GDT: Devils vs. Bruins - Preseason - 7:00 PM

[Hisch13r]

I would agree if Carrick and Mueller didn't look like absolute dog **** out there.

There's no reason one if not both of these guys should've been outplaying Smith for that 6th spot, given how "meh" Smith has been. But neither of them stepped up at all.

I don't think it was too much of an ask for two of Smith, Greene, Mueller & Carrick to be able to claim a bottom pairing role, but apparently it was! Hate to see Ray have to go back to the well and make another trade, but it's starting to look like that's what's going to have to be done. Either that or go dumpster diving on the waiver wire and hope for the best. The team can start out with 12F and 9D for all I care to see if they can bring another player or two in and see if they can show anything.

Fortunately, it appears there are defensemen out there available for trade, so hopefully the cost is not too high.

I think the Smith that played tonight could definitely handle a bottom pair role and the one from his first 2 games would be fine doing it although I wouldn't want it to be with any of those 3. I'm at the point where unless a move is made you keep him for the 9 games and if he looks like the player we know he can then keep him. If he doesn't send him back and hope Schneider/Blackwood can make up for them

 

[Auto Pilot]

I want to see how he does while the WHOLE TEAM (with Hall) is being iced, without the AHL'ers.

I agree that he's in the twilight of his career but I'm willing to give him one more chance this season.

the issues with Greene have nothing to do with who’s in front of him. He can’t skate and keep up anymore. His choices with the puck are pretty confusing as well. Like that dump to no one except the Bruins player in the third.

Besides, a lot of proven pros were in this line up. He’s just a bad player at this point in his career and is a negative outside of the PK.

 

[PWiz30]

How did Hughes look? I missed the game today.

On the plus side, he set up one of our best scoring chances of the night in the second period and won 59% of his faceoffs according to NHL.com (edit: 69% according to naturalstattrick.com, nice!). Overall it seemed like his worst performance of the preseason though. He had some turnovers in the neutral zone where he wasn't even under much pressure and the puck just kinda rolled off his stick. Maybe poor ice was a factor on those couple examples but he just wasn't sharp tonight. Then again, neither was anyone.

Edit: I said no one was sharp tonight but I thought Blackwood and Coleman played pretty well and Nico had a solid, but not great game.

 

[My3Sons]

the issues with Greene have nothing to do with who’s in front of him. He can’t skate and keep up anymore. His choices with the puck are pretty confusing as well. Like that dump to no one except the Bruins player in the third.

Besides, a lot of proven pros were in this line up. He’s just a bad player at this point in his career and is a negative outside of the PK.

I know someone else we were all saying the same things about last season. Then he got traded and now you see the carnage left behind.

 

[Devil X]

Whole lot of "worry" and "concern" coming out of a preseason game, one it what was the first they travelled same day for.

I prefer to looked at the positives, Blackwood was a stud. Only the back hand beat him all game, the other was a deflection of HIS stick that it a crossing player in the face and went into the net. With how bad the Devils were playing the fact that they lost 2-0 is rather amazing and Blackwood deserves the credit for that. EDIT: I would like to add that the biggest concern about this team is goaltending and frankly Cory and MacBlack have been outstanding in the preseason. If the team can play offense like we believe they can and they get the kind of goaltending they have in the preseason they will be fine. Goaltending is more important then anything right now for the Devils.

Smith definitely played better today then the past 2 games. I was move involved and confident once he got the puck to make passes. At times he flashed some defense which was better then the past.

McLeod was pretty solid also.

Hughes showed that he can play a little D and isnt afraid to go battle on the boards a little bit. Had some nice offensive plays and he continues to win faceoffs which is a skill we wondered if he could do in year 1. Goose also had some moments like i think we can expect. Nico didnt have a great game but i recall a few really good offensive plays that almost let to goals.

Lastly i thought Simmonds played pretty ok, just which he would have made that shot early in the game.

Overall the team had a bad night, it happens. Sometimes i think as fans we look into things a little much.

We were missing Hall Zajac Subban Palmieri Zacha Butcher and Vatanen. Thats a WHOLE lot of important pieces.

 

[Devil X]

Whole lot of "worry" and "concern" coming out of a preseason game, one it what was the first they travelled same day for.

I prefer to looked at the positives, Blackwood was a stud. Only the back hand beat him all game, the other was a deflection of HIS stick that it a crossing player in the face and went into the net. With how bad the Devils were playing the fact that they lost 2-0 is rather amazing and Blackwood deserves the credit for that. EDIT: I would like to add that the biggest concern about this team is goaltending and frankly Cory and MacBlack have been outstanding in the preseason. If the team can play offense like we believe they can and they get the kind of goaltending they have in the preseason they will be fine. Goaltending is more important then anything right now for the Devils.

Smith definitely played better today then the past 2 games. I was move involved and confident once he got the puck to make passes. At times he flashed some defense which was better then the past.

McLeod was pretty solid also.

Hughes showed that he can play a little D and isnt afraid to go battle on the boards a little bit. Had some nice offensive plays and he continues to win faceoffs which is a skill we wondered if he could do in year 1. Goose also had some moments like i think we can expect. Nico didnt have a great game but i recall a few really good offensive plays that almost let to goals.

Lastly i thought Simmonds played pretty ok, just which he would have made that shot early in the game.

Overall the team had a bad night, it happens. Sometimes i think as fans we look into things a little much.

We were missing Hall Zajac Subban Palmieri Zacha Butcher and Vatanen. Thats a WHOLE lot of important pieces.

I also should have added that Miles Wood played a good game much better then he has all preseason. He showed up tonight. Good effort and creating some chances. He likely secured his opening night spot with that play.

 

[bishop12]

Better, but nothing standoitish. His competition were not very good so most likely comes down to the final game.

He;s really never going to stand out. Just an FYI

 

[billingtons ghost]

He;s really never going to stand out. Just an FYI

I disagree man - I think that in the early pre-season games, his ability to move the puck at the point was as good if not better than Butcher's. I like his hands and his IQ, but right now he just doesn't have the experience and the ability to slow the game down.

I (like everyone else) desperately want him to excell, but I'm thinking he needs to go down and ripen. It would make it easier if Greene, Carrick or Mueller didn't look like crap.

 

[billingtons ghost]

We were missing Hall Zajac Subban Palmieri Zacha Butcher and Vatanen. Thats a WHOLE lot of important pieces.

I'd totally buy this if the other team's best player wasn't Backes.

There was seriously nobody on the other side of the ice tonight - I think they kinda took the night off - except for Blackwood and maybe Wood... ok, anyone with 'wood' in their name.

 

[Capt Nico Poo]

We win and Hughes scores, 40 pages in GDT.

We get blanked, 19 pages. Go figure

 

[R8Devs]

I'd totally buy this if the other team's best player wasn't Backes.

There was seriously nobody on the other side of the ice tonight - I think they kinda took the night off - except for Blackwood and maybe Wood... ok, anyone with 'wood' in their name.

their best player was Mcavoy. Carlo was also in the game. halak was pretty good too. all 3 would be above Backes

 

[kiwidevil]

Sounds like a lot of the usual (good) suspects were very quiet today. (only listened on the radio)

Has the feel of the prospects games though. Pretty hard to create much with poor dmen behind you vs an NHL defense core. Basically becomes a 3v5 in the offensive zone. A no skill to break up a forecheck to get a clean break out.

Is this accurate?

 

[Emperoreddy]

Sounds like a lot of the usual (good) suspects were very quiet today. (only listened on the radio)

Has the feel of the prospects games though. Pretty hard to create much with poor dmen behind you vs an NHL defense core. Basically becomes a 3v5 in the offensive zone. A no skill to break up a forecheck to get a clean break out.

Is this accurate?

Ehhh they just didn’t have their legs. Getting beat to pucks. Not winning battles. Not enough urgency.

 

[njdevils1982]

Ehhh they just didn’t have their legs. Getting beat to pucks. Not winning battles. Not enough urgency.

good thing im still awake….

 

[kiwidevil]

Oh right, one of those.

The radio broadcast was particularly boring. Best part was a live mic all through what was supposed to be the ads.

Especially since Zacha was a guest and in an ad break he was asking Craig how they were playing and who has stood out to him in the whole camp that wasn't Hughes etc.

 

[Brodeur]

Idk how Maltsev got cut over Rooney Bastian or Hayden

At this point, Bastian/Hayden are competing for the 4RW spot and Rooney is the 13th forward. Probably better for Maltsev to get more minutes in the AHL.

 

[BurntToast]

I watched the Highlights. Andy Greene, looked dreadful. If he is in the top 4 too long he will cost this team games. Bottom 6, and PK Only!(moving up and down the ice is mitigated.) Not much power/strength to move people off the spot ether. Slinging passes instead of skating it out?! Ugh. Great guy and underrated for a long time but the dude is old.

 

[Devil X]

I watched the Highlights. Andy Greene, looked dreadful. If he is in the top 4 too long he will cost this team games. Bottom 6, and PK Only!(moving up and down the ice is mitigated.) Not much power/strength to move people off the spot ether. Slinging passes instead of skating it out?! Ugh. Great guy and underrated for a long time but the dude is old.

They also did a lot of dumping and chasing last night. Which hasn’t been the case in previous games. They have been using Hughes Boqvist Bratt Hall Subban Nico or Goose to skate pucks into the zone. Where last night it seemed like Boston was taking that away.

 

[TBF1972]

Bruins may be missing their 4 best players, but they're still the SC finalist team with a really strong core. Couple of bounces more to us and the game could be even, so nothing to panic. A road game, late arrival, hot goalie, I think Gusev was a bit out of his game in the first two periods, Simmonds was having an off night.. Replace Greene Mueller and Carrick with PK, Butcher and Vats and add Hall, Zajac, Zacha and remove Rooney, Bastian and McLeod and I think we'll be just fine..

You want to keep Tennyson with the NJD?!

 

[MartyOwns]

bratt sucks

 

[Hisch13r]

At this point, Bastian/Hayden are competing for the 4RW spot and Rooney is the 13th forward. Probably better for Maltsev to get more minutes in the AHL.

Unless you have Boqvist missing the team then that isn't happening

 

[theoptimist]

bratt sucks

how sway

 

[glenwo2]

bratt sucks

Translation : Let me annoy glenwo2 a bit for fun.


None of the team aside from Blackwood looked good.

Yeah you could say that we saw that Hughes CAN play some defense but that's about it for the Positives.

Team looked like it was skating through molasses while playing hot potato with the puck.

And while all that was happening, it seemed like Boston was on a Game-long Power-Play for as long as they've been in our own end.

 

[devilsblood]

Only saw the third but I still thought smith was struggling mightily.

Thought Mueller looked solid but that was pretty much working in his own zone. Saw two opportunities for him to move the puck up ice. One he used his skating before making a pass that was productive. The other he stood flat footed with a ton of time and gave a nothing pass that was unproductive.

Seems pretty simple to me. He’s a good skater but doesn’t use it.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Only saw the third but I still thought smith was struggling mightily.

Thought Mueller looked solid but that was pretty much working in his own zone. Saw two opportunities for him to move the puck up ice. One he used his skating before making a pass that was productive. The other he stood flat footed with a ton of time and gave a nothing pass that was unproductive.

Seems pretty simple to me. He’s a good skater but doesn’t use it.

Mueller also has the hardest shot on the team, but never shoots.

EDIT: Wait, this isnt true anymore now that the Devils have Subban. Second hardest shot now.