuk statue outside of TBTF this week.

 

[Bleedred]

how about that Andreychuk statue outside of TBTF this week.

Haha I haven't heard much about it yet. I can't really blame the guy. The lightning were garbage when he first signed there. So it was nice that he got to win a cup in the end. I'm glad Thomas never won one. I'm still mad that he talked a bunch of **** about us during the 03 SCF when he was playing for Anaheim. Yup Steve Thomas. He was my punching bag on those late 90s team. I knew a guy who was quite a bit older than me during that time. He probably followed Andreychuk and Thomas from when their pro careers started. He was beyond psyched when we made the acquisitions of both of those guys. I mean you would think that we landed the 1986 Gretzky when we got those guys. I didn't have too much of a problem with Andreychuk but Thomas was my most hated Devils player of the 90s. His era represents years of little playoff success and we even missed the playoffs his first year here too. Man I miss those days.

 

[NJDevs26]

lol I still remember Thorne creaming himself after Thomas's OT goal in the Finals, calling him one of the great clutch players in the league

Ryder probably will be like Thomas in the sense that he is good before and after us, but doesn't do **** with us. Aaron Asham (Mr. Whatever) was another one who pulled that, a top fourth liner most everyplace he's been but a scrubini here.

 

[Sir Fenwick Corsi]

Calgary plays a tough game and sadly the Devil's took them lightly. Ramo played a strong game and the Devils failed to capitalize on their chances. Just goes to show you can never underestimate ANY team in this league.

The Devils didn't take anyone lightly tonight. They absolutely worked Calgary for pretty much the entire game. Ramo was strong, but this is the Devils after all. They've struggled to score all season long and now they're missing Henrique, Elias and Clowe all at the same time. Any team with a semblance of offensive touch blows Calgary out of the water tonight. NJ was by far the better team.

For all the trolls, I'm really not sure what is so difficult to understand here. When your team is scratching and clawing for points in must win games, the most annoying and difficult teams you can possibly play are those that have been playing for nothing since the beginning of March and some even longer. Florida, Islanders, Calgary, Buffalo, all of these teams have been lined up for NJ over the last week or so. Nearly every spring they have absolutely nothing to play for except jobs for next year and a chance to ruin another team's season. No one is asking them to just roll over and die so that NJ can win, however, they treat these games like its their Stanley Cup Final and it's insanely aggravating constantly being on the other end of that ****.

 

[Bleedred]

lol I still remember Thorne creaming himself after Thomas's OT goal in the Finals, calling him one of the great clutch players in the league

Ryder probably will be like Thomas in the sense that he is good before and after us, but doesn't do **** with us. Aaron Asham (Mr. Whatever) was another one who pulled that, a top fourth liner most everyplace he's been but a scrubini here.

Ugh I forgot Thomas even scored an OT winner on us.

Thomas wasn't horrible for us, he had a couple 20+ goal seasons I believe. He was just kinda inconsistent. I was a big Lemieux fan and I didn't take the trade too well. Colorado became my second favorite team after Claude went there, and I have some extremely fond memories of following them on their cup run in 96.

On the talk of former Devils who were stars in the league before they got here, Joe Nieuwendyk. I really never cared for him during his entire tenure here. All of a season and a few weeks. One player on this team that reminds me of Nieuwendyk is Brunner. Nieuwendyk had a lot more points than Brunner did, but their goal scoring was very similar. Nieuwendyk would have multiple 2 goal games, then he'd go on goalless droughts for god knows how long. Then he'd have another 2 goal game, and then he'd go away again for a while. That's a lot like Brunner this year it seems.

Nieuwendyk did have a real Ryder like goalless drought at one point that year. Pretty sure Elias had a really long drought that year too.

 

[Holtz My Bahls]

Can't blame Gelinas considering he has no idea what the **** he is supposed to do. He played forward and then when Pete got desperate as all hell he put Gelinas back on defense. Yeah lets expect him to do us wonders you guys are ****ing delusional sometimes.

 

[Snakepit]

Thought Schneider played really well, deserved a better outcome. Jagr with a strong game too. Devils really should have won but just hit a goaltender that's been hot for the last few weeks.

The Devils didn't take anyone lightly tonight. They absolutely worked Calgary for pretty much the entire game. Ramo was strong, but this is the Devils after all. They've struggled to score all season long and now they're missing Henrique, Elias and Clowe all at the same time. Any team with a semblance of offensive touch blows Calgary out of the water tonight. NJ was by far the better team.

For all the trolls, I'm really not sure what is so difficult to understand here. When your team is scratching and clawing for points in must win games, the most annoying and difficult teams you can possibly play are those that have been playing for nothing since the beginning of March and some even longer. Florida, Islanders, Calgary, Buffalo, all of these teams have been lined up for NJ over the last week or so. Nearly every spring they have absolutely nothing to play for except jobs for next year and a chance to ruin another team's season. No one is asking them to just roll over and die so that NJ can win, however, they treat these games like its their Stanley Cup Final and it's insanely aggravating constantly being on the other end of that ****.

Incredibly frustrating, but what you're complaining about is exactly what coaches want. Every game needs to be played like it's the SCF, that's step 1 on the road to success especially for a team in year one of a rebuild like Calgary. If DeBoer had the same work ethic instilled this year the outcome of the season could be very different.

 

[Emperoreddy]

It was what it was. Most of their skill was hurt. They had zero luck as everything close bounced the wrong way.

Been plenty of games where they have been caught sleep walking but that wasn't tonight.

It's annoying and frustrating but can't blame the effort. Maybe some of the stupid penalties. That's about it. We controlled play.

 

[Bleedred]

Tonight was not about effort. It really wasn't a bad loss, especially when you look at our lineup tonight. It's been pretty hideous.

The frustrating part is that there have been too many games where the effort was not good, and where we had damn near close enough or a completely healthy lineup. That loss to the Islanders last weekend is looking particularly ugly right now. The blown lead to the Panthers is two points I want back incredibly bad right now.

 

[Walkingthroughforest]

Decent players light ramo up tonight.

He gave Devils many open nets.

I just want to point out that since the Olympic break, Ramo has posted a .933 SV/%.

He's no scrub.

 

[Bleedred]

Ramo also had a sub 900 save percentage for his career prior to this season, so his last month means absolute **** to me. Yeah he played a great game tonight, hats off to him. But let's tone it down a little bit. We've also been shutout by Montoya and emery this year. Not that their shutouts were impressive as Ramo's though.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

The more I think about it, the more angry I get over the fact that they didn't even try to call up Tedenby, Boucher, or Matteau and elected to play 2 clowns who don't belong in the NHL as well as shifting one of our promising young d-men to forward to fill the roster spots after the injuries occurred. That really sums up this organization quite well, when you think about it. Electing to play the Rudy's of the world instead of guys who actually have some skill and COULD chip in a few goals or so. The chances of Sislo, Sestito, Bernier, etc. of scoring are 0%. They are total garbage.

That's another reason that I cannot support this coach. The grinder mentality is beyond annoying and has gone completely overboard. Part of that is Lou as well. There is just a massive stench in this organization that needs to be eliminated ASAP.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

Ramo also had a sub 900 save percentage for his career prior to this season, so his last month means absolute **** to me. Yeah he played a great game tonight, hats off to him. But let's tone it down a little bit. We've also been shutout by Montoya and emery this year. Not that their shutouts were impressive as Ramo's though.

We lost to both Calgary goaltenders this year. I would love to know how many other teams have done that.

 

[Bleedred]

We lost to both Calgary goaltenders this year. I would love to know how many other teams have done that.

Yup we even lost to Ronald McDonald this year. A 30 something year old career AHLer who's even spent most of this year playing for the Flames AHL affiliate.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Ramo also had a sub 900 save percentage for his career prior to this season, so his last month means absolute **** to me. Yeah he played a great game tonight, hats off to him. But let's tone it down a little bit. We've also been shutout by Montoya and emery this year. Not that their shutouts were impressive as Ramo's though.

Yeah let's just ignore the fact he played the last 4 years in KHL was one of the best goalies there. I'd call him a late-bloomer. Didn't think he would become an NHL starter but this latter part of the season makes me think he can at least be a 1B goalie.

 

[MadDevil]

Jagr, as usual, hits the nail on the head...

“Today I cannot say one thing (bad) about our game. I thought we played very good. Only one problem was we lost. We didn’t score a goal. You cannot complain.â€

 

[glenwo2]

Jagr just being obvious.

You don't score goals, you don't win.

It's that simple.

 

[MadDevil]

Jagr just being obvious.

You don't score goals, you don't win.

It's that simple.

I was thinking more about his statement that they played well, but couldn't get the win. This wasn't one of those games where they slept through the first half of the game against a weaker team. They played their hearts out. It just wasn't enough in the end.

 

[glenwo2]

Doesn't matter how hard or not you play....

..the point stands : You don't score, you don't win.