GDT: HUGHES BROTHERS Devils @ Canucks 10pm MSGSN

[Better Call Sal]

I'm appreciative of the glass half full mentality. It should never have gotten to this point, though, but I do feel we're going to experience these growing pains overall for the remainder of the year. Between our young guys' roles expanding on the fly, and the increased responsibility of the veterans in the lineup, it's going to be tough sledding no matter what.

We'll see if the staff will make any adjustments ahead of the next game, but you take the two points however you can on these road trips.

 

[Bleedred]

Didn't watch the game but those Vitek highlights, sheesh. I can't remember what goalie it was (maybe Cory) that could not control a single rebound towards the end of their NJ tenure but that's what those reminded me of.

Also, I really don't want to use the whole "riding the hot hand" goaltending strategy anymore. It's clearly not been working for us. We should just alternate every single game, no back to back starts, keep the goaltending predictable (in terms of who is playing) from night to night. Maybe it will help shoot a bit of confidence into them.

I don’t think we should alternate every game. I think we should ride the hot hand.

However, there hasn’t been a hot hand. Vitek particularly since November is posting the same numbers that Cory Schneider posted to start both 18-19 and 19-20, only there seems to be no end in sight. I’m not expecting any kind of “He’s .920% since *whatever time* and he’s bouncing back! He was just injured! It isn’t a market correction! It’s him! His elite!” stretch from him, until he plays somewhere else.

No one here has any confidence in playing in front of him anymore. And he has no confidence here either. Everybody knows he’s a joke back there, no matter how much they like him.

Vitek hasn’t been a hot hand at all, other than counting two wins in a row as a hot hand.

Schmid has been way hotter than he has. He was actually hot for five of his last 6 before the disaster playing the second night in a row. And two of those games were relieving Vitek of the mess he’s made.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I just don't understand reinventing the wheel with this swarm stuff. I get that it's to get possession but I'd rather protect the net and the slot bc we get burned there like all the time.

I'd love to see the stats behind it but I feel like this swarm thing isn't really even contributing to the team's offense all that much vs how much it's hurting them.

Every time I see them in the dzone it looks like they're coming out winners of the battle (gaining possession back, breaking out) through sheer talent, rather than a well executed structure. It just looks really messy.

LMAO at JT Miller's impact.

Severson would be proud.

 

[Bleedred]

I hope Rogarski helps him with the rebound control and they work on it.

He won’t.​

I honestly think you can point to him not playing for a week at his horrible rebound control, but it could also be a symptom of his by the game slip into the doldrums.

He’s an .864% in 10 games since the start of November. Those are not too far from Cory Schneider’s first 9 games of both the 18-19 and 19-20 seasons, which started to turn around a bit by game 10 of those years lol.

That’s literally EBUG level.

Schmid is a .902% in 7 games since the start of November and that includes the Sharks disaster.

It’s a joke the staff let it get this bad. A bigger joke than Tootoo running Miller lol.

 

[JrFischer54]

Nothing really left to be said about the goalies that hasn’t been said already. If it’s going to be like this all year then the stars have to step up. Hughes both bratt Nico Timo. Good win but damn make a save

 

[Bleedred]

Nothing really left to be said about the goalies that hasn’t been said already. If it’s going to be like this all year then the stars have to step up. Hughes both bratt Nico Timo. Good win but damn make a save

Need to play Schmid more.

Better numbers both this year and numbers around league average since the start of November.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

Growing pains, man. People got too jazzed up after last year when arguably this was the season they should've had last year where they were gonna be on the bubble the whole year and then sneak in late. The expectations are killing this team in fan's eyes to an extent. They'll still make the playoffs imo but they still need to make a move earlier than most teams on the bubble.

I don't think the roster is an issue one bit (other than goaltending).

just watched the highlights. i think we need a goalie

I think you need to watch the game, or if you're only watching highlights, look at how Demko did. He was just as shitty.

 

[denverdevil]

This thread makes it sound like they lost. They didn’t. They won.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

I honestly think you can point to him not playing for a week at his horrible rebound control, but it could also be a symptom of his by the game slip into the doldrums.

He’s an .864% in 10 games since the start of November. Those are not too far from Cory Schneider’s first 9 games of both the 18-19 and 19-20 seasons, which started to turn around a bit by game 10 of those years lol.

That’s literally EBUG level.

Schmid is a .902% in 7 games since the start of November and that includes the Sharks disaster.

It’s a joke the staff let it get this bad. A bigger joke than Tootoo running Miller lol.

I kid around but if course I have no clue what’s going on. Could it possibly be VV is so in his head and focused on making the first save that his rebound control is off? I can’t recall how he was last year.

 

[Bleedred]

I kid around but if course I have no clue what’s going on. Could it possibly be VV is so in his head and focused on making the first save that his rebound control is off? I can’t recall how he was last year.

That could be the case.

I’m no doctor, but it could be just part of his mental breakdown and collapse here that has no chance of being fixed until he’s out of town.

I am extremely confident that he’s broken from the playoffs last year and he isn’t coming back from them. Not here he isn’t.

That is the kind of thing that can ruin a goalies for the remainder of their time on that team, and it looks like it’s definitely happening with him.

 

[Cheddabombs]

I'm appreciative of the glass half full mentality. It should never have gotten to this point, though, but I do feel we're going to experience these growing pains overall for the remainder of the year. Between our young guys' roles expanding on the fly, and the increased responsibility of the veterans in the lineup, it's going to be tough sledding no matter what.

We'll see if the staff will make any adjustments ahead of the next game, but you take the two points however you can on these road trips.

It absolutely shouldn't have gotten to that point, that was an absurd collapse and would've been even worse had they lost.

(Insert Dano picture)

Now, having said that. That's a Canucks team that's 6th in the league right now, already has 100+ goals for, has 2 players in the top 5 in scoring, 3 in the top 10, and the league's top goal scorer. They have crazy firepower, they just did what they've been doing all year really. Thankfully our offense also showed up.

 

[Devils731]

I kid around but if course I have no clue what’s going on. Could it possibly be VV is so in his head and focused on making the first save that his rebound control is off? I can’t recall how he was last year.

This is where someone needs to respond:

“All teams have goalies that give up rebounds but not every team allows the opponent open looks to slam them into the back of the net almost every time.”

I kid, I kid.

 

[Devs3cups]

I’m usually a very positive poster, and I’m happy they won, but I can’t shake the disappointment with how last game unfolded.

They had this game on lock with a damn good defensive performance in the 1st/2nd periods. 3 goal lead to start the 3rd and they crapped it all away. Very disappointing, eye opening and concerning. No excuse for letting this game get tied up in the 3rd.

I thought the defense overall was better but they got panicky in the 3rd and that includes VV. I have 0 trust in Vitek, and I don’t think he trusts himself either.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

I’m usually a very positive poster, and I’m happy they won, but I can’t shake the disappointment with how last game unfolded.

They had this game on lock with a damn good defensive performance in the 1st/2nd periods. 3 goal lead to start the 3rd and the crapped it all away. Very disappointing, eye opening and concerning. No excuse for letting this game get tied up in the 3rd.

I thought the defense overall was better but they got panicky in the 3rd and that includes VV. I have 0 trust in Vitek, and I don’t think he trusts himself either.

And this is where my doubt goes into the coaching.

 

[Devs3cups]

And this is where my doubt goes into the coaching.

Absolutely, but at the same time as someone mentioned last night, last year’s team would’ve never let this happen.

There is something different to Ruff’s coaching this year, because they didn’t suddenly forget how to play?

 

[Triumph]

The thing about this game is that they didn't give up any breakaways or odd-man rushes but they still gave up 5 goals. Vitek wasn't good but he wasn't bad either. The coverage issues have to get fixed or someone else will be fixing them.

 

[Japam]

It's like they're playing a video game and the opponent is using the obvious "rubber banding" AI effect to purposely keep games close in the 3rd period. When I went to go check my phone I thought "I'm predicting 6-2 Devils" but then I remembered it's the Devils and 2 goals against was very optimistic.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

Absolutely, but at the same time as someone mentioned last night, last year’s team would’ve never let this happen.

There is something different to Ruff’s coaching this year, because they didn’t suddenly forget how to play?

And this is where I say this year is too similar to two years ago. I have a hard time believing it’s as simple as subtracting Graves and Sevs has lead to this. I expected some drop off and adjustment but this just doesn’t make sense to me. But I’m just a humble coal miner, what do I know.

 

[Triumph]

I think you need to watch the game, or if you're only watching highlights, look at how Demko did. He was just as shitty.

The difference is that Demko has good games. Vitek doesn't.

 

[HoliksGhost]

just watched the highlights. i think we need a goalie

Same

 

[Devils731]

Wasn't this also an issue with Hynes? Having a ton of complicated decisions that needed to be made in a millisecond?

For a time, Hynes ran an unusual system where the defender, once challenging a puck carrier, would never disengage.

The defender, possibly a defenseman, could pick up a guy in the left corner, follow him to the left point, follow him to the right point, and follow him back down to the right corner.

Hynes did eventually do away with this. Also, other teams do dabble with this concept.

—————-

It does make me wonder if the Devils front office/analytics gets a little enamored with complicated systems that work amazing when everything works perfect but have issues in real life.

The swarm and defender not disengaging both seem to be things teams have in their repertoire for special situations that the Devils turned into core tenets of their systems.

Both Hynes and Ruff seemed to run a complicated system because they didn’t trust the Devils to be effective defensively under a more traditional system. I’m not sure I agree with that with this current Devils roster but we have nothing to compare against so who knows?

 

[Devils731]

Absolutely, but at the same time as someone mentioned last night, last year’s team would’ve never let this happen.

There is something different to Ruff’s coaching this year, because they didn’t suddenly forget how to play?

This teams weak side and net coverage look like the same mess from 2 years ago.

I have a worry that Brunette either brought good adjustments to the system or was a good communicator in a way that had players fixing errors more quickly.

I never think I can tell what goes on behind the scenes between coaching responsibility though so who knows.

 

[NJ07102]

The thing about this game is that they didn't give up any breakaways or odd-man rushes but they still gave up 5 goals. Vitek wasn't good but he wasn't bad either. The coverage issues have to get fixed or someone else will be fixing them.

The thing is Vitek makes some great saves but he is also a rebound machine. Add to that our strange system that demands to add pressure to the puck carrier by putting an additional guy on him while leaving players totally uncovered in front of the net and here is your recipe for disaster. They should react to that by playing a less aggressive system or get a goalie that doesn't give up tons of rebounds.

 

[BostonDevil]

Need to play Schmid more.

Better numbers both this year and numbers around league average since the start of November.

I’m all for Schmid more but wasn’t the talk from Fitz at the beginning of the summer that he could even be sent down? Thought this was a bit ridiculous coming off his fairly strong performance in the playoffs, but if I remember those quotes I can see why they are reluctant to effectively make him the #1.

Leads me to the questions: If you thought Schmid would be in Utica, what were you doing to help NJ? Was Hellebuyck the way they were going and it unraveled? Something else? What was plan B? Just give up and have the kid you thought was an AHL goalie potentially be thrust into the #1? Thoughts and prayers that Vitek would turn into a Cup winning goalie? I don’t get it.

 

[Bleedred]

I’m all for Schmid more but wasn’t the talk from Fitz at the beginning of the summer that he could even be sent down? Thought this was a bit ridiculous coming off his fairly strong performance in the playoffs, but if I remember those quotes I can see why they are reluctant to effectively make him the #1.

Leads me to the questions: If you thought Schmid would be in Utica, what were you doing to help NJ? Was Hellebuyck the way they were going and it unraveled? Something else? What was plan B? Just give up and have the kid you thought was an AHL goalie potentially be thrust into the #1? Thoughts and prayers that Vitek would turn into a Cup winning goalie? I don’t get it.

If Hellebuyck was coming here then it almost definitely would have meant Vitek going to Winnipeg in the trade. So Schmid would have been here anyway.