Post-Game Talk: Devils win! Devils 4 - Rangers 3

[glenwo2]

And lafreniere played more than Kakko

Who?

 

[glenwo2]

This rivals every Kovy Celly we've witnessed in the past.

BTW, I like the high-five at the end of his celly (I think that was Kulikov he high-fived with).

 

[Emperoreddy]

One more stinky game from Palms and its time to shave that beard.

 

[Forge]

Got benched for sucking wind the first two periods.

Zacha line was getting caved in so Ruff shortened the bench.

Just a ballsy move. Love it. And I love that there's no bad guy here. It's just a bad matchup for them, tbh. Play your guys in the situations they are best suited for. If he sits one or both next game against the rangers, it's just a matchup thing, no biggie. They will both be back in their spots against everyone else

 

[glenwo2]

One more stinky game from Palms and its time to shave that beard.

Agreed.

There's Playoff Beards...and then there's "I'm a worthless bum" beards.

One more crappy game from him and he's officially a worthless bum, and should definitely shave that bird nest.

 

[Nubmer6]

Who?

LaFringePlaiere

 

[Bleedred]

Can’t wait for Nico and Jesper to get here and push some of these guys down the lineup.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I thought Laffy looked better then Kakko, which might say something since it's his 3rd NHL game ever compared to Kakko.

I assume Kakko will eventually figure it out, but I have not been impressed by what I have seen so far.

 

[Guttersniped]

Johnnson and Gusev have been real slow though. I do agree with that.

I also would really love to see them on a line together with Nico or Hughes though instead of Zacha. I'm just tired of watching Zacha get top 6 minutes on this team. He's a black hole

The Bratt/Zacha/Goose mythology always ignored that much of the actual point production that’s remembered, particularly from Gusev and Zacha, was from the power play. Goose was more productive EV while playing with Coleman and Zajac earlier in the year. In the later part of season Gusev was fueling a power play which finally sort of got comparably hot at the end of year, mostly thanks to him.

The first step to making good use of Gusev is fixing the PP. Oddly enough, Zacha was pretty productive on the PP last season as well. However, he’s not a scoring center: he’s doesn’t score goals 5v5 at all, he’s not good at possession, he’s not good defensively 5v5 and he’s a middling playmaker.

Bratt was producing 5v5 but he was on fire and his sniping may not have had much to do with his linemates. Tonight the Zacha line had all sorts of trouble with the bottom six of the Rangers and their defense.

I don’t know what the solution is, I don’t even know if the benching is a white flag and Ruff is going reorganize the lines or if it was just a kick in the pants. Nico is a tough loss partly because he actually played some hard minutes, as did Rooney, and McLeod’s has his own learning curve as a defensive center. (Btw Everyone who wanted to trade Zajac for scrapes last TDL can kiss my ass, this team would be so much worse without him. TRAVTRAV4EV)

I hate to say it, but Fox is really impressive.

He is. Even worse, he was last year. I typically never covet other teams players, but it must be nice to have defensemen have fall from the heavens. So annoying.

 

[Devils Army]

Butcher will come in for Murray if he needs a rest to make sure he stays healthy.

Mackenzie Blackwood is better than Carter Hart.

Jack is an absolute stud.

Enough said.

 

[Nubmer6]

The Bratt/Zacha/Goose mythology always ignored that much of the actual point production that’s remembered, particularly from Gusev and Zacha, was from the power play. Goose was more productive EV while playing with Coleman and Zajac earlier in the year. In the later part of season Gusev was fueling a power play which finally sort of got comparably hot at the end of year, mostly thanks to him.

Once Bratt and Nico are back, I'd consider re-arranging the line and basically using Sharangovich as a direct replacement for Coleman Set him up with Zajac and Goose, and set him as Zajac's partner on the PK.

I'd also consider using McLeod instead of Palms on PK2. He has the speed to chase down pucks and is decent defensively. I think he could be paired effectively with Zacha there.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Palms might be missing Nico. His style of play might simply mesh better with Nico as opposed to Jack.

 

[Nubmer6]

Palms might be missing Nico. His style of play might simply mesh better with Nico as opposed to Jack.

For whatever reason, he's never meshed with Jack. As far as I remember, their advanced stats last year were horrendous.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

Also Zacha needs to stay in the line up for PK reasons alone. He and Zajac are about the only forwards i trust. We need Nico back ASAP to take over for Palms and get him of PK2. Give Nico and Shara a chance.

I thought McLeod looked good on the PK in the 3rd.

If he keeps on playing like he is, Ruff is going to start trusting him more in those situations.

 

[Devils Army]

Gusev-Nico-Palms is my preferred combo, i think they mesh and play at similar paces.

 

[Hisch13r]

For whatever reason, he's never meshed with Jack. As far as I remember, their advanced stats last year were horrendous.

What I remember is that they were really good when Hall was the other guy and bad when Nico was the other guy

 

[britdevil]

Had to be up super early, so unfortunately missed this.

Jack Hughes is something else, what a player. We are witnessing something special here.

 

[Guttersniped]

Once Bratt and Nico are back, I'd consider re-arranging the line and basically using Sharangovich as a direct replacement for Coleman Set him up with Zajac and Goose, and set him as Zajac's partner on the PK.

I'd also consider using McLeod instead of Palms on PK2. He has the speed to chase down pucks and is decent defensively. I think he could be paired effectively with Zacha there.

Palmieri barely killed penalties in the last two seasons, his PK TOI in 2018-19 was 20:52 and in 2019-20 it was 15:01. This season it’s already at 8:37.

Palmieri has never even been a main PK guy, the closest he came would ge in 2016-17 when he was 5th in TOI (77:12) and 7th in TOI/GP (0:59). So everyone here is not crazy, this is a odd new thing that sure looks like it’s not working.

Of course Coleman, Rooney and Anderson are all gone and Nico is injured, so someone newish has to do it. McLeod never killed penalties in his previous call-ups but I’d like see him and Bastian get a shot at PK. Anyone but Palmieri is intriguing at this point, but maybe he’ll improve.

Bratt killed penalties in 2017-18 but then got kicked off of PK and didn’t do it at all in the last two seasons. Maybe he’ll get another shot though.

 

[Nubmer6]

What I remember is that they were really good when Hall was the other guy and bad when Nico was the other guy

OK. I take it back. I dunno what I remembered, but their numbers together last year were pretty good. I guess old age is catching up with me

 

[Emperoreddy]

Gusev-Nico-Palms is my preferred combo, i think they mesh and play at similar paces.

Yeah I think I would try this. I also am really really curious to try Bratt next to Hughes with the way Jack is playing.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Bring on the Isles. Time to break Varlomov's shutout streak.

 

[Bcap88]

If palms had stayed inside jack would have set the franchise record for most points in tbe first three games

 

[glenwo2]

That Isles team we're going to face looks slow as molasses compared to the Rags, @Emperoreddy

 

[RangerDoggo]

I mean, what can you say about Hughes and MacBlack? They’re the ones who stirred the drink in this game.

Palms looked better but he’s still notably absent from dangerous shot opportunities.

The middle six is gonna need a shakeup, so here’s hoping Nico and Bratt come back soon. Outside of Wood, it’s been a bit of a no show in our first three games.

Keep the fourth line intact for as long as possible. They’ve had their fair share of good possessions. It’ll be interesting to see who goes there once we’re at full strength.

Special teams is still quite bad, although a PP goal soothes it just a bit. I’ve heard bad things about Recchi’s PP handling and he’s not doing much to dispel that narrative through three. Even under the darkest moments of Hynes, there’s been more good in those situations. In order to make a sustained push it will need to be better.

I assume Kakko will eventually figure it out, but I have not been impressed by what I have seen so far.

Kakko looked good in the first period, then he got his minutes cut. Not entirely sure why. I know that Hughes is getting lots of minutes just as much out of necessity as he is due to his own merit, but he’s been allowed to shine on this side of the Hudson and Ruff has made his confidence clear.

 

[Emperoreddy]

For all the tire pumping some do with the Rangers, I am not really seeing it. At least not from their young guys.

Fox is definitely a quality player, but he isn't some super stud top pairing guy. I am assuming Kakko will figure it out, but have seen zero flash from him so far. Chytl is nothing special. Miller has some good tools but idk if he is going to put them all together.

Then you got Andersson who is a bust. Kravstov seems on the road to bust town. Strome isn't very good. They are paying Trouba a whole lot of money to be pretty damn mediocre.

Laffy is certainly legit, but outside of that this team is basically Bread, Zibanjed, and a hot goalie.

Those two are really really good. No debate there, but how is that going to work long term?