GDT: Capitals @ The Inglorious Basterds - 7PM MSGSN

[Unknown Caller]

It’s incredibly frustrating to see the team play down to their opponents’ level. They’ve shown many times this year how they can control play for prolonged stretches, but it’s been completely inconsistent.

Vitek shitting his pants so early still shouldn’t have tanked them given there was still so much time left in the game. They were flat, again, in the first and for much of the second.

We can’t afford to continue starting these games late.

Vitek shitting his pants allowed the Caps to go into game management mode and play more conservatively to preserve the win. It’s an entirely different game and structure when the Devils aren’t chasing and the other team is forced to open up to push for goals.

Those two goals absolutely flipped the momentum of the game too. They were completely back breaking.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Vitek shitting his pants allowed the Caps to go into game management mode and play more conservatively to preserve the win. It’s an entirely different game and structure when the Devils aren’t chasing and the other team is forced to open up to push for goals.

Those two goals absolutely flipped the momentum of the game too. They were completely back breaking.

Look, I’m not defending it, but if we’re going to struggle going down 2-0 10 minutes into a 60 minute game with the way we’ve played defensively and in goal so far this season, it’s going to be a long year.

I get it changes the style of game, but it shouldn’t ultimately be the difference maker with 50 minutes left to play.

 

[JrFischer54]

goaltending is a big issue and until it gets resolved we should probably expect more of the same in results even with jack and nico in the lineup. its gotta be totally deflating seeing him give up back to back soft goals just waiting for the other shoe to drop. the team for whatever reason isn't tough mentally to handle that type of stuff just like the playoffs last year against the canes. i know its easy to just say fire ruff and its hard to find a goalie thats better on the market so changing the coach i dont think is going to solve anything. bratt going back to playoff mode with 1pt in 4 games after jack goes out isn't going to cut it. same goes for hamilton has been horrible on the back end mercer is mia timo both kinda warming up though. the two big guys are out and no one stepped up similar to the playoffs.

 

[Camille the Eel]

He kept referring to a play over and over where Bratt missed the net on a good chance as an excuse as to why we didn’t have a good start. He also said he thought neither team had a lot of chances and that he kept mixing the lines to get something going.

Yeah struck me as a really inane presser. Lindy at his worst. Maybe he was sheltering the guys from criticism a little ? Because we really looked lifeless and without any basic system of team play. Okay maybe a tired game but this can’t continue.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Because I'm a fan and shouldn't make crucial decisions for the team and organization. I'd trade Holtz to bring Scott Wedgewood back from Dallas!

 

[devilsblood]

Because I'm a fan and shouldn't make crucial decisions for the team and organization. I'd trade Holtz to bring Scott Wedgewood back from Dallas!

Which raises the point that a goalie who stunk when he played for us, is now pretty good somewhere else. U

Vitek shitting his pants allowed the Caps to go into game management mode and play more conservatively to preserve the win. It’s an entirely different game and structure when the Devils aren’t chasing and the other team is forced to open up to push for goals.

Those two goals absolutely flipped the momentum of the game too. They were completely back breaking.

This theory works better on paper.

In reality we had what, 1 sog prior to those goals and 25 sog’s after.

Scoring twice in the third pokes holes in it as well.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

We truly miss Nico's 200 ft game and Jack's all around awesomeness. This is more and more evident. Despite the poor start and bad goal or two from VV. We win this game with Jack and Nico.

 

[My3Sons]

We truly miss Nico's 200 ft game and Jack's all around awesomeness. This is more and more evident. Despite the poor start and bad goal or two from VV. We win this game with Jack and Nico.

Any team woukd be worse missing its first and third center but the reliance the team seems to place on individual talent is pretty damning of the coaching.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Any team woukd be worse missing its first and third center but the reliance the team seems to place on individual talent is pretty damning of the coaching.

Yeah look back at our old Devils teams. "Interchangeable" and Marty even post Stevens and Niedermayer. Boston is today's example of that. Team defensive structure and goaltending is a great foundation to have even in today's more offensive minded and skilled league. Much easier to grind out points that way. It won Vegas the cup!

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Yeah look back at our old Devils teams. "Interchangeable" and Marty even post Stevens and Niedermayer. Boston is today's example of that. Team defensive structure and goaltending is a great foundation to have even in today's more offensive minded and skilled league. Much easier to grind out points that way. It won Vegas the cup!

This is exactly right. And it becomes more and more clear every game, and I’d argue it’s been clear since 21-22, that Ruff either isn’t capable of implementing that level of structure or doesn’t want to.

 

[devilsblood]

Any team woukd be worse missing its first and third center but the reliance the team seems to place on individual talent is pretty damning of the coaching.

Meh. Aside from the 2-0(big aside i know) we played a pretty clean game. Just missed on some good opportunities, while Wash finished on lesser opportunities.

 

[devilsblood]

This is exactly right. And it becomes more and more clear every game, and I’d argue it’s been clear since 21-22, that Ruff either isn’t capable of implementing that level of structure or doesn’t want to.

To my point above, was last night not a pretty clean game?

Ill question why Smith is ever down near the opposing goalie but even then the coverage shouldn’t be that difficult

 

[Camille the Eel]

Yeah look back at our old Devils teams. "Interchangeable" and Marty even post Stevens and Niedermayer. Boston is today's example of that. Team defensive structure and goaltending is a great foundation to have even in today's more offensive minded and skilled league. Much easier to grind out points that way. It won Vegas the cup!

Puck possession and moving up ice as a 5 man unit and defending center ice in the same way is the foundation of what Boston is doing. Their goalies make the saves but aren’t expected to make too many nasty ones.

 

[My3Sons]

Meh. Aside from the 2-0(big aside i know) we played a pretty clean game. Just missed on some good opportunities, while Wash finished on lesser opportunities.

I’m not talking so much about last night as the approach under Ruff in general. They just seem to have relied too much on individual stuff like late game or OT heroics and creative players making it happen for them. In some level I get that is what they are striving for but I’m skeptical that the staff is getting the most out of the players. A hard nose grinding system won’t fit the personnel but maybe there is a defensively sound system that hides the goalies a bit better and isn’t so risky? They at times look like an NFL team that always tries to throw deep passes. They are much lower percentage plays than a five yard drag route that moves the chains. Just my observation. You can certainly see it differently. I’m also not suggesting it’s all on the coaches. They are just part of it right now.

 

[JK3]

With or without Jack and Nico they’ve been horribly inconsistent the whole season. Last night it was the goaltending, other nights it’s the defense. They can barely string together one or two periods of solid play with super slow starts and trailing in games right off the bat. The only thing that has save their bacon has been the PP and some monstrous individual efforts by Jack.

Could you imagine our record with that early PP success, oooooof. There needs to be some sort of baseline for simple solid that they can execute for them to fall back on like you guys were mentioning with Boston. Ruff finally mentioned having to play different with our top two guys out, we’ve been saying that from day one but who the hell knows what they’re telling these guys.

I say trap it up, make it a little easier for our sieves back there and become more of a counter attacking team with our speed.

 

[Bleedred]

We’ve seen enough Vitek that we can stop sheltering Akira. I know he was also a minus on these before last night’s games, but Vitek hasn’t really justified keeping him on the bench for literally almost two weeks. And that’s what it was gonna be if he didn’t have an accident in his pants on the ice early last night.

Natural stat trick makes both goalies look worse, Akira is still a minus on there, but Vitek is worse.

 

[Devils731]

I’m not talking so much about last night as the approach under Ruff in general. They just seem to have relied too much on individual stuff like late game or OT heroics and creative players making it happen for them. In some level I get that is what they are striving for but I’m skeptical that the staff is getting the most out of the players. A hard nose grinding system won’t fit the personnel but maybe there is a defensively sound system that hides the goalies a bit better and isn’t so risky? They at times look like an NFL team that always tries to throw deep passes. They are much lower percentage plays than a five yard drag route that moves the chains. Just my observation. You can certainly see it differently. I’m also not suggesting it’s all on the coaches. They are just part of it right now.

The swarm arguably is a grindy defensive system suited for teams that physically win board battles. Its goal is to initiate board battles with you outmanning the other team 2-1 or 3-2. The Devils don’t win those enough, even with a man advantage, so maybe that isn’t the right focus for the defensive.

You could run a system that asks the players not to initiate contact but instead stay between opponents and the goal and look to pick off forced passes and/or get into stick battles for pucks. This would slow the pace of the game down, which the Devils don’t want, but it would allow for odd man counterattack rushes and cut down on the time and space other teams get with the puck.

——————

The Devils wanting to outman in all situations really isn’t working this year. The Devils are seeing little benefit and other teams are able to flip the sides quickly and now the Devils are outmanned, which other teams have more time and space to take advantage of. The Devils going down the ice 4 on 3 only to have reversed into a 2 on 1 isn’t a great risk/reward trade.

The errors are probably a combination of player physical errors and teams prescouting finding the holes in the system.

 

[VaCaps Fan]

I enjoyed your GDT, you guys are real hockey fans with a sense of humor!

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

Which goalie was he supposed to get?

Evgeni Stoppuckolov. I think he’s unsigned.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

I'm not enjoying hockey right now and that's a shitty feeling for me.

Who else needs one?

 

[Bleedred]

It was evident more were coming after that first goal.

I was screaming for him to be pulled after the first goal.

 

[Cheddabombs]

View attachment 766691
Who else needs one?

Bring it in

 

[My3Sons]

It was evident more were coming after that first goal.

I was screaming for him to be pulled after the first goal.

As if you aren’t screaming at all other times anyway?

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

View attachment 766669View attachment 766670
We’ve seen enough Vitek that we can stop sheltering Akira. I know he was also a minus on these before last night’s games, but Vitek hasn’t really justified keeping him on the bench for literally almost two weeks. And that’s what it was gonna be if he didn’t have an accident in his pants on the ice early last night.

Natural stat trick makes both goalies look worse, Akira is still a minus on there, but Vitek is worse.

That’s some targeted marketing right there.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

I never really cared for Ruff. I didn’t like the extension he got. I see no solid system whatsoever. Right from the beginning of the season the team was bad defensively, the 5 on 5 play was average and the goaltending was weak. It’s still early and let’s see if Fitz makes a move and of course getting Jack and Nico back. However, if things don’t change I may have to start reading up on the upcoming draft.