GDT: Your New Jersey Devils (10-9-5) vs. Nashville Predators (15-10-1), 7:30 PM, ESPN+/Hulu

[captainscott]

Wood has shown more as a winger than Rango, Kuok, and Tatar. He is missed

No doubt wood is a loss. He has a unique skill set and would help the team but it’s just one one guy most teams are dealing w a few injuries. Agree w you though

 

[ninetyeight]

Not gonna lie, it's pretty funny seeing Hynes embarrass this team a game after game. Considering he was suppose to be the worst nhl coach in the league..

Also I thought Saros was suppose to rest this game, I knew he'd steal the game from us when I saw he was playing.

The powerplay is still absolutely terrible, I just don't get why anyone isn't doing anything. Either you completely change your pp strategy and/or line combinations or fire Recchi and get someone who will. Unless they are trying to lose on purpose.

Other than that they played pretty well, they just can't score goals. We got bunch of good skaters and playmakers, decent grinders and decent hockey iq and puck movement all around. But zero guys who can actually put the puck where you're suppose to consistently. Zacha is our best shooter atm and he is lightyears away from the likes of Ovi, Matthews, Draisaitl, Debrincat.. Or even someone like Forsberg.

Right now it seems like we'll end up losing 95% of the games against good teams and win (or get points) about 75% games from bad teams. Which puts us somewhere between 10-15th last in the league. Miss the playoffs by few teams and get to roll the dice with our draft pick.

 

[Billdo]

5 out of 6 points this week against Ottawa, Philly, and the Isles wouldn't be too bad. Wouldn't be great as they really shouldn't have dropped that extra point to Ottawa, but it's not bad.

Isles will be desperate to finally win at home so we can't be sleeping, but it's a still a game we should be getting something out of, if not outright winning.

Lot depends on how Schimd looks.

This team has shown us nothing to look at any game thinking we should win. Other teams look at us and do that.

 

[Call Me Al]

can definitely see us being the first loss to the islanders in their new arena. do they make changes then?

i understand the process aspect of it but at least be f***ing hard to play against. team just tries to beat other teams with finesse and we have 2 players who are actually capable of that

 

[Call Me Al]

we have a power play unit with 2 first overall picks and 4 top ten picks and it can’t even generate a shot on goal never mind an actual scoring chance

 

[JrFischer54]

need a legit nhl scoring top line winger don't need to hear about this guy or that guy with the fancy advanced analytics and zone entries and all that stupid shit. this team needs skill and it needs someone to that can shoot and score.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

I was driving home listening to the first period and said to myself, “wish both Pavs and Rango score this game”. But I didn’t mean it in a loss!

Stupid monkey paw.

 

[glenwo2]

need a legit nhl scoring top line winger don't need to hear about this guy or that guy with the fancy advanced analytics and zone entries and all that stupid shit. this team needs skill and it needs someone to that can shoot and score.

We also need to get rid of Mark Recchi.

 

[NJDevs26]

I'm beyond blaming Recchi for the stupid power play, Masiak said the whole coaching staff and even management has input on it, so clearly everyone deserves the blame for this fiasco. Enough with this stupid collaboration, management in sports want to be democracies now but sometimes you need to be an autocracy with a sports team.

 

[Call Me Al]

yes if this is the end result of a group of very smart people pouring all their brilliant power play ideas into one product then the entire process needs to be reevaluated. it’s not working. how long are they going to keep trying this???

there’s enough talent to run a league-average power play at worst. to have a power play this bad two years in a row and still have them look like they did last night is a joke and an embarrassment and keeping it like this is an indictment on the coaching staff and maybe even management

 

[Billdo]

I have a feeling this coaching staff isn't getting gassed until after the season.

 

[Triumph]

yes if this is the end result of a group of very smart people pouring all their brilliant power play ideas into one product then the entire process needs to be reevaluated. it’s not working. how long are they going to keep trying this???

there’s enough talent to run a league-average power play at worst. to have a power play this bad two years in a row and still have them look like they did last night is a joke and an embarrassment and keeping it like this is an indictment on the coaching staff and maybe even management

I don't agree with this. Where is the talent to run this power play? Nico's good in front but you don't want him there, he takes a beating. Hughes is a great passer 5v5 but who says that translates to the power play? Ditto Bratt. Zacha can shoot but his passing skills aren't quite there. Hamilton's a very solid defenseman option, but otherwise I am not seeing the tools for an above-average power play.

The power play is fundamentally different in almost all respects from 5v5. The way a team enters the zone, the set up, the generation of shots. Mind you, the Devils should be better than what they are now, there's too little movement; the Devils players don't have the skill for simple rotations to work. But just throwing a bunch of good 5v5 players on the PP, especially young players, and assuming they should be a good power play - there's a lot more to it than that.

 

[Patrik26]

I'm beyond blaming Recchi for the stupid power play, Masiak said the whole coaching staff and even management has input on it, so clearly everyone deserves the blame for this fiasco. Enough with this stupid collaboration, management in sports want to be democracies now but sometimes you need to be an autocracy with a sports team.

Collaborative input and analytics-driven decisions. What's missing is the input from EA Sports NHL 21 as a reference to build a competitive roster. Oh, and screw the mindset of the players. What could that possibly have to do with performance?

 

[Call Me Al]

I don't agree with this. Where is the talent to run this power play? Nico's good in front but you don't want him there, he takes a beating. Hughes is a great passer 5v5 but who says that translates to the power play? Ditto Bratt. Zacha can shoot but his passing skills aren't quite there. Hamilton's a very solid defenseman option, but otherwise I am not seeing the tools for an above-average power play.

The power play is fundamentally different in almost all respects from 5v5. The way a team enters the zone, the set up, the generation of shots. Mind you, the Devils should be better than what they are now, there's too little movement; the Devils players don't have the skill for simple rotations to work. But just throwing a bunch of good 5v5 players on the PP, especially young players, and assuming they should be a good power play - there's a lot more to it than that.

they absolutely have the skill for simple rotations to work. bratt and hughes and nico can all play the down low bumper. nico or zacha can play net front. hamilton and zacha can be shooters. any of them can beat a goalie with a wrist shot if the puck is moved and they get opponents out of position

they all have to the talent to make quick passes, skate routes and read plays. they are not being coached to do any of those things for some reason

 

[Call Me Al]

if you’re saying they’re running the power play that they currently are because it’s the only/best thing we can do with this group then i emphatically disagree

 

[MadDevil]

I have a feeling this coaching staff isn't getting gassed until after the season.

Probably. Partly because I'm not sure who they'd replace them with if they did clean house in season. I'm sure somebody will bring up Torts again, but I want no part of him. Babcock is an asshole I want nowhere near our kids. The rest of the retreads out there probably aren't much better than our current retread.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Is Gronberg still a thing?

The PP really sunk us early as, despite not getting great chances, we were definitely carrying play. Once again the PP sucked all the momentum out of the team.

I also noticed early in the game they were crisply zipping the puck around. After the PPs, it went back to the garbage passing and garbage pass receptions we are so used to. Something just has to give with the PP.

It also seems like we have 2 speeds: average NHL offense with horrible NHL defense or average NHL defense with bad NHL offense. One is always at the expense of the other. This turtle hockey really hurts the offense that needs huge shot quantities to score at an average NHL rate.

 

[RNCDevil]

It's not 100% coaching, obviously, but I do think the players need more blame than we give them. Last night, look at some of the passing--particularly on the third PP. Pucks were rolling of sticks or in sub-par positions to make the next play. Also, players (like Severson) were holding the pucks way to long and allowing the PK to reset or pressure the puck handler. A bunch of this is on the players.

 

[Billdo]

Probably. Partly because I'm not sure who they'd replace them with if they did clean house in season. I'm sure somebody will bring up Torts again, but I want no part of him. Babcock is an asshole I want nowhere near our kids. The rest of the retreads out there probably aren't much better than our current retread.

Yeah, Torts would Nico who is already made of balsa wood, laying down to block shots and he'd be hurt within 5 games. I really wish they'd think outside of the box. Perhaps way outside of the box. Perhaps even on a different continent. Perhaps from a country started with an S and ending with an eden. A man with a strong beard. A man with a history of winning.

 

[Billdo]

Is Gronberg still a thing?

See above post lol.

 

[McDuffz88]

I'm personally not opposed to Torts. One thing you know for a fact when you get him is your getting a system from the 5v5 to the PP. I also don't agree with managements collaboration approach with the coaches. Torts I don't think would put up with that crap nor allow horrible decisions to come from other people. He doesn't have that doormat personality. He's not the type to allow others to influence his decisions & that might be exactly what's needed right now. More then ever this team needs to implement a real system. If we could get our PP going that alone would take us from a bubble team to a playoff one. Yeah he might be strict on the young guys but our kids are growing up fast & we don't got many veterans. Lindy was supposed to be a bridge coach to help the young guys learn, then after Lindy I would assume the move is bring in a real coach with structure to allow for the next step.

 

[jkrdevil]

See above post lol.

I don’t want any coach coming from big ice hockey. It is fundamentally a different sport with the wider rink.

 

[guitarguyvic]

So now a coach from Sweden who has not coached a single game at the NHL level ever is going to come in and be a savior for a struggling team that is the youngest in the NHL…

surethingJan.gif

Watching this power play and guys literally just holding onto the puck for eons as they PKers start surrounding them…it’s hard to envision that as something the coaching staff actually tells them to do. Who’s to say these guys just aren’t executing what they’re being coached on?

 

[FinnishDevil]

I don’t want any coach coming from big ice hockey. It is fundamentally a different sport with the wider rink.

I wonder if he'd have any interest coaching the Comets if Dineen was brought up to the big club. Takes time to learn NA hockey and ice for sure.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

I wonder if he'd have any interest coaching the Comets if Dineen was brought up to the big club. Takes time to learn NA hockey and ice for sure.

I feel like this would be an ideal situation.