GDT: Your New Jersey Devils vs. the New York Islanders - NO SLEEP TILL

[Devils Dominion]

You guys killed me for my preseason observations but I saw a drop in compete level from last season

When the roster has too much non NHL level talent it needs to completely outwork the opponent

 

[HischierSeDgewOrk]

I think steamrolling the first 2 games inflated the guys heads.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Only if you will consider trading Hall

3 team trade with FLA and Rawly

Hall and Cory for

Mrazek, Jacob McDonald, 7th rounder



JK

 

[Ripshot 43]

What we definitely need around here are the “I told you so’ers” that conveniently don’t post when the team is winning.

 

[tr83]

Zacha has been the biggest disappointment for me out of everything to start the season. He starts the season with no points in 10 games, it completely neuters second line scoring, now we have Zajac playing down there and that takes away from the third line scoring.

Zajac has 8 points in 10 games

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

And I don't know what's happened, but this has certainly been a tale of two halves, regarding to first 11 games of this season. Actually, since the 4-0-0 start, things have fallen apart. We beat the Panthers, who almost tied the game from 3-0 in the final minutes, we lost leads in the 3rd period in 3 or 4 different games and lost. We lost a point in the last 3 minutes like two of those times and three of those times if you count the last 6 or 7 minutes like the other night.

Marcus Joansson has never provided the necessary grit and tenacity teams need to win playoff rounds. He was a classic peripheral northern european style player, not saying that they all are. He was never a game changer before his concussion, and certainly doesn't have it now. The Washington Capitals let him go for good reason.

 

[tr83]

It doesn't help that Shero still hasn't addressed the D. Greene is long in the tooth and while Smith is in the system, who is going to take Lovejoy's spot? While Santini and Mueller are nice on paper, they haven't proved jack shit. I'm not convinced their spots are safe

 

[My3Sons]

It doesn't help that Shero still hasn't addressed the D. Greene is long in the tooth and while Smith is in the system, who is going to take Lovejoy's spot? While Santini and Mueller are nice on paper, they haven't proved jack ****. I'm not convinced their spots are safe

Mueller has played against the best players on opposing teams and has done pretty well to the eye test. He has slowly even provided a shot from the point here and there. Hard to see him as anything but safe in his lineup spot. As for Lovejoy’s spot it’s hopefully filled by Greene next season if Smith can drop him out of the lineup. Either that or I can buy the team a traffic cone to place on the ice and I’ll write Lovejoy on it and not even Butcher will be able to notice a difference. Don’t forget there are a number of collegiate defenders who may start making their way up from the NCAA next season as well.

 

[guitarguyvic]

You know I’ve stayed clear of criticizing Shero. Perhaps it was just me giving him some rope or faith or whatever you want to call it. But now really examining this team and and roster after 10 games it’s reasonabke to question his decision making.

I personally didn’t like the Henrique trade from the day it happened. You create a hole in one place to fill one in another. Didn’t make sense to me then, still doesn’t make sense to me now. Especially when the hole you’re creating is at 2C for a team with a supposedly attacking identity. Why would you make this trade while Zacha was still an unproven/unknown commodity? It puts too much pressure on the kid who already wasn’t living up to expectations and now it appears he is busting.

Likewise with the departures from last season. We don’t bring back Gibbons, Maroon, Grabner. Ok understandable in a vacuum, but what was the plan to replace them? Apparently with the way the lineup looks now the only “plan” was to just fill in their spots with AHL plugs. Say what you will about Gibbons and Grabner but they’re probably still a step above anyone of these guys being called up now.

Hybes certainly deserves some blame as well. I don’t think there’s really a whole lot of discipline and structure to his system. I’m wondering if we are like Vegas, where teams look like they’ve figured out how to neutralize our speed and strategy with structure, and it wasn’t that hard to figure out because it really wasn’t all that complicated to begin with.

This team went trough a lot of ups and downs last year and ultimately proved they can win when it mattered at the end of the season, despite all the negative nancies on here who for the better part of the middle 3 months of the season kept insisting it was not a playoff caliber team. But this feels different. 1 win in 7 games where the team doesn’t even look competitive? Almost two lines worth of AHL fodder? This may not really be the same team as last year. And to come full circle with my point, that’s where you have to questions Shero’s performance.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Mueller has been fine. He's the youngest defenseman on the team but he's been far from the worse.

 

[Tundra]

Zajac has 8 points in 10 games

No one is scared of Travis Zajac's offense. He isn't remotely an offensive threat. Opposing coaches aren't discussing how to stop him during pregame strategy sessions. He's a JAG.

 

[Azathoth]

I missed most of the game last night, how did Seney look?

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

I'm a on board with that

I'm talking about picking up a decent vet for a late round pick.

If Castron was our scouting guru since 2010 we would not be so devoid of young NHL ready contributors as we ate now.

I was willing to take the risk that a young forward would take the open spot and that our young forwards would progress and pick up for the expected dip in Hall's goal scoring. Unfortunately it has not yet happened. Hopefully they will progress as the year goes on. The "downside" to that strategy is getting a higher draft pick and hopefully picking up a core piece for the future.

In retrospect I probably agree a low money one or two year FA or trading a 6th round pick or so was a good idea. That would help avoid the temptation of rushing a young player and hurting his development. I am not saying they are doing that, but with the inevitable injuries that occur we could need more callups.

Think long term and IMO things actually look pretty positive this morning.

 

[JimEIV]

How did Seney look? I saw he only played 11 minutes, but was still curious.

 

[devilsblood]

Mueller has been a definite bright spot so far.

He has gone from complete question mark to a guy who has been very capable in a top pairing role.

He plays a pretty quiet game so I think it has gone under the radar a bit, but his play is a big story.

Lots of room for growth there as well, there is offensive potential.

 

[NJDevs26]

The funny thing is if you're a believer in Mueller he's as much a counter to the 'Shero put too much faith in younger players' meme that's developed around here because of Zacha busting, Bratt getting hurt and none of the other younger forwards (Anderson, JQ) yet proving ready for an NHL spot.

 

[JimEIV]

Mueller has been fine. He's the youngest defenseman on the team but he's been far from the worse.

This is true but so misleading...

He's 14 days younger than Santini.

Born: March 7, 1995 (Age: 23-242d)in Bronxville, New York us
Born: March 21, 1995 (Age: 23-228d)in Winterthur, Switzerland ch

2 months younger than Butcher
Born: January 6, 1995 (Age: 23-302d)in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin

He's 7 months younger than Severson
Born: August 7, 1994 (Age: 24-089d)in Melville, Saskatchewan

These 4 are essentially the same age.

Edit:. There are more days since Cory's last regular season win than between all 4 of these players birth dates. More than a100 more.

 

[MauDevils]

How did Seney look? I saw he only played 11 minutes, but was still curious.

He's fast. Had a couple of nice defensive plays. Not much else.

 

[JimEIV]

He's fast. Had a couple of nice defensive plays. Not much else.

Sounds like a good showing for 11 minutes?

 

[Wingman77]

Ben Lovejoy did everything they teach first time defensemen not to do on that first goal.

 

[MauDevils]

Sounds like a good showing for 11 minutes?

Definitely. He deserves a few games and maybe some second wave PP time. Give him an actual chance.

He really is tiny though.

 

[Lou is God]

The biggest surprise in the off-season was when Shero never brought in another defenseman, UFA, Trade, whatever it took I thought for sure he would address this unit. I was pretty bummed when Calvin de Haan signed with Carolina, I thought de Haan would have been a great fit and I was kinda stunned when I heard de Haan was never on Shero's radar. But after he was off the list I thought for sure he had a Plan B or maybe even a Plan A that was better than de Haan....but nope.

And now here we are a month into the season with the realization we're stuck with a defensive corp softer than marshmallows and nothing promising down in Binghamton.

For the first time I will declare that Shero totally shit the bed on something, and this is it. This unit was screaming for an upgrade after last year and it was neglected.

 

[Tundra]

The biggest surprise in the off-season was when Shero never brought in another defenseman, UFA, Trade, whatever it took I thought for sure he would address this unit. I was pretty bummed when Calvin de Haan signed with Carolina, I thought de Haan would have been a great fit and I was kinda stunned when I heard de Haan was never on Shero's radar. But after he was off the list I thought for sure he had a Plan B or maybe even a Plan A that was better than de Haan....but nope.

And now here we are a month into the season with the realization we're stuck with a defensive corp softer than marshmallows and nothing promising down in Binghamton.

For the first time I will declare that Shero totally **** the bed on something, and this is it. This unit was screaming for an upgrade after last year and it was neglected.

Market is scarce though. And Shero wasn't going to throw absurd money at an oft-injured player like de Haan.

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

The funny thing is if you're a believer in Mueller he's as much a counter to the 'Shero put too much faith in younger players' meme that's developed around here because of Zacha busting, Bratt getting hurt and none of the other younger forwards (Anderson, JQ) yet proving ready for an NHL spot.

This.

 

[Call Me Al]

you guys are funny sometimes. teams going through a rough patch, it’s not 2 decades of being doomed.

and just want to give credit to everyone who claimed the team would suck in preseason and is coming back now to collect their praise after a rough 2 week stretch. good work guys!