GDT: New Jersey Devils vs. Minnesota Wild: Scooby Dooby Doo It

[Bramskii]

A lot actually. You can’t do the things your body can do when healthy so you over compensate and make mistakes.

He doesn't look to me like a guy who's battling any kind of injury. Just a guy that has no confidence right now. I could easily be wrong though.

 

[AveryQuietMan]

Well we have that, but Marchand turned his brain into pudding so it creates an unexpected hole.

can we not bring that up???? i kid.

seriously tho how is that guy still playing right now? shouldve been atleast 10 if not more. guess the nhl has to protect the stars tho. maybe we should tell hall to go crazy out there.... he will only get a game or two.

 

[zharkenby]

Seriously guys how do I change my username... to arda ocal

 

[blood gin]

We won’t be doing that. We might bring in another backup to challenge Keith in camp, but we aren’t going in on a big name. They still expect Cory to start 60 games.

Cory is going to be 33 next spring. He's been a bit brittle this year and I don't think his recovery time will improve as he ages. Would be nice to try to get 50-55 quality starts out of him next year and a backup you can really trust for the rest and not the Benny Hill theme song duo we've seen of late

 

[AveryQuietMan]

Seriously guys how do I change my username... to arda ocal

your avatar is pretty empty. maybe arda is the way to go.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I fully expect to hear Palms is getting some kind of surgery two days into the offseason.

No doubt, there’s no chance he’s been 100% healthy this season.

 

[blood gin]

How much has the team tuned out Geoff Ward? ****'s not working and he hasn't done anything to fix it

The skill level is there, and there's only so many ways you can re jigger a powerplay anyway. It's on the players at this point to get it worked out

 

[My3Sons]

It's not just the save percentage though, just more context here. The eye test is firmly corroborating those stats here, that they are allowing at least one stoppable goal a game, even two stoppable ones in a lot of these games. The only games I can think of in the last couple weeks where every goal scored on us was one where the goalie didn't have a chance on were those two Carolina games. And it's Carolina, they ring up the shots and don't score on a lot of them. They look like us in this game almost every night. Two bad goals last game, two bad goals against the Flyers (we won), two bad goals against the Bruins, a couple bad goals on Lack against the Bolts (we won), a bunch of bad goals in the games against Calgary and Ottawa a couple weeks back. 2-3 per game in those ones.

You aren’t wrong but there is also the team philosophy and structure. The team as constructed is not really built to win 2-1. They don’t play the heavy game. They are supposed to out chance and hence our score he opposition. Right now they don’t have enough skilled players to do that. A healthy MarJo and Gibbons probably make a difference in at least two of the bad down the stretch games they’ve had. Not to mention. A healthy Corey. Hall and to a lesser extent Nico and Palms can only do so much.

 

[blood gin]

I fully expect to hear Palms is getting some kind of surgery two days into the offseason.

Same with Greene. Refuse to believe he fell into the abyss this quickly. Some guys do but this is really ugly to see

Throws a check in the corner, falls on his ass. Tries to swat the puck to keep it away from the onrushing Stewart. WHIFFS. Naturally Stewart scores a soft 5 hole goal

I mean jeez Greene just fall on the damn puck next time

 

[mtnet]

Seriously guys how do I change my username... to arda ocal

A generous helping of hair product is likely involved

 

[My3Sons]

By know he's had enough time to recover from a limb reattachment. Cory just seems like a slow healer to me.

Saturday is the absolute last game he's allowed to miss. I am so sick of dopey goalies allowing clean unscreened slappers from just inside the blue line and sad bantam league floaters through the five hole

He’s no spring chicken anymore and he needs to be tremendously flexible. A lower body injury is a real issue for a goalie.

 

[AveryQuietMan]

He’s no spring chicken anymore and he needs to be tremendously flexible. A lower body injury is a real issue for a goalie.

is the injury a mystery or something? i thought it was an obvious groin pull when it happened. that can be weeks if not more.

 

[My3Sons]

We really need one more guy that can provide consistent secondary scoring. Gibbons won’t be enough, but he’ll be a huge upgrade over Hayes. I have no faith that Bratt will do anything the rest of the years, he seems spent. Hopefully he can bring it next year.

Tatar, Nyquist, Kane, Reinhart or someone like that would really really help. Stafford and Jimmy Hayes ain’t gonna cut it. I hope Shero can make something happen, we need help.

If the price is anything higher than a third and a B prospect do you want a rental? Do you move JQ for a rental? From the description it sounds like prices for longer term pieces are very high.

 

[My3Sons]

is the injury a mystery or something? i thought it was an obvious groin pull when it happened. that can be weeks if not more.

There are varying degrees of that. Some require rest and some require surgery. His may be mild or right on the border of severe.

 

[blood gin]

He’s no spring chicken anymore and he needs to be tremendously flexible. A lower body injury is a real issue for a goalie.

He had surgery spring of 2016 and it was bothering him all 16-17. He wasn't at his best all year. Now after this groin I'm not 100% he wont aggravate it. Then we'd really be in trouble.

 

[blood gin]

If the price is anything higher than a third and a B prospect do you want a rental? Do you move JQ for a rental? From the description it sounds like prices for longer term pieces are very high.

JQ isn't anything special. You move him. And I wouldn't immediately call anybody a rental. Sometimes a rental turns into a long term important cog.

 

[blood gin]

is the injury a mystery or something? i thought it was an obvious groin pull when it happened. that can be weeks if not more.

He also has a hip issue

 

[haak84]

this team is as good as a mid 2000s devils team. if they had marty level goaltending theyd be in first

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

If the price is anything higher than a third and a B prospect do you want a rental? Do you move JQ for a rental? From the description it sounds like prices for longer term pieces are very high.

I don’t value JQ very highly, that may be unpopular. He seems like a glorified Boucher to me. I’d move him plus a pick for any of them.

 

[AveryQuietMan]

He also has a hip issue

yeah, but it just looked like a groin this time. could be the hip i guess. either way the lack of news is disturbing.

 

[My3Sons]

I don’t value JQ very highly, that may be unpopular. He seems like a glorified Boucher to me. I’d move him plus a pick for any of them.

I think the current regime agrees with you. That said if other teams see him as a borderline player also they may not have a decent offer for JQ and a lower pick.

 

[Bleedred]

I've said all along he's better than Kinkaid. I dont care if his SVP in the AHL is only ~.900, he's playing on a dog-crap team, that's realistically probably not too shabby. Appleby > Kinkaid.

Honestly, I don't like the ''Well it's the defense's fault that Kinkaid stinks! We have the worst in the league bruh!'' excuse, but if anyone really believes that, then they should definitely also believe that Appleby may be the negative beneficiary of poor defense in Binghamton.

I've had enough of BOTH of these goalies and I hope the NEVER play a regular season game for us after this year. Assuming that Cory played MOST of these games since he was injured and was average in most of the games that Kinkaid and Lack have stunk in, and assuming that he also stunk himself in a few of those games, I think it's not unreasonable to think that we have 3-4 more points in the standings right now? Only 3 more points if Cory was mostly bad and 5 more if he was mostly good. Maybe even more if he really stood on his head.

Games that goaltending has directly gotten us 2 points in over the last month? Last weekend against Tampa Bay and Carolina. Games that goaltending has directly cost us at least one point over the last month? Ottawa, Calgary, Boston, Columbus last game and tonight against Minnesota. Other games since the all star break where goaltending was just solid or not good but didn't win us, nor lose us points one way or another? Buffalo (he was solid but 1 goal against Buffalo isn't amazing), Pittsburgh (Best defensive game of the year), the Columbus blowout (defense sucked and we lost 6-1), and the first Carolina game. And we beat the Flyers in spite of goaltending almost murdering us that game.

 

[glenwo2]

Got the feeling that the west coast trip is going to wipe us out and it’s gonna be excruciating.

Now that you mention it....I'm starting to have that bad feeling, too. That trip may end up being the Knockout blow to our playoff hopes.

Which is why is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to get points(I don't care if it's one point in the upcoming games) before that trip.

 

[glenwo2]

We regularly play up to our opponents and we are a pretty good road team.

Also with Cory back, Gibbons, and I think a new face on Monday we should be fine.

I keep forgetting that we'll have Cory back and Gibbons (Woohoo!). I'm still curious as to what "rabbit" Shero pulls out of a hat this time to help the Devils.

 

[Bleedred]

Yea we need to invest in a good fringe starter type backup. It's absolutely essential. Raanta is going to want to be a full time starter so I think he's out

Jonathan Bernier I'd target. We'd be fine if he ever had to start 30 or more games

Definitely.

Part of that reason is that Cory isn't great anymore, so we need better than this spittoon (it's surely not a PLATOON) or Kinkaid. Because we probably don't want Cory starting 60-65 games next year and Kinkaid has been feces even in the backup role this year, which is why he was stapled to the bench for a month and we played Cory in back to backs, including against Buffalo. If Kinkaid hadn't laid a giant deuce against the Rags at MSG in December, he would have no doubt gotten a start or two in between then and when he eventually did start again.

The organization needs to banish him after this year. His NHL career is likely over, unless he finds his way back into the league like Stalock did last year and they make him the permanent backup the next year.