GDT: We're Here: Your New Jersey Devils @ Philadelphia Flyers, 7 PM, ESPN+/Hulu

[Triumph]

Bratt's ice time was so low for many reasons, detailed in this short thread by CJ Turturo:

 

[Devils090]

The Flyers PP last night was more effective at entering the zone and zipping the puck around than the Devils.

Their best guys are Hayes and Konecny.

LOL just crazy shit.

I swear our guys just freeze when they get a PP, they have no idea how to use the extra space

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

But you're ignoring that the Devils allow severely uncontested shots and chances regularly, that the HD analytics seems to be missing. I've given two examples of this now, within the game against the flyers as well as comparing it to the Buffalo-Ottawa game. The eye test over the last couple of years suggests this is what's been happening.

Obviously the goaltending needs to be improved...but consistently giving opposition shooters huge amounts of time and space in the circles and front of the net (among a number of other deficiencies in our own zone) will land us in the basement again.

I do think it’s true that HD chances don’t accurately tell the story or even close to it. That’s more of a meta-point. Philly did very little for the most part. A few chances here and there. Certainly a lighter load than should be expected against a decent team.

My main issue with the game outside of net was more with how the offense didn’t create nearly enough.

 

[britdevil]

I swear our guys just freeze when they get a PP, they have no idea how to use the extra space

It’s going to take a while to sweat out the Recchi funk tbf…..

Amanda is so f**king annoying. Just a positive mouthpiece for the team.

Was pumping up Blackwood last night after he let in the first softie too.

Baghdad Amanda right on cue.

 

[guitarguyvic]

It’s going to take a while to sweat out the Recchi funk tbf…..



Baghdad Amanda right on cue.

I've got no more patience for this shit. I'm sure we will be subjected to the usual propaganda on MSG as well.

Novo is who we will need to rely on and support going forward. He had no qualms asking the uncomfortable questions to Ruff last night, and his objective assessment of the game was refreshing. Guy is top notch. Doesn't work for the team too...so they can't force him to put on a front.

 

[Camille the Eel]

I do think it’s true that HD chances don’t accurately tell the story or even close to it. That’s more of a meta-point. Philly did very little for the most part. A few chances here and there. Certainly a lighter load than should be expected against a decent team.

My main issue with the game outside of net was more with how the offense didn’t create nearly enough.

From the opening shifts when their guy nearly concussed Smith with that boarding, I thought they were playing with a higher level of intensity and commitment and physicality than we had seen in the preseason. And I didn’t think we were up to it. We looked surprised. We were sluggish and off, just a bit slow getting to pucks and chances, pucks hopping over sticks, defense missing assignments. Missing the net with grade A looks. Etc. Etc.

Cobwebs. This is the real season guys and the games often go to the club that plays harder and stronger. You don’t get points for style. Our club should take this as a wake up alarm and react accordingly.

That includes the coaching.

 

[HBK27]

How do I turn off the live updates in these threads?

Gave it a shot, but not of fan of the feature.

 

[Bleedred]

I would “plus infinity” on the gross coaching decisions.

1) What was the purpose of putting in PP and line practice with Nico if he wasn’t 100.

IF Nico is hurting would/should he be playing that much anyways?! It seems, it was to garner a bigger ratings boost. There were like three or four articles about Nico’s return.

2) VTech out played Mac Black 7 periods to 1. Yet, Blackwood gets the start!?

3) Bahl has out played Smith in every way imaginable, his paring with Marino looked to be one of the best in Preseason, but he was benched game 1. Smith was a minus 2 and his transition play was terrible.

3) Why did the Devils play the whole preseason with the same lines, only to have them completely scrambled game 1. Ruff’s Nico excuse is funny since Nico played 1 shift in the preseason.

3. Blackwood’s rebound control, positioning and on ice awareness is abysmal. (You can complain about gaps, but the players were legally engaged with Philly players. Whoever posted photos of Philly’s gap control, was just a gallery of missed hooking calls.)

• Goal 1 bad rebound, also defensive breakdown.

• Goal 2, MB was caught napping, he went down into a split out of pure desperation. Bad transition up the ice.

. Goal 3 @Bleedred: there is little to no treat behind the net on the boards. MB is cheating, by covering for a wrap around. If he was 1) Standing and 2) Checking for Flyers in actual scoring positions, that is a save. The Devils player coming back takes away any deke, and the Flyers player was alone, therefore there is no chance of passing. Having a ounce of hockey IQ would do a world of good for MB.

• Goal 4, is on the PK and Miles. Who takes a penalty on a rush. Can someone please box out the screen. My one issues with MB on this goal. He gets small and goes down early again. It’s his default move if he isn’t sure where the puck is. Take a look at goal two.

The Devils are a skilled team, but with subjective reffing, gritty/blue collar teams will rough up the Devils. If the Devils can’t match hustle and toughness, their PP will need to be much better. They will get PP time but it’s not a treat to opposing teams.

I can't nail him on goal 3, as it's one timed (I think it was a one timer, wasn't it?) and it was from a fairly close range and it didn't go through him or anything.

I thought goal 4 was worse. Who is he screened by? A guy standing in front of his left leg? If he's screened by that then that's the goalie's fault for letting that screen him. He either needs to get a new optical plan or maybe he needs to get a new pair of eyes. Or he just needs to f***ing quit the position and try something else.

The fact of the matter is that this organization cannot get up there and tell us ''Why wait?'' or ''Now is our time'' while waiting for this colostomy bag of a goaltender to ''Find his game''. They're either bullshitting us or they're STUPID. And we all know NHL front offices and general managers are f***ing stupid.

We are DONE with ''Needing to see what we have in Blackwood'' or ''Evaluating Blackwood and what we have in him and finding out who he really is''.

No, the f*** we need to see what we have in him. NOW we need to see WHAT WE HAVE IN THE f***ING GOALIE THAT'S SIGNED FOR THIS YEAR AND THE TWO AFTER THAT AT ALMOST $3.5 MILLION PER!

There's TWO people we really need to see what we have in MORE THAN ANYBODY ELSE IN THE f***ING ORGANIZATION.

Those two people are Vitek Vanecek and Andrew Brunette.

f*** Blackwood. His last 13 starts are approaching Cory Schneider's 17 out of 19 starts where he allowed more than 2 goals. And even in between that, Cory Schneider managed to start THREE playoff games, where he allowed only 2 goals in each game and even won a game. Can't say that for Blackwood. You might need to use his preseason games to prop him up there and even then there's not a whole lot.

Of all the players we bitch about around here (I do it too) and over the years. When you have a goalie playing like Blackwood it's a much bigger insult and disgrace and MUCH LARGER DETRIMENT TO THE TEAM than throwing Rod Pelley or Mason Geertsen out there.

 

[Bleedred]

Graves is probably the worst dman on the team.

A shot being “uncontested” doesn’t necessarily make it more dangerous, especially when the goalie has zero ability to track a puck through traffic. This clown got beat by a weak wrister from the blue line and was saved by the pipe too. Traffic, no traffic, contested, uncontested…he stinks.

Blackwood's last 13 regular season games are almost definitely even worse than Jon Gillies last 13 regular season games.

Now, some people will say ''That's because the team sucks and every goalie here is gonna suck'', but I look at that as Jon Gillies is a career minor league, below replacement NHL level goalie. Of course he's going to suck in the NHL and when playing NHL competition.

Anddddddd I knew it. Gillies last 13 games (some of which were relief appearances) in the NHL he was an .875%. Blackwood's last 13 regular season games is an .864%. That's right up there with Schneider's worst string of regular season games here (which did have a VERY STRONG 3 playoff starts and 1 relief appearance right in the middle that would have raised those numbers) in the decline years.

I remember looking this up a while ago, but I think the only time Marty Brodeur had a 13 game stretch like this was during the MacLOSER error and into the first few games he got after Lemaire came back, all the way back in December of 2010.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Maybe Ruff should have called our locker room out after a 63-point season, just saying

Ruff would've lost that locker room (if he hasn't already lol) at that second because of him solely being one of the reasons for those leans years. Easier for a newer coach to do that like Torts + his track record with turning around shitty teams.

 

[Killing Joke]

I'm highly annoyed that after successful trialling Holtz with Hughes over the preseason. The chemistry they started to develop together, that it was abandoned a few days before season opener.

That's bullshit. A reporter should of asked that question of Ruff.

Who knows if Holtz was on that line he could of buried one or both of Mercer chances provided by Hughes.

Someone did ask if they thought the out of no where line changes and no chemistry had something to do with last night

 

[Maine Fan]

Bleedred, it is going to be a long season if all we do is point out the shortcoming of Blackwood. We sure are not convincing ourselves that Blackwood is awful as our goalie. Some Devils fans will always accept that things are great in Devils' land or ICE(very few 2 or 3.) Other Devils fans don't know better (like 1 or 2.) Then there is the rest of the Devils' fans (30,000+) that can't believe that we started Blackwood after the bad preseason he had and again that the coaches mismanaged the ice time of the good players. It is the owners that are to blame.

Can I get 100% of all Devils' fans to agree that goal #5 against, WAS NOT Blackwood's fault? Please agree, it was an Empty Net GA. Blackwood was on the bench.

Looking forward to Vitek Vanecek in net against the Red Wings. At least we will have something positive to post about.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Bleedred, it is going to be a long season if all we do is point out the shortcoming of Blackwood. We sure are not convincing ourselves that Blackwood is awful as our goalie. Some Devils fans will always accept that things are great in Devils' land or ICE(very few 2 or 3.) Other Devils fans don't know better (like 1 or 2.) Then there is the rest of the Devils' fans (30,000+) that can't believe that we started Blackwood after the bad preseason he had and again that the coaches mismanaged the ice time of the good players. It is the owners that are to blame.

Can I get 100% of all Devils' fans to agree that goal #5 against, WAS NOT Blackwood's fault? Please agree, it was an Empty Net GA. Blackwood was on the bench.

Looking forward to Vitek Vanecek in net against the Red Wings. At least we will have something positive to post about.

Can we even be sure they'll start him at this point? LOL

I'm trying to summon some kind of rationale for believing this entire clown fest over the last 48 hours is an outlier and the rest of the season is going to be more positive...but what would that be based on? Not the recent past that's for sure.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

If we are going to be a wildcard team than we are going to lose a good amount of games...

 

[Nubmer6]

Can I get 100% of all Devils' fans to agree that goal #5 against, WAS NOT Blackwood's fault? Please agree, it was an Empty Net GA. Blackwood was on the bench.

Goal #5 was Blackwood's fault because he gave up goals 1, 2, 3, and 4

 

[billingtons ghost]

But the metric is the same across games. Even if you don’t agree with where they set the bar, the method of comparison is still valid

• Scoring Chances - a scoring chance, as originally defined by War-on-Ice.
• Each shot attempt (Corsi) taken in the offensive zone is assigned a value based on the area of the zone in which it was recorded. Attempts made from the attacking team's neutral or defensive zones are excluded.
  
  
  
  
  
  Attempts from the yellow areas are assigned a value of 1, attempts from the red areas are assigned a value of 2, and attempts in the green area are assigned a value of 3.
  Add 1 to this value if the attempt is considered a rush shot or a rebound. A rebound is any attempt made within 3 seconds of another blocked, missed or saved attempt without a stoppage in play in between. A rush shot is any attempt within 4 seconds of any event in the neutral or defensive zone without a stoppage in play in between (originally defined by David Johnson on the now-offline Hockey Analysis, and modified to 4 seconds by War-on-Ice).
  Decrease this value by 1 if it was a blocked shot.
  Any attempt with a score of 2 or higher is considered a scoring chance.
  • SCF - Count of Scoring Chances for the selected team while that combination of players is on the ice.
  • SCA - Count of Scoring Chances against the selected team while that combination of players is on the ice.
  • SCF% - Percentage of total Scoring Chances while that combination of players is on the ice that are for the selected team. SCF*100/(SCF+SCA)

High Danger is a 3 or above.


As you can see, it's really a ridiculously overly simple garbage stat. Doesn't include angle of inclination, where the shot is targeted, velocity, release or much of the situation.

It's another quantity to count and it's name promises a whole lot more than actually it delivers as far as really representing quality shots.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Nahh. I got up at 6:00 this morning and went for a 3 mile hike...I have rockstar blood

Sorry about your gig, Jim. More time for hiking and hunting. It's actually great being job-free for a time.

 

[glenwo2]

Did you watch the game? Because Bratt was terrible when he was on the ice, and he wasn't on the ice much. In fact anyone named Jesper was frigging invisible the whole night. Hughes was a step off his game and didn't generate anything.

Marino was terrific except on one of the big defensive breakdowns.

Overall the whole team stuck and Blackwood was pretty awful.

You forgot the sarcasm emoji 'cause I refuse to believe you actually believe that.

 

[glenwo2]

If they want to be game changers, they should be better in first two periods. Bratt was very invinsible. He made assists on Holtz, but that goal was on Holtz and on Hart. Bratt starteed to play in third period and it benefits. But for "game-changing" it was too late.
Hughes trying a lot, didn`t find his luck, did made some mistakes, sometimes trying to make best movement and everybody understand what he was actually was trying to do.
I would say we should pull away game changing duties from Bratt, and if he can just create goal chances for himself and for his partners once or twice, it`s enough. He is what he is - very good driver. Other players should doing their job too. Sharangovich was invisible in the first half. Started to play but lost two of his opportunities. He helped with second goal pretty much. But it was done.
Defects here and there, missing opportunities, goalkeeper didn`t keep us, game was lost. Hart kept flyers, they used their opportunities. May be they were not better possession team, but everybody should understand clearly why they won.

You can't be serious with that comment.

Even Ray "Bratt did nothing" Ferraro commented that was a great PASS to Holtz for the goal, even if the goal was a softy on Hart.

He doesn't make the pass, he gets stopped there and the puck turned over going the other way.

 

[Guadana]

You can't be serious with that comment.

Even Ray "Bratt did nothing" Ferraro commented that was a great PASS to Holtz for the goal, even if the goal was a softy on Hart.

He doesn't make the pass, he gets stopped there and the puck turned over going the other way.

Man. Please. Cmon. This goal on Hart. Even with Bratt good pass. That were not a great two periods. As we try to act like he should be the best player in nhl, if you know what I mean. And he played good third period. I think its pretty OK game from him. But when we name things by their names, it doesn't make anything worser. You don't need to defend if someone doesn't call him perfect.

 

[ninetyeight]

Can anyone remember the pp line combinations and roles? Am I crazy to think the positions make no sense? Wasn't Jack playing the left qb slot? But since he's a left shot he can't onetime as easily. That also means Holtz as a right hand shot can't onetime from the other side (Sharangovich could). Also was Palat used as a net front guy in tampa (in one of the league's best pp) and in a shooting role now.

I would switch Hughes and Hamilton and have Holtz in the left side with Hamilton, so there's two onetimer options for Hughes. Palat front of the net and Hischier/Mercer/Haula/Bratt in the right side with Hughes.

Holtz (R) Palat (L) Hischier (L)
Hamilton (R) Hughes (L)

 

[The Devil In I]

Can anyone remember the pp line combinations and roles? Am I crazy to think the positions make no sense? Wasn't Jack playing the left qb slot? But since he's a left shot he can't onetime as easily. That also means Holtz as a right hand shot can't onetime from the other side (Sharangovich could). Also was Palat used as a net front guy in tampa (in one of the league's best pp) and in a shooting role now.

I would switch Hughes and Hamilton and have Holtz in the left side with Hamilton, so there's two onetimer options for Hughes. Palat front of the net and Hischier/Mercer/Haula/Bratt in the right side with Hughes.

Holtz (R) Palat (L) Hischier (L)
Hamilton (R) Hughes (L)

Yea I don't like Hughes on the left side, but I think it's what he prefers. Hamilton at the top/right side and Hughes moves up and down the left side between the blueline and the faceoff dot. He seems to like getting the puck up high while skating down the wing and having the option of passing or shooting.

Doesn't seem to be the best PP set up.

 

[glenwo2]

lol

I would've answered : "You tell me."

 

[glenwo2]

He’s getting squashed in the comments. Good on Novo.

One of the comments had a nice meme :

 

[Omar Little]

We need two righties on the PP. I don’t care who they are