GDT: Delicious Backhands and Games in Hand are Cure Alls: Devils @ Flyers, 1 PM, MSG+

[Blackjack]

Other than Shattenkirk when was the last time a name UFA changed teams and it wasn’t an albatross contract?

Marian Hossa. It's not an albatross contract if you suddenly decide after playing hockey for 30 years that your pads are itchy.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Still ticked at getting 0 out of 4 points vs Philly.

 

[My3Sons]

Marian Hossa. It's not an albatross contract if you suddenly decide after playing hockey for 30 years that your pads are itchy.

How the league let him get away with that is a crime. It’s also an insult to people with legit autoimmune disorders.

 

[Blackjack]

How the league let him get away with that is a crime. It’s also an insult to people with legit autoimmune disorders.

We have a $250,000 recapture penalty for Kovalchuk this year because he decided to "retire" and go play in the KHL. How outrageous is that? The league has allowed teams like the Rangers (Redden) and the Blackhawks to flout the spirit of the salary cap, and then came down on the Devils like a ton of bricks for signing Kovalchuk to the same kind of contract lots of other top stars were getting at the same time. f*** Bettman and f*** the Blackhawks. I'll never forgive those vile f***s.

 

[Camille the Eel]

If Philly finishes higher than us, it’s because we choked the season away, plain and simple. Not because Philly is this amazing team, but because we choked the season away and if Philly finishes higher than us, that probably means that we missed the playoffs, barring Philly having the hottest finish of any team in the second half and coming back to win the division.

I don't know about "choking" - but I think we are less aggressive than we were earlier in the season. At the start we had nothing to lose. No one expected anything of us. Now that we're in a playoff position with less than half a season to go, now that we have a lead, that's different, and I think the club is feeling it. I as a fan am certainly feeling it.

We looked to me this week, at the start of the Islander game and for periods in the Washington game, like we were playing afraid; afraid to give up the goal, more tentative and cautious than earlier. Instead of playing to win, playing afraid to lose.

It's only natural really. But you can't ski scared and you can't play hockey scared. We really need to get back to relying on our speed and being the aggressor.

 

[NJDevs26]

I don't know about "choking" - but I think we are less aggressive than we were earlier in the season. At the start we had nothing to lose. No one expected anything of us. Now that we're in a playoff position with less than half a season to go, now that we have a lead, that's different, and I think the club is feeling it. I as a fan am certainly feeling it.

We looked to me this week, at the start of the Islander game and for periods in the Washington game, like we were playing afraid; afraid to give up the goal, more tentative and cautious than earlier. Instead of playing to win, playing afraid to lose.

It's only natural really. But you can't ski scared and you can't play hockey scared. We really need to get back to relying on our speed and being the aggressor.

That's been one of my concerns the last couple months, that it was gonna be a lot easier to play with no expectations than when there got to be expectations.

 

[devsfan4life]

Zajac Johansson and Stafford were just kind of thrown together by default. All of them have been underwhelming for different reasons. Zajac played his best a few weeks ago between Gibbons and Coleman. As many have said, he needs to be used in a role similar to that. I just don't think we're icing the best possible team we can to win right now. Call up Quenneville if Gibbons is out. I'd have to go with:

Hall-Hischier-Bratt
Wood-Zacha-Palms
Johansson-Zajac-Noesen/Quenneville
Coleman-Boyle-Gibbons/Noesen

Moore-Vatanen
Greene-Severson
Butcher-Mueller/Santini

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Earlier in the season I told you I think Philly finishes higher than us, you disagreed.

Based on the last two match-ups have you changed your mind?

They were all over us in both games.

I hope Coleman and Santini are back in Monday night.

They are still 4 points back and we have a game in hand.

They weren't "all over us". We had a rough first few minutes couipled with poor goaltending. After that it was a totally even game

but hey, its you, so you just HAVE to be dramatic I guess

 

[NJDevs26]

Head to head mastery also doesn't mean you're better over an 82-game season. We actually finished ahead of the Rangers the year they beat us nine million times in a row lol

 

[Cult of Hynes]

The first goal really deflated the team. They carried the first several shifts for sure. As soon as the flyers scored, the wheels fell off. They literally just gave up.

All thanks to Andy Greene and his shit defense. Thank god he has the C on his chest.

 

[Bleedred]

They are still 4 points back and we have a game in hand.

They weren't "all over us". We had a rough first few minutes couipled with poor goaltending. After that it was a totally even game

but hey, its you, so you just HAVE to be dramatic I guess

At various times this year or at the end of last year/into this past offseason (remember, Carolina is gonna be a playoff team if they have goaltending?) he's told us that every team in the Metro is gonna finish with more points than us. And when there's 7 other teams in the division, there's a good chance that someone else is the division is gonna finish ahead of us and he'll get one or a few of them right. Then there's also a few that it's looking like he's gonna get wrong this year. And two games against us where they beat us, doesn't necessarily translate to finishing with more points anyway. Edmonton is 2-0-0 against us this year, are they gonna finish with more points? If you make enough bets/predictions, you're gonna win a few of them just by chance and the fact that it's a numbers game. Percentages and all. You HAVE to be right sometimes.

I think DD also said the Rangers were gonna finish with 14 more points than us this year and that wasn't in the offseason, that was as recently as November of this season.

 

[Bleedred]

Head to head mastery also doesn't mean you're better over an 82-game season. We actually finished ahead of the Rangers the year they beat us nine million times in a row lol

I posted what I just posted before I even read this.

This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about! The frickin Oilers are 2-0 against us this year (how many teams in the East can they say they went undefeated against this year?) and are they finishing ahead of us? Even Arizona went 1-1-0 against us and outplayed us both times, they aren't even on pace to finish this entire season with as many points as we had in the middle of January. Think about that for a second.

Buffalo is also 1-1-0 against us so far. I don't think any of those teams are finishing ahead of us. Two of those three teams might not even surpass our current point total by the time the season ends.

 

[BenedictGomez]

most parents love sharing stuff about their kids.

Is that why it seems 75% of the Christmas cards I get these days are not really "Christmas cards", but actually just photos of their kids?

I had my suspicion.

 

[Devils Dominion]

It wasn't just the first few minutes.
Philly was better most of the game aside from brief spurts, last week too.

I'm glad the Devils didnt quit and leave Appleby hung out to dry but the rookie had to be really good to keep the score from not expanding.

 

[Bleedred]

It wasn't just the first few minutes.
Philly was better most of the game aside from brief spurts, last week too.

I'm glad the Devils didnt quit and leave Appleby hung out to dry but the rookie had to be really good to keep the score from not expanding.

I think you're right, Appleby probably could have given up a goal or two, but (and I know a few people don't wanna hear it) Kinkaid totally had the the guy controlling the scoreboard ready to leave his finger on the button to add a 1 for the Flyers, right off the bat.

We came out fine in this game, but looked deflated after the 5th time that Kinkaid has allowed a goal in the first 5 or 6 minutes of a game this year. And if there's any goal you can fault him on today, it was absolutely that one. Looked like the Vikings team bus missed the exit to their hotel and drove right through Kinkaid's legs.

 

[Cult of Hynes]

11 out of a possible 24 points against our own division is not good enough. They have 16 more games and 32 more possible points to either take from or give to teams that are only 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8 points behind us, and Washington that is 4 points ahead of them. And their final game of the year is against Washington, which isn't great for a final desperate attempt to stay alive in the race.

While Caroline has has a small chance at the playoffs, they are still in the race, and it's still entirely possible that the Devils get bumped out of a playoff spot by another Metro team. And give how this coaching staff has a gigantic collapse on their resume, I'd say it's extremely possible this shit staff coaches them out of the playoffs with their foolish moves and inability to recognize what isn't working, like Zajac being used as a 2nd line center and Boyle and the corpse of Zajac continuing to get first PP minutes and doing nothing to help it be productive, and more times than not are apart of the reason as to why it is struggling to do anything.

And can't forget that they still think Greene is a serviceable top 4 dman even though the past few weeks he has done everything possible to show he may not even be a serviceable 3rd pairing dman thanks to his weak clears, bad pinches, head scratching horrible defense, like what he did today that led to the first goal against.

 

[Devils Dominion]

I think you're right, Appleby probably could have given up a goal or two, but (and I know a few people don't wanna hear it) Kinkaid totally had the the guy controlling the scoreboard ready to leave his finger on the button to add a 1 for the Flyers, right off the bat.

We came out fine in this game, but looked deflated after the 5th time that Kinkaid has allowed a goal in the first 5 or 6 minutes of a game this year. And if there's any goal you can fault him on today, it was absolutely that one. Looked like the Vikings team bus missed the exit to their hotel and drove right through Kinkaid's legs.

I'm not sure what Kink was thinking on that first goal.
It wasn't that great of a shot.

All he really had to do was square up and close the pads and let it hit him.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

guys do we think that Cult of Hynes likes the coaches or nah? Not sure by his posts.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm not sure what Kink was thinking on that first goal.
It wasn't that great of a shot.

All he really had to do was square up and close the pads and let it hit him.

Story of his season. These are why the numbers are where they are. Not because of the defense, not because he doesn't play enough, etc. I think he's already matched his stoppable goal tally from all of last year, in just a little over half as many starts. Which explains the drastic slide in numbers and play.

Maybe we should sign Aaron Dell next year, if the Sharks make the mistake of letting him walk. You know he can give us 20-25 quality starts, at least there's a good chance of it. He'll be more expensive than the average backup, but I think Kinkaid is torpedoing his chances of staying in the NHL with this season.

 

[Cult of Hynes]

This team will be out of a playoff spot right before all star weekend.

We are not beating Boston in Boston or Nashville in Nashville.

And I won't be shocked if they lose to Detroit on Monday.

 

[njdevil26]

This team will be out of a playoff spot right before all star weekend.

We are not beating Boston in Boston or Nashville in Nashville.

And I won't be shocked if they lose to Detroit on Monday.

Well then lucky for us Nashville is coming to Jersey!

 

[Bleedred]

Well then lucky for us Nashville is coming to Jersey!

I thought they were too haha.

We gotta beat the Wings, they've been getting their face rubbed into the dirt for a while now.

 

[blood gin]

Head to head mastery also doesn't mean you're better over an 82-game season. We actually finished ahead of the Rangers the year they beat us nine million times in a row lol

I think that was 2007-2008. We couldn't beat them at all (8 rivalry games that year) until the final game of the season when we won a shootout after they tied it late. Then we immediately played them in the playoffs and lost an annoying 5 game series which was totally evenly played except for Brodeur who had a bad series.

 

[Bleedred]

As the father of three sons I guarantee my wife sent all kinds of pictures of proms and school dances to friends. In all of them have been teenaged girls of various years. None of it is creepy. As you noted most parents love sharing stuff about their kids. No evil intent in any of it.

Haha I wasn't sure if your name was a nod to the TV show or if you literally had 3 sons!

I get a lot of text pictures from this friend of events and functions in his family. He lives near me, so I've even been invited to some of them. He's even sent pictures from christening's, which I've even attended.

I get it, people like to show off their family and I know if I had a family, I'd probably be doing the same. One of my best friend's, who lives back in Jersey, sent me pictures of his son driving when he first got his license. He was pretty stoked about that and took all these pictures of him driving.

He even gave him his GT500 when he got his license and wanted to take all these pictures of him driving it. It's an 07 I think, from when they put them out back then. And that's his only son/child, so he loves taking pictures and showing off his son's accomplishments. I also was sent pictures of him going to work. He's in a carpenters union now, which is the kind of work I did when I was still living up there. He got in right after graduating high school 1.5 years ago, so he was pretty proud of that.

 

[MadDevil]

guys do we think that Cult of Hynes likes the coaches or nah? Not sure by his posts.

I just ignore it at this point. He seems to be one of those posters who is 10 times more active after a loss than a win. It's a weird mindset to me, but to each their own I guess.