GDT: Islanders @ Devils - Season Finale - 7:00 PM - MSG

[billingtons ghost]

I really like Jesper Bratt's more candid interview. Post game. He said it like it is and was.

He was asked about one thing that went wrong and he reflected about the immaturity in the way they played some games. Like down in games for 2/3rds of the games this season (about their giving up 1st goals and trailing for most of the games this season).

Immaturity in their game many times across the season and they lost games from it. Played too fancy sometimes.

Bratt | POST-RAW 4.15.24 | New Jersey Devils

Jesper Bratt speak after a 4-1 loss to the Islanders

www.nhl.com

Hope he tears it up even moreso next season. Hope this season feels that motivation for all our core guys. Hope it doesn't come up empty talk.

Great post and great interview. I think Bratt nailed it -

We thought they were a little full of themselves coming in, and that arrogance helped them be unprepared for starts and be 'too fancy' just as Bratt said. Hope they all get to listen to him.

 

[Bcap88]

Only bright spot of the second half was timo.

Fully healthy next year will do wonders

Edit: Luke rebounded pretty well after hitting a wall

 

[Camille the Eel]

One hopeful thing is how Luke Hughes looked like the single best player on both teams to me tonight. The one you noticed most and making the most superior individual plays, skinny string bean as he still is and notwithstanding occasional mistakes. I mean the most athletic and skilled man on the ice.

The kid merits a few Calder votes I would think. He had a very impressive rookie season amidst the wreckage. And sure there were plenty of rookie mistakes by him with the puck and in positioning and assignments too and he had his part in our failure. But I can’t help but be impressed by him big time and think we will see this rookie season become the foundation for success.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I've been a Devils fan for 15+ years, tonight was the saddest and annoyed I've seen the crowd be at a season finale. We better wake the f*** up for 24-25

 

[Bleedred]

I've been a Devils fan for 15+ years, tonight was the saddest and annoyed I've seen the crowd be at a season finale. We better wake the f*** up for 24-25

I honestly think next year will rival the beginning of 2022-2023 with the hostile crowds if we get off to a rough start.

Tonight was right up there with the home finale in 2015 against the Rangers.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Nothing like a 3.5 hour commute home….

What a f***ing season

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Nothing like a 3.5 hour commute home….

What a f***ing season

I just got home and I'm about to order food lol, this season has been a mental drain lol. Gonna relax with some good video games + TV shows. And if I care enough, the West playoffs. I don't want to watch a single second of the East

I honestly think next year will rival the beginning of 2022-2023 with the hostile crowds if we get off to a rough start.

Tonight was right up there with the home finale in 2015 against the Rangers.

I was there for both, I'm a glutton for f***ing punishment lol. I felt way worse leaving tonight than I did in 2015. 2015 I chalked up to the roster being flat out ass, tonight they just looked like they were headed to Newark airport for Cancun tomorrow.

 

[Bleedred]

Novo is a annoying here.

He was the one cheerleading the whole holtz and ruff thing from the "main media" sources. And it looks like, to a large degree Lindy Ruff was actually spot on about holtz,now that we saw holtz for another 30 games without ruff and in some different lines. Same old story. I don't know how many goals he has had recently but it seemed like 2 goals in 30 games. Would need to check the stats.

Dude needs to figure shit out or be gone.

Novo needs to shut up too because we can't blame ruff anymore. This team was toast for a lot more reasons than just ruff.

Haula,mercer and bottom 6 of tierney and nosek were dog shit for a lot of the season. Nosek make a resurgence for a short while but it didn't last. Toff was a semi successful or fail depending on how you see it.

D was an absolute mess all season long. Marino and sieges sucked for large sections of it, same with smith and bahl in spurts. Bahl didn't grow in game skills.. Luke was good offensively for some of season and bad defensive for a lot of it.

Lot of disappointments and blame can be easily apportioned across the players.

Not to mention the goaltending debacles.

What I got from that was Novo is blaming Green now, not that he’s still blaming Ruff. He lumped the coaching change in with the other negatives. I didn’t see that as him blaming Ruff at all.

I don’t think we’ll see Holtz here again. He’s played his last game here, if I had to bet. It seems the GM and management are potentially even lower on him than any of the coaches were. He’ll have to figure it out on his new team.

 

[Nubmer6]

That fits the description of @Nubmer6 if I’m not mistaken.

I’ve never actually seen him, but he’s described himself as a tall (I think?) Chinese dude with long hair? Perhaps the long hair was when he was younger. He was referencing games at the Meadowlands when he gave a description of himself.

That, indeed, is my description. 6'4" asian with long hair.

 

[Bleedred]

That, indeed, is my description. 6'4" asian with long hair.

Were you at the game with a Bastian jersey?

 

[Ducks4Cup]

It’s alarming Fitz overreacted to the good of last year (I.e. assuming rookies could play heavy minutes) and under reacted to the bad of this year

 

[Nubmer6]

Were you at the game with a Bastian jersey?

Na. Too busy with work

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

It’s alarming Fitz overreacted to the good of last year (I.e. assuming rookies could play heavy minutes) and under reacted to the bad of this year

I don’t think he fully assumed that. I actually think him knowing the rookie D would get picked apart in the playoffs is why he traded Toffoli, traded Miller, and didn’t bother acquiring anyone. I.e even though there was still a chance for the playoffs, it would have probably resulted in a 1st round loss to the Rags or Canes anyway.

In a perfect world, he trades for Tanev and Hanifin to use Dougie’d LTIR back in December, but that would have taken too many assets and would have been slightly pointless to go all in on a run when you don’t have a goalie. The goalie market was so bad that he decided to punt this year. Not the end of the world.

The only thing I do criticize him is not using the Toffoli package on a defenseman in the summer.

 

[MadDevil]

It’s alarming Fitz overreacted to the good of last year (I.e. assuming rookies could play heavy minutes) and under reacted to the bad of this year

To be fair, I don't think the plan was for Luke and Nemec to play as big of minutes as they did. Dougie going down, along with Siegenthaler and Marino being shadows of the players they were a year ago forced the kids into bigger roles and provided less protection for them. If you want to say he should have brought in another experienced defender after losing Graves and Severson, I think that's fair. Walking away from them both was the right decision, but it did leave the defense less margin for error by only bringing in Miller for depth. I think he definitely gambled the defense would stay healthy and repeat their performances from last year, but I don't think it was an unreasonable gamble. It just happened to pretty much all go to shit.

 

[OmNomNom]

That, indeed, is my description. 6'4" asian with long hair.

oh no way, another fellow asian on HF?

 

[Nubmer6]

oh no way, another fellow asian on HF?

Ya, and from Montville too (I vaguely remember you mentioning you lived there for a while)

We're taking over the world.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

I'm not calling for the firing of Fitz but, it that happened today I'd be happy that at least ownership is somewhat pissed off enough to actually do something. Other thought. This team reminds me of the Islanders pre-Lou coming in and hiring Barry Trotz and his goaltending coach.