Post-Game Talk: Stars win in Shootout 3-2. Chico night indeed.

[JimEIV]

Boucher and Matteau can skate better than Clowe and Zubrus.

 

[kiwidevil]

We really need a genuine 2-3 tweener centre. So Henrique can move up a spot.

 

[Tundra]

Didn't someone on a 3 on 2 tonight dump the puck into the corner because a Dallas forward was streaking behind? That sums up the roster.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Didn't someone on a 3 on 2 tonight dump the puck into the corner because a Dallas forward was streaking behind? That sums up the roster.

Exactly. What a boring team to watch. The lack of skill up front is evident.

 

[wellonegm05*]

Well Schneider finally got it together and had easily his best game of the year.

Otherwise, you Deboer supporters got exactly what you deserve. MOre of the same from last year, right down to the sweep in the shootout. First goal, 100% Greenes fault. Second one, the result of Salvador getting caught at the blue line turning into a 2-1, a weak goal by Cory but who cares, he stopped many shots that shouldve gone in. Funny, first shift of the game, Sal gets caught flat footed, almost led to an odd man rush. Second shift for Sal, trips over his own feet leading to an odd man rush. Golden boy Merrill was bad too, almost cost us the game starring at the play with 5 minutes to go, resulting in a breakaway. Elias, Salvador, Merrill, Greene, should all have been benched based on their play today if there was any accountability from the clown coach. The bright spots? Brunner, Gellinas, Josefson. 3 guys Petes insisted upon benching and who will likely be scratched again at some point later this season. More of the same. At least the game was entertaining.

 

[JimEIV]

Please let me see Boucher-Henrique and Ryder before this calendar year is over....please.

Isn't time for mush head to get dizzy?

 

[Devs4L]

That shift by Patrik in OT...man, that has to rank up there as one of the worst I've seen in his career.

7 games in, but it does seem like Zubrus, Elias, Jagr did a whole lot of aging since April.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

You also forgot the obligatory point shot (although some of those have actually been going in) and shots getting blocked. That happens every game with this forechecking system. M

Someone had a good article on it back in the offseason.

But that still doesn't answer what they can do instead. You want them not to forecheck? Should they just trap the whole game and send one attacker into the zone? Clearly they aren't going to be scoring off the rush. I just don't know what they can do differently that's going to be more effective.

I think you need a good system defensively. That is to say guys need to know who they are supposed to cover and how to transfer coverages as well as how to break out of the zone. But offensively it's not necessarily an organized structure like defense. I think it comes down to talent, chemistry and speed. You need all of those things sprinkled through your lineup. They have some talent there, but the chemistry and especially speed are severely lacking.

 

[JimEIV]

Exactly. What a boring team to watch. The lack of skill up front is evident.

It's not a lack of skill...there aren't to many more skilled than Jagr but his feet don't match his hands...

It is speed that is the issue.

 

[tailfins]

Do you even pay attention to what playersnsay and do? Jagr himself has said multiple times he hates taking shootouts, Greene is a vet defense man and the rest of what you said was mumbo jumbo. This loss has nothing to do with chemestry, it has to do with speed and scoring chances. We are a slow team, end of story

All I said was that sending out one of the league's top goal scorers of all time as one of your first two shooters wasn't obviously dumb. Not sure how you can argue with that. Btw - you ask if I pay attention to what players say and do. Have you ever managed people? By your comments, I'm guessing no.

Of course this loss is about speed and scoring chances. Dallas is a better team than us. As people keep saying, we missed the playoffs three out of four years. That doesn't get turned around overnight. ** Spoiler alert ** We're not winning the Cup this year.

 

[The 29th Pick]

That shift by Patrik in OT...man, that has to rank up there as one of the worst I've seen in his career.

7 games in, but it does seem like Zubrus, Elias, Jagr did a whole lot of aging since April.

I think Patty and Bernier secretly switched places

 

[NJDevs26]

That shift by Patrik in OT...man, that has to rank up there as one of the worst I've seen in his career.

7 games in, but it does seem like Zubrus, Elias, Jagr did a whole lot of aging since April.

It must have been like watching Willie Mays fall down in center field, Elias's shift was that bad.

 

[devilsblood]

That shift by Patrik in OT...man, that has to rank up there as one of the worst I've seen in his career.

7 games in, but it does seem like Zubrus, Elias, Jagr did a whole lot of aging since April.

Jagr is getting lumped in, and yeah he's slow, but he had a pretty good game tonight. I feel Zajac is more the issue with that line. And the fact that Zubrus is again getting time on that line, which is hard to believe.

 

[EnglishDevil]

Well because you have the kids on D and Schneider you don't necessarily have to go full on rebuild. That said this season if you are not right around playoff position at Thanksgiving you sell off everything you have up front. At least then give yourself a halfway decent shot a McDavid.

Eh, i'd mail it in after Christmas if we're clearly out of the playoff picture.

We may be able to get some decent assets at the deadline if we're sellers; Brunner, Ryder, Jagr, Havlat, Zidlicky are all UFAs, i'm sure Zubrus/Ruutu may even garner some interest (and Salvador if a team is literally desperate ).

This might be the year where it's in our best interests to sell off the veterans at the deadline (sans for Elias probably) and get the best pick we can to speed up our retooling.

It's clear the veterans can't get it done and some of the impending UFAs likely aren't getting re-signed anyway because they haven't fit that well and were signed in sort of a panic to begin with.

Either way, if we can get some extra picks in the fairly deep upcoming draft and improve our own first rounder, i'd be alright with "tanking" as long as it's only for this season.

It's obvious we need to get more youth, energy and speed on our roster, play the kids if the wheels really do fall off the bus in the coming months. Call up Boucher/Matteau etc and see what they've got.

 

[Tundra]

It must have been like watching Willie Mays fall down in center field, Elias's shift was that bad.

i think he thought he could skate around the forward and reality kicked in. Father time reared it's ugly head.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

This where I'm at too. Or the coach gets fired in season or they fail miserably and get a high pick. Either way, I'm tired of the Ground Hog Day like events and decisions that keep this team mediocre and not getting the best out of the available talent.

I really haven't cared at all this season. I mean, I still watch games but my interest level is nowhere near what it used to be. Lou and Pete's pigheadedness have beaten me down to a pulp and I've pretty tapped out. The status quo/mediocrity world we are living in is too tough to stomach.

 

[devilsblood]

But that still doesn't answer what they can do instead. You want them not to forecheck? Should they just trap the whole game and send one attacker into the zone? Clearly they aren't going to be scoring off the rush. I just don't know what they can do differently that's going to be more effective.

I think you need a good system defensively. That is to say guys need to know who they are supposed to cover and how to transfer coverages as well as how to break out of the zone. But offensively it's not necessarily an organized structure like defense. I think it comes down to talent, chemistry and speed. You need all of those things sprinkled through your lineup. They have some talent there, but the chemistry and especially speed are severely lacking.

Speed helps tremendously on the forecheck as well.

 

[JimEIV]

i think he thought he could skate around the forward and reality kicked in. Father time reared it's ugly head.

Elias hasn't been good this season but his skating isn't the issue.

 

[tailfins]

Please let me see Boucher-Henrique and Ryder before this calendar year is over....please.

Isn't time for mush head to get dizzy?

We've been shockingly lucky re: injuries so far. If that continues, I can't see Lou calling up Boucher or Matteau unless the team goes into a serious tailspin. Obviously 0-2-2 isn't great, so maybe the that tailspin is just around the corner.

I think Lou's gotta pull off a trade for us to see Boucher or Matteau. But, prices tend to rise as the season goes on, so I'm less hopeful of a trade happening before Christmas.

 

[Bleedred]

But that still doesn't answer what they can do instead. You want them not to forecheck? Should they just trap the whole game and send one attacker into the zone? Clearly they aren't going to be scoring off the rush. I just don't know what they can do differently that's going to be more effective.

I think you need a good system defensively. That is to say guys need to know who they are supposed to cover and how to transfer coverages as well as how to break out of the zone. But offensively it's not necessarily an organized structure like defense. I think it comes down to talent, chemistry and speed. You need all of those things sprinkled through your lineup. They have some talent there, but the chemistry and especially speed are severely lacking.

I'm not sure what will work. That's up to the coaches to decide. I'd like to see them going to the net like they did the first two games. That's the only way this forechecking system will work. It doesn't really result in a lot of our goals in anyway.

We did score both our goals off the rush against San Jose.

 

[Bologna 1]

yeah it is pretty bad how anytime the devils are attacking in the neutral zone (with the puck), they are caught before even crossing center. they arent capable of fast breaks unless they can either (a) catch the other team and spring the rush with an extremely long stretch pass or (b) the other team turns the puck over on their way out of the zone (which i wouldnt even really call a fast break since they dont have to skate much to reach shooting territory)

 

[NJDevs26]

We did, we were third in the Metro in December and I believe January. We lost it after the stadium game and never got it back.

Yeah they were hanging around the automatic third spot for a while last year until the Flyers and Rangers got out of their early holes.

It was the same thing two years ago, after the six-game losing streak and even at the beginning of the ten-game losing streak it was 'oh we're still in a playoff position' because of the 8-2-3 start. I think we were even in one in early April until the Isles/Leaf disasters.

Point is I don't really want to hear about what position they're in. Through seven games this looks NOTHING like a team that's going to the playoffs. Unless you think Boston's going to be .500 all year and every other team's going to continue to struggle and not make moves during the season while we somehow maintain a record ten games above .500 being outshot every game. It'll probably take around 92 points to make the playoffs again, I can't see any way this team gets there as currently constituted.

 

[Bleedred]

That shift by Patrik in OT...man, that has to rank up there as one of the worst I've seen in his career.

7 games in, but it does seem like Zubrus, Elias, Jagr did a whole lot of aging since April.

Zubrus has aged a lot since December of last year. Elias has been bad. Jägr hasn't been awful.

Let's not forget that he has had to play with Zubrus for most of the last 3 games. That will cause Jägr to look very washed up, and I said it would back when they were reunited.

Zubrus also caused Jägr to slow down last year as well, then when they were split up, he was back to normal.

 

[devilsblood]

Thing with Clowe is, he is still doing his thing. Producing points above .5 per game, he's a plus player, still playing physical.

But we just have so many of these slow guys, that even though some are still playing well, the overall lack of speed is an issue.

I again point back to Deboer's desire to have Sal in the game because he brings things to the table that others don't ie vet presence and physical play.

Then why does that not apply to the forwards, we so clearly need speed and youthful exuberance, but instead we get Zubrus doubling JJ's minutes.

 

[MadDevil]

All I can say is thank Christ we play in the East. If we had to go up against teams like Dallas all season we'd be basement dwellers. The difference in speed is just painful to watch. Effort is not the issue. They just physically can not keep up with faster teams.