GDT: Capitals @ Devils, 7:00 PM, Jaws

[Hugh Mongusbig]

Hot take: they better win tonight.

Detroit is the last team without a regulation loss yet.
But they have been alternating starts between Husso and Ned in goal.
The good news for NJ is that Ned should be starting in goal tonight and not Husso.
Ned's SV% is .912 vs Husso's .939

Ned tends to overplay pucks and get out of position more than Husso.

 

[ninetyeight]

This has probably been discussed a lot already, but I don't get why Lindy doesn't start Vanecek here. He knows most of the players and their tendencies. Gives MBW an extra day of rest after 3 straight games. Plus Vanecek was terrible against the Wings, so maybe MBW would have been a better stylistic matchup against them. Double shifting forwards in a b2b, granting ice time to terrible players like Smith and Tatar, while sitting out Holtz and Zetterlund. They played terribly, but Lindy is definitely responsible for a lot of it. He better have fresh new guys out there tonight.

 

[NJDevs26]

Was at the game so had a front-row seat to Blackwood's ineptitude.

Went with my cousin-in-law who is a diehard Caps fan. "Man you weren't kidding about the goaltending, this is horrible"

Also ran into Chico at the game. Let's just say he wasn't stunned Blackwood got pulled after the 2nd lol

I was only surprised he got pulled because of the back to back. But like Bleed pointed out could have been as much of a mini-rest if Lindy was intending to start him again today anyway.

 

[SJinNewJersey]

If the remainder of the week isn’t a winning one, we’re definitely on tap for more “Fire Lindy” chants by Sunday afternoon’s game.

It’s not fair and I personally wouldn’t chant that (Yes, I would boo Blackwood, f*** him. But probably only in a game where he was actually playing) if I were there, but it’s inevitable. It’s almost like we’re torturing him by bringing him back to even start this year. It’s kind of like keeping him in prison rather than the electric chair.

In un-Devils related news, the Canucks lose yet again. Still winless.

I don’t really think Bruce is a candidate here. If Vancouver doesn’t work out then he’s probably off to the North Pole for good. He’s in his late 60’s. If we didn’t reach out to talk to Bruce in 2020 then we definitely ain’t talking to him in 2022 or 2023.

Lindy should not have started Blackwood last night. That game should have been VV's all along. It's VVs former team, I am sure he was dying to play against them. Also, Blackwood just played the last three games. Like I have said before Blackwood doesn't seem to handle a big workload well. Also, VV already lost to the Wings, so with back to backs Blackwood should be starting tonight against the Wings and VV last night. Just another silly Lindy move.

If every stupid move Lindy makes is to save his job, they should just can him now. We know they won't for at least like 25 games or unless they tank and go like 7 or 8 straight games with losses.

 

[Bleedred]

Lindy should not have started Blackwood last night. That game should have been VV's all along. It's VVs former team, I am sure he was dying to play against them. Also, Blackwood just played the last three games. Like I have said before Blackwood doesn't seem to handle a big workload well. Also, VV already lost to the Wings, so with back to backs Blackwood should be starting tonight against the Wings and VV last night. Just another silly Lindy move.

If every stupid move Lindy makes is to save his job, they should just can him now. We know they won't for at least like 25 games or unless they tank and go like 7 or 8 straight games with losses.

I’m not gonna kill him too much for starting him last night. He was good for 3 games, but that was merely smoke and mirrors. We got the good ole market correction last night to compensate.

Now if we either win or if we lose and Vanecek plays good tonight, he needs to get the next start on Friday. And he needs to get some rope now. We gave Blackwood his rope by starting him opening night despite Vitek being the significantly better preseason goalie.

The time to f*** around is over. They will be calling for Ruff’s head again before the road trip if things go bad. Playing Blackwood probably means things will go bad again.

I think Lindy is much closer to the end of his job than you think. I don’t think it’s gonna take 25 games or 7-8 in a row without a win. The fans are already turning him, they’re already turning on Blackwood with the Bronx cheer (they did to that to Cory once in 18-19 and they didn’t run him out of town or turn on him forever), people are fed up.

Too bad we can’t run Blackwood out of town before Ruff. That’s he needs to go. And it’s just as much for him as it is for us. He has no chance of resurrecting his career here. At best he’s Steve Mason at the end of his time in Columbus.

Oh, and the way, color me skeptical that Vanecek actually starts tonight.

 

[Lou is God]

My biggest issue on MBw is that i dont think he can follow the puck too well. So often when he makes a save/shot misses the net it just looks like he does the butterfly, closes his eyes and hopes he caught the puck. Very little reaction to the gameplay itself.

I made note of this last year. He just seems to lack the key instincts you want to see in a goalie.

He's not answer or even close to it.

 

[Bleedred]

This has probably been discussed a lot already, but I don't get why Lindy doesn't start Vanecek here. He knows most of the players and their tendencies. Gives MBW an extra day of rest after 3 straight games. Plus Vanecek was terrible against the Wings, so maybe MBW would have been a better stylistic matchup against them. Double shifting forwards in a b2b, granting ice time to terrible players like Smith and Tatar, while sitting out Holtz and Zetterlund. They played terribly, but Lindy is definitely responsible for a lot of it. He better have fresh new guys out there tonight.

I’m not not sure if I’ve said this yet, I might have mentioned it yesterday before the game, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Blackwood play again tonight if we won again last night.

Which is no surprise, because I’m still skeptical he doesn’t start tonight. I wanna say he won’t, but with the pull after 2 during a game where we had to play again the next night, that struck me a little too much as a “We need to sit Marty the rest of this one cause it’s lost and he’s starting again tomorrow night” move.

But I’m also convinced (if not irrationally paranoid) the organization is trying to do whatever it can to make Blackwood happen.

 

[Bleedred]

I made note of this last year. He just seems to lack the key instincts you want to see in a goalie.

He's not answer or even close to it.

He really needs to go. I can’t imagine him here again at $3 million next year just because we still have his rights. Do what Washington did and Samsonov him or people will be wanting Andrew Brunette fired soon enough, because I reckon we can’t be too far from watching him take over.

But he’ll probably have a 5-10 game hot streak at some point, he just had a 3 game one. And it might be enough to have him end the year not completely in the toilet.

 

[Lou is God]

Was chewing on this last night but if I was Ruff I would have shuffled the lines a bit, give Miles a rare first line duty:

Wood - Hughes - Bratt
Palat - Nico - Sharangovich

The thinking here is Wood's presence could open the ice for our two best players and the second line is still strong enough to help out. You just can't expect our smaller players compete against bigger teams like the Caps without some muscle.

 

[Bleedred]

Oh, one more very personal note.

I just vomited and shat out (it's coming out both ends) all the crow that I was forcefed on here from some people after the 3 good games of Blackwood.

''I wanna hear you say it! He had some great games! mehmehmehemehmeh''.

Of course that crow gave me f***ing food poisoning, to no surprise at all.

 

[Azathoth]

I wonder if they finally ditch the stupid 11-7 nonsense after last night?

 

[Bleedred]

I wonder if they finally ditch the stupid 11-7 nonsense after last night?

It's definitely run its course.

Imagine they ran the same lineup as last night?

Safe bet they won't, but I still think they might start Little Richard again tonight.

Yes, that's my new (PG-13) name for him. Kind of an insult to the real Little Richard, but he sure ain't Big Richard, that's for sure.

 

[Lou is God]

I wonder if they finally ditch the stupid 11-7 nonsense after last night?

I expect so, but instead of Smith getting scratched it's most likely going to be Bahl.

 

[Devs3cups]

I expect so, but instead of Smith getting scratched it's most likely going to be Bahl.

How hard is it for Ruff to ice the best/most optimal lineup?

 

[Bleedred]

I really believe the 11-7 is more about getting Bahl in there without scratching Smith. That's all it seems to be.

How hard is it for Ruff to ice the best/most optimal lineup?

I've always HATED the 2 year deal for New (or should I really say OLD?) Smith. But I always had goaltending to bitch about, while that was just something secondary.

Did it really take 2 years to lure a bottom pairing, stay at home defenseman that's going to turn 34 years old later this season? We didn't even have to sign 30 year old Kulikov to a 2 year deal.

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

Nemec for Demko . I don’t care anymore . As much as I like Nemec and how dominant our blue line will be with him .. I’m sick of coughing up points because of shit goaltending.
Canucks won’t trade Demko and it would be dumb to trade Nemec , but it’s nice to dream about Demko coming over and leading us to the playoffs …

Demko is .872 this year. I have not been on the Canucks board but I have a feeling it sounds a lot like ours right about now.

 

[Nocashstyle]

11/7 is always a dumb idea. It usually should be a “last resort - FWDs banged up” plan. But nope, three healthy and young forwards rotting away on the sidelines.

 

[Bleedred]

Demko is .872 this year. I have not been on the Canucks board but I have a feeling it sounds a lot like ours right about now.

Somehow still better than Blackwood's .871%!

To be fair, Demko has had some poor starts the last two years (not quite this bad) and that might be what keeps him from being GREAT to this point in his career instead of just good.

 

[MartyOwns]

Demko is .872 this year. I have not been on the Canucks board but I have a feeling it sounds a lot like ours right about now.

it’s almost like there’s only so much a goalie can do when his team plays like shit in front of him ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[BostonDevil]

How hard is it for Ruff to ice the best/most optimal lineup?

You saw Geertsen a lot last year. Apparently VERY hard.

 

[Bleedred]

I checked out evolving hockey a few minutes ago and their goalie stats (these are the ''Advanced'' goalie stats for those unfamiliar) and if it's any consolation for the ''Team/system/D/Ruff sucks and makes him look worse'' crowd, Blackwood has been slightly made to look worse than he should playing behind the team this year by about roughly 0.75 goals.

Player	Season	Team	Position	GP	TOI	GA	SA	FA	xGA	Sv%	FSv%	xFSv%	dFSv%	GSAA	GSAx

1	Mackenzie Blackwood	22-23	N.J	G	5	277.42	13.55	103.08	157.82	10.68	86.85	91.41	93.23	-1.82	-3.61	-2.87

He'd be below the league average if he was at his expected performance with what he's faced, as he's -3.61 goals below league average save percentage and only -2.87 goals below expected.

But he's still been pretty bad.

He's penalty kill save percentage is .895%, which is REALLY GOOD, actually. So good that it's not something that we can expect to see maintained. He's only allowed 2 goals on 19 shots while the team is on the penalty kill. That's actually keeping his overall save percentage up, which is an .8685% at even strength and .857% while our team is on the power play. He allowed his one shorthanded goal against last night.

 

[Devs3cups]

Demko is .872 this year. I have not been on the Canucks board but I have a feeling it sounds a lot like ours right about now.

Probably worse tbh.

 

[JimEIV]

Not for nothing, but I’m pretty you told us Schneider wasn’t gonna be good here and that Marty’s poor play had more to do with a poor team and not the fact that he was 40 years old and Schneider would not do well here or post a very high save percentage here like he did in Vancouver.

Schneider came here, posted a very high save percentage (much higher than Brodeur), so then it became “Well, one guy wins a lot more than the other and the guy that has the wins isn’t the guy with the higher save percentage”.

Wait...are you trying to tell me that you think Schneider was good here?

He couldn't win games. The guy had 115 wins here in 7 years.

Check this out...in Schneider's first 3 years (pretty much the best of his time here) he had a combined .924 SV% 2.14 GAA in 169 starts. He won 69 games....in 169 starts.

Blackwood has a career .907 2.93 GAA and has won 58 games in 128 starts.

Schneider's first 3 years the Devils were still playing very sound defensively. Blackwood's last 3 seasons were on some of the worst Devils team in their history... Blackwood is winning about 5% more of his starts right now than the best we got from Cory...

You can ooh and aah over the sv% but the guy was a loser just look at his career wins.

Now the best part of this... your only possible rebuttal can be how the team didn't score enough for Cory. Which is 100% true but it sort of highlights how irrelevant the goaltender is in the only meaningful stat in all of sports. Wins.

 

[britdevil]

Bummer

 

[NjDevsRR]

Edit: not worth it. Let the ignorance continue