GDT: Devils @ Blue Jackets - 7:00 PM - MSG+

[MakoSlade]

Jack still had several chances, two major ones that were robbed by the post and Korpisalo. I thought he had a strong game overall. Of course we missed Bratt but I don’t think it withheld Jack from doing his thing.

Absolutely! Jack looked amazing last night to say the least. Zero points is not an indication of how he played.

And imagine if he adds a one timer rocket of a shot to his repertoire like that shot he dinged off the post...

 

[McDuffz88]

Mercer played his best game in forever with Jack. I think the Devils have done him a disservice slotting him with the linemates he's had over the last few months. He clearly isn't ready to drive a line by himself, but put him with Hughes or Bratt and he's a totally different player.

It sucks that the Devils don't have another decent option for 3C, because it would be really interesting to roll with Hughes-Bratt on L1 and Hischier-Mercer on L2.

Thats why this off season we need to try and get an actual 3c. Mercer would be more valuable to us in our top 6 over being a 3c. Fitz has a ton on his plate this off season. He needs to acquire another 1a/1b goalie, top 6 winger & RD. Then if we make Mercer a winger then add trying to find a 3c to the mix. It won't be easy to find all these parts but atleast we got some ammo for trades. At this point I would be trying to shop Zacha & Severson (we won't be able to afford him) as our main trade pieces. I would also dangle players like Ty Smith or a prospect like Holtz. Between all those players & throw ins like Boqvist/Foote/Draft picks we should be able to fill in our holes. These are the type of Roster moves Fitz needs to make. The question is does he have the balls to make these moves.

 

[Buck Dancer]

It was Korpisalo in net.

True, my bad. Doesn’t change the fact that Bratt missing the game wasn’t the reason we lost.

 

[Buck Dancer]

Thats why this off season I think we need to try and get an actual 3c. Mercer would be more valuable to us in our top 6 over being a 3c. Fitz has a ton on his plate this off season. He needs to acquire another 1a/1b goalie, top 6 winger & RD. Then if we make Mercer a winger then add trying to find a 3c to the mix. It won't be easy to find all these parts but atleast we got some ammo for trades. At this point I would be trying to shop Zacha & Severson (we won't be able to afford him) as our main trade pieces. I would also dangle players like Ty Smith or a prospect like Holtz. Between all those players & throw ins like Boqvist/Foote/Draft picks we should be able to fill in our holes. These are the type of Roster moves Fitz needs to make. The question is does he have the balls to make these moves.

Add to that, our 1st round pick. If we can manage to get a top #6 winger under 25 for our 1st, I wouldn’t even care. That pick will help us in what, 4 years? That’s over half of Hischier’s deal and exactly half of Jack’s deal. We can’t be wasting those years with Kuokkanen, Sharangovich and the gang.

 

[McDuffz88]

Add to that, our 1st round pick. If we can manage to get a top #6 winger under 25 for our 1st, I wouldn’t even care. That pick will help us in what, 4 years? That’s over half of Hischier’s deal and exactly half of Jack’s deal. We can’t be wasting those years with Kuokkanen, Sharangovich and the gang.

I would definitely part with our 1st (Lotto protected) if it meant we got a young winger who can jump right into the lineup. At this point the last thing the Devils need is more futures. We got Jack & Nico locked up, we can't waste their prime years. I don't want to become the Oilers. They have 2 of the best centers in the world but can't do nothing because their GM refuses to make the big moves. They are wasting McDavids career & I don't want us to do the same with Hughes. Their GM has never traded a 1st round pick to try & add talent to McDavid which is baffling. They are prime example of what you become when the GM doesn't make the big trades that need to be done.

 

[devilsblood]

And imagine if he adds a one timer rocket of a shot to his repertoire like that shot he dinged off the post...

Scored on a one timer recently as well.

Think he had two one time options last night, had to get way low on the one, went off the goalies mask if I remember right.

So yeah, I do think that is becoming part of the repertoire.

 

[devilsblood]

If I had to criticize Fitz for two things this off-season, not adding a veteran 3rd line center would be at the top of that list and not adding legit wingers for our young centers would be a close second.

Wasn't too long ago people were calling Mercer a better center then Nico. Some were calling Mercer our top center. Those posters were nuts, but it doesn't change the fact that Fitz played the center position just fine. The center issue this year is Hughes and Nico combining for a bunch of missed games.

Could Fitz have added a big physical top line winger? That would have been great, though not sure how realistic.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I would definitely part with our 1st (Lotto protected) if it meant we got a young winger who can jump right into the lineup. At this point the last thing the Devils need is more futures. We got Jack & Nico locked up, we can't waste their prime years. I don't want to become the Oilers. They have 2 of the best centers in the world but can't do nothing because their GM refuses to make the big moves. They are wasting McDavids career & I don't want us to do the same with Hughes. Their GM has never traded a 1st round pick to try & add talent to McDavid which is baffling. They are prime example of what you become when the GM doesn't make the big trades that need to be done.

Agree. The excuse for Fitz was that he wanted to see who is part of the core. I think it's clear who it is now. You can't wait 5 years to see who the core is or you're just a terrible gm (you need to be fast).

 

[devilsblood]

Mercer played his best game in forever with Jack. I think the Devils have done him a disservice slotting him with the linemates he's had over the last few months. He clearly isn't ready to drive a line by himself, but put him with Hughes or Bratt and he's a totally different player.

It sucks that the Devils don't have another decent option for 3C, because it would be really interesting to roll with Hughes-Bratt on L1 and Hischier-Mercer on L2.

I thought Mercer was all right last night, but he didn't stand out as having his best game in awhile.

Hughes and Mercer 5v5 weren't great. Hughes had most of his chances on the pp.

As per slotting him with less than ideal linemates recently? The team is missing players all over the place lately, the entire situation is less than idea.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Bratt being out is a huge reason we lost because we were forced to go 11/7 without him which threw all the lines and pairings out of wack, which lead to the breakdowns we saw on some of the goals against.

A couple of those goals simply don't happen if we 4 lines.

It is what it is. Not the end or the world since they still played very hard.

 

[devilsblood]

Bratt being out is a huge reason we lost because we were forced to go 11/7 without him which threw all the lines and pairings out of wack, which lead to the breakdowns we saw on some of the goals against.

A couple of those goals simply don't happen if we 4 lines.

It is what it is. Not the end or the world since they still played very hard.

Guys acting like Bratt being out was a nonfactor are just being silly.

But I don't think we can pin any of the goals against directly on line issues.

One was a PP goal against, one went off Hughes, one came directly after Smith blew a tire in the corner.

 

[Buck Dancer]

Wasn't too long ago people were calling Mercer a better center then Nico. Some were calling Mercer our top center. Those posters were nuts, but it doesn't change the fact that Fitz played the center position just fine. The center issue this year is Hughes and Nico combining for a bunch of missed games.

Could Fitz have added a big physical top line winger? That would have been great, though not sure how realistic.

Fitz played the center horribly! Dawson Mercer came out of left field and literally saved us from being a bottom feeder, yet again. There’s no way he or Ruff or anyone else thought he’d be as good as he’s been since day #1. With both Nico and Jack going down with injuries, Mercer kept this team afloat during both injuries by being our go-to line with Bratt and Johnsson. If it wasn’t for the miracles our 20 year old rookie did during that time, we would’ve had Zacha playing center with Boqvist and McLeod.

Saying Fitz didn’t get extremely lucky is flat out wrong.

 

[My3Sons]

Bratt being out is a huge reason we lost because we were forced to go 11/7 without him which threw all the lines and pairings out of wack, which lead to the breakdowns we saw on some of the goals against.

A couple of those goals simply don't happen if we 4 lines.

It is what it is. Not the end or the world since they still played very hard.

the playing hard thing is much more important than the win or loss in any one game. Their recent comebacks have helped and hopefully they keep it up. Once they are healthy they can have a much better finish to the season if they don’t give up. Nico’s interview last night struck me as much more mature and determined. Between him and Jack I think they now can demand the rest of the guys play hard. Bratt’s doing it as is Mercer and Johnsson and McLeod and Bastian and Vesey and Graves and Siegs. Hopefully the remaining softies up their in game effort.

 

[Buck Dancer]

Bratt being out is a huge reason we lost because we were forced to go 11/7 without him which threw all the lines and pairings out of wack, which lead to the breakdowns we saw on some of the goals against.

A couple of those goals simply don't happen if we 4 lines.

It is what it is. Not the end or the world since they still played very hard.

This makes no sense at all. If Jack would’ve scored on one of the two great chances he had or Nico off that one timer, or that shot on the PP didn’t hit the post and went in, we wouldn’t be talking about Bratt at all.

The person who’s responsible for the loss and stole the game was the Jackets goaltender, nobody else.

 

[devilsblood]

Fitz played the center horribly! Dawson Mercer came out of left field and literally saved us from being a bottom feeder, yet again. There’s no way he or Ruff or anyone else thought he’d be as good as he’s been since day #1. With both Nico and Jack going down with injuries, Mercer kept this team afloat during both injuries.

Nope.

Mercer's been good, a good 3rd line C. The Johnsson Mercer Bratt line had that stretch where they were on fire, but Mercer is 6th on the team in scoring. He's 3rd amongst centers in points even though Nico has missed 6 games and Hughes has missed 17. He's not propping this team up. His overall play is not way out on the end of the spectrum from what you'd expect from a 1st round pick.

And Boq has been OK himself, and I suspect if he had a more regular role, his #'s would look even more OK.

 

[devilsblood]

This makes no sense at all. If Jack would’ve scored on one of the two great chances he had or Nico off that one timer, or that shot on the PP didn’t hit the post and went in, we wouldn’t be talking about Bratt at all.

The person who’s responsible for the loss and stole the game was the Jackets goaltender, nobody else.

Korpisalo was certainly a huge factor in last nights game.

But to say Bratt's absence was a nonfactor? Now that makes no sense.

 

[Buck Dancer]

Nope.

Mercer's been good, a good 3rd line C. The Johnsson Mercer Bratt line had that stretch where they were on fire, but Mercer is 6th on the team in scoring. He's 3rd amongst centers in points even though Nico has missed 6 games and Hughes has missed 17. He's not propping this team up. His overall play is not way out on the end of the spectrum from what you'd expect from a 1st round pick.

And Boq has been OK himself, and I suspect if he had a more regular role, his #'s would look even more OK.

That’s delusional, sorry. What other players in Mercer’s draft year are having the impact he’s having… 3, maybe 4, max? We took Holtz 11 picks before and he can’t even stick on the 4th line, so saying that what Mercer has given us was expected is flat out wrong. He legit saved us from being a bottom #3 team in the league and was the scoring center when Hughes got hurt, not Nico.

 

[Buck Dancer]

Korpisalo was certainly a huge factor in last nights game.

But to say Bratt's absence was a nonfactor? Now that makes no sense.

If we would’ve won the game, would you mention Bratt’s name at all? We had several golden opportunities that were stopped by a couple of miraculous saves, that’s the only factor that decided the game. It would’ve been nice to have Bratt, there’s no denying that, but he isn’t the reason we lost yesterdays game.

 

[Devils731]

That’s delusional, sorry. What other players in Mercer’s draft year are having the impact he’s having… 3, maybe 4, max? We took Holtz 11 picks before and he can’t even stick on the 4th line, so saying that what Mercer has given us was expected is flat out wrong. He legit saved us from being a bottom #3 team in the league and was the scoring center when Hughes got hurt, not Nico.

Mercer is 5th in his draft year in scoring after being taken 18th.

The number 2 pick, still considered a strong prospect, has 1 point in 6 games.

Most guys in his draft year haven’t even really played in the NHL so I would agree that Mercer is outperforming expectations for his draft position. Hopefully he keeps this up relative to his class.

 

[devilsblood]

That’s delusional, sorry. What other players in Mercer’s draft year are having the impact he’s having… 3, maybe 4, max? We took Holtz 11 picks before and he can’t even stick on the 4th line, so saying that what Mercer has given us was expected is flat out wrong. He legit saved us from being a bottom #3 team in the league and was the scoring center when Hughes got hurt, not Nico.

Your argument makes no sense.

You can't say Mercer has been a good center and then also say Fitz played the center position horribly. Well I guess you could, but that would be contradictory.

 

[devilsblood]

If we would’ve won the game, would you mention Bratt’s name at all? We had several golden opportunities that were stopped by a couple of miraculous saves, that’s the only factor that decided the game. It would’ve been nice to have Bratt, there’s no denying that, but he isn’t the reason we lost yesterdays game.

Missing your top scorer is never a non factor. It may be a factor you overcome, but it's not a non factor.

 

[Guttersniped]

Do what you have to do for the rest of this season, but if covid is still a significant presence in our lives next season (I think it will be to some varying degrees) then either stop testing people altogether or just f***in stop testing people with no symptoms.

I would bet that by the end of this season about 80% (I wonder if that's a fair guess or if it's even more than that? It can't be much less than that) of players and maybe even coaches and support staff/people involved with the team will have tested positive at least once at some point over the last two seasons and quite a decent amount in both seasons, as we've already seen several guys end up on our covid list two years in a row.

So what are we gonna do, sit players that have had the virus 2-3 times in the last 2-3 years? They're much more of a threat to the general public (who are far away from the players at games) than the other guys in the locker room and players on other teams, who by that point will have had it 2-3 times already (asymptomatic for the last 2 or maybe all 3) and if you keep trying to look for these problems then they're gonna pop up. How many seasons do we need to go through this? We've even seen players and general managers express this over the last several weeks. I think this is one thing that the general consensus of people involved (fans, employees) with the NHL will come to an agreement on. That doesn't mean it will be the law of the league though.

I don’t care about next season right now?

You don’t know what version of this we’ll be dealing with in the future, historically global pandemics have faded after a couple of years and X number of waves.

Asymptomatic players are on the COVID protocol list for 5 days. It’s not that draconian.

The big problem/controversy the NHL is facing right now is Canada won’t let teams have any paying customers watch games (well more than 250 or whatever) and the NHL isn’t willing to tank revenue by having empty arena games. That’s where the bulk of the cancellations are coming from now.

I’d rather swallow ground glass than “discuss” the COVID government policy of country on the internet so I don’t want to get into the COVID/government policy debates over it. We can discuss the effects on the NHL though.

The NHL can only postpone for so long even with the February Olympics cushion. The Jets were proposing to play some home games in Saskatoon (Saskatchewan doesn’t have restrictions). It’s a mess.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Guys acting like Bratt being out was a nonfactor are just being silly.

But I don't think we can pin any of the goals against directly on line issues.

One was a PP goal against, one went off Hughes, one came directly after Smith blew a tire in the corner.

The Smith goal overall was a giant miscues. Guys didn't know where to be even if he didn't blow a tire. Forwards were no where to be found.

Forwards got open too often, which was partly due to guys not being where they needed to be. Passing was much less crisp then the previous game or the Boston game most likely due to lack of chemistry on the new lines.