GDT: Devils @ Blue Jackets - 7:30 PM - MSG

[Triumph]

Maybe a 35 year old Travis Zajac in his last game with Islanders before retirement... otherwise that is wildly insulting to Zajac's career

McLeod is a center version of AJ Greer and probably not as talented a goal scorer.

McLeod is the kind of player you get undrafted after a 4 year NCAA career and you celebrate the player for "making it"

When he's an 11 turned 12 overall pick from a club trying to rebuild....well that's just awful.

lol. The center version of AJ Greer. I have to congratulate your ability to just make shit up. Who would even compare those two players in any way?

 

[Triumph]

Wouldn't it be crazy... if McLeod turned into a legit two-way threat, first rounder? And we had him playing on the 4th line.

That patience tonight was an eye opener. If he can get confidence and develop the moves - suddenly it looks like he has the wheels to be a really good player.

This to me is less 'McLeod might be better than we think' and more 'the skill level in the NHL has gone up considerably in the last decade-plus'. The idea of just a pure plugger on the 4th line who always shoots in a shooting position is going away. But yes, McLeod's vision is constantly underrated here.

 

[tailfins]

McLeod blows.

He made a nice play. I'm happy he did it. I'd love for him to carve out a long NHL career. But, he should not be making more than just above league minimum, and I'd prefer that he do it somewhere other than the Devils.

McLeod is faceoffs, some straight line speed, a lot of try hard, but generally has poor possession and is poor defensively. Jim is correct in saying that he's the kind of outcome you hope for when signing an Undrafted FA from college.

Why anyone is arguing the merits of McLeod is beyond me.

 

[FinnishDevil]

- One of Bahl's better games. I thought he used his long stick better and broke up couple of plays. Also seemed more poised in the offensive blueline and got shots through.

- Starting to dig the Shara/Haula/Zetterlund line. I still dont think its a legit 3rd line and it will be broken up the moment Jack is back I would think but theyve shown some good chemistry in short time. I just wish Zetterlund will get regular minutes.

- In hindsight it might be good that Jack misses couple games, cause although we controlled the play and so on, it just felt like we were missing any game breaking talent most of the time. We had control but I felt like we did very little with it. This team still needs another gamechanger at the TDL even if we played fine.

- McLeod LOL

 

[Nocashstyle]

I still like Ohotiuk better than Bahl from their showings this year.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Consider me on board with Graves returning at this point as well. I hope he's open to it and flexible with the contract, that would be the trickiest aspect of it all.

I certainly hope that Luke can make a jump next year, but to leave the left defense solely in the hands of Siegenthaler, Smith and inexperienced players could come back to bite us. Bahl and Okhotiuk certainly haven't instilled confidence they can handle a greater load so far.

Not to mention Graves and Marino have shown to be a very strong pairing as well.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

I still like Ohotiuk better than Bahl from their showings this year.

Neither of their showings have inspired any confidence at all. I don't like one more than the other at the moment.

 

[Triumph]

McLeod blows.

He made a nice play. I'm happy he did it. I'd love for him to carve out a long NHL career. But, he should not be making more than just above league minimum, and I'd prefer that he do it somewhere other than the Devils.

McLeod is faceoffs, some straight line speed, a lot of try hard, but generally has poor possession and is poor defensively. Jim is correct in saying that he's the kind of outcome you hope for when signing an Undrafted FA from college.

Why anyone is arguing the merits of McLeod is beyond me.

That's just it - he isn't just those things. He has way better vision than you are giving him credit for. That's what separates him from being big Stephen Gionta, he can pass the puck decently. He's on pace for 20 assists this year - some of those are obviously faceoff wins, which, whatever, but he's not a minimum salary player for that reason.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Consider me on board with Graves returning at this point as well. I hope he's open to it and flexible with the contract, that would be the trickiest aspect of it all.

I certainly hope that Luke can make a jump next year, but to leave the left defense solely in the hands of Siegenthaler, Smith and inexperienced players could come back to bite us. Bahl and Okhotiuk certainly haven't instilled confidence they can handle a greater load so far.

Not to mention Graves and Marino have shown to be a very strong pairing as well.

The more I watch our defense, I get giddy for Hughes. I think by and large our defenders are pretty good transition players, but we don’t have any creators from the backend. Hamilton is a great shooter, but he’s not going to just conjure something out of nothing very often. Watching Hughes make guys look silly at the blue line is going to be awesome.

 

[JimEIV]

“Not taking this fly, it’s a disgrace. And this fly has only caught 2 fish per year for the last 6 years. But I love this fly….”

That is a real life scenario....

Flies need to be pretty and tied perfectly to make it to the carry boxes. You never know who's gonna look in.

I took the time to post this from the South Branch of the Raritan. Weatherman said upper 60's today but it's freaking cold right now and the stupid fish aren't cooperating with me.

 

[Saugus]

Consider me on board with Graves returning at this point as well. I hope he's open to it and flexible with the contract, that would be the trickiest aspect of it all.

I certainly hope that Luke can make a jump next year, but to leave the left defense solely in the hands of Siegenthaler, Smith and inexperienced players could come back to bite us. Bahl and Okhotiuk certainly haven't instilled confidence they can handle a greater load so far.

Not to mention Graves and Marino have shown to be a very strong pairing as well.

Graves can be mercurial at times, and make some baffling decisions. At least when Hamilton gets caught up ice, you know that his production makes up for the chances against he allows. But when Graves does it, it's inexplicable.

Being paired with Marino is the best thing for Graves, because Marino is the one carrying the pairing defensively. Graves on his own isn't nearly as good. Graves carrying a rookie could be catastrophic.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

McLeod blows.

He made a nice play. I'm happy he did it. I'd love for him to carve out a long NHL career. But, he should not be making more than just above league minimum, and I'd prefer that he do it somewhere other than the Devils.

McLeod is faceoffs, some straight line speed, a lot of try hard, but generally has poor possession and is poor defensively. Jim is correct in saying that he's the kind of outcome you hope for when signing an Undrafted FA from college.

Why anyone is arguing the merits of McLeod is beyond me.

This place had arguments during our W13, lmao

 

[Rhodes 81]

It's getting hard to remember the last convincing win. But the wins keep piling up.

In a lot of ways that's all that matters, since it's basically impossible that they fall out of the playoffs at this point. It would be good to get on a roll heading in though. This game would have looked more lopsided if the Devils could have pulled CBJ defenders out of the shooting lanes a bit more last night, but you really would love to throttle that team considering the players they had available.

And people don't think Graves should be re-signed.

Graves is great with someone like Marino, but he's a tire fire if he's expected to carry the pairing. I like a lot of his attributes, but I don't think he'll be good for playing with Hughes or any other rookies that he might end up with if he's brought back next year. He also infuriates me with the low% shots he takes sometimes.

I would not be mad about bringing him back, but I honestly think he drags Marino down and doesn't provide nearly the offense that Hamilton or Severson do to make up for their mistakes.

I still like Ohotiuk better than Bahl from their showings this year.

5v5	Corsi for %	xGF/60	xGA/60	xGF%	HDCF%	PDO
Bahl	49.23	2.85	2.42	54.11	54.65	0.983
Okhotiuk	45.73	2.9	2.42	54.53	53.19	1.028

They've been pretty identical, but Okhotiuk has gotten luckier with actual results. Neither one has played enough PK to make any assessment there. Both have had some games where you could really see it and some games where they were truly abysmal. I don't think either one is going to end up being much more than a solid #7/passable #6 on a good team, but we don't really need them to either. If we can get a cheap #7 that can step in and provide a +50% for for XG, HDC, and Corsi while also being far and away the two most physical D we have then that's a valuable asset to a contender.

 

[Nocashstyle]

5v5	Corsi for %	xGF/60	xGA/60	xGF%	HDCF%	PDO
Bahl	49.23	2.85	2.42	54.11	54.65	0.983
Okhotiuk	45.73	2.9	2.42	54.53	53.19	1.028

They've been pretty identical, but Okhotiuk has gotten luckier with actual results. Neither one has played enough PK to make any assessment there. Both have had some games where you could really see it and some games where they were truly abysmal. I don't think either one is going to end up being much more than a solid #7/passable #6 on a good team, but we don't really need them to either. If we can get a cheap #7 that can step in and provide a +50% for for XG, HDC, and Corsi while also being far and away the two most physical D we have then that's a valuable asset to a contender.

Bahl has almost played twice the number of games as Ohotiuk though….which can viewed in a few ways. But one argument in Ohotiuk’s favor would be he has been given less consistent chances to really get a feel for the NHL game, whereas Bahl has had a little more time and has dressed in more consecutive games

 

[Rhodes 81]

Bahl has almost played twice the number of games as Ohotiuk though….which can viewed in a few ways. But one argument in Ohotiuk’s favor would be he has been given less consistent chances to really get a feel for the NHL game, whereas Bahl has had a little more time and has dressed in more consecutive games

Definitely true, similar to how you can barely judge Holtz when he never plays consecutive games to get in a rhythm.

At the same time, Okhotiuk has only played 117 minutes even streak, so Bahl has proven it over nearly twice the sample size and maybe Okhotiuk was just riding a hot streak when he was playing. There's really no way to know which is which so that's where the eye test comes in. For my money, they've been pretty even there as well but I would give Bahl the slight edge. I really think either one provides the same value over the course of a season though. They're pretty interchangeable in my eyes.

 

[Nubmer6]

Definitely true, similar to how you can barely judge Holtz when he never plays consecutive games to get in a rhythm.

At the same time, Okhotiuk has only played 117 minutes even streak, so Bahl has proven it over nearly twice the sample size and maybe Okhotiuk was just riding a hot streak when he was playing. There's really no way to know which is which so that's where the eye test comes in. For my money, they've been pretty even there as well but I would give Bahl the slight edge. I really think either one provides the same value over the course of a season though. They're pretty interchangeable in my eyes.

I like that Okhotiuk is more physical. I also think that he had a slight advantage because he was fresh from playing in the AHL in some of his starts while Bahl was sitting on the bench for extended periods.

 

[Eggtimer]

Neither of their showings have inspired any confidence at all. I don't like one more than the other at the moment.

I like Okhotiuks physical game but he is a little behind Bahl for D awareness / gap control / .
I wonder how Mukhamadoulin will compare to the two . Hopefully out of the three guys we have a very solid NHl er . Maybe 2 .

 

[Rhodes 81]

I like Okhotiuks physical game but he is a little behind Bahl for D awareness / gap control / .
I wonder how Mukhamadoulin will compare to the two . Hopefully out of the three guys we have a very solid NHl er . Maybe 2 .

Okhotiuk is ludicrously physical (16 hits/60 compared to Smith being the next highest D on the team with less than half that). It is exceedingly rare that D can play the body that often and not get burned too much. Bahl's reach gives him an advantage there as well. I'd honestly like to see Okhotiuk tone the hitting down just a bit if he's going to be a long-term player and pick his spots a little more carefully.

Of course we haven't really seen Mukhamdullin play in North America yet, but the ceiling for the other two is bottom pairing and that should be more like the floor for him. The only way he's lower tier is if he ends up being completely incapable of adjusting to the NHL given his offensive skill is superior to the others.

 

[theoptimist]

McLeod blows.

He made a nice play. I'm happy he did it. I'd love for him to carve out a long NHL career. But, he should not be making more than just above league minimum, and I'd prefer that he do it somewhere other than the Devils.

McLeod is faceoffs, some straight line speed, a lot of try hard, but generally has poor possession and is poor defensively. Jim is correct in saying that he's the kind of outcome you hope for when signing an Undrafted FA from college.

Why anyone is arguing the merits of McLeod is beyond me.

I agree, he should volunteer to be on this team

 

[Guttersniped]

This is the stupid stuff that I am forced to do

I honestly never pictured you as a Polynesian Fire Dancer at a Fort Lauderdale Tiki-themed restaurant.

 

[Guttersniped]

Here’s Marino’s sexy sexy charts from Hockey Viz. NSFW.

Sadly I forget they only show which defenders he matched up against. (It was late lol).

Spoiler: Marino’s Hockey Viz Chart BDE

They also have this 5v5 Match-Up Diagram.

Spoiler: How to Read the Match-Up Diagrams

Spoiler: 5v5 Zone Deployment

Marino & Graves pairing are in Advanced Stats heaven

 

[Nico13]

Very late GWG lol

And scored by Graves.

These things only happen when I don't see.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

Glad we squeaked out the win. Not happy about looming at who the opponent is and that their 2 best D men were not playing (Werenski & Gavrikov). On to St Louis and probably another win haha.

 

[OmNomNom]

This is the stupid stuff that I am forced to do

you don't like a maitai and some kalua pig? come onnnnnnnnn

 

[Brodeur]

I'll laugh if the Columbus not getting (at least) a point somehow has an effect on the lottery results / draft position. In their season finale in 1999, Vancouver gave up a game winning goal with 4 seconds left in regulation. Had they gotten a tie, Vancouver would have flip flopped draft positions with the Islanders. Assuming the same lottery result, that would have been the difference between picking #3 and #5. So without yielding that late goal, Vancouver might not have been in a spot to get both Sedins.