Post-Game Talk: Another day, another Devils loss (NJ gets blanked by EDM 4-0)

[Blender]

The amount is less important than the term with Hall...I wouldn't want to give him more than 5 years.

Yea Hall is not going to age well, can't see him being a top player still at 32 let alone 35.

 

[JimEIV]

Yea Hall is not going to age well, can't see him being a top player still at 32 let alone 35.

That's my thought exactly.

 

[My3Sons]

Make a list of the best players on the team. Start with Hall if you wish or not if you presume he’s just waiting for a trade at this point. Who’s next? Vats? Palms? Then who? Hughes maybe then Nico? The team should be led by veterans. The best players should be experienced and been there don’t that. On this team the vets outside Hall aren’t good enough. Subban is just not the player we’d hoped he’d be. Palms is a nice complementary player but shouldn’t be a guy you need to be a best player. Zajac Coleman try but they just aren’t creating any offense after a decent start. If Greene is the teams best defender what does that tell you?
MBW is inconsistent which given his age and experience level isn’t surprising. Cory is a mess whether he’s lost his ability or he’s just super fragile it is irrelevant at this point.

I thought if they got average goaltending they’d be in the playoff hunt. I was wrong and looking at this roster it’s just flawed. The best players outside of Hall are children. Literally I have children the same age as Zacha MBW and Hughes. Trust me they are children despite being pro hockey players. That’s a very big burden to place on children.

Thr lack of high end veteran talent is compounded by the lack of veteran leadership. Maybe Coleman could lead but something seems odd like no one wants to lead. Which brings up the obvious.

the coaching is out of ideas. Platitudes aren’t working and neither is shuffling the lineup. That’s all they have. It’s hard to see a player sticking his neck out to rally players when they know they have a bad staff. Greene gives meh answers and looks like he’s trying but he’s old and coming to grips with maybe having to take a one year deal at veteran minimum next year to stay in the league.

what an awful environment it must be for the young players.

I understand trying to sign Hall but if that isn’t working out soon he’s got to go and then plan on trading expiring contacts at the TDL and hope a good coach is available in the offseason. It’s such a shame the expectations this team had. Shero tried to go from zero to sixty and just dumped the clutch and the car stalled. He force fed guys that didn’t mesh and built a sort of Frankenstein team of mismatched parts. I guess the naysayers who identified the ugly parts of the roster were right and they didn’t even account for the bad coaching or lack of leadership.

 

[ScottyK]

Is anyone other than Gusev ever going to be held accountable ( kinda sarcastic but not really, mostly talking about the staff/front office )

 

[JimEIV]

How do you hold players accountable when there is literally nothing behind them? Replace with what? Bench someone in-game? And make the other losers pick up the slack when they can't do their current work load?

 

[Emperoreddy]

Bing coach was interviewed by Matt during one of the intermissions.

Talked up the improvements by Anderson, Bastian, and McLeod.

Was really high on Big Z and Malstiev

 

[Emperoreddy]

They need a coach to be a bit of a hard ass on them in practice after bad performances.

When the coach is telling them it was a good effort, they buy it, and guys check out

 

[Blackjack]

Bing coach was interviewed by Matt during one of the intermissions.

Talked up the improvements by Anderson, Bastian, and McLeod.

Was really high on Big Z and Malstiev

Who?

 

[Emperoreddy]

Who?

The Fab. Zetterlund.

 

[Blackjack]

They need a coach to be a bit of a hard ass on them in practice after bad performances.

When the coach is telling them it was a good effort, they buy it, and guys check out

I really disagree with that. This team is broken, someone screaming at them isn't going to help.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I really disagree with that. This team is broken, someone screaming at them isn't going to help.

Part of what is broken is the coach telling them this was a good performance.

They parrot Hynes talking points. They say exactly what he says in his pressers.

 

[JimEIV]

They need a coach to be a bit of a hard ass on them in practice after bad performances.

When the coach is telling them it was a good effort, they buy it, and guys check out

You can only be a hardass if you explain exactly what someone did wrong in an unambiguous way. Otherwise you lose the team.

I don't think these players are getting that level of direction...I think coaches like Hynes or Herb Brooks don't really diagram what the expectation is, they work with basic game plans and preach effort...where as a guy like Lemaire will tell players exactly where they should be down to the distance from the boards to the dot and if you are not there often enough he'll find someone who will be. That rigidity doesn't work for fast attacking types.

So Hynes or Brooks being a hardass just means a harder skate like the infamous lights out Herb Brooks practice.

 

[Blackjack]

I thought if they got average goaltending they’d be in the playoff hunt. I was wrong and looking at this roster it’s just flawed. The best players outside of Hall are children. Literally I have children the same age as Zacha MBW and Hughes. Trust me they are children despite being pro hockey players. That’s a very big burden to place on children.

If we had gotten average goaltending, we'd be in the playoff hunt. He have gotten historically bad goaltending.

 

[JimEIV]

If we had gotten average goaltending, we'd be in the playoff hunt. He have gotten historically bad goaltending.

I don't think so...I am too lazy to do the math but we are a -20 goal differential.

The only team currently with a negative goal differential in a playoff spot is Florida with a -1

Then you have

.9 Montreal is +6
.10 Philly is +2
.11 Tampa is -2
.12 NYR is +1

These teams are still in the hunt.

To be comparable to those teams in goal differential we would need to have given up a minimum of 18 fewer goals. I don't think league average goaltending is getting you there...but like I said I'm too lazy to do the math...but I do know coming into tonight Winnipeg was 16th in team SV% with .907 and we were 30th with .872. does .907 get you 18 fewer goals?

We are both giving up too many but we are also not scoring nearly enough only Detroit has a worse differential with a -31

 

[haak84]

I think the new analytics hire was a big miss. I wonder if the Devils are just going with a Players' coach and relying heavily on the advanced stats dudes. I dunno. Don't have an explanation.

It was the end of November last year when I realized I was watching a bad team. This year it's even earlier and more disappointing.

Trade Hall. Fire Hynes. Sign a goalie this offseason. Develop the kids but have them play a cohesive system. Hynes + Subban is a disaster. It's like when Vat's was leaned on for 1st line minutes. Same type of high risk-OK reward plays. Tired of seeing it.

 

[Auto Pilot]

Lol he’s such a dumb ass.

 

[mosare]

Mueller with 5 hits and 4 blocks leading this team

 

[haak84]

I don't think so...I am too lazy to do the math but we are a -20 goal differential.

The only team currently with a negative goal differential in a playoff spot is Florida with a -1

Then you have

.9 Montreal is +6
.10 Philly is +2
.11 Tampa is -2
.12 NYR is +1

These teams are still in the hunt.

To be comparable to those teams in goal differential we would need to have given up a minimum of 18 fewer goals. I don't think league average goaltending is getting you there...but like I said I'm too lazy to do the math...but I do know coming into tonight Winnipeg was 16th in team SV% with .907 and we were 30th with .872. does .907 get you 18 fewer goals?

We are both giving up too many but we are also not scoring nearly enough only Detroit has a worse differential with a -31

They've allowed 57 goals on 445 shots. With league average save % they would have allowed 43. They would have a -4 differential (was zero diff before last night's game).

They would be closer to a .500 team.

Not finding goaltending was a miss by Shero. Varly was available. At this point MBW career stats are closer to a backup than a starter. He's young so I expect him to develop into that starter role but goalies are a crapshoot.

 

[mosare]

Hall is the the most overrated player in the nhl! Period! Transfer him asap!

 

[LeafingTheWay]

I think the new analytics hire was a big miss. I wonder if the Devils are just going with a Players' coach and relying heavily on the advanced stats dudes. I dunno. Don't have an explanation.

It was the end of November last year when I realized I was watching a bad team. This year it's even earlier and more disappointing.

Trade Hall. Fire Hynes. Sign a goalie this offseason. Develop the kids but have them play a cohesive system. Hynes + Subban is a disaster. It's like when Vat's was leaned on for 1st line minutes. Same type of high risk-OK reward plays. Tired of seeing it.

The issue this year IMO is the lack of offensive pressure. The team needs to play more of a possession game. I would shake up the offensive lines up. But Hynes would probably mess it up.

 

[Nubmer6]

The issue this year IMO is the lack of offensive pressure. The team needs to play more of a possession game. I would shake up the offensive lines up. But Hynes would probably mess it up.

He's BEEN shaking them up... but shaking up the wrong lines.

He's taken apart the lines that seemed to work, and doggedly kept the struggling top line together.

 

[Bleedred]

They've allowed 57 goals on 445 shots. With league average save % they would have allowed 43. They would have a -4 differential (was zero diff before last night's game).

They would be closer to a .500 team.

Not finding goaltending was a miss by Shero. Varly was available. At this point MBW career stats are closer to a backup than a starter. He's young so I expect him to develop into that starter role but goalies are a crapshoot.

The 3 games that come to mind where goaltending really cost us were the Florida game (probably should have at least gotten a point in that one and we played terrible, but Cory let in a couple he could have had), the Arizona game with Blackwood and absolutely the Tampa game with Cory. We probably lost 4-5 points with those games right there.

Varlamov has real potential to be the next Cory, I'm glad we stayed away from him. He usually misses time with injury every year, we would have been starting Blackwood (or Cory if we kept him another year to team up with Varlamov and left Blackwood in the AHL) a decent amount anyway. He even missed the games down the stretch in 2018 before the playoffs and then wound up missing the playoffs entirely. And Bernier also wound up getting injured and they wound up starting the Hamburglar in 2 playoff games because of it. Not to mention that Varlamov isn't that good (definitely better than Cory though) anymore either. Or at least not good enough for his insurance policy to be a really bad Schneider or a very inexperienced Blackwood. A Varlamov/Schneider tandem could have also been messy and the worst part is that we would have had Varlamov locked up for 5 years? Isn't that what the Islanders gave him? A Varlamov/Schneider or Varlamov/Blackwood tandem is prbably better than a Blackwood/Schneider tandem right now, but his contract could be another albatross in a couple years.

The goalie we should have went after was Robin Lehner, because it only took one year to sign him. And since Crawford might be retiring (A couple of concussions the last two years) or the Hawks may even decide to move on after this year because he's a UFA, the Hawks will likely keep Lehner, unless he's really bad and then we wouldn't want him for next year anyway.

I think I was the only one on here back in March that said I didn't want this tandem next year and that I even thought Shero would sign someone and we'd have a Schneider/someone else tandem. But if we were to do that, Blackwood would have been the one to suffer and not play in the NHL this year (although he probably would have once Schneider inevitably got injured or inevitably played so poorly that they put him on IR) because he's still able to be sent to the AHL without waivers. And Schneider might have fooled management into giving him another try with his 16 games of .920% goaltending, which he'll probably have again this year at some point and they better not be fooled by it, because it's only a mirage and a random streak that every bad goalie in the NHL has every year, if they're able to find themselves in enough games.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The issue this year IMO is the lack of offensive pressure. The team needs to play more of a possession game. I would shake up the offensive lines up. But Hynes would probably mess it up.

Hynes’ “system” is based off the rush. Not sustained pressure.

It’s why he is the issue

 

[Nubmer6]

Hynes’ “system” is based off the rush. Not sustained pressure.

It’s why he is the issue

Exactly. We're not a possession team. If we had a better D we could be a good counter-attack team.

 

[haak84]

The 3 games that come to mind where goaltending really cost us were the Florida game (probably should have at least gotten a point in that one and we played terrible, but Cory let in a couple he could have had), the Arizona game with Blackwood and absolutely the Tampa game with Cory. We probably lost 4-5 points with those games right there.

Varlamov has real potential to be the next Cory, I'm glad we stayed away from him. He usually misses time with injury every year, we would have been starting Blackwood (or Cory if we kept him another year to team up with Varlamov and left Blackwood in the AHL) a decent amount anyway. He even missed the games down the stretch in 2018 before the playoffs and then wound up missing the playoffs entirely. And Bernier also wound up getting injured and they wound up starting the Hamburglar in 2 playoff games because of it. Not to mention that Varlamov isn't that good (definitely better than Cory though) anymore either. Or at least not good enough for his insurance policy to be a really bad Schneider or a very inexperienced Blackwood. A Varlamov/Schneider tandem could have also been messy and the worst part is that we would have had Varlamov locked up for 5 years? Isn't that what the Islanders gave him? A Varlamov/Schneider or Varlamov/Blackwood tandem is prbably better than a Blackwood/Schneider tandem right now, but his contract could be another albatross in a couple years.

The goalie we should have went after was Robin Lehner, because it only took one year to sign him. And since Crawford might be retiring (A couple of concussions the last two years) or the Hawks may even decide to move on after this year because he's a UFA, the Hawks will likely keep Lehner, unless he's really bad and then we wouldn't want him for next year anyway.

I think I was the only one on here back in March that said I didn't want this tandem next year and that I even thought Shero would sign someone and we'd have a Schneider/someone else tandem. But if we were to do that, Blackwood would have been the one to suffer and not play in the NHL this year (although he probably would have once Schneider inevitably got injured or inevitably played so poorly that they put him on IR) because he's still able to be sent to the AHL without waivers. And Schneider might have fooled management into giving him another try with his 16 games of .920% goaltending, which he'll probably have again this year at some point and they better not be fooled by it, because it's only a mirage and a random streak that every bad goalie in the NHL has every year, if they're able to find themselves in enough games.

Agreed on Lehner. I think either would have us closer to being competitive.

If I could have posted in March I would have voiced my concerns about this tandem. I wanted to trade Schneider at the start of his decline and then buy him out as early as 18 months ago. We'd be better off with Blackwood/Any other goalie. The fact that we still have to pretend Cory has anything left in the tank is another disappointment.