Post-Game Talk: Miller.... You Lost ???? Sabres @ Devils

[NJDevs26]

Considering he plays nearly the entire power play, he picks up time there. He should not be eating any PK minutes at all and in total should be around 24 minutes. Problem is, when other forwards are not scoring, PDB will double shift him with the 4th line instead of Barch. he gets more time but how many points does he have when he's on the 4th line? It's not worth it. give him less time and ask him to go balls to the wall....that's when we'll start seeing that speed again.

They haven't had enough forwards to PK as is, one of the reasons why Kostopolous is here. Gionta's a terrible PK'er, and he's been doing it anyway because there's nobody else they trust other than Kovy-Zajac-Elias-Henrique-Carter and now hopefully Kostopolous.

It's the stupid pointless double-shift time that needs to be cut out.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

if you don't know why people hate kovy just watch his game closely. personally im ok with his play cause he is a very big talent...but the guy doesn't forecheck, he rink turns all over and doesn't play an honest game... and when his offense is down peopole get on him and rightfully so cause he doesn't do all the little things on the ice. just my two cents

Kovalchuk is a offensive minded forward that always played a high risk/high reward game, he's gonna guess the bounces will go his way, sometimes it backfires but that's basically it. His coach and teammates understand this nonetheless, Kovalchuk has already made a lot of progress to be more of a Devils player but you can't ask this kind of offensive force to turn into a 50pts shutdown winger, that'd be a shame. We've got to take the bad with the good.

I'm ok with Kovalchuk's performance so far, the team was slumping and he's been quite unlucky too, he hit a f**kton of posts and his linemates didn't bury some glorious scoring chances. Something people will have to deal with IMO is that he's never going to be the skater he was before his injury. It made him lose a step and he won't recover his speed. Still a lethal offensive player.

 

[JimEIV]

if you don't know why people hate kovy just watch his game closely. personally im ok with his play cause he is a very big talent...but the guy doesn't forecheck, he rink turns all over and doesn't play an honest game... and when his offense is down peopole get on him and rightfully so cause he doesn't do all the little things on the ice. just my two cents

It is impossible to deny anything in this post.

That being said, you've got to admit that his decision making with the puck has been significantly improved. He has a willingness to put the puck deep in the corners that didn't exist until as recently as last year. He has completely eliminated the dangerous cross ice passes high at the blue line and he has stopped the dangling in dangerous areas of the ice.

I would love to see this guy take the body more often. It's almost a shame for a player of his size and strength not to use it occasionally. Sometimes when I watch him I feel like the colonel at the end of Top Gun begging Maverick to "engage". All that aside, he's cleaned up the worst parts of his game by a lot, so as long as a player like that is not being a liability during down times, I can live with some of the other annoyances.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

It is impossible to deny anything in this post.

That being said, you've got to admit that his decision making with the puck has been significantly improved. He has a willingness to put the puck deep in the corners that didn't exist until as recently as last year. He has completely eliminated the dangerous cross ice passes high at the blue line and he has stopped the dangling in dangerous areas of the ice.

I would love to see this guy take the body more often. It's almost a shame for a player of his size and strength not to use it occasionally. Sometimes when I watch him I feel like the colonel at the end of Top Gun begging Maverick to "engage". All that aside, he's cleaned up the worst parts of his game by a lot, so as long as a player like that is not being a liability during down times, I can live with some of the other annoyances.

Those little annoyances are why Zach and Kovy were such a great pair of players to have on the same team. They complimented each other so well. Ones weaknesses were the others strengths; and when one was off the other was capable of picking up the slack. I know there is much vitriol, and rightfully so I suppose, for Parise, but man I wish he was still here. This team does miss him a lot. It'd be the same if Kovy left and Zach stayed BTW, IMO. The only difference would be the annoyances. They'd change from laziness to lack of finish and gamebreaking ability.