GDT: Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 1: Your New Jersey Devils (WC2) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (1E)

[Devils Dominion]

Only need to win one in Tampa.

It's a must win too .

How many times have the Devils gone down 2-0 in a series and come back to win it?

Though, the last two times the Devils lost Game1 on the road they won each series.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

shero made a decision that didn't work out. call it whatever you like. you say that shero "added scoring depth to a team that needed it". actually, he added a LW that should play in the top 6 to be effective, when we're already loaded at that position.



if tedenby scored 40 goals 3 years in a row, would you consider that a good pick? as long as we're dealing with purely hypothetical nonsense. the tedenby pick sucked, and so did the grabner trade

None of this sentence is true. Literally none of it. We were "loaded at LW" at the time? We had Hall with..who? Wood? Coleman? Gibbons? That's "loaded"? And Grabner always plays less than 15 minutes a game, he's not a top 6 player.

This is pointless. He added Grabner in the hopes that he'd continue what he did over the last season and a half. He hasn't. Oh well, cry about it. I only call them bad trades when the underlying logic is bad. This wasn't.

 

[Better Call Sal]

It's a must win too .

How many times have the Devils gone down 2-0 in a series and come back to win it?

Though, the last two times the Devils lost Game1 on the road they won each series.

Important to remember. It's happened before. Of course, in both of those series, we took Game 2 so it's certainly important we do the same here tomorrow.

Regardless, I don't think we'll be "out of it" if we come home down 2-0 as I think the Rock is going to be wild. Hopeful we'll be all tied up going into Monday, though.

 

[Cult of Hynes]

Also wood getting benched messed up some of the lines for a bit.
Cooper was really using last change to his advantage all night long

That was seriously so dumb by hynes. The playoffs are not the time to be benching people, especially people that can impact a game with their speed.

 

[HoliksGhost]

Win Saturday and mission accomplished, road split, erase game 1 loss, make it a 5-game series with home ice.

Random thoughts:

I'd do the Grabner trade a 100 times over.

Butcher played a fine game.

Don't be surprised when Hynes makes an adjustment and has Zajac center Hall next game. Kills many birds with one stone.

Severson likely will replace Mueller/LJ.

 

[Devils Dominion]

We looked slow last night, skating, reacting .

 

[OmNomNom]

f*** i just wanna win so we aren't so doom and gloom in here

house money

 

[Better Call Sal]

Wood took a dumb, costly penalty. Hynes is trying to reel him in early and teach him to play his game without being too careless. He still played just under 12 minutes. It's a marathon, not a sprint, you've got to make sure he understands how he needs to play for the remainder of the series.

Hynes started to mix the lines up by trying to get Hall out as often as possible to avoid a matchup. I thought he played that as well as he could given Cooper was line matching all night long.

Lovejoy only played 14 minutes, I wouldn't be shocked if he's out of the lineup for Game 2. You could tell some of the Lightning were paying attention to when he was on them. I recall Point having a moment where he nearly blew right past him towards the goal.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Important to remember. It's happened before. Of course, in both of those series, we took Game 2 so it's certainly important we do the same here tomorrow.

Regardless, I don't think we'll be "out of it" if we come home down 2-0 as I think the Rock is going to be wild. Hopeful we'll be all tied up going into Monday, though.

Yeah it's a must win tomorrow

 

[Zezel22]

Devils have to be even going back to Tampa for Game 5, obviously. So one of next 2 is critical to get to game 4 within striking distance of doing that. Not rocket science. Doesnt matter when it happens or how.

Different years/different teams but just using 2012 as an example I personally didn't feel great about Game 1 losses in both Philly and NY and strong statement road wins in Game 2 shifted the balance of both of those series. In the case of the Rangers series, Game 3 at home was a complete letdown but then again a strong Game 4 set the stage. So it doesn't really matter how it happens and is different all the time.

I will always remember the Kovalchuk PP goal early in that Game 2 at MSG. What a huge goal, I almost jumped thru my ceiling. I do feel taking a lead Saturday would be ideal in a similar fashion.

 

[FooteBahl]

We looked slow last night, skating, reacting .

I don’t think we looked slow, i think it’s just that they’re one of very few teams that can skate with us. The one thing that bothered me in the first is how insanely focused they were in getting Zajacs line out against Stammers line. I could be wrong, but I swear in the first it looked like there could have been a potential odd man rush, but they saw the matchup, immediately dumped it in and went for a change. Fight fire with f***ing fire if you have to for one shift.

 

[New Jersey]

I'm not panicking. They didn't fold their tents at 3-0 down. It's a 1-goal game late in the 3rd. While on the road, against the top seed, in many of the players first PO game.

Make sure you keep this here and not on the main board threads. You'll be promptly greeted by Bolts fans detailing just how and why they ****ing "destroyed" us last night.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Most of our guys can play much better, so that gives me a dash of optimism.

 

[Zezel22]

[QUOTE="AveryQuietMan, post:

this whole narrative of 'playoff games are just another game' is hurting the team. dont know which leader decided to try this angle... but it wont work. we tried to play our game and tampa just steamrolled us in the first.

..[/QUOTE]

I got nervous there that we were about to address Captain Greene for the team's mental state and preparedness to play, to which I woudl have no choice but remind everyone that despite the long standing traditions of hockey in which team captains are accountable for those types of things, that standard does not apply to Andy Greene. He is captain for his caliber of play only. EDIT: Not that either. But he is Captain do not suggest otherwise. Thank you.

 

[New Jersey]

Tomorrow I am enjoying the beautiful almost-summer-like weather out and about in Hoboken with my Marty jersey on.

Win or lose, we still booze.

 

[Cheddabombs]

For the most part the guys that struggled were the ones making their playoff debuts. Wood and Zacha had poor games (I thought Maroon was fine aside from his awful turnover), Nico looked a step behind, Mueller was bad. I expect those guys to take the next step tomorrow and have better games, aside from Mueller I think will be out for Severson.

But still, we got decimated in the first and then held our own. Some really costly mistakes led to goals, shit happens and it'll continue to happen. Tampa is good and opportunistic, we gave them a few gimmes and it's all they needed to capitalize. We just need to minimize those mistakes going forward.

 

[billingtons ghost]

**** i just wanna win so we aren't so doom and gloom in here

house money

See - here's a guy that gets it...

Look - this isn't the first time we've looked terrible in Game1 of a series. The second period should give us hope.

The first period was an example of a young team getting its feet wet in the significantly faster tempo of the playoffs. All of our passes were rushed, all of our decisions panicked and we gave away the puck far too much to a very skilled and fast team.

I know we gave up a goal on the PK, but Wood's stupid penalty actually gave us a chance to get our feet and catch our breath and get into a mode we were familiar with.

I liked Zajac and Coleman's game, I liked part of what Noesen brought. Hall and Palms were frustrated, but that's to be expected - and they had some chances. Wood had a few moments of being effective. I think Nico and Zacha were overmatched to start and began to catch up a bit by night's end. Grabner and Gibbons weren't very useful. Boyle and Maroon's slowness showed that in order to keep them in the lineup we're going to have to work hard - and we'll have to get more PP advantages to make that pay off.

I'll give some props to Vats and Greene - they were frantic, but I thought they played a great game.

Hey - for as badly as we were outplayed, 3-2 in the middle of the third in their barn is is not a bad place to be against this team.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Also, our poweplay being great was another good sign. We knew the Lightning's PK wasn't that strong going into this and they stepped up yesterday to take advantage of that.

 

[New Jersey]

Everyone's already counting us out.

New Jersey vs. Earth.

 

[New Jersey]

Also, our poweplay being great was another good sign. We knew the Lightning's PK wasn't that strong going into this and they stepped up yesterday to take advantage of that.

The Devils made them look like an AHL team both times they went down a man. Bolts fans could try to spin that but they really ****ing did.

 

[OmNomNom]

making playoffs already beat expectations.

now the next line of assholes we have to deal with are "oh the devils are gonna get swept"
i just want to win at least 2 games, then i'll be even MORE satisfied. the deeper we go, the more on notice the league gets.

or maybe they just won't get it and we can keep crushing their expectations

 

[njdevil26]

Gord Miller has the call in game 2.

 

[New Jersey]

making playoffs already beat expectations.

now the next line of *******s we have to deal with are "oh the devils are gonna get swept"
i just want to win at least 2 games, then i'll be even MORE satisfied. the deeper we go, the more on notice the league gets.

or maybe they just won't get it and we can keep crushing their expectations

let's fall to 3-2 in the series after getting embarrassed in game 5 and then win back to back games in overtime to stun them.

where have I seen this before?

 

[New Jersey]

member when we got shutout in a three-goal defeat to the rags in game 1 in 2012?

 

[Zezel22]

I can't believe we got Butcher for free. I still can't.

His maturity and intelligence are the most impressive parts about his game. He plays like a 10 year vet.

In my mind I still kind of think of that as a trade for Kerfoot, and I was watching him last night with Colorado and he has been pretty good - better as a 1st year NHL'er on a good team than most probably would have said. It's funny how that worked out with the two teams basically swapping picks like that. But even if that WAS a trade, the Devils win big.