Devils Team Discussion (current team/player news and notes) ‎2014-2015 Part Xl

[StvBroDan]

Continue - lots of injury in our loss to the Pens

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[Emperoreddy]

Continue - lots of injury in our loss to the Pens

WEll everyone is still with the team. Wouldn't be shocked if Jagr and Gio play.

 

[StvBroDan]

WEll everyone is still with the team. Wouldn't be shocked if Jagr and Gio play.

I hope so and Patty needs a rest sooo that may not hurt.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I hope so and Patty needs a rest sooo that may not hurt.

I hope Zajac isn't shelved forever, and I would like to get Merrill back next game. Doubt he plays for Harrold or Zids at this point.

Then again if we want to trade Zids we can't scratch him or his value will plummet.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I hope Zajac is shelved forever, and I would like to get Merrill back next game. Doubt he plays for Harrold or Zids at this point.

Then again if we want to trade Zids we can't scratch him or his value will plummet.

Of course Merrill will play when he's healthy, he'll just take Larsson out.

 

[StvBroDan]

I hope Zajac is shelved forever, and I would like to get Merrill back next game. Doubt he plays for Harrold or Zids at this point.

Then again if we want to trade Zids we can't scratch him or his value will plummet.

Yeah Zajac skates around like a kid that lost his dog. No confidence what so ever. I thought Jager was going to smack him the other night.

 

[RSeen]

I'm honestly not even interested in watching games right now. This team is playing really boring hockey. We have no dynamic forwards at all. We are a damn boring team right now. I am fine with tanking this season for a good offensive prospect. Can't see us going anywhere anyways.

 

[Devils090]

so we cant worry about points according to Lou

makes sense

 

[Emperoreddy]

so we cant worry about points according to Lou

makes sense

“That’s something that’s always behind your mind, but it can’t be in the forefront,†Lamoriello said of the standings. “Right now, you have to do everything necessary to get the points. You can’t worry about the points. Those take care of themselves. We’ve got to get our total game together to have success. To this point, we haven’t had that.â€

You missed the point. He is saying they need to focus on not playing like **** first.

 

[DenisSamson3]

“That’s something that’s always behind your mind, but it can’t be in the forefront,†Lamoriello said of the standings. “Right now, you have to do everything necessary to get the points. You can’t worry about the points. Those take care of themselves. We’ve got to get our total game together to have success. To this point, we haven’t had that.â€

You missed the point. He is saying they need to focus on not playing like **** first.

Or Babcock's mentality."win a period at a time". That's what this team needs, those periods will eventually lead to a full game consistent effort.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Or Babcock's mentality."win a period at a time". That's what this team needs, those periods will eventually lead to a full game consistent effort.

Ya. Need to get back to the basics. Get the fundimentals back and build from there. They aren't going to score much no matter who is playing when confidence is shot. If they find any groove a few more will come.

I guess its one of the positives to take from the last game. They tightened up and played some more solid hockey and they stuck with Pitt all night and was out shooting them for most of the night. Some bad luck and a mountain of injurys sort of buried their chances. They really didn't play bad (especially compared to the ship wrecks the last few games were including the islander game)

Guess that is what Lou means. If they play a more sound game like last night compared to the Canada disaster results and confidence will follow.

Of course easier said then done. They actually have to show up to play every night and not take periods off anymore.

I'm not holding my breath but we shall see I guess if they learned anything from last night.

 

[MadDevil]

This team is just baffling. They actually play a pretty good game against a good team while seemingly half the forwards are out, yet when they're relatively healthy they can't put more than 30-40 minutes of a game together.

 

[slammer]

I just don`t know how to fix this anymore...new coach and 1-2 forwards, please. good forwards. young ones...

this team lacks of top6 players with long-term binding to NJ

 

[MadDevil]

The truly depressing thing is I don't see how we get much better next year. Our older players are only going to be older. We don't have any young guys in the system ready to step into the top six. At best we might have Boucher and Matteau in the bottom six. There isn't much out there in free agency this summer. The only way we're really going to improve is to move one of the kids for some forward help. Unless we take the longer term approach and just embrace being bad for another couple years and add some higher end forwards in the draft. Or maybe a little of both.

 

[Unknown Caller]

I just don`t know how to fix this anymore...new coach and 1-2 forwards, please. good forwards. young ones...

this team lacks of top6 players with long-term binding to NJ

Goaltending is fine, defense needs to continue developing. The team needs to add one or two elite young forwards (needs to be done through the draft) and they'll be contenders. The huge question mark is how they get those marquee forwards, because without them they're spinning their wheels.

 

[Unknown Caller]

The truly depressing thing is I don't see how we get much better next year. Our older players are only going to be older. We don't have any young guys in the system ready to step into the top six. At best we might have Boucher and Matteau in the bottom six. There isn't much out there in free agency this summer. The only way we're really going to improve is to move one of the kids for some forward help. Unless we take the longer term approach and just embrace being bad for another couple years and add some higher end forwards in the draft. Or maybe a little of both.

Draft. Draft. Draft. I just hope Lou doesn't spend money on average free agents next off-season to burden the cap and continue mediocrity. Just let the next couple seasons play out, add offensive talent through the draft, and allow the kids on defense to mature and get playing time. At that point, you would hopefully have whatever talent you get through the draft in the next two years plus a seasoned/developed Larsson, Severson, Merrill, Gelinas, Santini, Matteau, Boucher, Quenneville, etc.

 

[MadDevil]

Draft. Draft. Draft. I just hope Lou doesn't spend money on average free agents next off-season to burden the cap and continue mediocrity. Just let the next couple seasons play out, add offensive talent through the draft, and allow the kids on defense to mature and get playing time. At that point, you would hopefully have whatever talent you get through the draft in the next two years plus a seasoned/developed Larsson, Severson, Merrill, Gelinas, Santini, Matteau, Boucher, Quenneville, etc.

We're going to need stopgaps of some sort. I just hope he avoids handing out anymore Clowe like contracts. One or two year deals like he did with Jagr, Ryder, Brunner, Havlat are fine. Just don't commit to anything longer term.

 

[MichaelJ]

Use the draft and make a trade. We can bounce back quicker than people realize...but it has to be part of some plan, not just flying by the seat of our pants

 

[devilsblood]

The truly depressing thing is I don't see how we get much better next year. Our older players are only going to be older. We don't have any young guys in the system ready to step into the top six. At best we might have Boucher and Matteau in the bottom six. There isn't much out there in free agency this summer. The only way we're really going to improve is to move one of the kids for some forward help. Unless we take the longer term approach and just embrace being bad for another couple years and add some higher end forwards in the draft. Or maybe a little of both.

The young d-man for a young fwd swap has made sense for a year now, and with more and more guys looking NHL ready(not to mention not waiver eligible) it makes more and more sense as we move fwd.

Edmonton looks like a pretty logical trade partner.

Add that to a high pick this offseason(not to mention a high 2nd rnder, and no d-man dang it) and it could look a lot better pretty quickly.

 

[MichaelJ]

The young d-man for a young fwd swap has made sense for a year now, and with more and more guys looking NHL ready(not to mention not waiver eligible) it makes more and more sense as we move fwd.

Edmonton looks like a pretty logical trade partner.

Add that to a high pick this offseason(not to mention a high 2nd rnder, and no d-man dang it) and it could look a lot better pretty quickly.

From Edmonton I'd try and grab Eberle. Tank and draft a top fwd. Use whatever we get at the deadline plus other assets to add another fwd. All of a sudden things aren't so bleak.

 

[tailfins]

The young d-man for a young fwd swap has made sense for a year now, and with more and more guys looking NHL ready(not to mention not waiver eligible) it makes more and more sense as we move fwd.

I'm not sure that the Devils' young defense have as much value around the league as we'd like. Larsson perhaps, since he was #4 overall. Severson, perhaps, since he burst out of the gate so strongly. But, the defense doesn't really have much buzz, and they don't really have that strong a pedigree. To me, you're either trading our D for a salary dump (Eberle, if Edmonton wanted to get out of that contract), or for something unproven (Larsson for Baertschi, Gelinas for Brett Connolly).

Think of it this way, would we have been excited to do a Henrique for TJ Brodie trade last year? Brodie's having another great year this year, but it's hard to tell how much is him vs. how much is playing with Giordano. Plus, Brodie isn't exactly a household name, was a fourth round pick, and hasn't been a huge point producer before. How much value do you really assign to Brodie? If you wouldn't do a deal where you give up young forward talent for Brodie, it's hard to see anyone else doing the same for the Devils D.

 

[Cheddabombs]

I'm not sure that the Devils' young defense have as much value around the league as we'd like. Larsson perhaps, since he was #4 overall. Severson, perhaps, since he burst out of the gate so strongly. But, the defense doesn't really have much buzz, and they don't really have that strong a pedigree. To me, you're either trading our D for a salary dump (Eberle, if Edmonton wanted to get out of that contract), or for something unproven (Larsson for Baertschi, Gelinas for Brett Connolly).

Think of it this way, would we have been excited to do a Henrique for TJ Brodie trade last year? Brodie's having another great year this year, but it's hard to tell how much is him vs. how much is playing with Giordano. Plus, Brodie isn't exactly a household name. How much value do you really assign to Brodie? If you wouldn't do a deal where you give up young forward talent for Brodie, it's hard to see anyone else doing the same for the Devils D.

There's no way for us to know this for certain. Unless you value media buzz enough to think that it transitions seamlessly to buzz around NHL GM's. Merrill is a very solid young defensemen, we know that, and it's more than likely that NHL GM's are aware of this as well. Gelinas is what he is, an offensive defenseman with a cannon for a shot. High risk/high reward player that really hasn't been as much PP time as he should be. Santini should be well regarded around the league as well, he's probably going to be Team USA's captain at the WJC if healthy. Even Bob Mckenzie had great things to say about him in his latest piece about the USA WJC prelim rosters.

So to say our prospects don't hold much value league-wide as we think is preposterous. There could be a case for or against it, but we just don't know.

 

[tailfins]

There's no way for us to know this for certain. Unless you value media buzz enough to think that it transitions seamlessly to buzz around NHL GM's. Merrill is a very solid young defensemen, we know that, and it's more than likely that NHL GM's are aware of this as well. Gelinas is what he is, an offensive defenseman with a cannon for a shot. High risk/high reward player that really hasn't been as much PP time as he should be. Santini should be well regarded around the league as well, he's probably going to be Team USA's captain at the WJC if healthy. Even Bob Mckenzie had great things to say about him in his latest piece about the USA WJC prelim rosters.

So to say our prospects don't hold much value league-wide as we think is preposterous. There could be a case for or against it, but we just don't know.

Absolutely fair. I was just pointing out that it's not as simple as we might like to swap one of our young D for a young, impact forward.

 

[Tundra]

Absolutely fair. I was just pointing out that it's not as simple as we might like to swap one of our young D for a young, impact forward.

well put.

 

[Camille the Eel]

I liked Scott Stevens' point that teams don't score consistently from the perimeter - that you need to get pucks and players around the front of the net.

If you remember, the Devil's training camp and exhibition games were about that. They [we] were practicing a system of short give and go passes, head manning the puck, and getting it to the opponent's goal crease. But they've abandoned that principle or forgot about it game-by-game over the course of the first quarter of the season. I'd love to see them get back to that.

It's not inconsistent, or I don't believe it's inconsistent, with playing responsible man on man defense.