GDT: Spidey's Return: Devils @ Wild, 8 PM, MSG+

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MNDevilsfan

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Jan 9, 2015
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St. Paul, MN
Ugly win, but enjoyable nonetheless. I took a friend of mine who'd never been to a hockey game or really watched hockey and he had a blast (probably more likely to become a Wild fan, not surprisingly). There were a handful of Devils fans in the building and a few others in our section...nice to have some folks to celebrate with.

Bratt's elusiveness is really something to watch. MN players were lining him up for hits all night, and the majority of the time he'd just find a little seam or roll off them and maintain possession of the puck. Hischier, on the other hand, really needs to get stronger or work on picking his spots better. He leaves himself exposed a lot. Usually he ends up making a defender look silly in the process, but he took his fair share of punishment.

I thought Zacha played a solid game, at least in the second and third (no one on the Devils was good in the first). Nice to see a good bounce back from Henrique as well.

Gotta hand it to the MN folks- pretty solid crowd for a Monday night game vs an out of conference opponent. Glad the Devils didn't give them much to cheer about it at the end, though!
 

Zippy316

aka Zippo
Aug 17, 2012
19,490
4,481
New Jersey
I will take a high quantity of quality shots please. :naughty:

Generally games don't play out like that unless you're playing a team that is awful in their own zone.

It's usually either both teams trade absurd chances, both teams trade no chances, or one team dominates while the other team collapses to the net and jumps on their opportunities.
 

mtnet

LGD!
Oct 31, 2014
5,665
4,200
Getting outshot but making a few of the ones we take really count seems part of our identity at this point
 

Blender

Registered User
Dec 2, 2009
51,305
45,253


Which one would you rather have?

Quality. Honestly, our entire offensive system seems set up to generate high quality chances at the cost of a high volume of shots. We usually try and retain possession until we get them.
 

OmNomNom

Taco is Love, Taco is Life
Mar 3, 2011
22,973
15,827
In the Church of Salmela
for the people ripping into boyle, remember when we were celebrating him winning 3 critical end-of-game faceoffs in a row a few games ago?

i also wonder if his faceoff prowess would've gone up, had that new faceoff penalty didn't exist. REMEMBER - ray and co. weren't alerted of the new rule till the first preseason game (i think he said literally a couple of hours before the puck dropped)

boyle was signed way before that rule change
 
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BomaLightDevils

Registered User
Jan 15, 2011
1,321
231
Copenhagen
Holy cow this thread. A few things.

Butcher - Has been getting more and more ice time. Last three games he's gotten almost 19 minutes a game. Hynes obviously used him less because of the physical style Minnesota was playing with. BTW, that's the same reason the Zacha-Zajac-Bratt line didn't play much.

Hynes - Hasn't developed young players? What about Santini? Wood? Coleman? Bratt, Butcher, and Hischier are near the top of the rookie scoring lists because they're getting major minutes and special teams time. This is just terrible, its literally taking one of the best things he's done as a coach and criticizing him for it.

Boyle - Is TEN ****ing games back from cancer. And no, Boyle and Zajac don't slow the team down. It's very common to play slower stronger guys with small and fast players. The faster guys establish possession in the zone and the stronger guys help maintain it and create space. That's what Zajac and Boyle will do once they've shaken the rust off.

Bratt - Is 19 years old and 5'10 175 and has never played this much hockey. The team we were playing against was big, physical, and playing dirty as hell. Limiting his ice time was very smart. He'll mature physically, and get used to playing these kinds of games, and eventually, he won't have be so limited in a game like this.

I think it's pretty funny that people have been using linemates as an excuse for Zacha, and Henrique gets dropped down with Coleman and Gibbons and gets 3 points. Now it's his ice time that's the issue. I don't think Hynes came in planning to play that line 10 minutes, it was in response to the way Minnesota was playing. So against Boston I think he'll probably get more ice time.

I thought Hynes did a great job managing this game. 2-1-1 on the road trip, 12-5-3 on the season, and exceeding all expectations.

2-1-1 on a tough hard road trip against 3 playoff teams and probably one of the biggest and most improved team this year in jets.

I would say that is almost to an A.
 

billingtons ghost

Registered User
Nov 29, 2010
10,507
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Butcher is getting significant ice time? He barely averages 16 minutes a night. It'll be below that, after his 14 minute and 28 seconder tonight.

Hynes plays him like he's this massive liability.

It is EARLY in the season. We want these kids to be here at game 82 as well.

I think it should be evident why someone like Gibbons is getting icetime while someone like Zacha isn't.
 

Fear the Wushu

Registered User
Dec 4, 2013
1,314
301
New Brunswick, NJ
I wouldn't want to overwhelm Butcher in his rookie year. Not unusual for D to be brought along slowly. I think we really need to be more excited about what we have with him, though. He's got the potential to be a true #1 defenseman in this league if we bring him along the right way.

I disagree. I think Butcher is going to be an awesome offensive defensemen but he doesn't have the snarl/size of a prototypical #1 defensemen leading teams on deep playoff runs. He simply just isen't built the same way as a Doughty or a Keith
 

Zippy316

aka Zippo
Aug 17, 2012
19,490
4,481
New Jersey
I disagree. I think Butcher is going to be an awesome offensive defensemen but he doesn't have the snarl/size of a prototypical #1 defensemen leading teams on deep playoff runs. He simply just isen't built the same way as a Doughty or a Keith

I agree.

I see Zidlicky in him. I'm hoping he ends up being a good second-pairing PP specialist capable of putting up 40~ a year. He's ridiculously skilled for a defender and I feel like once he starts generating chemistry with the forwards, he's going to be putting up tons of points.
 

Fear the Wushu

Registered User
Dec 4, 2013
1,314
301
New Brunswick, NJ
I agree.

I see Zidlicky in him. I'm hoping he ends up being a good second-pairing PP specialist capable of putting up 40~ a year. He's ridiculously skilled for a defender and I feel like once he starts generating chemistry with the forwards, he's going to be putting up tons of points.

I think that's a good comparison and it's even better that we gave up zero assets to acquire Butcher. I see Butcher as being more reliable on the defensive end with a higher offesnive peak than Zids.
 

Cult of Hynes

Hynes is never wrong.
Nov 9, 2010
13,369
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I disagree. I think Butcher is going to be an awesome offensive defensemen but he doesn't have the snarl/size of a prototypical #1 defensemen leading teams on deep playoff runs. He simply just isen't built the same way as a Doughty or a Keith
He weighs about the same as Keith, but he is 3 inches shorter than Keith. But yea, they do not really play the defensive side of the game the same. Keith has a really nasty dirty side to his game that for some reason is allowed to happen.
 

BenedictGomez

Corsi is GROSSLY overrated
Oct 11, 2007
40,436
7,745
PRNJ

are we still bottom 3 in shots for AND shots against?

Devils have the 2nd worst Corsi in the entire NHL, and tied for the 3rd best record in the entire NHL.


upload_2017-11-21_14-10-0.png


The only team with a worse Corsi than the Devils is the Jets, who are tied with the Devils for the 3rd best record in entire NHL.


 

Zippy316

aka Zippo
Aug 17, 2012
19,490
4,481
New Jersey
Devils have the 2nd worst Corsi in the entire NHL, and tied for the 3rd best record in the entire NHL.


View attachment 84315

The only team with a worse Corsi than the Devils is the Jets, who are tied with the Devils for the 3rd best record in entire NHL.

This is why absence of context when discussing stats like this (or any stats for that matter) is ridiculous.

I'd be willing to bet Devils/Jets lead games more than most teams which warps those numbers a lot. Devils being down the bottom of that list last years just shows that they were an awful team through and through, but this year it's different.

EDIT: MoreHockeyStats.com: Total times of leading/trailing tied for teams per season

To me, comparing that over 5-on-5 CF% will do a good job of telling you who is the real deal 5-on-5. Devils clearly have taken the "score and turtle" approach. Tampa leads half the game yet plays a 50-50 game at even strength which is incredible.

EDIT2: Devils last year only lead for about 15 minutes a game (sixth worst in the NHL), yet posted the third-worst CF%. That's just brutal.
 
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captainscott

Registered User
Nov 5, 2007
8,876
1,414
I think butcher is very similar to greene in the way he uses his body, angles and small movements in the defensive zone.. they are very similar in stature which requires the same type of angling techniques... butcher seems to have better set of hands and passing than greene ... he has been a huge upgrade for this team on the offensive side of the puck.. rarely makes an errant pass on the pp etc... it cannot be underestimated what he has brought.
 
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BenedictGomez

Corsi is GROSSLY overrated
Oct 11, 2007
40,436
7,745
PRNJ
This is why absence of context when discussing stats like this (or any stats for that matter) is ridiculous.

I'd be willing to bet Devils/Jets lead games more than most teams which warps those numbers a lot. Devils being down the bottom of that list last years just shows that they were an awful team through and through, but this year it's different.

There's no nuance there, it's simply not a mathematical predictive stat of NHL team success. Which is all that matters from my standpoint. If you have to codifi a statistic by evaluating 278 "other" statistics around it to try to grab some perspective and "context", then that statistic is devalued to the point of near meaninglessness (Steven Santini is my favorite current example of this for this season BTW).
 
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