Post-Game Talk: Devils Win 3-2 in the shootout

[Call Me Al]

it’s not a coincidence that the one good shot holtz was able to get off on the power play was when subban went off early and smith got a 15 second o zone shift with pp1. subban should never set foot in either power play, he’s just not good enough

pk also gave up a goal, special teams continue to be atrocious.

nico and bratt were our best skaters, graves was good in back and severson and smith had bounce back games, didn’t look bad. holtz looks like he needs to spend the offseason bulking up because he’s too weak on the boards and doesn’t really make any positive impact other than his shot

 

[Offseason Champs]

It's definitely worrying how lost they look in the offensive zone. Dump and chase doesn't seem to suit them too much, or they need to get better at puck retrieval. I think these things can get ironed out though. The team has shown they can score in the past, so if they can get that turned around I think we can be okay. The play hasn't been stellar but we have a winning record still where a year or two ago we'd be looking at draft lotto odds again by now. We still may end up doing that but for at least another night we can continue to enjoy having 12/20 possible points and 3/4 in the back to back games to close out the week.

 

[Buck Dancer]

In order to be effective on dump in’s, we need to install some type of fear on the dmen retrieving the puck but we don’t impose any type of pressure or threat mainly because we have soft forwards, so it’s basically an automatic turnover each and every time. This team is crying out for a big body in our top #6, let it be to do just what I said or screen the goalie on our PP. He’s doing all he can but having Nico as our net front presence on the PP isn’t working out. Granted, that’s not the only issue with our PP but screening the goalie isn’t a hard thing to do and would help us out tremendously.

 

[My3Sons]

Siegenthaler seemed to have a very steady game when I watched him. Good to see him improve since they’ve needed that with Smith struggling to get going. It’s not a surprise a young player would have issues missing essentially all of camp and early season with injury. Maybe sending him down for a couple of weeks to work on his pace would help. Not to punish him but to give him a reasonable chance to work on getting his game up to speed with less pressure on a winning team. Also Nico had a very good game with several very good passes and at least one good shot but he still looks like he’s laboring out there when I watch him. I just don’t see any burst and he’s skating between the 20s to avoid getting stuck out of position to my eyes. The rest of his game would be fine if he got his jump back as I see it. Hopefully that happens.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Yep pretty much what you said, great goaltending and I'm happy for the guys to finally get a win, but this road trip doesn't exactly give much hope that they are close to a wild card slot.

1 win, 4 goals scored in 3 games against the ducks, kings and sharks. That's hardly anything to celebrate.

So far this season has been a big disappointment for me. Every season you hope for the best case scenario. You expect young players to improve and older players to stay at the same level and when you add new good players (Hamilton, Graves, Bernier, Tatar) you expect them to do what they've done. But obviously that's not how it goes, most won't improve and a lot will regress.

Right now it seems we took few steps forward in some areas and few steps back in some. Hamilton and Graves have been great for us, but Smith and Severson haven't been able to give their best.

Johnsson looks like a whole different player, Mercer has been good and Jack seemed to have improve. But then a lot of the other guys haven't been able to take the next step or are playing way worse than last season.

I mean, they're pacing 98 points right now. Without their best forward basically all season so far. Without their best D the last 2+ games. Without either goalie for a few games.

Not sure what the incessant need to post about how the team isn't good is from people like you.

 

[Hisch13r]

I mean, they're pacing 98 points right now. Without their best forward basically all season so far. Without their best D the last 2+ games. Without either goalie for a few games.

Not sure what the incessant need to post about how the team isn't good is from people like you.

He said they weren’t even an NHL team the other day lol

 

[glenwo2]

This game doesnt get to overtime if it wasnt for Kuokannen. This game would not be a win if it wasnt for Bernier. I'm glad Kuokannen finally showed up and scored a big goal. Graves getting his first goal as a Devil and Severson scoring that clutch shootout winner after last nights flurry of penalties. Those 3 had big moments buh Bernier was solid tonight. The 2 goals he gave up he had no chance on really. He gave up only one in the shootout and got a little lucky on the Balcer's post shot but other than that he made plenty of big stops. Remember that sprawling breakaway save he made after the game was 2 to 1 Sharks ? That goes in and its probably game over. Bernier was tonight's 1st star easily.

Might I add that Bratt's shootout goal (where he tried the same exact move again and was successful for an unprecedented THIRD TIME this season ) enabled Sevs to be the hero?

Had Bratt not converted, I'd have to create another 3-goats-of-the-game thread. lol.

 

[NJ DevLolz]

You absolutely take 1-1-1 in California with Jack and Dougie out. People forget the Anaheim game was a 3 in 4 with a cross-country trip baked in. Not to mention they had to play the majority of that game with 5 D because dougie got hurt

 

[Hisch13r]

Siegenthaler seemed to have a very steady game when I watched him. Good to see him improve since they’ve needed that with Smith struggling to get going. It’s not a surprise a young player would have issues missing essentially all of camp and early season with injury. Maybe sending him down for a couple of weeks to work on his pace would help. Not to punish him but to give him a reasonable chance to work on getting his game up to speed with less pressure on a winning team. Also Nico had a very good game with several very good passes and at least one good shot but he still looks like he’s laboring out there when I watch him. I just don’t see any burst and he’s skating between the 20s to avoid getting stuck out of position to my eyes. The rest of his game would be fine if he got his jump back as I see it. Hopefully that happens.

Outside of that one turnover Ty had on the PP he had a good game. I’m not sending him down. He’ll figure it out

 

[NJ DevLolz]

Like most of the people here, I really like Siegenthaler. He’s proving he can be a 4-5 dman who can play tougher minutes and penalty kill. And he’s doing it covering PK doing…..whatever the hell PK does

 

[Darkauron]

Sieg has been pretty good. I barely notice him most of the time, which is all the matters with that type of player.

 

[Hisch13r]

Like most of the people here, I really like Siegenthaler. He’s proving he can be a 4-5 dman who can play tougher minutes and penalty kill. And he’s doing it covering PK doing…..whatever the hell PK does

Definitely wouldn’t mind trying out White over PK when Dougie’s back. It won’t happen but it’s worth a shot

 

[JimEIV]

I fell asleep again... Sometime in the 3rd.

 

[NJ DevLolz]

Definitely wouldn’t mind trying out White over PK when Dougie’s back. It won’t happen but it’s worth a shot

I think it’s fairly obvious White needs to be the 7th dman over Jaros and GRITsen. He’s at the age where he won’t really improve any more so sitting the majority of the games won’t hurt him long term. He should still get 30-40 games based on others getting hurt, sick, etc. I’ve really liked him though

 

[JimEIV]

You absolutely take 1-1-1 in California with Jack and Dougie out. People forget the Anaheim game was a 3 in 4 with a cross-country trip baked in. Not to mention they had to play the majority of that game with 5 D because dougie got hurt

I usually would think of this as an "excuse" but even when the Devils were really good west coast trips were tough...I remember that there was some crazy record that the Devils hadn't won in Vancouver for like 4 years mostly while the Devils were very good and Vancouver just meh.

But this one wasn't really a very long one.

3 out of 6 points is enough to tread water until healthy I suppose... problem is, this was the "easy" part of our upcoming schedule it gets a tougher soon.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

It's great that we kept coming back from a goal down the last two nights and tied up two games with minutes left in them. But we are making a bad habit of it. When is the last time we actually scored the first goal in a game? I think I have to go back a ways.

I think troubles with the power play aren't just confusion and poor zone entries - those are big troubles to be sure - but also that we don't have anyone out there who can really stand up to pressure by the opposing PK or who can break a full court (full ice) press by themselves. When we had Zacha and Holtz on the half walls with Subban on the point in a diamond formation with five minutes left in the game, I thought every single one of them was vulnerable to being pressed off the puck. Zacha has a fine shot given the room and can operate on the point given the room but when you press him he isn't strong on the puck; Holtz is a light rookie; Subban right now is slow to react when he gets jumped. It's scary that those were our three guys out high at that key moment of the game.

And on the zone entries . . .

At times, when we were trying to reorganize and rush up ice for a zone entry, I thought we were actually going to drop the puck to the penalty killers who were hanging out at our own blue line. We were on the verge of giving up high quality shorthanded chances.

We're very fortunate we got three points out of the last two games.

Literally seven (7) days ago.

 

[glenwo2]

They dont even have Bratts SO goal on replay...! The condensed replay showed all but Bratters..

Ahahaha I watched the replays this morning and noticed that! Did he actually score? The world may never know

Hopefully this is something I can provide :

DEFINITIVE PROOF THAT HE SCORED!!! THE LOCHNESS MONSTER EXISTS!!

ALIENS!!!

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Like most of the people here, I really like Siegenthaler. He’s proving he can be a 4-5 dman who can play tougher minutes and penalty kill. And he’s doing it covering PK doing…..whatever the hell PK does

I remember the hot takes about him last year after he didnt play all that well in his first handful of games in literal months, on a new team, during a pandemic with no practice time.

 

[AfroThunder396]

It's a flawed team, we have obvious strengths and obvious weaknesses. Most people were expecting us to be a bubble team. We look like a bubble team, we have a bubble team record.

The internet just loves hyperbole. No one is allowed to be average, you're either the greatest of all time or you're f***ing trash. This team has some obvious flaws but has clearly improved from last season. Which is what everyone was begging for so I don't understand the pessimism.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I just with we could see the team with league average special teams, because I think if they had that they could potentially be pretty good.

Seems like with Recchi and Nas, we're never going to see that though.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

i’m normally a PK defender but he looked atrocious last night. You feel bad for the guy but he’s washed.

 

[Buck Dancer]

I mean, they're pacing 98 points right now. Without their best forward basically all season so far. Without their best D the last 2+ games. Without either goalie for a few games.

Not sure what the incessant need to post about how the team isn't good is from people like you.

We are pacing for 98 pts but if we look at the teams we’ve played since the start of the season, anyone who’s reasonable won’t let that projection fool them. I do also realize that we’ve been without key players since game #1 but teams we’ve played can also say the same such as Pittsburgh and SJ for starters.

I do think we’re a solid team when we have a healthy lineup but I want to reserve judgment on point pace when we’ll actually face good teams.

 

[Hisch13r]

i’m normally a PK defender but he looked atrocious last night. You feel bad for the guy but he’s washed.

I still think he could have his uses if they recognize what he is and cut back his time. Never going to happen though. The guy is averaging 3 MORE seconds at 5v5 than Dougie is and over a minute more than Severson

 

[JimEIV]

It's a flawed team, we have obvious strengths and obvious weaknesses. Most people were expecting us to be a bubble team. We look like a bubble team, we have a bubble team record.

The internet just loves hyperbole. No one is allowed to be average, you're either the greatest of all time or you're f***ing trash. This team has some obvious flaws but has clearly improved from last season. Which is what everyone was begging for so I don't understand the pessimism.

A bubble team would be fantastic in my view...if we are playing meaningful games past February, that is a huge improvement from the last several years...

But the problem is we really haven't gotten into the difficult part of our schedule yet. We definitely should have won more of these early games...Losing to the Blue Jackets, Ducks and Kings in a row doesn't really feel like"bubble" to me...feels more like ping-pong ball watch.

 

[Hisch13r]

A bubble team would be fantastic in my view...if we are playing meaning games past February, that is a huge improvement from the last several years...

But the problem is we really haven't gotten into the difficult part of our schedule yet. We definitely should have won more of these early games...Losing to the Blue Jackets, Ducks and Kings in a row doesn't really feel like"bubble" to me...feels more like ping-pong ball watch.

This obviously doesn’t mean much to you in particular but we were expected to be a bubble team with the expectation our 2nd best player wouldn’t dislocate his shoulder 4 periods into the season. We’ve also missed our best player for ~30% of the season so far. Yes we’ve gotten a soft schedule. We’ve also had very key injuries.