Around The League 2020-21 off-season

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Triumph

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Oct 2, 2007
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Marchand might miss as few as 5 games, pasta will be back in Feb, that goaltending tandem might be the best in the league, and the Smith signing sures up their middle six.

Letting Krug walk is definitely going to sting, but I still don't think that puts them in SJ territory.

I don't think they're going to be in SJ territory either but basically everyone on the roster besides Pastrnak and McAvoy are 30 or older. Like how there were some writers who thought the Devils would be done every year from 2008 to 2011, it's all going to crash there at some point, but I agree it's probably not next season.
 
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Billdo

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Oct 28, 2008
19,358
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Ocean County
I think it's less crying and more the recognition that, outside of Buffalo, all of those teams are legitimately better than ours. Or were last season, anyway. Assuming that we're just rotating through them all season, it's gonna be tough.
To be fair most teams were better than us last year regardless of realignment.
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
129,839
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New Jersey, Exit 16E
If we are going to suck, we were going to suck in the Metro with a normal schedule as well.

Swapping Pitt for Boston isn't going to make a ton of difference. Buffalo isn't a good team either. If we are getting beat by them on the regular then we kind of deserve to be in the basement.
 

Guttersniped

I like goalies who stop the puck
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Dec 20, 2018
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For the longest time our only non-Blackwood wins came against Detroit lol
Detroit was 2-1 against Boston and 4-0 against Montreal. Those were the only two teams the Red Wings had a winning record against. (Well, they were 1-0-1 against San Jose too so that’s .750.)

I looked that up during the season after hearing about the Wing’s record against the Habs and not believing it. You never know where the wins will come from I guess. FYI the teams the Devils had a winning record against: Ducks (2-0-0), Blackhawks (1-0-1), Red Wings (3-0-0), Kings (1-0-1), Habs (2-0-1), Isles (1-0-1), Sens (2-1-0), Sharks (1-0-1), Lightning (1-0-1), Canucks (2-0-0) and Jets (1-0-1). I guess we might miss playing the Pacific Division and the dregs of the Atlantic.

We were 1-3-0 against the Bruins, Penguins and Blue Jackets. We were 0-2-0 against the Sabres, with the 2-7 loss in the 2nd game of the season helping set the crap tone for the year and 1-7 loss on 12/2 finally getting Hynes fired. Those were brutal low points in a bad season though, I’d take the Sabres and honestly even the Bruins over the Blue Jackets since they traditionally seem to kick the crap out of us the most.

We were .500 against the Hurricanes, Rangers, Flyers and Capitals so *shrug*.

2019-20 New Jersey Devils Head-to-Head Results | Hockey-Reference.com
 

BurntToast

Registered User
May 27, 2007
3,357
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Saratoga, New York
It’s will be a weird season and I am in the belief that the majority of the league has a shot at the playoffs.

Major Unknowns; How will the Bubble team’s perform? How will the teams with long layoffs Perform? How condensed will the schedule be? Will any teams get sick? Will the non playoff teams get a longer preseason as promised? How quick will the Devils acclimate to Ruff?
 

Call Me Al

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Aug 28, 2017
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we usually do really well against pittsburgh and horribly against boston but overall i dont think it matters this year. if we get another top 10 pick while the youth develop in an abnormal season it's not the end of the world
 

JrFischer54

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Apr 4, 2017
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I think it's less crying and more the recognition that, outside of Buffalo, all of those teams are legitimately better than ours. Or were last season, anyway. Assuming that we're just rotating through them all season, it's gonna be tough.

but what were people expecting? we didn't add a single impact free agent or trade for nhl talent? our draft picks aren't going to play this season most likely next season. missing the playoffs was going to be more then likely just have to hope the kids show improvement.
 

Devils731

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Jun 23, 2008
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but what were people expecting? we didn't add a single impact free agent or trade for nhl talent? our draft picks aren't going to play this season most likely next season. missing the playoffs was going to be more then likely just have to hope the kids show improvement.

Devils added Ryan Murray, Corey Crawford, and Andreas Johnsson.

You can still think the team won’t be good but they added 3 solid NHL pieces in those 3 players.
 

JrFischer54

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Apr 4, 2017
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Devils added Ryan Murray, Corey Crawford, and Andreas Johnsson.

You can still think the team won’t be good but they added 3 solid NHL pieces in those 3 players.

yeah they are fine nhl players for their roles they aren't game changers by any means. will they help the team? sure but they aren't going to move the needle much for the standings. yeah sure they traded for talent i guess i should've been more specific :rolleyes:
 

MartyOwns

thank you shero
Apr 1, 2007
24,127
17,827
the biggest unknown, not including the coronavirus bullshit, is going to be Ruff (and Taylor, to an extent). we added some nice pieces and addressed our weakest point (goaltending) but a lot is riding on this coaching staff
 

Bleedred

Travis Green BLOWS! Bring back Nasreddine!
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or go to calgary for the automatic loss
Add Winnipeg and Florida (although we did win in Winnipeg last year and beat Florida our last time in their building in the 18-19 finale) to that list.
 

NJDevs26

Once upon a time...
Mar 21, 2007
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Devils added Ryan Murray, Corey Crawford, and Andreas Johnsson.

You can still think the team won’t be good but they added 3 solid NHL pieces in those 3 players.

They did but Crawford is really the only upgrade over what they started last year with (Murray for Greene, Johnsson for Coleman I guess)
 

Devils731

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Jun 23, 2008
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They did but Crawford is really the only upgrade over what they started last year with (Murray for Greene, Johnsson for Coleman I guess)

With a discount to durability, Murray should be a better defenseman than Greene at this point in their career.
 
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Blackjack

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Feb 13, 2003
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And ??? for Hall?

Hall had a major decline last season, one of the most dramatic declines in the league. He played a little better for Arizona than he did for us, but even Arizona Hall was nothing like Hart Hall. I think improvement from Hughes could more than offset the 019/20 version of Hall. Hughes was below replacement level last season, if he improves to be worth 1.5 to 2 wins (a huge improvement, to be fair) that might do it. In this version of events Hughes gets around 20-40-60 over an 82 game season so whatever that scoring rate is over the shortened season.
 
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SteveCangialosi123

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Feb 17, 2012
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NJ
All the additions were nice and I think Crawford will actually make a difference, but we need all star caliber play from Nico and we need Jack to make very significant improvements in almost every area. Without that, there isn’t much reason to think this group will be anything but middling.
 
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Goptor

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Jun 30, 2016
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Devils added Ryan Murray, Corey Crawford, and Andreas Johnsson.

You can still think the team won’t be good but they added 3 solid NHL pieces in those 3 players.

Its:
Hall ---> Nobody
Coleman ---> Johnsson
Vatanen ---> Murray
Greene ---> Kulikov
Schneider ---> Crawford

I give them -10 points for the season from roster changes and +20 point to the season for coaching changes.
 

Bleedred

Travis Green BLOWS! Bring back Nasreddine!
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Its:
Hall ---> Nobody
Coleman ---> Johnsson
Vatanen ---> Murray
Greene ---> Kulikov
Schneider ---> Crawford

I give them -10 points for the season from roster changes and +20 point to the season for coaching changes.
Having Schneider and Domingue off this roster will be the biggest reason for an increase in points. Both were seriously the worst goalie in the NHL, depending on which one of them happened to be up from the AHL at the time.

Assuming Crawford can give us .910%-ish goaltending, we’ll be better and we can actually afford to play the backup more often than last year. There were probably a few games Blackwood played last year that he shouldn’t have. Like that game against the Rangers where he got blown up real bad and was playing injured.
 
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Poppy Whoa Sonnet

J'Accuse!
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Jan 24, 2007
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The shortened, condensed schedule + the Devils' having two great goaltenders should make them challenge for a playoff spot. If the team is clearly better this year it will mostly be due to Crawford/Ruff/Hughes imo. Still a very real chance they stink again next year, sell Palmieri/Gusev at the deadline to the highest bidders and seem 3 years away from being even competitive.
 
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