GDT: Devils vs. Flyers - 7:00 PM - MSG+2

[Cage Helmet]

Hynes is an offensive coach. It's all he cares about.

As for defense, he's terrible. Devils defensemen are allowed to be out-of-position, cheating badly, playing with nothing that resembles a hockey structure, and all season long with no fix.

I think he’s just a coach like Constantine that doesn’t do much to help you and doesn’t do much to hurt you. If he had better tenders like the CS35 from his first year then I think the defense would look better.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Hynes is an offensive coach. It's all he cares about.

As for defense, he's terrible. Devils defensemen are allowed to be out-of-position, cheating badly, playing with nothing that resembles a hockey structure, and all season long with no fix.

The Devils has the 7th lowest GA in the league last year. They had the 5th lowest GA in the league in Hynes’ first year. But yeah, he’s a terrible defensive coach and he doesn’t give a shit about it. He’s only done this 24/7 his entire adult life, but this board knows better. We should educate him on defensive structure.

 

[glenwo2]

and no hall for a lot of these games too compared to last season when they were on a line together for a good portion of the season. really impressive

Recall that many here weren't sure whether his "success" was more a flash-in-the-pan like Steve Bernier (aka Mr. 5-minute major) was.

Glad to see that he's turned out to be the REAL DEAL.



Bratt tonight was like :

DO YOU BELIEVE IN UNICORNS?

 

[NJDevs26]

I thought the NJD were the better team tonight. Better than Wednesday night. Probably had something to do with the Flames being light years greater than the Philth but the NJD didn’t play a bad game tonight. Not for what was iced.

This is a game that could easily have been won if the Devils weren't such morons (re: Gabriel) or had someone other than Cory 2018 in net.

 

[Oneiro]

Yes, and Shero has said that since day one. The entire organization is on board with this, it’s not Hynes unilaterally. Pay attention to who they draft. Look at the words they put on the wall of the locker room. Listen to Shero speak. They’re developing an identity. The players who fit the system will be here for the long term.

Let's take the identity.

Fast: When Hynes came in, he made the distinction that it's not just skating and moving fast but thinking fast. Is that what you think is happening on the PP or on the breakouts? Is that what's happening when a forward stops at his own blue line and chucks the puck east-west across the slot to a defender who doesn't even know it's coming? Do you see the processing speed of our younger players - Wood, Butcher, etc. - genuinely getting better? Are they making better reads?

Attacking: Do you think this forecheck is even close to the level of intensity or consistency as DeBoer's system? Do you regularly see players with their stick even on the ice? Do you see this team winning 50/50 battles on a regular basis?

Supportive: Do you think players clear the crease on a regular basis? Do you think they make the right reads to leave their man and double up on the puck carrier? Is the team scoring with tons of zone time, as opposed to scoring off the rush all the time?

These are all rhetorical questions because the answer to all of them is no.

The PK will be good as long as it has Coleman, Zajac and Zacha. One playoff appearance, by one point, hanging on by a thread, validates absolutely nothing

Hynes is a garbage coach who has not been able to translate a speck of his "vision" for over four years now, let alone teach the fundamentals.

The players who are good - Nico, Bratt, Coleman - will be good under any coach.

 

[Cage Helmet]

This is a game that could easily have been won if the Devils weren't such morons (re: Gabriel) or had Cory 2018 in net.

No doubt about it. We played a good game. Schneids with a poor play on Philth goal 3. He meant well with the poker but he’s not Marty and just shouldn’t be doing this. Fourth goal was a trickler through the elbow hole. Gabriel needs to eat a suspension. Take the toy away.

 

[NorwegianDevil]

I think the Devils are well coached. I don’t think they have the personnel to play to the system yet. John Hynes is a very good hockey coach.

Do you really think John Hynes knows better than a bunch of posters on a hockeyboard? Jisus

 

[BenedictGomez]

We should educate him on defensive structure.

What structure? There is no defensive structure.

Defensemen should not be CHASING forwards to the blue line.

Defensemen should not be playing behind the other team's goalie, unless your name is Paul Coffey or Bobby Orr.

Defensemen should not be pinching every chance they get.

All of Hynes' "defensive structure" is about offense.

The Devils has the 7th lowest GA in the league last year. They had the 5th lowest GA in the league in Hynes’ first year

The Devils were 9th, 27th, 17th, and 29th in GA under Hynes (and 29th this year), so I have no idea what the hell you're talking about?

Only in Hynes' first year were they 9th in GA, and that was mostly the Cory Schneider show with a 2.15 on a bad team.

Huge "post fail" on your part here, in 3 of Hynes' 5 years they're near NHL dead last in giving up goals. His "best" season they there barely a top-third team. Wow.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Bratt tonight was like :

DO YOU BELIEVE IN UNICORNS?

Literally the only positive from tonight's game is 20 year old Jesper Bratt looked great coming back from a minor injury.

 

[Bleedred]

The Devils has the 7th lowest GA in the league last year. They had the 5th lowest GA in the league in Hynes’ first year. But yeah, he’s a terrible defensive coach and he doesn’t give a **** about it. He’s only done this 24/7 his entire adult life, but this board knows better. We should educate him on defensive structure.

A lot of this is on the goaltending. In Hynes first year in the NHL, Cory Schneider was a top-3 goalie in the world on a BAD team. In Hynes second year here, Schneider was a poor goalie on a bad team. Last year, Kinkaid was on a career run that as we saw, was not repeated this year, nor will it probably ever be again over a sizable number of 40 games. This year, Kinkaid and Schneider might be two of the worst goalies in the entire league.

The conclusion I'm drawing is Schneider made Hynes look better than he was in 15-16 and now he (and Kinkaid) are making him look worse than he is. I don't think he's a good coach, but he's probably not as bad as he was for a couple of these years either.

Bad goaltending makes coaches look bad. It also gets them fired. And this year, it's pretty much keeping Hynes employed AND got him extended.

 

[NJDevs26]

So after finally seeing a replay of goal #3, I'm not dinging Cory for that one. He HAD to try to play the puck there, Konecny was bearing down on him and the puck was loose outside of the crease, couldn't fall on it there. It would have been nice for him to grab it and wrist it with his stick but I'm not expecting that from him, the poke check is the most he can probably do. He was more than bad enough on goals #2 (playing the puck) and #4.

 

[glenwo2]

It's a good thing that Jesper played tonight.

Had he not played, I would've shut off the game after the 4th Goal was scored by Philly.

Bratt made "garbage time" exciting with that brilliant pass to @Bleedred 's 2nd favorite player(next to Gabriel) ROONEY for the tip-goal.

 

[NJDevs26]

And let's be honest about something here, if Patrick was a Devil - say Nico, and he'd been run by some goon on the Flyers we'd be going attaboy kid if Nico cheapshotted the goon back in garbage time. That's basically what happened tonight. Patrick got cheapshotted in the first, he returned the favor later on...that's the old school frontier justice a lot of traditionalists want and another reason why I can't stand Gabriel. His unneccesary stupidity early led to both the five-minute major and the third period nonsense.

 

[BenedictGomez]

A lot of this is on the goaltending.

Actually, "a lot of this" is total fiction, because his numbers are completely wrong.

The Devils have given up near the most goals in the entire NHL, 3 of the last 5 years. One year they were slightly worse than average, and one year they were 9th (at best).

 

[BenedictGomez]

And let's be honest about something here, if Patrick was a Devil - say Nico, and he'd been run by some goon on the Flyers we'd be going attaboy kid if Nico cheapshotted the goon back in garbage time. That's basically what happened tonight. Patrick got cheapshotted in the first, he returned the favor later on...that's the old school frontier justice a lot of traditionalists want.

Agreed; with one caveat. I dont think the Gabriel hit was a "cheapshot", I just think it's a relatively non-athletic player making a dumb mistake trying to make a hit.

If Gabriel was Marchand, then I'd agree it was a cheapshot.

 

[Blender]

The Devils has the 7th lowest GA in the league last year. They had the 5th lowest GA in the league in Hynes’ first year. But yeah, he’s a terrible defensive coach and he doesn’t give a **** about it. He’s only done this 24/7 his entire adult life, but this board knows better. We should educate him on defensive structure.

Where did you get these numbers? Devils were 17th in goals against last year, 24th in 16-17, and 8th in 15-16.

 

[glenwo2]

And let's be honest about something here, if Patrick was a Devil - say Nico, and he'd been run by some goon on the Flyers we'd be going attaboy kid if Nico cheapshotted the goon back in garbage time. That's basically what happened tonight. Patrick got cheapshotted in the first, he returned the favor later on...that's the old school frontier justice a lot of traditionalists want and another reason why I can't stand Gabriel. His unneccesary stupidity early led to both the five-minute major and the third period nonsense.

As much as I dislike what Patrick did, you are correct.

At the very least, Patrick attacked the very person who did that to him as opposed of just attacking a random Devils player that had zero to do with anything.

I'm glad he focused on Gabriel and Not someone like Nico or Bratt.

He should still get a call from the league, though.

 

[Bleedred]

Actually, "a lot of this" is total fiction, because his numbers are completely wrong.

The Devils have given up near the most goals in the entire NHL, 3 of the last 5 years. One year they were slightly worse than average, and one year they were 9th (at best).

Yeah, I don't remember us being 5th in goals against that year either. I didn't think we were were top-7 last year either.

I do remember we were first in the league in goals against in 15-16 at Valentine's Day of that year, but that regressed quite a bit between then and season's end. It also coincided with Cory getting injured for about a month or so in early March and he didn't return until a week before the season ended.

 

[Bleedred]

Where did you get these numbers? Devils were 17th in goals against last year, 24th in 16-17, and 8th in 15-16.

I always hate reading goals against (or goals for) totals, because some of them count the goals you get for each shootout win and each goal against you get for a shootout loss, and some of them don't count these.

I think they should be counted without the shootout goals, as those aren't real goals. I hate when they count those. They aren't counted as a goal for a player that scores it or a goal against the goalie it's scored on, except for in the individual shootout stats, so they shouldn't be counted in the totals for the team either.

Just eliminate them from every count to avoid confusion.

 

[Triumph]

Let's take the identity.

Fast: When Hynes came in, he made the distinction that it's not just skating and moving fast but thinking fast. Is that what you think is happening on the PP or on the breakouts? Is that what's happening when a forward stops at his own blue line and chucks the puck east-west across the slot to a defender who doesn't even know it's coming? Do you see the processing speed of our younger players - Wood, Butcher, etc. - genuinely getting better? Are they making better reads?

Attacking: Do you think this forecheck is even close to the level of intensity or consistency as DeBoer's system? Do you regularly see players with their stick even on the ice? Do you see this team winning 50/50 battles on a regular basis?

Supportive: Do you think players clear the crease on a regular basis? Do you think they make the right reads to leave their man and double up on the puck carrier? Is the team scoring with tons of zone time, as opposed to scoring off the rush all the time?

There's certainly ups and downs to Hynes' tenure here, but think this is definitely on the glass half-empty side. Wood and Butcher have unquestionably become better players, Wood especially. Is Wood good at making reads? Absolutely not, but he's certainly come a long way from when he got here.

The Devils aren't trying to run a DeBoer system, nor do I think they should be trying to do so with their personnel. DeBoer's system was attacking but also sometimes players would pull off rushes to turn them into dump-ins. It's attacking when you don't have the puck but also not really attacking when you do. Cross ice passes in the O-zone de-emphasized. It's not how the Devils should be playing.

The PK will be good as long as it has Coleman, Zajac and Zacha. One playoff appearance, by one point, hanging on by a thread, validates absolutely nothing.

If the Devils played a passive box a la 2008, this would not be the case. I recognize teams don't really do that anymore, but personnel do not totally make a penalty kill for the same reason that they don't make a power play.

Hynes is a garbage coach who has not been able to translate a speck of his "vision" for over four years now, let alone teach the fundamentals.

The players who are good - Nico, Bratt, Coleman - will be good under any coach.

Not buying this. A lot of coaches would sit these guys for the mistakes they make. Hynes has not really done that.

 

[JK3]

Yeah, I don't remember us being 5th in goals against that year either. I didn't think we were were top-7 last year either.

A year ago today we were 19th in goals against, 2.95 (I have the old GDT, the ones I do with all the stats).

 

[MadDevil]

About the only defensive stat we've been good at the last few years is high danger chances against, and given that over the course of Hynes' tenure we've given up the 10th most goals against I'm not sure it really means anything.

 

[Bleedred]

And let's be honest about something here, if Patrick was a Devil - say Nico, and he'd been run by some goon on the Flyers we'd be going attaboy kid if Nico cheapshotted the goon back in garbage time. That's basically what happened tonight. Patrick got cheapshotted in the first, he returned the favor later on...that's the old school frontier justice a lot of traditionalists want and another reason why I can't stand Gabriel. His unneccesary stupidity early led to both the five-minute major and the third period nonsense.

Yup, let's call it like it is.

Gabriel is such a clown. I'm about ready to let this experiment end for good. If it were up to me, it never would have started because I never would have called him up.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

What’s our record this season with retro jerseys. I don’t think we have won a game. They’re not bringing much luck.

 

[JimEIV]

I am going to try this new one tomorrow. I call it mint chocolate jig