GDT: Game #2: Coyotes @ Devils - 7:00 P.M - MSGSN

[JimEIV]

This team didn't play all that great for some stretches last year (especially in December) and figured it out. We still have a young team and we've just played a back to back to start the year. There's some good right now and some not so good, but I'm confident it'll get sorted, team has too much talent not to.

Still 3 out of 4 points when not at the top of their game is good. They also showed resiliency last night. Down 2-0 and came back in the game and even got a point. Season starts can be a bit sloppy, you just want to clean stuff up.

Lindy seemed to indicate some PK work would get done based on the presser, that's good. I'd like a little more pressure on the PK.


They haven't had good games to start, I'm confident they'll pick it up. They had a few nice chances in the 2 games, but they have another gear, on both ends of the ice.

It's not even about scoring for them ..
I don't expect that line to be losing the possession battle so badly. Meier and Mercer are in the 30's% CF....
Fine don't score but geeze don't get caved in either..

 

[Devs3cups]

The second line has been absolutely atrocious, their underlying numbers are legit abysmal.

That combination in general seems really redundant, I would swap Mercer with Toffoli at a minimum.

I’ve seen a suggestion here of:

Mercer - Hughes - Toffoli
Bratt - Hischier - Meier

I don’t hate it, but I’m not sure about splitting Bratt and Jack. they’ll cook regardless of who they played with, but they’re hot right now. So I don’t know.

My gut tells me they’ll run the current lineup for at least 5 games.

 

[JimEIV]

The second line has been absolutely atrocious, their underlying numbers are legit abysmal.

That combination in general seems really redundant, I would swap Mercer with Toffoli at a minimum.

I don't know...I think Toffoli is a perfect match with Bratt and Jack?

His lack of foot speed is completely camouflaged by the other two and his nack for finding open space is magnified playing with them

 

[Better Call Sal]

For reference last year, neither Nico or Jack had a point in the first two games of the season.

What happens in the first two games of the season will not continue for long. Either they pick it up or the lines will be shuffled. But it’ll get corrected.

 

[Devs3cups]

For reference last year, neither Nico or Jack had a point in the first two games of the season.

What happens in the first two games of the season will not continue for long. Either they pick it up or the lines will be shuffled. But it’ll get corrected.

Exactly, not the first time nor the last we see a sloppy season start from a team. The fact they haven’t played their best yet and have 3 out of 4 points is good. When they get to their game as we’ve seen, watch out.

 

[Better Call Sal]

As I mentioned, I didn’t get to watch much of this game but I have a hard time taking a ton out of a game with the amount of penalties that took place in this one also.

Early season hockey can be a slop fest at times. This seems like it was a prime example of that.

 

[Camille the Eel]

It’s only 2 games, but we controlled play in the first two games last season. We’re getting the points this year but getting outplayed, which is much more concerning.

They’ll turn it around, but they’ve had their heads up their asses so far.

We are turning the puck over, blowing assignments, getting massively out chanced.

For example, on the Coyotes first goal last night, 2 Devils defenders both went to Keller and left Dumba wide open in the slot slightly trailing the play. Unlike the Detroit guys the prior night, he didn’t miss.

Schmid also misread that play, stayed deep in the net, didn’t jump out on the shooter, gave him half the net to shoot at.

We have more often than not looked sluggish to react, confused, reacting to and not dictating the play (a lot of times), and even slower than the opposition. We’ve been getting bumped off of pucks easily, been losing one on one puck scrambles.

Getting 3 out of 4 points while playing like that was a super result. Also both games were very entertaining.

 

[Devs3cups]

We are turning the puck over, blowing assignments, getting massively out chanced.

For example, on the Coyotes first goal last night, 2 Devils defenders both went to Keller and left Dumba wide open in the slot slightly trailing the play. Unlike the Detroit guys the prior night, he didn’t miss.

Schmid also misread that play, stayed deep in the net, didn’t jump out on the shooter, gave him half the net to shoot at.

We have more often than not looked sluggish to react, confused, reacting to and not dictating the play (a lot of times), and even slower than the opposition. We’ve been getting bumped off of pucks easily, been losing one on one puck scrambles.

Getting 3 out of 4 points while playing like that was a super result. Also both games were very entertaining.

There was definitely some bad, but there’s some good in there too and showing resiliency when you don’t have your game to get points is a sign of a good team imo. When they get to their game as they’ve shown, it’s going to be even better.

 

[JimEIV]

Here's a mind blower

Brendan Smith has more shots on goal through two games than everyone except Jack, Toffoli, and Dougie

I had to read that stat line 4 times to make sure that I wasn't confusing the column on hockey reference.

 

[Devs3cups]

Y

Here's a mind blower

Brendan Smith has more shots on goal through two games than everyone except Jack, Toffoli, and Dougie

I had to read that stat line 4 times to make sure that I wasn't confusing the column on hockey reference.

Yup, that won’t keep going for very long.

 

[JimEIV]

Y

Yup, that won’t keep going for very long.

Two games is way longer than I would have expected

 

[Devs3cups]

Two games is way longer than I would have expected

Can’t disagree lol

Can we say… ACTIVATED SMITH

He’s activated in the penalty box alright lol

 

[Clam Jensen]

Here's a mind blower

Brendan Smith has more shots on goal through two games than everyone except Jack, Toffoli, and Dougie

I had to read that stat line 4 times to make sure that I wasn't confusing the column on hockey reference.

Against DET the announcers actually made a point of how often he was shooting and how odd it was

 

[Brooklyndevil]

For me it can get worse if that Nico line doesnt get going....

Bratt with Nico..

Jack with Toffoli...

Take it from there and fill the holes....

Gotta get that Nico line going....still early

We were the better team probably from the middle of the 2nd.

If Smith didn’t take that penalty (which he’s a repeat offender of) I think we win that one in regulation.

And we need a save on that shot. I can’t stress how much we need a save on that game tying goal. It wasn’t a good goal. He could have at least shown up for the shootout after letting that in.

And the PK can afford to be a little more aggressive like we were on a couple of the kills in the 2nd, rather than guys standing around being content to be stuck on a glue trap in the D-zone and just blocking shots and defending to death.

I agree that 3rd goal should have been stopped. Great pass on the goal but it wasn’t such a great shot.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Oh that’s right, Cooley is too small

That and Slafkovsky is a better player.

 

[JimEIV]

Another eye catching stat....so far Luke is getting more DZone starts than Ozone. Luke is 55.6 DZone starts

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Flip Meier and Toffoli to get Timo going. Don’t think it takes major surgery here.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

We are a much better team when Jack gets consistent help from the 2nd line.

Find a way to get the 2nd and 3rd line producing and we won't have much of a problem scoring goals. The real work is going to be getting the team to play as good as we did 5 on 5 last year and with the special teams. The powerplay so far looks good. It's only 2 games but the penalty kill is off to a somewhat rocky start. It did come up big though at times yesterday despite giving up 2 goals.

If Bratt scores that breakaway goal for the hat trick than we win the game IMO. For some reason this team still is terrible in the shootout still. It seems like we win it once every three or four games. Regardless 3 out of 4 points while still not playing our best is still a decent start. Thankfully they're isn't any shootouts in the playoffs.

 

[JimEIV]

That and Slafkovsky is a better player.

Are you sure?

Logan Cooley was 2nd in the NCAA in scoring with 60 points to Adam Fantilli's 65 last year... Logan was impressive last year at Minnesota.

Slavkovsky may very well be the better player ...but he hasn't accomplished anything as impressive as Cooley so far....I think so anyway.

 

[JK3]

Another eye catching stat....so far Luke is getting more DZone starts than Ozone. Luke is 55.6 DZone starts

Probably on the ice for a bunch of icings during these two games.

 

[Call Me Al]

im not jumping off a bridge but 3/4 points against these teams isn’t “great,” it’s fine.

i don’t care about the points, i’m disappointed that 3 of the lines can’t generate offense and we get hemmed in our zone by inferior teams like it’s nobody’s business. last night we scored a 4v4, 4v3 and 5v3goal - we lost the 5v5 game and our pk has been abysmal.

not jumping off a bridge because that would be insane 2 games into the season, but my assessment of the first two games is hughes line + dougie-siegs pairing is awesome and the rest of the team looks like ass

 

[glenwo2]

We are a much better team when Jack gets consistent help from the 2nd line.

Find a way to get the 2nd and 3rd line producing and we won't have much of a problem scoring goals. The real work is going to be getting the team to play as good as we did 5 on 5 last year and with the special teams. The powerplay so far looks good. It's only 2 games but the penalty kill is off to a somewhat rocky start. It did come up big though at times yesterday despite giving up 2 goals.

If Bratt scores that breakaway goal for the hat trick than we win the game IMO. For some reason this team still is terrible in the shootout still. It seems like we win it once every three or four games. Regardless 3 out of 4 points while still not playing our best is still a decent start. Thankfully they're isn't any shootouts in the playoffs.

Or if Brendan Smith did not commit that dumb penalty, we win the game IMO.

Or if our Meier/Nico/Mercer line could get ANY production, we win that game.


That's low-hanging fruit, my friend.

Bratt did HIS PART (as did Jack).

It's the others that need to get with the program.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Shit like this is infuriating. It changes the pace of the game.

I’m sure there were bad calls throughout, but the Siegs one allowed it to become 2-0 Arizona.

 

[JimEIV]

It's one line... not 3.

Here are the forwards with no points and under 50% CF

Nico, Timo and Dawson..... That's it.

They're no other forwards under 50%.

 

[Devs3cups]

im not jumping off a bridge but 3/4 points against these teams isn’t “great,” it’s fine.

i don’t care about the points, i’m disappointed that 3 of the lines can’t generate offense and we get hemmed in our zone by inferior teams like it’s nobody’s business. last night we scored a 4v4, 4v3 and 5v3goal - we lost the 5v5 game and our pk has been abysmal.

not jumping off a bridge because that would be insane 2 games into the season, but my assessment of the first two games is hughes line + dougie-siegs pairing is awesome and the rest of the team looks like ass

2nd line as a whole has looked bad. Palat and Haula have looked fine imo, I like what Luke has done as well. Vitek has looked good too. There’s been some good, but when your whole 2nd line isn’t playing well, it’s very noticeable and it affects the whole squad.