GDT: ECSF Game 4: Your New Jersey Devils vs. Carolina Hurricanes, 7 PM, ESPN

[JimEIV]

Bc sample set of six games means something when your team is playing like garbage.

I'm convinced now more than ever all the goalie talk is to avoid talking about the poor performances from key players.

 

[NJDevs26]

I'm convinced now more than ever all the goalie talk is to avoid talking about the poor performances from key players.

Well it has been in this postseason. Little different than prior years when the skaters are getting 70-80 points and we have AHL goalies in net and yet you gave the scoring forwards the blame for 65-point seasons and said the core was rotten.

 

[Bleedred]

Vitek Vanacek =Roman Turek. Remember him with the Blues. Great regular season goalie with a good overall team in front of him and then laid turds in the playoffs. Also see Patrick Lalime.

The sample of games is still a little too small for me to say Roman Turek, but this has gotta be the worst playoffs a goalie has had with a minimum of 250 minutes played since Fleury in 2012.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Should have drafted a blue chip goalie instead of holtz. We could be years filtering through other teams rejects before we find something

Drafting a "blue chip" goalie is practically unheard of. Goaltending is such a crapshoot. Blackwood was pretty close to a "blue chip" goalie. Some organizations do a better job than others. The Rags and Nashville are pretty good at mining goaltending talent and developing it.

The sample of games is still a little too small for me to say Roman Turek, but this has gotta be the worst playoffs a goalie has had with a minimum of 250 minutes played since Fleury in 2012.

Sure hope VV isn't heading in that direction. So far that's what I see.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Schmid is still very young and has shown a lot of promise. Kid deserves a shot next year.

Daws has upside. The other goalie prospect we have outside of the AHL has a lot of upside too.

And Vitek was very good for us the vast majority of the season.

 

[JimEIV]

Well it has been in this postseason. Little different than prior years when the skaters are getting 70-80 points and we have AHL goalies in net and yet you gave the scoring forwards the blame for 65-point seasons and said the core was rotten.

If in prior years players were getting 70 or 80 points we would've been in the playoffs sooner. But that never happened. Not even close.

60 points is the best we got out of anyone...Last year scoring began reaching new heights and our offensive leaders were producing like dead puck era totals.

 

[Bleedred]

Sure hope VV isn't heading in that direction. So far that's what I see.

I don't think these playoffs are the death knell of him being an average NHL goalie. I think he'll be fine going forward.

But after this and the very small number of minutes he's played in Washington in the playoffs, I don't see any way the org counts on him to play in the playoffs again after this.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this causes us to go out and get another goalie to either be the 1a (or starter) to Vitek's 1b or potentially trade Vitek as part of a package for a better goalie to be the 1a/starter to Schmid's 1b/backup.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

dougie is a big reason we even GET to be in playoffs

i get the issue w the no-shows during playoffs, but we have to remember that there are a lot of guys who were needed to bring us in here to begin with

There's a lot of things this team did great in the regular season that don't translate well for a playoff contender.

OT wins for example. 3 on 3 domination with open ice don't mean squat when you're staring down a hard forecheck and clogged neutral zone trying to fight uphill down 2 goals.

 

[billingtons ghost]

This was a case of playing the goalie who has not played well AT ALL this entire postseason instead of the guy who, while he did have rough games, played outstanding at times and recorded two shutouts.

Ruff's justification was Vitek beat the canes on March 12 and won the previous game (in which he didn't play particularly well and benefitted from the 8 goals NJ scored).

It's probably moot anyway because the entire team played like crap. Still, I woulda felt better watching a competitive 3-1 loss than another demoralizing blowout. Would have at least given me a shred of hope for seeing a Game 6.

You know, it could've gone either way.
Logic: play your upstart 22 yr old (who just got yanked twice
Logic: play the guy who won the last game (who hasn't looked good all playoffs)

Obviously Lindy would like to play 'the hot hand' but we don't have one

Blackwood would have been some wild out of the box thinking.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

I hope Fitz doesn't do any kneejerk reactions based on the playoffs, traditionally that's how GMs have made terrible mistakes. I'd be fine with trying to upgrade Vanecek but I think it will be just too pricey to do it. Giving up Bratt for a goalie for example is a terrible mistake. Vanecek will have next year's regular season to get his game right and if it's truly psychological and not variance that's making him underperform in the playoffs, team needs to figure out how to help there.

 

[My3Sons]

Blackwood is a tease, he’ll make a great save or two around giving up a softie or two. More than even that though, I don’t see the point in putting in a guy you’re clearly moving on from though with Schmid doing what he did, plus VV having his regular season and being signed for two more years. What’s Blackwood’s motivation to play when he’s dead man walking other than juicing up his value for another team? What’s our motivation to try and help him do so when he’s clearly the worst option of the three? Or at least a clearly worse option than Schmid right now.

Plus tbh goaltending doesn’t matter when you play the way we have this series

You don't see the point? The NHL is auctioning tickets to watch the game with @Bleedred and they are well into the high five figures right now. Once Blackwood gets announced some brokers are expecting the top bids to come from Saudi sheiks who have never watched hockey but have feverishly followed Bleed's rants when Blackwood plays. I for one will be camping out on Bleed's front lawn wearing my Blackwood jersey and chanting "Mack Black is back!!!" when it goes down. It will be glorious.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Maybe should've played better then

 

[JimEIV]

It's hard to justify a goal from Nico through 2 rounds and 11 games ..but it certainly wasn't only him

A goal from Nico
A goal from Meier
A goal from Bratt hardly.
A goal from Tatar
A goal from Hamilton and only 3 points

I mean when Wood and McLeod both double up on goals over Nico, Timo, Bratt, Tatar and Hamilton...there is a problem not being talked about.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

It's hard to justify a goal from Nico through 2 rounds and 11 games ..but it certainly wasn't only him

A goal from Nico
A goal from Meier
A goal from Bratt hardly.
A goal from Tatar
A goal from Hamilton and only 3 points

I mean when Wood and McLeod both double up on goals over Nico, Timo, Bratt, Tatar and Hamilton...there is a problem not being talked about.

I think that’s probably been talked about as much as anything but the goalie not stopping a beach ball.

 

[Emperoreddy]

It's hard to justify a goal from Nico through 2 rounds and 11 games ..but it certainly wasn't only him

A goal from Nico
A goal from Meier
A goal from Bratt hardly.
A goal from Tatar
A goal from Hamilton and only 3 points

I mean when Wood and McLeod both double up on goals over Nico, Timo, Bratt, Tatar and Hamilton...there is a problem not being talked about.

It's being talked about. Especially in regards to Bratt and Dougie, possibly to an excessive degree

 

[JimEIV]

It's being talked about. Especially in regards to Bratt and Dougie, possibly to an excessive degree

I don't really want to get hornets stirred up...But I really haven't seen anyone call out Nico...or even once mention what extra responsibilities a captain should have or be expected to bring...

Honestly, not once

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I like Tatar as a regular season player but holy seesh didn’t realize playoff Tatar was a thing. I always thought it was made up by the mainboard until I looked at his playoff stats

52 games

7 goals, 6 assist

Tons of guys here defended him to death about being benched by 2 teams in the playoffs. Well, here we are.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

I think they'd go with an EBUG over Blackwood at this point lol

no EBUGs in the playoffs - you just keep dressing more goalies if you need them. Quick got dressed for Vegas the other night after the injury.

 

[Clam Jensen]

I don't really want to get hornets stirred up...But I really haven't seen anyone call out Nico...or even once mention what extra responsibilities a captain should have or be expected to bring...

Honestly, not once

probably because he absolutely deleted Mika in RD1 which was impressive, but the team as a whole (Nico included) has been booty cheeks against the Canes outside of most of G3.

 

[BurntToast]

This is an unfair conclusion in regards to this team after what they’ve done this year and in Round 1 imo. They’ve overcome adversity all season long. A single round doesn’t make that disappear.

I disagree. (In the series they came back but..) They have been blown out almost every loss. The only game they didn’t get caved, is game 3 against the Rangers.

They had 26 “giveaways” last game. They only mustered up 5 shots in the third. This team can come back in games but have yet to do so in the playoffs.

They are averaging close to 15 giveaways per game in the playoffs. They barely get out of there zone in the 3rd. The have not had over 10 shot in a 3rd period against the Canes. It could be Ruff sucks at in game adjustments? (Which is probably true) But its up to the players to push through.

 

[NJDevs26]

I think that’s probably been talked about as much as anything but the goalie not stopping a beach ball.

It’s being excused and glossed over because of xG and Shesty

 

[Devs3cups]

I disagree. (In the series they came back but..) They have been blown out almost every loss. The only game they didn’t get caved, is game 3 against the Rangers.

I just can’t see how a young team who has come back many times in the regular season and has then come back from a 2-0 deficit on the road to win its first 1st round series in years against a rival crumbles under adversity. It’s fine if we just don’t agree, cause imo one of the best qualities this team has is their resiliency. One single series against the Canes doesn’t change that for me, not even a little bit.

I understand why some people could feel that way after this series if they end up losing though. I just don’t personally feel that way.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I don't really want to get hornets stirred up...But I really haven't seen anyone call out Nico...or even once mention what extra responsibilities a captain should have or be expected to bring...

Honestly, not once

He's been called out by plenty of people for his lack of scoring, myself included. I know from our earlier conversation you don't value expected goals much if it doesn't equal production, but it hasn't been for lack of attempts in the first series.

As far as the extra responsibilities a captain should bring, maybe you can enlighten me there on what you feel is missing.

If it's that he isn't Scott Stevens, well yeah, no one is.

 

[JimEIV]

probably because he absolutely deleted Mika in RD1 which was impressive, but the team as a whole (Nico included) has been booty cheeks against the Canes outside of most of G3.

Absolutely deleted? He had 4 points in 7 games...his only goal came at even strength? Nico had no goals in round 1?

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

It’s being excused and glossed over because of xG and Shesty

There’s not much else to say about it. It hasn’t gone in. That’s been very unfortunate and makes me sad.

We know these players can score. And it isn’t just a matter of getting chances in the blue paint for Nico or Timo because they’ve gotten massive amounts in that area.

I’ll make a bold prediction that these players will not all simultaneously be cold the next time we make a run. Beyond just being a doomer, there isn’t any reason to believe this.

This will be motivation for them all in the offseason. I know “Bratt is a lazy bum” seems to be the narrative now, but no one on this team trains harder than him in the offseason. It’s how you beat the odds as an undersized 6th round pick.

Absolutely deleted? He had 4 points in 7 games...his only goal came at even strength? Nico had no goals in round 1?

You didn’t watch the games if you didn’t see his line totally clown Mika’s.