What should be done?

[NJRockinRoller]

2 & 4

 

[NJRockinRoller]

2 & 4 please

 

[devilsblood]

Agree to disagree about that. I think it's one of the most common reasons for coaches to be fired: brutal stretches of bad play.

but 7 game stretches? Maybe I'm wrong but I doubt there are many instances where a coach, who was looked to have the team going in the right direction prior, is fired after a single 7 game stretch of bad play.

 

[Tretyak 20]

Ride it out. This team is a lot better than they've been playing lately. Let's hope getting called out publicly by the boss lights a fire.

 

[NJDevs26]

but 7 game stretches? Maybe I'm wrong but I doubt there are many instances where a coach, who was looked to have the team going in the right direction prior, is fired after a single 7 game stretch of bad play.

Lou fired coaches for less than that lol

Even seven game losing streaks usually don't have the team being completely noncompetitive for six of the seven games. And it's not like the malaise hasn't lasted longer than the seven games, the team's lost 14 of 17 overall. People talk like this malaise has ONLY started with the last seven games, it's just the effort level's bottomed out over the recent seven games. As Shero noted yesterday the overall slide started with the team blowing the two-goal lead in Anaheim.

 

[devilsblood]

Lou fired coaches for less than that lol

Even seven game losing streaks usually don't have the team being completely noncompetitive for six of the seven games. And it's not like the malaise hasn't lasted longer than the seven games, the team's lost 14 of 17 overall. People talk like this malaise has ONLY started with the last seven games, it's just the effort level's bottomed out over the recent seven games. As Shero noted yesterday it started with the team blowing the two-goal lead in Anaheim.

Look Shero has spoken out. Typically that is the warning shot. I think the vote of confidence means nothing. When a GM speaks out about the team in this manner imo it means that the coach is now on the clock.

 

[NJDevs26]

Look Shero has spoken out. Typically that is the warning shot. I think the vote of confidence means nothing. When a GM speaks out about the team in this manner imo it means that the coach is now on the clock.

Maybe, I actually think the warning clock's on the players in this case. Especially after Shero compared us to expansion teams and specifically mentioned how Lou fired coaches a lot and it wasn't something he believed in.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

but 7 game stretches? Maybe I'm wrong but I doubt there are many instances where a coach, who was looked to have the team going in the right direction prior, is fired after a single 7 game stretch of bad play.

There are plenty of coaches who muster one decent year (and really that's all Hynes did) and then disappoint the following year. The Jack Adams award could probably be a study in that actually. Hynes seems to be a one hit wonder at this point, if you ask me, and the one hit wasn't even that great.

 

[NJDevs26]

There are plenty of coaches who muster one decent year (and really that's all Hynes did) and then disappoint the following year. The Jack Adams award could probably be a study in that actually. Hynes seems to be a one hit wonder at this point, if you ask me, and the one hit wasn't even that great.

Don't get Bleed started on Jack Adams winners lol

I think we also have to remember Shero's dad was an NHL head coach. Maybe he really does see the position as more than disposable Kleenex the way we got used to with Lou.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Don't get Bleed started on Jack Adams winners lol

I think we also have to remember Shero's dad was an NHL head coach. Maybe he really does see the position as more than disposable Kleenex the way we got used to with Lou.

That makes sense, but whether that is a weakness or a strength remains to be seen. Most likely it's both. Hopefully Hynes gets some results to justify Shero's faith soon.

 

[devilsblood]

There are plenty of coaches who muster one decent year (and really that's all Hynes did) and then disappoint the following year. The Jack Adams award could probably be a study in that actually. Hynes seems to be a one hit wonder at this point, if you ask me, and the one hit wasn't even that great.

Did you want Hynes fired 2 weeks ago?

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Did you want Hynes fired 2 weeks ago?

After the St. Louis game on the 9th, I said that if the Rangers game that followed was another blowout, I would consider it as a solution. It caused quite a stir around here when I expressed that view. In that sense, nothing has changed.

 

[Sir Fenwick Corsi]

Ride it out with Hynes, assuming he dumbs the game down a bit for this team so that they can at least look respectable the remainder of the season. I don't care for all his decisions but when it comes down to it, this is not a roster worth saving. Hynes built equity last year and we're nearly half way through this season. I just don't see what is to be gained by bringing in someone now and starting from scratch at this point. It's one really bad stretch of play with a mediocre roster. Gut feeling is that its going backwards for him to be fired. That said, if these blowouts continue, Shero must do something to shake things up. A roster move will be necessary.

 

[Normal Devil]

Ride it out! Too soon to fire Hynes. The ball is now in the players court after the Shero comments. They have been put on notice and those that want to be a part of this thing will show it on the ice. Those that don't will be the ones we ship off at the deadline, offseason, etc. It's time for the players to bring full effort to the table.

 

[tailfins]

Ride it out with Hynes, assuming he dumbs the game down a bit for this team so that they can at least look respectable the remainder of the season. I don't care for all his decisions but when it comes down to it, this is not a roster worth saving. Hynes built equity last year and we're nearly half way through this season. I just don't see what is to be gained by bringing in someone now and starting from scratch at this point. It's one really bad stretch of play with a mediocre roster. Gut feeling is that its going backwards for him to be fired. That said, if these blowouts continue, Shero must do something to shake things up. A roster move will be necessary.

Completely agree.

Btw - to those who want to tank. The Flyers are a good example of a team that hasn't tanked. They've made aggressive moves in the draft, selected well, made a couple of good trades / pick-ups, and are on the upswing.

The key for the Flyers was replacing Holmgren with Hextall in 2014, basically one year before Shero took over for Lou.

Hextall did have Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, and Brayden Schenn. They had no one on D (but did have prospects). They had no goalie.

I don't know if that's a lot different than the Devils in 2015: Greene, Larsson, Severson, Henrique, Zajac, and Schneider.

Here's a good round up of Hextall's tenure from January of this year:
http://www.csnphilly.com/the700level/ron-hextall-setting-flyers-make-monumental-leap

 

[NjDevsRR]

Completely agree.

Btw - to those who want to tank. The Flyers are a good example of a team that hasn't tanked. They've made aggressive moves in the draft, selected well, made a couple of good trades / pick-ups, and are on the upswing.

The key for the Flyers was replacing Holmgren with Hextall in 2014, basically one year before Shero took over for Lou.

Hextall did have Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, and Brayden Schenn. They had no one on D (but did have prospects). They had no goalie.

I don't know if that's a lot different than the Devils in 2015: Greene, Larsson, Severson, Henrique, Zajac, and Schneider.

Here's a good round up of Hextall's tenure from January of this year:
http://www.csnphilly.com/the700level/ron-hextall-setting-flyers-make-monumental-leap

Flyers had an easier "re-tool" because they had a lot of talent. Devils started from scratch.

 

[MNDevilsfan]

If I thought firing Hynes would make some kind of difference I'd be fine with it. I'm not totally sold on what he's trying to do here anyway. But at the moment it feels like it'd be making a move for the sake of making a move. This losing streak is mostly a combination of having one of the worst defenses in the NHL and Cory going through one of the worst stretches of his career. The former is on Shero to fix and the latter will work itself out. If they really believe he's the guy there's just no reason to move on right now.

 

[mtnet]

Ride it out with Hynes, assuming he dumbs the game down a bit for this team so that they can at least look respectable the remainder of the season. I don't care for all his decisions but when it comes down to it, this is not a roster worth saving. Hynes built equity last year and we're nearly half way through this season. I just don't see what is to be gained by bringing in someone now and starting from scratch at this point. It's one really bad stretch of play with a mediocre roster. Gut feeling is that its going backwards for him to be fired. That said, if these blowouts continue, Shero must do something to shake things up. A roster move will be necessary.

Bolded for emphasis. Team looks like they're unable, or after repeated tries unwilling to execute whatever it is they're supposed to be doing out there. To get their heads together and put up any kind of respectable effort moving forward in these next few games I think Hynes absolutely has to get them to simplify the game. Occupy the crease with conviction and at least pretend you know how to initiate and sustain a cycle. I mean this is fundamental stuff, nothing fancy, just simple steps that can make things happen. They look SO disorganized most of the time.

They can't negotiate the neutral zone competently and the positioning is often a mess so they're incapable of mustering clean zone entries. Maybe a handful of times per game but half of those are probably skated in by Hall. Usually they're tossing some bouncy pass cross ice just as they're entering the zone and the opposition sees it coming a mile away so they're already pinching in and pinning anyone taking that pass.

They've been chipping in more, partly out of desperation and partly because a few of our forwards at least try to get our forecheck going. They lack the size and talent for that in most instances though. I feel they've gotten a little better lately with possession behind the goal line and puck battles in the corners (except for Cam who gets knocked off pucks by a slight breeze) but they're consistently awful at creating any kind of space so they're limited to the perimeter or sending weak shots in from the blue line until they finally cough up the puck. By then they're so gassed from a wasted effort that the opposition easily creates odd man rushes against us. And since Schneider couldn't even stop a zeppelin from entering the net these days we get blown out again.

They need to work on passing too. It's so willy nilly at times that it's very frustrating to watch them burn minutes just turning the puck over with panicked passes when they should be slowing things down and maintaining possession. Which leads to turnovers or getting pinned again. It's like in football where you see a receiver make the dumbest of errors...he bobbles and drops the ball because he's trying to get a step on someone and take off running before he's even got control of the reception. That's the Devils trying to get up the ice.

On the flip side of that, when in striking range they need to shoot more and for goodness sake get it ON NET (I'm looking at YOU Palmieri). I mean if you're going to turn it over like wusses anyway at least get a quick shot or two on net. Cam's accuracy has gone down the tubes too. He's not always one to take a ton of shots but when he does they usually had a good chance of going in because he's deadly accurate. Not anymore though as it seems his sniping ability is out to lunch and because we're bad at creating space he's challenged with just maintaining possession when he should be pulling the trigger. Anymore he's just getting manhandled the entire game.

 

[Zippy316]

Nothing.

If a trade that makes sense comes along you take it, but the overreaction on here is ridiculous.

The 9-3-3 start created some foolish expectations for a season that was going to be a grind. We were a bubble team and still are in that same pack. Only difference is this year the playoff teams separated themselves from the bubble and which coincided with an awful stretch by the Devils.

Get back to playing the way we were playing, with an identity. We're going to have to be patient to let the prospects we have from 2014 onwards, our main prospects, develop. In the meantime, look to improve the defense and add quality depth and complimentary players. That should be the focus right now rather than tear down what little structure we have already.

 

[Hellraiser]

Ride it out. If this continues sit Rico for JQ, Fiddler for Coleman, someone for Santini and also someone for Blender. If this team isn't going anywhere then I want the kids to get an extended look maybe not for the rest of the season but for a good chunk of it. Hynes isn't the problem. I was at the last game against Nashville and it was embarrassing seeing the defense cough up the puck most of the time by not making a pass quick enough or just making a dumb pass. Everyone as a whole was just making bad passes and couldn't get the puck up the ice they really looked like peewees out there. Hopefully Shero's words got into their heads and this turns around, but if not I'd like to see our younger players get a shot

 

[NJDevils#4]

Besides Schneider and Hall, all of those mentioned are secondary players on good teams. That's how little talent is here.

Amen. Trade them all I say. I'd keep Zacha because his value isn't high enough yet, but otherwise the rest of this team are mostly 3rd liners on a championship caliber team in all honesty.

 

[John Pedro]

Nothing.

If a trade that makes sense comes along you take it, but the overreaction on here is ridiculous.

The 9-3-3 start created some foolish expectations for a season that was going to be a grind. We were a bubble team and still are in that same pack. Only difference is this year the playoff teams separated themselves from the bubble and which coincided with an awful stretch by the Devils.

Get back to playing the way we were playing, with an identity. We're going to have to be patient to let the prospects we have from 2014 onwards, our main prospects, develop. In the meantime, look to improve the defense and add quality depth and complimentary players. That should be the focus right now rather than tear down what little structure we have already.

Even if all our prospects pan out we aren't going to catch up Capitals, Rangers, Flyers, Jackets and Pens in the near future. What's the point? at best this could become a wild card team... I'd much rather start again, try and build it the right way, in order to build a cup contender instead of a playoff pretender.

Devils need a proper rebuild instead of this BS re-tool they're trying to do. It has been 4 years of this crap. They aren't challenging for playoffs while missing out on blue-chip/game-changers prospects like Matthews, Laine, Marner, McDavid...

The attendance drops year after year as this team can't have any success (playoffs) and neither does have any exciting players (sans Hall) to cheer about.

 

[Tundra]

Even if all our prospects pan out we aren't going to catch up Capitals, Rangers, Flyers, Jackets and Pens in the near future. What's the point? at best this could become a wild card team... I'd much rather start again, try and build it the right way, in order to build a cup contender instead of a playoff pretender.

Devils need a proper rebuild instead of this BS re-tool they're trying to do. It has been 4 years of this crap. They aren't challenging for playoffs while missing out on blue-chip/game-changers prospects like Matthews, Laine, Marner, McDavid...

The attendance drops year after year as this team can't have any success (playoffs) and neither does have any exciting players (sans Hall) to cheer about.

Most of the shrill voices about a quick retool seem to be the STHs and I understand where they are coming from. But they are asking for fool's gold IMHO.

 

[Brick City]

The problem of course is Schneider himself cost us a few lottery picks the last couple seasons. Not a fan of tanking but this not quite good enough / not quite bad enough futility is setting the franchise back years.

 

[tailfins]

Completely disagree with the "total rebuild" aka tank.

Tanking guarantees nothing. Edmonton just traded two #1OA picks and ended up with a nice defenseman and an ECHL player.

The team needs to pay attention to how they play. I don't really care if they win, as long as they play with purpose and with pride. And, each time they play, I'm hoping they win.

That said, I don't think they should prioritize winning over development, though. So, if winning meant playing Quincey while Severson sat in the pressbox, I wouldn't do it. That's only happened with Boucher, though. He got pressboxed while DSP and Kalinin played.