Post-Game Talk: Devils fall to the Sabres 5-3 (We lost to this f'n team..AGAIN?!?!)

[devilsblood]

Buffalo having 9 wins is horrific. The Devils having four losses to a team with 9 wins is even worse. That's insanely bad.

Obviously skewed due to the schedule, but yeah, Buff is a bad team that last night was without 2 of it's top players.

I'm less interested in wins and losses right now then I am with the team playing well but you have to win some games in order to keep the head right. Continue to rack up the losses and it will surely effect confidence, and that will lead to negative pressure on development.

 

[OmNomNom]

Except only one of them is Finnish.

Oh oops you're right

My pun wasn't as swede as I made it out to be

 

[FinnishDevil]

Wedgewood was bad, you can't let 5 goals at 16 shots at this level.

I bet he was sliding out of the picture on that Risto goal.

Serious though, yeah he was pretty bad.

My pun wasn't as swede as I made it out to be

Jesus..

 

[Triumph]

Obviously skewed due to the schedule, but yeah, Buff is a bad team that last night was without 2 of it's top players.

I'm less interested in wins and losses right now then I am with the team playing well but you have to win some games in order to keep the head right. Continue to rack up the losses and it will surely effect confidence, and that will lead to negative pressure on development.

The Sabres coming into last night were 7-5-2 when Ullmark has a decision and 2-18-4 when he doesn't. They are an okay team with Ullmark and a disaster with any of their other goalies in net.

 

[NJDevs26]

Obviously he’s their best goalie but that’s still only four wins in eleven games against non Devils teams.

 

[Call Me Al]

they’re 3-5-2 when ullmark plays teams other than the devils

 

[Guttersniped]

Buffalo having 9 wins is horrific. The Devils having four losses to a team with 9 wins is even worse. That's insanely bad.

I’m going to keep doing this.

The thing about the Sabres is that while they were struggling a bit they were actually ok until we 1) COVIDed them 2) took out Ullmark, their one NHL goalie, for a month (which with this schedule is a shit ton of games).

That’s right, the Sabres infamous streak started with the loss where we took out their one good goalie and they used three other ones whose combined record is: 1-18-3 (We played them once during the streak after that game that started it.)
That one win is when Hutton beat the Flyers in mid-January btw.

Ullmark is 8-5-3, .919, 2.49

He’s can be an excellent goalie when he’s healthy (he’s very injury prone.)

Two teams played him four times, the Caps and us.
He’s 4-0-0 against us (which is sad, but they also had a great PP in the 1st three games when our PK sucked & Wedge was bad this game.)

He’s 1-2-1 against the Caps and his two regulation losses to the Caps are 1-2 and 1-3.

He’s played the Rangers three times: 2-0-1

He’s played Flyers twice: 1-0-1

He played the Bruins once: 0-1-0 in a 2-3 loss

He’s played the Isles twice, 0-2-0, 3-1 and 2-3 losses.

He hasn’t played the Pens

Ullmark’s first four games back before this one: 2-3 loss to the Bruins, 4-3 OT loss to the Flyers, 6-1 win over the Flyers and 3-2 win over the Rangers.

Honestly, the Sabres will likely win some more games now with Ullmark back and now that they are trading mopey pants so he isn’t bumming the kids out in the locker room with his sadness. We won games at the end 2019-20 because we were energized by strong goalie play and some players getting hot. That’s how seasons work. Nashville is on a 10-2-0 streak, teams run hot and cold and injuries are one of the direct causes of that.

Everyone acts likes when a team loses a lot it’s essential nature is “garbage” and they don’t look for the reasons why. People knowledgeable about the Sabres knew that they f***ed themselves by not improving their goaltending because Ullmark was injury prone, their 35 yo back-up sucked (and Hutton got injured during the streak as well) and they really had no other NHL quality goalies in their system. Surprise! They were right.

They aren’t the Capitals, as you can see they don’t often give enough goal support to their very good goalie so a bad goalie is automatic loss. Eichel started the season injured them preceded to get more injured until they shut him down and the dreamed pairing of Jack-Taylor didn’t go as planned. Scoring was an issue. But goaltending killed them, Krueger had the team play a very defensive style that kind of worked with Ullmark and did not work with every other goalie they put out there.

 

[devilsblood]

The Sabres coming into last night were 7-5-2 when Ullmark has a decision and 2-18-4 when he doesn't. They are an okay team with Ullmark and a disaster with any of their other goalies in net.

I think that is fair, Ullmark can be a difference maker, and we have certainly seen that ourselves.

But he wasn't the difference maker last night. We made too many mistakes which led to goals against.

 

[glenwo2]

they’re 3-5-2 when ullmark plays teams other than the devils

So if the Sabres(with Ullmark in net) faced the Devils for entire (normal without Covid) season, they might win 80 games.

 

[ninetyeight]

I bet he was sliding out of the picture on that Risto goal.

Yeah pretty ironic that I blamed him for the ENG after calling out people for not watching the game

 

[NJ Fan 12]

Are some of you guys actually watching the games or just looking at the final score. The Devils looked great and absolutely dominated the Sabres. Shots 30 to 16. Wedgewood was bad, you can't let 5 goals at 16 shots at this level. He over plays, huge moves left to right and couldn't even stop a straight shot with no screen. The cross ice onetimers I'll allow but an NHL caliber goalie will sometimes make those saves too.

But I'm not mad I thought all lines looked good, D could have been better, but all game I felt the Devils would surely win it. But the Sabres went full on Capitals against us and scored 5 goals with 16 shots.

To turn that around, are you watching the game or simply viewing the box score?

The overwhelming majority of the Devils' 30 shots were one-and-dones with little traffic and few second opportunities. Conversely, three of the four goals allowed by Scott Wedgewood were the result of quick chance turnovers and were scored in prime scoring areas. One soft goal shouldn't lose a game. The lack of thoroughness and responsible play in both ends is the difference in winning and losing in the NHL.

 

[Triumph]

I think that is fair, Ullmark can be a difference maker, and we have certainly seen that ourselves.

But he wasn't the difference maker last night. We made too many mistakes which led to goals against.

You are right - the difference in net last night was Wedgewood, who was awful.

 

[Billdo]

You are right - the difference in net last night was Wedgewood, who was awful.

And has been pretty much all year aside from his two shutouts IIRC.

 

[NJ Fan 12]

Remember when Matt Tennyson was playing and we were winning games?

Unless he isn't healthy or has had other issues with which the public is unaware there is no excuse that with the struggles Sami Vatanen had earlier in the year and with the way Severson has played the last 8-10 games that Tennyson has not slotted back into the lineup even once since February.

 

[devilsblood]

You are right - the difference in net last night was Wedgewood, who was awful.

Won't argue against this either.

Still doesn't take away from the fact that turnovers in your own zone lead to dangerous opportunities against, and last night we were guilty of these type of turnovers. It's something we need to clean up.

I said it above I'm not to worried about wins an losses except for the effect it can have on the teams psyche. Conversely maybe poor goal tending helps reinforce the notion that we need to be more responsible with the puck. We also need to be better at finishing our own chances. 4th worst shooting % in the league.

 

[Guttersniped]

The overwhelming majority of the Devils' 30 shots were one-and-dones with little traffic and few second opportunities. Conversely, three of the four goals allowed by Scott Wedgewood were the result of quick chance turnovers and were scored in prime scoring areas.

 

[Guttersniped]

 

[ninetyeight]

To turn that around, are you watching the game or simply viewing the box score?

The overwhelming majority of the Devils' 30 shots were one-and-dones with little traffic and few second opportunities. Conversely, three of the four goals allowed by Scott Wedgewood were the result of quick chance turnovers and were scored in prime scoring areas. One soft goal shouldn't lose a game. The lack of thoroughness and responsible play in both ends is the difference in winning and losing in the NHL.

We can debate if the goals were soft, I thought at least two of them were. The second goal Wedge was all over the place, and the Dahlin goal was a straight shot from bad angle, he was badly positioned, he’s smaller and has slower reflexes compared to Blackwood. Yeah sure the loss isn’t all on Wedgewood, but it doesn’t look good when almost all good chances go in.

The Devils had way more chances than the Sabres, some ”one and done with little traffic”, but also bunch of great chances. The possession and ozone time were all Devils, the Sabres got few lucky chances and capitalized on most of them. If you thought the Sabres played better then we just have to disagree.

 

[Camille the Eel]

Obviously skewed due to the schedule, but yeah, Buff is a bad team that last night was without 2 of it's top players.

I'm less interested in wins and losses right now then I am with the team playing well but you have to win some games in order to keep the head right. Continue to rack up the losses and it will surely effect confidence, and that will lead to negative pressure on development.

With losses piling up and talk about the departure of key pieces like Palms, Kulikov and Murray, the season is at a delicate point. We've done some good thing this year and made progress but it can easily turn into a full tank and shit show from here in particularly if we strip the defense in order to get some mid round draft picks right now. This is the most critical moment of the year in my view. We need to regather ourselves and our resolution for a positive final 20 games that doesn't result in a demoralized team and the feeling that we are starting from scratch again next year. Last night's aimless sort of losing focus in the third period has to be avoided. The goal here is to build a winning system and culture for the future.

 

[devilsblood]

With losses piling up and talk about the departure of key pieces like Palms, Kulikov and Murray, the season is at a delicate point. We've done some good thing this year and made progress but it can easily turn into a full tank and shit show from here in particularly if we strip the defense in order to get some mid round draft picks right now. This is the most critical moment of the year in my view. We need to regather ourselves and our resolution for a positive final 20 games that doesn't result in a demoralized team and the feeling that we are starting from scratch again next year. Last night's aimless sort of losing focus in the third period has to be avoided. The goal here is to build a winning system and culture for the future.

I'm with you, I'm hoping we keep Murry and or Kulikov. I"m not so focused on wins, but I'd like to see us battle through here and win enough games for the season not too spiral, keep spirits up, and get some positive momentum heading into next year.

 

[Patrik26]

I'll keep it quick to save time :

Tyce got his first NHL point so congrats to him.

Bratt got a goal, then an assist to a Pavel Zacha goal.


Aside from that, everything else sucked Moose You-know-what.


No highlights this time.

Just the polls.

And this :



Have fun, everyone.

4 out of 20 at home. One ringy-dingy. Can we interest you in season tickets for 2021-22? CLICK.

 

[Guttersniped]

Won't argue against this either.

Still doesn't take away from the fact that turnovers in your own zone lead to dangerous opportunities against, and last night we were guilty of these type of turnovers. It's something we need to clean up.

I said it above I'm not to worried about wins an losses except for the effect it can have on the teams psyche. Conversely maybe poor goal tending helps reinforce the notion that we need to be more responsible with the puck. We also need to be better at finishing our own chances. 4th worst shooting % in the league.

I don’t think Ulmark was magically fantastic, but he got the job done.

No one should blame just Wedgewood but he had a bad game. The Johnsson-Zajac-Merkley line was a horror show and their mistakes ended up in the net too many times. It happens. Merkley has only played 17 NHL games, he’s learning how unforgiving the NHL is.

Johnsson’s brain did seem to turn off during that game at times and I hope that’s more due to overall fatigue rather than a built-in feature. (And people can keep fantasize about Fitz buying out his contract but that’s not going to happen.)

 

[devilsblood]

I don’t think Ulmark was magically fantastic, but he got job done.

No one should blame just Wedgewood but he had a bad game. The Johnsson-Zajac-Merkley line was a horror show and their mistakes ended up in the net too many times. It happens. Merkley has only played 17 NHL games, he’s learning how unforgiving the NHL is.

Johnsson’s brain did seem to turn off during that game at times and I hope that’s more due to overall fatigue rather than a built-in feature. (And people can keep fantasize about Fitz buying out his contract but that’s not going to happen.)

I'm growing colder on Johnsson. I thought he looked pretty good early despite the lack of production, but the continued lack of production coupled with a seeming increase in miscues has me ready to anoint him as the 13th fwd.

I'm also not killing Merkley for that Dahlin goal, sure he played it wrong, but breakdowns are often followed by further breakdowns, the chain of events had already started.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Yeah pretty ironic that I blamed him for the ENG after calling out people for not watching the game

Some say he's still sliding to the corner to this day.

Let me just sliiiiiide over and read this tweet.

Let me just sliiiiiide over and read this tweet.

 

[Camille the Eel]

I'm with you, I'm hoping we keep Murry and or Kulikov. I"m not so focused on wins, but I'd like to see us battle through here and win enough games for the season not too spiral, keep spirits up, and get some positive momentum heading into next year.

And a team identity, style of play, and sense that we’ve installed and are teaching a system, that we have some cohesion and personnel and hierarchy within the locker room.