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

[Tretyak 20]

I started mentally preparing for the rest of the season after the philly game, but then they went on and got two wins and I got excited again. The worst part of this is probably that watching the games is no fun anymore. Even if they start winning at some point it will be too late and I’ll have mixed feelings since they’re only hurting their lottery chances. So that’s almost 70 games of entertainment down the drain. NHL isn’t free here in Finland so I’m basically paying for something that I don’t want to watch anymore.

The second worst is that they’ll lose a lot of players. Hall will be out, Gusev has no interest playing here and I fear that Hughes will also bolt to Toronto or wherever the first chance he gets if the team can’t turn this losing culture around in the next 3-5 years. I fear that not even Vatanen wants any part of this dumpster fire. But I guess Hall and certainly not Gusev don’t look very valuable players right now though, so how much worse can we be without them? But how much of their performance is on the coach and the system? If Gusev signs with the Rangers after his contract is up and pots 90pts with Panarin, that would kinda suck.

Excluding that 17-18 season, it’s been a really rough 8 year stretch to be a devils fan, possibly the worst in the history (if you don’t count the Rockies)

This team will turn the losing culture around the first time they have a staff behind the bench that actually knows how to use the talent they have on the roster. I expect it will really shock some people.

 

[Fear the Wushu]

I really think he's going to get 7 years at 9.5-10.5 AAV, and we're very lucky it won't be us. Look no further than San Jose and the salary cap purgatory they're facing.

San Jose has been competitive for as long as I can remember. If you want to be a top team, you have to pay players, end of story.

 

[Blackjack]

San Jose has been competitive for as long as I can remember. If you want to be a top team, you have to pay players, end of story.

What does that have to do with the disaster of signing Karlsson to a huge 8 year deal? San Jose has consistently drafted well and it doesn't hurt that players want to live in places like San Jose. That's why they're successful, not because of budget breaking contracts on players in decline.

 

[MauDevils]

Actually San Jose went down the shitter when they had to start paying people.

Drafting is why they were good.

 

[haak84]

So league average goaltending would still give them a deficit of -4, worse than anyone currently in the top 12 of the Conference....

They are tied for 28th in the league in Goals For...

But here's the problem the team has been built to score. Look at what Shero has added in his 5 years here... and perhaps more importantly look at what he hasn't added in his time here. Hall, Hughes, Palmieri, Gusev, Bratt Butcher, Subban...these guys aren't winning you games by shutting down other teams...they are here to score. Sitting at 28th in the league in Goals For is inexcusable. 28th in GF is where we were with the likes of S Gionta, Ruutu and Bernier and Zajac as the #1 center.... literally. The 2014-15 team finished 28th in the league in Goals For.

It's just too easy to point to goaltending and make believe that the whole team doesn't suck is my personal opinion.

goaltending is one issue. The fact that over the past three seasons our best goalie was Keith kinkaid is a major blemish for Shero. He’s held on to two guys for way to long... Schneider and hynes.

agreed about goals for. The devils have a league average shooting % but have shot 100 less shots than average. Costing them about 10 goals.

 

[Call Me Al]

having a near league worst offense with a ton of offensive weapons is also a problem. when both offense and defense are problems it’s usually the coach

 

[VoidCreature]

So league average goaltending would still give them a deficit of -4, worse than anyone currently in the top 12 of the Conference....

They are tied for 28th in the league in Goals For...

But here's the problem the team has been built to score. Look at what Shero has added in his 5 years here... and perhaps more importantly look at what he hasn't added in his time here. Hall, Hughes, Palmieri, Gusev, Bratt Butcher, Subban...these guys aren't winning you games by shutting down other teams...they are here to score. Sitting at 28th in the league in Goals For is inexcusable. 28th in GF is where we were with the likes of S Gionta, Ruutu and Bernier and Zajac as the #1 center.... literally. The 2014-15 team finished 28th in the league in Goals For.

It's just too easy to point to goaltending and make believe that the whole team doesn't suck is my personal opinion.

Can’t rightly disagree with any of this. Season has been a huge failure so far. Consequences need to start being felt in the front office.

 

[JimEIV]

goaltending is one issue. The fact that over the past three seasons our best goalie was Keith kinkaid is a major blemish for Shero. He’s held on to two guys for way to long... Schneider and hynes.

agreed about goals for. The devils have a league average shooting % but have shot 100 less shots than average. Costing them about 10 goals.

Well there it is...
Skaters are costing us 10 in GF and Goaltending is costing us 14 in GA going by the averages. Sounds like a total team effort to me Just not the type of team effort I grew up with as a Devil fan

 

[Nubmer6]

Sounds like a total team effort to me Just not the type of team effort I grew up with as a Devil fan

It's all part of the Brotherhood.

 

[Bleedred]

goaltending is one issue. The fact that over the past three seasons our best goalie was Keith kinkaid is a major blemish for Shero. He’s held on to two guys for way to long... Schneider and hynes.

I think the first real year that Hynes probably should have been canned is this one. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I knew he sucked from his first or second season here, but the team wasn’t supposed to be good, so Shero wasn’t gonna fire him. Maybe last year we could have fired him, but I think he was getting a stay of execution for making the playoffs the year before and because Hall seemed to like him. Now that Hall doesn’t appear to really wanna be here anyway, there’s no need to appease him and the record and results are still not there for Hynes. And I am very confident Hynes will be gone the end of this year at the very latest and we’ll have Boudreau (or another big babe) and possibly Stevens behind the bench with him (if it’s Boudreau, who he has coached for before in the NHL).

As for Schneider, the first real year we should have dumped him was after last, but the buyout would have been 6 years and I think the final 16 games fooled management into thinking he could still play, which he can technically still play, just not at ab adequate league caliber level.

This year, he needs to go. I don’t care if he has a .930% streak of 20 games (unless he finishes the season at .915%), he has to go. The buyout will be doable. We just bought out Mike Cammalleri a couple of years back, who has two years left at a million less than Cory. A little cheaper, but not by much. And Cammalleri, while being bad and declining, was not nearly as bad at his position at Schneider is at his. And no one even saw that buyout coming before it happened.

If Shero wanted to keep Schneider one more year, he should have tried for someone else and just sent Blackwood to the AHL to start the year. Blackwood would have found himself back up soon enough, either when Cory inevitably got legit injured or put on IR to save face for his poor play.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

So league average goaltending would still give them a deficit of -4, worse than anyone currently in the top 12 of the Conference....

They are tied for 28th in the league in Goals For...

But here's the problem the team has been built to score. Look at what Shero has added in his 5 years here... and perhaps more importantly look at what he hasn't added in his time here. Hall, Hughes, Palmieri, Gusev, Bratt Butcher, Subban...these guys aren't winning you games by shutting down other teams...they are here to score. Sitting at 28th in the league in Goals For is inexcusable. 28th in GF is where we were with the likes of S Gionta, Ruutu and Bernier and Zajac as the #1 center.... literally. The 2014-15 team finished 28th in the league in Goals For.

It's just too easy to point to goaltending and make believe that the whole team doesn't suck is my personal opinion.

Which bring us right back to coaching...

Forget elevating player performances, Hynes is a net negative on everyone.

 

[Tretyak 20]

So league average goaltending would still give them a deficit of -4, worse than anyone currently in the top 12 of the Conference....

They are tied for 28th in the league in Goals For...

But here's the problem the team has been built to score. Look at what Shero has added in his 5 years here... and perhaps more importantly look at what he hasn't added in his time here. Hall, Hughes, Palmieri, Gusev, Bratt Butcher, Subban...these guys aren't winning you games by shutting down other teams...they are here to score. Sitting at 28th in the league in Goals For is inexcusable. 28th in GF is where we were with the likes of S Gionta, Ruutu and Bernier and Zajac as the #1 center.... literally. The 2014-15 team finished 28th in the league in Goals For.

It's just too easy to point to goaltending and make believe that the whole team doesn't suck is my personal opinion.

To me this is a major problem that points directly at coaching. At the end of last year everyone was talking about lack of talent. Well guess what - we added lots of talent, and the results are even worse! Like I've said before; giving this roster to Hynes and crew is like giving a v12 Ferrari to an 80 year old grandmother. They don't know how to make use of the talent they have.

 

[JimEIV]

Which bring us right back to coaching...

Forget elevating player performances, Hynes is a net negative on everyone.

I agree. I think a lot can be done with coaching to fix both the GF and GA....we may very well need a new players but we aren't using what we have appropriately and I think that is overall the bigger problem.

 

[MauDevils]

Which bring us right back to coaching...

Which then brings us to the GM who is failing to make a coaching change.

 

[BurntToast]

I don’t know if “can’t win anything” Boudreau is the answer to our problems. Islanders were craving a top LW, how about The Devil’s trade Hall for Trotz. We need a barn burner to make up for all the Kumbaya BS. Ruff, Hitchcock, Tortarella, MacLean, Roy. New bloods Jay Leach, Scott Stevens. Let’s Go....light fires under players bums.

 

[NJDevs26]

I don’t know if “can’t win anything” Boudreau is the answer to our problems. Islanders were craving a top LW, how about The Devil’s trade Hall for Trotz. We need a barn burner to make up for all the Kumbaya BS. Ruff, Hitchcock, Tortarella, MacLean, Roy. New bloods Jay Leach, Scott Stevens. Let’s Go....light fires under players bums.

Boudreau's won a lot of games before April. It's after that he has problems winning. But right now I'd at least take some competitive hockey 1-82 and worry about the playoffs when we actually get there for the second time in nine years.

And Lou knows better than to make that trade.

 

[Nubmer6]

Boudreau's won a lot of games before April. It's after that he has problems winning.

So did Burns before he came to us. As did Barry Trotz before he finally two years ago.

 

[captainscott]

To me this is a major problem that points directly at coaching. At the end of last year everyone was talking about lack of talent. Well guess what - we added lots of talent, and the results are even worse! Like I've said before; giving this roster to Hynes and crew is like giving a v12 Ferrari to an 80 year old grandmother. They don't know how to make use of the talent they have.

i think we didn't add the right talent.. its a collection of way overhyped players by the fan base ... there is some nice players in NJ but to be sure they are not proven commodities ... in addition it is a poor combination of skill sets.....lets trash this season. get big returns on hall and maybe a zajac or something... and right back at next year small set back.... new coach too

 

[Emperoreddy]

So did Burns before he came to us. As did Barry Trotz before he finally two years ago.

Yeah this is a dumb take. You can’t just hold out for past cup winning coaches. A lot of good coaches have not gotten over the hump, and plenty of not so good coaches have.

If we are only rating by cup wins. Should we hire Disco Dan instead of Bruce?

 

[Emperoreddy]

Also it is an absolute joke that we have the offensive talent we do and are bottom 20 in goals for with a piss poor power play (alteration!)

This team was never going to be a defensive juggernaut (though it shouldn’t be this bad at it either), and they were going to need to out score some of their problems.

 

[Nubmer6]

Yeah this is a dumb take. You can’t just hold out for past cup winning coaches. A lot of good coaches have not gotten over the hump, and plenty of not so good coaches have.

If we are only rating by cup wins. Should we hire Disco Dan instead of Bruce?

No, the point is, i wouldn't avoid a particular coach just because he hasn't won a cup (yet).

 

[Emperoreddy]

No, the point is, i wouldn't avoid a particular coach just because he hasn't won a cup (yet).

I am agreeing with you. Other people are saying that and by their logic Dan is a better coach then Bruce

 

[Bleedred]

I’m usually not one to lament about how this should have happened and that happening caused this to happen or not happen or whatever, but the 2018 playoff berth might have hurt us more than helped in the long run.

The MVP has no doubt inflated Hall’s value on his next contract, it kept Hynes here longer. Can you imagine if Shero hired Trotz instead of Lou, after firing Hynes for three years and no playoffs in any of them?

 

[JK3]

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

 

[njdevils1982]

Also it is an absolute joke that we have the offensive talent we do and are bottom 20 in goals for with a piss poor power play (alteration!)

This team was never going to be a defensive juggernaut (though it shouldn’t be this bad at it either), and they were going to need to out score some of their problems.

how are you altering this PP?