Post-Game Talk: No Longer Under Siege but still On Deadly Ground (Devils win 4-3 in OT over the Habs)

[MartyOwns]

i think we can all agree that in order to make the playoffs, we’ll need to get wins from a goalie not named blackwood too. how realistic that is, i don’t know

 

[Triumph]

In the abstract, I 100% agree with you. On the other hand, have the Devils shown anything in the first 19 games that makes one believe they can play at that level for that period of time? If Blackwood proves he is a legitimate starter, what is realistic from him? What if he plays 50 more games (seems ambitious, but let's go with it) and they somehow manage to get 65 points in those games (a 107-point pace for 82 games)... you would STILL need your backup to get half of the points. Any reason to believe that Cory/Domingue/Senn can get you NHL-.500 for 13 games? And that's with Blackwood playing more than 60 games and at a very high level (for him/the team) for the next 50.

Agreed that it's way too early to write off the season, as all kinds of strange things happen every year ... but also not crazy to believe their playoff chances are pretty slim.

The Devils have a lot of new players. Subban, Gusev, Hughes, Simmonds, plus less important guys like Boqvist, Hayden, and (gag) Tennyson. I think we can all agree that these new players have not quite played to their potential yet, and the hope is that as they get more games on this team they will start to play better. Simmonds in particular has started to produce, Gusev just had his best game in the NHL so far, Hughes has gotten much better since his first games - it's just hoping that they continue to get better together.

 

[TBF1972]

Yesterday was an entertaining game to watch - and while we deserved the W we got lucky - let's be honest.
For example the two goals in the end of periods one and two. Nico's five hole shorty with 1 second left was actually aimed to be a top shelf shot, he even admitted it. LOL he was too polite to claim it was intentional .

Somehow you need to keep that 5 hole open, after Hall giving away the team's strategy.

 

[BenedictGomez]

this is a sport and people cheer for the team they want to win. no one is arguing that it’s likely to make the playoffs. i feel it’s necessary to stress that.

Really? Wow, that's a big turnaround for you when you were saying much the opposite about a month ago. Clearly you've forgotten that given you were basically calling my math-based posts ridiculous given how few games were played.

And FWIW, I am neither an optimist, nor a pessimist, I am a realist.