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

[MadDevil]

Ah yes. I remember distinctively thinking to myself that team wasn't legit despite the start because their roster really wasn't that good. Looking it up now...their top scorer was a 30 year old Dany Heatley with just 24 goals and 53 points. That was the last time he'd score more than 20 in a season and he was out of the NHL three years later. Their next leading scorer was noted offensive superstar...Kyle Brodziak. LOL. They had zero legitimate top line players.

So the one team I could think of that completely choked after a great first 30 games was clearly less talented than our current Devils squad. Is there any other team in recent memory that squandered this big of a cushion to miss the playoffs?

I don't know how big of a cushion they had but the 2015-16 Habs started 19-4-2 and missed the playoffs. Although Price got injured in like November so that's understandable given how important he was to them at the time.

 

[Bleedred]

The one thing I remember about that 11-12 Wild team and their hot start, despite falling apart even before Christmas, I swear they were still in a playoff spot or at least on the borderline in February, despite hardly having any recent wins.

I do remember their collapse and remember them still being in a playoff spot at some point in February and it seemed like they lost almost every night and I kept saying ''How are they still in a playoff spot? They barely even win for the last 2 months?''.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I don't know how big of a cushion they had but the 2015-16 Habs started 19-4-2 and missed the playoffs. Although Price got injured in like November so that's understandable given how important he was to them at the time.

For some reason I don’t remember that at all. Their top three scorers that year were Paciorrety (just 64 points) followed by Alex Galchenyuk and Thomas Plekanec. They did have a prime PK Subban but the rest of the lineup was pretty weak and as you mentioned Price missed a majority of the season. A bunch of other guys got injured for stretches too. Definitely a team lacking top end talent and rocked by injuries to boot.

Two examples so far and both seem like they were weaker teams than the current Devils squad.

 

[MadDevil]

The one thing I remember about that 11-12 Wild team and their hot start, despite falling apart even before Christmas, I swear they were still in a playoff spot or at least on the borderline in February, despite hardly having any recent wins.

I do remember their collapse and remember them still being in a playoff spot at some point in February and it seemed like they lost almost every night and I kept saying ''How are they still in a playoff spot? They barely even win for the last 2 months?''.

After winning 20 of their first 30 they went 8-19-6 through the end of February, including both a 7 and 8 game losing streak during that stretch. Talk about the bottom falling out of your season...

 

[MadDevil]

For some reason I don’t remember that at all. Their top three scorers that year were Paciorrety (just 64 points) followed by Alex Galchenyuk and Thomas Plekanec. They did have a prime PK Subban but the rest of the lineup was pretty weak and as you mentioned Price missed a majority of the season. A bunch of other guys got injured for stretches too. Definitely a team lacking top end talent and rocked by injuries to boot.

Two examples so far and both seem like they were weaker teams than the current Devils squad.

Definitely. I don't think we're in danger of completely collapsing...at least yet. If the team was getting outplayed every night I'd be worried. Usually if you're on a losing streak but outplaying the opposition you're due to get back in the win column. I think some people just have PTSD given how things have gone in the past that everything is going to go wrong at some point. Which is certainly not impossible, but this team is not the same as years past where I do feel things would have snowballed out of control.