GDT: Devils @ Rangers, 7 PM

[Emperoreddy]

Even little **** liek faceoffs is a problem. Either they can't win one, or when they do someone is bodied out of position or just straight sleeping and we lose possession anyway.

Bone headed cycle choices along the walls. To many times I see the puck softly cycled right to the other team instead of finding support in the zone. Failed clear attempts work the same way. Soft clears to the other team leading to an extra 30 seconds of zone time.

 

[CerebralGenesis]

3rd time in 9 games giving up 5 goals, ouch.

defense is trrible and corys been off lately

I don't particularly like our identity in our own end either but thats partly on the personnel being so bad. I wish we could get shattenkirk this summer but i have a fear our ownership isn't spending

 

[Kurt Cobain]

if they are trying to build something that is the complete opposite of the long term culture that has been built into this franchise's DNA (which not so coincidentally brought this team incredible success) then therein lies the problem. It's one thing to come in and make your mark by tweaking or evolving the existing culture, but you don't come in and try to tear it all down and rebuild it with something completely different. This is exactly what I feared when Lou left

Don't abolish the existing culture. Build upon and modernize it.

To be fair I don't think Shero has been given enough time to change a teams culture and philosophy completely. But when you look at what's been done we got rid of one of the best young defensive defensman who could play large minutes for a high scoring forward. Went after more offensively skilled wingers with less defensive ability. Brought in a more uptempo offense. He did everything we all wanted. We're scoring more but we've lost too much defensive skill on defense and upfront. We need to either fix that if we think we can make the playoffs. Or we just ride out a rough season and get a very high pick. I'd sign Elias, start playing Josefson, trade for quality defensive defensman, send Wood and Lappin back and maybe trade for a boring defensive mined winger or two. I liked having a more skilled 3rd and 4th lines but if there not gonna score what's the difference between them and guys like Zubrus, Gionta, Ruutu, Elias at least those guys knew had to play the defensive side of the game. Yeah they were old, boring and couldn't score but they could at least get the puck back from the other team. I'd rather be boring and have a chance to win than exciting and be embarassed out there.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Wow this second guessing the culture is real chicken little stuff.

Have you guys not watched this team after the lock out? This team's inability to score had been a gigantic hindrance. You can't hang back and expect to win 1-0 games in today's NHL.

We had a good record to start the year because we brought speed and a quicker transition game. **** poor play lately doesn't change the fact that this is the NHL now.

 

[Emperoreddy]

To be fair I don't think Shero has been given enough time to change a teams culture and philosophy completely. But when you look at what's been done we got rid of one of the best young defensive defensman who could play large minutes for a high scoring forward. Went after more offensively skilled wingers with less defensive ability. Brought in a more uptempo offense. He did everything we all wanted. We're scoring more but we've lost too much defensive skill on defense and upfront. We need to either fix that if we think we can make the playoffs. Or we just ride out a rough season and get a very high pick. I'd sign Elias, start playing Josefson, trade for quality defensive defensman, send Wood and Lappin back and maybe trade for a boring defensive mined winger or two. I liked having a more skilled 3rd and 4th lines but if there not gonna score what's the difference between them and guys like Zubrus, Gionta, Ruutu, Elias at least those guys knew had to play the defensive side of the game. Yeah they were old, boring and couldn't score but they could at least get the puck back from the other team. I'd rather be boring and have a chance to win than exciting and be embarassed out there.

Were you not watching during the Pete years? This team had zero potential and zero future with all the old and slow grinders.

If you honestly second guess Hall for Lars then today's NHL isn't for you. 31 out of 31 GMs make that trade in their sleep.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Wow this second guessing the culture is real chicken little stuff.

Have you guys not watched this team after the lock out? This team's inability to score had been a gigantic hindrance. You can't hang back and expect to win 1-0 games in today's NHL.

We had a good record to start the year because we brought speed and a quicker transition game. **** poor play lately doesn't change the fact that this is the NHL now.

You can only second guess the culture if there is one. What is this team's current culture/identity? I don't see it.

Modernizing or evolving the existing culture to meet the competitive needs of the current NHL is not the same thing as tearing it down and starting over. The former is the way it should be getting done, but I'm starting to get the sense that the latter is being attempted (and failing as expected).

 

[NJDevs26]

You can only second guess the culture if there is one. What is this team's current culture/identity? I don't see it.

Modernizing or evolving the existing culture to meet the competitive needs of the current NHL is not the same thing as tearing it down and starting over. The former is the way it should be getting done, but I'm starting to get the sense that the latter is being attempted (and failing as expected).

Well any culture gets bulit and legitimized on success. And clearly this organization hasn't had success for years, sure doesn't look like they're having it in year two of the Shero era.

But it was clear from day one they were looking to dump just about everything from the past...the theme song of the intro last year wasn't very subtle 'Welcome to the new age'.

 

[guitarguyvic]

And I'm sure I'll get **** for this but at what point do we put some question marks on when Cory really is an elite goalie that will be part of a competitive team in the future? This is his fourth season here and every single year he does this "slumping" bit that lasts like an entire month. I don't see someone like Carey Price going through month long "slumps" that result in his team winning less than 30% of their games. By the time Cory gets his **** together the season will be lost, same story as the last three seasons. I didn't have a problem with the trade at he time, but in retrospect perhaps having a #9 pick that would be NHL ready by now and using a stop gap goaltender while we rebuilt would have been the smarter option.

 

[MadDevil]

Personnel turnover is also not helping the cohesion problems. Hall, PAP, Bennett, Zacha, Wood, Lappin, Fiddler, Lovejoy, Quincey, Auvitu were not even on the team last year. In fact there are only 9 players that were here at the end of the Lou era (and 2 of those are the goalies). That's a lot of roster turnover for a team that is, at best, a bubble team.

Obviously that's no excuse for some of the **** poor efforts we've had of late though.

 

[Tundra]

Yeah there's no culture being built. What exactly is this team's identity? They foisted that goofy "fast attacking supportive" mantra on us but it sounds more like a meaningless shallow catchphrase than anything rooted in actual sound hockey strategy. What kind of team are Shero and Hynes trying to build? What is this team's calling card? What are they representing? I don't see it.

It's year #2. Lou left a smoldering ruin in terms of core pieces to build around. You probably won't see shades of Ray's team until year 4.

 

[Bleedred]

And I'm sure I'll get **** for this but at what point do we put some question marks on when Cory really is an elite goalie that will be part of a competitive team in the future? This is his fourth season here and every single year he does this "slumping" bit that lasts like an entire month. I don't see someone like Carey Price going through month long "slumps" that result in his team winning less than 30% of their games. By the time Cory gets his **** together the season will be lost, same story as the last three seasons. I didn't have a problem with the trade at he time, but in retrospect perhaps having a #9 pick that would be NHL ready by now and using a stop gap goaltender while we rebuilt would have been the smarter option.

Except Cory didn't slump like this last year. Nowhere near this.

He slumped like this to start 14-15 but completely turned it around before game 20. He's played over 20 now and things aren't getting better for him.

This year he deserves criticism, but he's the last player we should be critiquing for the two previous years. So I don't understand how this is the same story as the last 3 seasons. Not even close.

 

[Tundra]

If you need Cory to be a top 3 goaltender to qualify for the playoffs, then you need to start reassessing the roster. This isn't Cory's fault. This damage was done years ago and now we have to suck up the pain in the present.

 

[Kurt Cobain]

Were you not watching during the Pete years? This team had zero potential and zero future with all the old and slow grinders.

If you honestly second guess Hall for Lars then today's NHL isn't for you. 31 out of 31 GMs make that trade in their sleep.

Yeah I watched every game and we never used to get embarassed out there like this what's the point of playing third or fourth liners who if they aren't scoring are hurting you. Beau Bennet, smith pelly, Kalinin,etc they can't score and they can't play defense. Those guys I listed could play defense at the very least that's what they could do. Those guys aren't our future and they don't have much potential. Lappin and wood have potential but they're line get sticks deep for so long and so often. Send em back so they can work on some things. I wanna win I don't care if we're exciting or if people say on the main board the Devils aren't as boring as they used to be. If guys can't score they have to at the very least be able to play defense if not then they're not NHL players.

We need to pump the breaks on just putting more skilled and fast players out there with no defense ability. To much of that to quickly on the offense and defense is why we allow 35 shots every game and good teams get over 40 on us like its nothing. That's if we want to win this season. If we wanna play for the first overall pick we can just play young more skilled players and play for the future but we don't have the guys to do both.

 

[MissMyDevs*]

And I'm sure I'll get **** for this but at what point do we put some question marks on when Cory really is an elite goalie that will be part of a competitive team in the future? This is his fourth season here and every single year he does this "slumping" bit that lasts like an entire month. I don't see someone like Carey Price going through month long "slumps" that result in his team winning less than 30% of their games. By the time Cory gets his **** together the season will be lost, same story as the last three seasons. I didn't have a problem with the trade at he time, but in retrospect perhaps having a #9 pick that would be NHL ready by now and using a stop gap goaltender while we rebuilt would have been the smarter option.

Yep.

I can't remember the last time Cory stole a game for this team. I really think this team is in trouble. The answers we thought we had are starting to prove otherwise, but with that said Cory has never really had a superb defense in front of him. But still, I get what you're saying. I share the same opinion. I was never really stoked on him.

 

[Tundra]

Yeah I watched every game and we never used to get embarassed out there like this what's the point of playing third or fourth liners who if they aren't scoring are hurting you. Beau Bennet, smith pelly, Kalinin,etc they can't score and they can't play defense. Those guys I listed could play defense at the very least that's what they could do. Those guys aren't our future and they don't have much potential. Lappin and wood have potential but they're line get sticks deep for so long and so often. Send em back so they can work on some things. I wanna win I don't care if we're exciting or if people say on the main board the Devils aren't as boring as they used to be. If guys can't score they have to at the very least be able to play defense if not then they're not NHL players.

We need to pump the breaks on just putting more skilled and fast players out there with no defense ability. To much of that to quickly on the offense and defense is why we allow 35 shots every game and good teams get over 40 on us like its nothing. That's if we want to win this season. If we wanna play for the first overall pick we can just play young more skilled players and play for the future but we don't have the guys to do both.

I'd rather lose than see them try to bore people to death '2 to 1' with gimmicks. This season and the next are throwaways. It's time to take inventory and develop players as opposed to locking it down for false hope.

 

[Sir Fenwick Corsi]

I know you can't base too much off of preseason or the first couple weeks of the season for that matter, but I was actually prepared for this team to take a step back this year. I just didn't see a strong team developing. I know last season's roster wasn't really a good one, but that group totally overperformed and set the bar too high for this year's team. Just my opinion of course. For me, playoffs were always a long shot at best, but I honestly didnt think we would see games this bad. They've been straight up awful for almost a month now.

You add Hall but lose Lars, which has also taken game away from Andy Greene. That's our entire first defensive unit that played heavy minutes against the opposition's best players last season. It's a huge loss. Greene is getting up there now but there is no denying that he's a better player along side Larsson. I don't think people are realizing how much of a blow this has been to this team.

NJ can look fairly decent against the bottom 5 to 10 teams in the league but aside from a couple games here and there, I think the better clubs really outclass the Devils for the most part. Not surprising considering the roster limitations and the fact that teams have now hit their strides. The devils are getting left in the dust. Superstar goaltending from Cory was the only card they had but pucks just aren't hitting him as frequently.

All that being said, the devils aren't the worst team in the league, but they're certainly performing as such. They can get at least a little more from this roster and they have to because there are still 4 months to go in the season. This can get really ugly. Maybe Hynes and some of these players just aren't the ones to figure it out. I don't envy shero one bit right now.

 

[Tundra]

Yep.

I can't remember the last time Cory stole a game for this team. I really think this team is in trouble. The answers we thought we had are starting to prove otherwise, but with that said Cory has never really had a superb defense in front of him. But still, I get what you're saying. I share the same opinion. I was never really stoked on him.

The hard part of the schedule hasn't even begun yet. In all honesty, how many pts do you see them getting through this Dec stretch? Maybe 4/5?

@ St. Louis
@ Ottawa
@ NYR
Nashville
Phila
@ Pitt
Pitt
@ Wash
Wash

 

[Emperoreddy]

Look at the Pitt team that won the cup last year. Going backwards is not the way.

Hell even Lou can't build teams like he used to and he knows it. The focus in Toronto is skill as well.

Also leaving this at the feet of Cory is nuts. He is having a real bad stretch, but to question his ability when his whole career says otherwise is just foolish.

Why are the Rags atop the East? Fast, scoring at will. Why is Philly streaking right now? Fast, scoring at will. How did Pitt win a cup last year? Fast, scoring at will.

The only current teams left trying to win like we did before the lock out is Boston (mediocre team), St. Louis the choke artists, and whatever is left of the Kings.

 

[Devils Dominion]

If you need Cory to be a top 3 goaltender to qualify for the playoffs, then you need to start reassessing the roster. This isn't Cory's fault. This damage was done years ago and now we have to suck up the pain in the present.

Well said.

The good start may have unfairly raised fans'expectations.

The rebuild is still in its early stages.

I had posted in the preseason that I did not like what I saw in those games.

We are better than these past 3 games but just don't have enough to make the jump to playoff team IMO.

Adding Shatty and a #1 center this summer would speed up the process

 

[MadDevil]

Can we please stop with this after the fact ******** when Cory has done everything possible to help this team for most of the time he's been here? He's had like a 9 game stretch here where he's struggled. Henrique disappears for 20+ game stretches. How about we keep a little perspective here?

 

[Bleedred]

I think Schneider has had 2 sub .900 save percentage months in his entire Devils career before this November. An .892 in 6 games during December of 2013 and an .865 in 7 games back in March of 2014.

He had an .875 in April of 2015 but that was only 3 stinkin games. And an .861 in 2 games in March of 2016 but do we really need to count that either? He played 100 minutes that month. That's 5 periods of play. He was injured in that 100th minute and didn't come back until the next month.

Even in that terrible October of 2014, he had a .906 for the month. Last year's Vezina winner had a .909 in January and a .903 in February, for crying out loud! Granted, Cory has been considerably worse than that since November but that goes to show you that other elite goalies have below average months too. They don't perform at 92% rate EVERY game ALL year long.

Price is probably the only goaltender that doesn't have at least one below average month in a season over the last couple of years. Even Lundqvist has performed at the level of 2010-2012 Marty for the last calendar year. I think Cory could have a down year, much like Rask did last season, who has bounced back this year. But a down year for Cory or Rask are pretty much how a dead average goalie performs in a normal season. That's assuming he finishes around a .915 or so for the season.

Look it up under splits if you don't believe me. You can look him up month by month.

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/s/schneco01.html

 

[Emperoreddy]

If you want to go back to that utter crap that was Pete and Lou's last couple of years...man I don't even know what to tell you.

There was nothing to hang our hats on there. Our forward cupboard was as bare as it could get. It was clear Lars was not going to be a Norris level number 1.

We had a boring product on the ice that could not win at all. Hot goalie, tough building of course.

 

[guitarguyvic]

If you need Cory to be a top 3 goaltender to qualify for the playoffs, then you need to start reassessing the roster. This isn't Cory's fault. This damage was done years ago and now we have to suck up the pain in the present.

That makes no sense. He needs to be a top 3 goalie because that's what we traded a #9 pick for. If he's not going to be a difference maker then we should have kept the pick and used a stop gap tender in the meantime. That's exactly my point.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Can we please stop with this after the fact ******** when Cory has done everything possible to help this team for most of the time he's been here? He's had like a 9 game stretch here where he's struggled. Henrique disappears for 20+ game stretches. How about we keep a little perspective here?

The calls for trading Rico are just as ridiculous. His career shows he is a much better player then this. I don't know what is going on, but fan's throwing him to the curb like this is just as overblown.

 

[Emperoreddy]

That makes no sense. He needs to be a top 3 goalie because that's what we traded a #9 pick for. If he's not going to be a difference maker then we should have kept the pick and used a stop gap tender in the meantime. That's exactly my point.

Your point is as bunk as bunk gets. He is in a slump and you want to throw the baby out with the bath water with this second guessing crap.

This game wasn't even on him tonight. Team left him out to dry.