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

[guitarguyvic]

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.

Haven’t you heard...none of that matters...as long as we have a bunch of prospects with “potential” and make trades that we “win” it will all just come together automagically.

 

[NJ Fan 12]

Now

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.

Nowhere did I say the Sabres were better - only that the Devils didn't do the things necessary to win a hockey game.

At the beginning of the season the coaching staff said that the lineup would be based on performance and not experience or the size of a player's contract.

Forty games in and some of the same players are playing the same way and apparently only Nikita Gusev has been held accountable. While the losses accumulate.

 

[My3Sons]

Now


Nowhere did I say the Sabres were better - only that the Devils didn't do the things necessary to win a hockey game.

At the beginning of the season the coaching staff said that the lineup would be based on performance and not experience or the size of a player's contract.

Forty games in and some of the same players are playing the same way and apparently only Nikita Gusev has been held accountable. While the losses accumulate.

I think the problem is that right now, they are sort of maxed out on NHL players. You could sit Smith for a game and play Butcher but Kulikov and Murray have largely been fine. Sevs and Subban have largely been fine. Vats has been shaky to me, but who plays for him if Ruff wants a right handed guy? Maybe Jacobs? But he for whatever reason can't get over the AAAA hurdle. Up front who will play for Johnsson? Palms is held out, Bastian is held out, and unless you want to call up Seney I'm not sure what the alternatives are. You can say Foote, but I'd let him continue to work on his game out of the limelight. Why rush him to punish Johnsson or whoever? I think this will get sorted after the TDL anyway. You'd expect one or both of Kulikov and Murray to go, Palms to go, and maybe Zajac. At that point, spots open up. For what it's worth, some of the recent losses have been down to bad goaltending and they've been rotated so you can only hope one or both get their game together. I guess you could try Dell next game and see if he offers anything.

 

[Guttersniped]

I think the problem is that right now, they are sort of maxed out on NHL players. You could sit Smith for a game and play Butcher but Kulikov and Murray have largely been fine. Sevs and Subban have largely been fine. Vats has been shaky to me, but who plays for him if Ruff wants a right handed guy? Maybe Jacobs? But he for whatever reason can't get over the AAAA hurdle. Up front who will play for Johnsson? Palms is held out, Bastian is held out, and unless you want to call up Seney I'm not sure what the alternatives are. You can say Foote, but I'd let him continue to work on his game out of the limelight. Why rush him to punish Johnsson or whoever? I think this will get sorted after the TDL anyway. You'd expect one or both of Kulikov and Murray to go, Palms to go, and maybe Zajac. At that point, spots open up. For what it's worth, some of the recent losses have been down to bad goaltending and they've been rotated so you can only hope one or both get their game together. I guess you could try Dell next game and see if he offers anything.

Jacobs turned 25 in February, he’s not a prospect at this point.

It not up to us to decide what accountable means. because it’s the coaches who are trying to teach, motivate and develop these players. (In hellish season.) I’m personally not a fan of scratching young players after one bad game.

Gusev was on the ice for what was a mind boggling number of goals against so him getting singled out and sat actually isn’t surprising to me.

 

[NJ Fan 12]

I think the problem is that right now, they are sort of maxed out on NHL players. You could sit Smith for a game and play Butcher but Kulikov and Murray have largely been fine. Sevs and Subban have largely been fine. Vats has been shaky to me, but who plays for him if Ruff wants a right handed guy? Maybe Jacobs? But he for whatever reason can't get over the AAAA hurdle. Up front who will play for Johnsson? Palms is held out, Bastian is held out, and unless you want to call up Seney I'm not sure what the alternatives are. You can say Foote, but I'd let him continue to work on his game out of the limelight. Why rush him to punish Johnsson or whoever? I think this will get sorted after the TDL anyway. You'd expect one or both of Kulikov and Murray to go, Palms to go, and maybe Zajac. At that point, spots open up. For what it's worth, some of the recent losses have been down to bad goaltending and they've been rotated so you can only hope one or both get their game together. I guess you could try Dell next game and see if he offers anything.

Defensively, I thought Tennyson's play at the beginning of the year merited more than the handful of games he played (have to believe there were health or other issues). It seems that neither Jacobs nor White took the steps necessary to earn the trust of the staff after seemingly making strides in Binghamton last year.

Based on their play this season I would hope that neither Murray nor Kulikov would be sent elsewhere.