Post-Game Talk: We need a New Goaltender(and Coach); Devils lose 4-1 (Poll)

[glenwo2]

You all know the drill.

Who are the 3 Goats of this game?

It's easy to say who the 3 stars of it are (Bratt, Nico, and Hughes) but we lost so....

Click to read more...

 

[glenwo2]

For my part, I voted Blackwood, Lindy Ruff, and Ty Smith(who has been very sub-par as of late).

 

[NJDevs26]

Imagine ever hearing this from Lindy Ruff (or Nas, or Hynes)

 

[NJDevs26]

My picks were easy...everyone, Blackwood so I could vote for him twice, and Ruff who didn't pull Blackwood at 3-1.

 

[Jack Be Quick]

that surprisingly isn’t bad considering the team is garbage going on about 9 years of garbage on a Wednesday in January against the worst team in hockey

Long time (prior) season ticket holder here and I've seen that mid-week against nothing franchises when we were competitive.

Why should anything better be expected with a garbage team, playing a trash team, when vax mandates are finally being enacted?

 

[Buck Dancer]

We have too many passengers and let’s face it, we lack legit talent. You’re not going to win too many games when you’re icing Zacha, Tatar, Kuokkanen and Sharangovich in your top #9.

To add to our lack of talent up front, Ty Smith has been complete and utter garbage all year long and there has to be a better option then Jaros.

 

[Eggtimer]

This season has been a huge pile of “meh”
I was once again excited after an awesome off-season and it’s quickly turned to “ don’t care anymore “
I’m just looking forward to the trade deadline to see if we once again dump a few players for picks . Then the draft then free agency.
I mean , it’s pretty pathetic when there is no purpose watch JT anhmkre or it’s demoralizing watching them suck and there is no hope at all for the playoffs. Season is once again over already ( was probably realistically over just before Christmas).
What’s even more depressing is having zero faith in the team getting any better as what we have do e so far has resulted in virtually zero improvement.
We need like 6 wingers and a goalie or two..
I no longer have any hope for a successful team any time soon

 

[Auto Pilot]

Blackwood seriously sucks. Ruff is a pud for still running him out there be it injured or healthy and sucking this bad. Fitz is a joke for just sitting around and letting this joke of a season continue like this with this goalie and this staff.

 

[Bleedred]

I didn't think Blackwood was that bad, but goal 2 was a very low key stinker. Goal 1 was kind of not good, I have to watch it again. Got beat short side high on a long shot, but a defenseman (Severson if I recall) is blocking him in front. He's either screening or at the very least making it hard for him to come out and challenge a bit.

Goal 2 was like not softy of the night caliber (unless the count is very low) but it was underrated bad. He's sliding slowly with no speed to the other post like a bumper car that's battery died or stalled out and is coasting. Like he coasted to the post and the puck beat him before he could get there. He had time. The behind the net cam look of it is really weak on him.

And other problem Blackwood is having the last several weeks when he's played is that he's constantly allowing a goal on one of the first 5 shots of the game. He allowed a goal on the third shot tonight, he allowed a goal on the second shot last game in Columbus, he allowed a goal on the fifth shot in the game that he won against Columbus and that was the only goal he allowed. He allowed a goal on the second shot against Boston (And it was a REALLY BAD one), he allowed a goal on the eleventh shot against Washington, he allowed a goal on the third shot against Edmonton and I think it was a goal on the fifth shot to Buffalo and I didn't go back before that yet.

So he's getting beaten by one of the first 5 shots in 6 of the last 7 games. That's like Steve Mason his last few years in Columbus.

 

[Eggtimer]

We have too many passengers and let’s face it, we lack legit talent. You’re not going to win too many games when you’re icing Zacha, Tatar, Kuokkanen and Sharangovich in your top #9.

This is 100% true. I think I was biased and tried to convince myself otherwise but Shara / Kuokkanen / Zacha / are notnug special . All our wingers except Bratt are NOT legit top 6 players. Zacha Johnsson Tatar are all “decent” but nothing more and cannot be counted on to drive our offence like we are expecting them to now. They are ok complimentary 3rd liners but nothing more (Zacha Tatar ) Rest will be out of the NHL in a couple of years.

 

[New Jersey Devils]

If Ruff isn’t fired tomorrow, then he won’t be till after the season ends.

 

[Eggtimer]

Blackwood seriously sucks. Ruff is a pud for still running him out there be it injured or healthy and sucking this bad. Fitz is a joke for just sitting around and letting this joke of a season continue like this with this goalie and this staff.

I agree with you that Fitz needs / needed to do more but not regarding goaltending. He tried to address the need by signing a very good veteran guy in Bernier and he had no way to predict his injury. He cannot go out and grab one now as the cost is sky high with other teams needing goaltending very badly as well . No point overpaying for a bandaid type fix. We will need to wait until the off-season unless a player like Husso or Vladar becomes available.
What Fitz did need to address (and he didn’t ) was to get a legit winger or two that can finish and produce on the PP.

 

[Based Anime Fan]

Spudkenzie Blatato strikes again!

 

[New Jersey Devils]

I think it’s easy to blame Blackwood (and he is at fault) but the coyotes goalie going insane is what did them in. There were quite a bit of opportunities for the Devils to go up 2-0 or 3-0 but ran into him. Once he got his game going they took a step back and just stopped being aggressive.

 

[Triumph]

If Ruff isn’t fired tomorrow, then he won’t be till after the season ends.

You can't fire the coach in these conditions. The Devils have played 2 games in 2 weeks. A few more games like this, sure, but not coming off a 5 day layoff.

 

[Buck Dancer]

I wouldn’t play Blackwood for a while. Give the guy COVID for a 3rd time and sit his ass for a week.

I remember when we were laughing at Carter Hart having a piss poor year. Well, karma is now in full effect because Blackwood is just as bad or worse.

 

[Guttersniped]

I didn't think Blackwood was that bad, but goal 2 was a very low key stinker. Goal 1 was kind of not good, I have to watch it again. Got beat short side high on a long shot, but a defenseman (Severson if I recall) is blocking him in front. He's either screening or at the very least making it hard for him to come out and challenge a bit.

Goal 2 was like not softy of the night caliber (unless the count is very low) but it was underrated bad. He's sliding slowly with no speed to the other post like a bumper car that's battery died or stalled out and is coasting. Like he coasted to the post and the puck beat him before he could get there. He had time. The behind the net cam look of it is really weak on him.

And other problem Blackwood is having the last several weeks when he's played is that he's constantly allowing a goal on one of the first 5 shots of the game. He allowed a goal on the third shot tonight, he allowed a goal on the second shot last game in Columbus, he allowed a goal on the fifth shot in the game that he won against Columbus and that was the only goal he allowed. He allowed a goal on the second shot against Boston (And it was a REALLY BAD one), he allowed a goal on the eleventh shot against Washington, he allowed a goal on the third shot against Edmonton and I think it was a goal on the fifth shot to Buffalo and I didn't go back before that yet.

So he's getting beaten by one of the first 5 shots in 6 of the last 7 games. That's like Steve Mason his last few years in Columbus.

Almost sure it was Jaros who was screening Blackwood, my brother said “a lot of traffic in front” right before it happened too.

 

[BurntToast]

Blackwood relays to much on his athleticism. He can’t play the puck well, he struggles tracking shots from a distance and his glove is MEH. Unfortunately he got Covid twice and has been constantly injured, which hampers his best attribute.

Regardless, can the dude battle for a puck once. It’s sitting in front of him and he put’s no effort into covering it up. He’s what 6”4? Guy gets pushed around too easily. Did Krapo rattle his brain too hard?!

 

[JK3]

Nico let a nice F-bomb fly during his interview on the post game youtube show, at least someone cares.

 

[Buck Dancer]

You can't fire the coach in these conditions. The Devils have played 2 games in 2 weeks. A few more games like this, sure, but not coming off a 5 day layoff.

If we win this game, we’re saying that the rest is what helped us get the 2 points. If we lose, it’s because we only played 2 games in 2 weeks.

We were straight up outmatched physically, we couldn’t win board battles, we were too late on several assignments and we couldn’t finish the very little opportunities we had.

We’re a bad team with bad goaltending. The time off has nothing to do with this loss.

 

[Eggtimer]

Blackwood seems like he isn’t into the game as much as he should or needs to be . It looks like he has lapses and those lapses cost him. Watch any young good goalie. They are 100% into the game and completely focusedall the time.

 

[New Jersey Devils]

You can't fire the coach in these conditions. The Devils have played 2 games in 2 weeks. A few more games like this, sure, but not coming off a 5 day layoff.

If anything, that makes it 10x worse. Almost a week to prepare for one of the worst teams in the league that is clearly tanking and then coming out and putting this stinker isn’t a good look.

 

[Buck Dancer]

Nico let a nice F-bomb fly during his interview on the post game youtube show, at least someone cares.

He’s one of the few who comes to play on a nightly basis. Can’t say the same for several guys who I want off this team come next year.

 

[My3Sons]

I agree with you that Fitz needs / needed to do more but not regarding goaltending. He tried to address the need by signing a very good veteran guy in Bernier and he had no way to predict his injury. He cannot go out and grab one now as the cost is sky high with other teams needing goaltending very badly as well . No point overpaying for a bandaid type fix. We will need to wait until the off-season unless a player like Husso or Vladar becomes available.
What Fitz did need to address (and he didn’t ) was to get a legit winger or two that can finish and produce on the PP.

to be fair he said that he’d do that once the best players are their best players. I’d say that’s pretty evident now. Hughes Bratt Hischier Dr Evil are just that at this point. Pity MBW got sick/hurt lost his mojo. I’d expect Fitz to start reshaping the forwards this TDL/offseason thr way he did last year on defense. If he can find a real starting goalie it would help immensely.

 

[NJDevs26]

I think it’s easy to blame Blackwood (and he is at fault) but the coyotes goalie going insane is what did them in. There were quite a bit of opportunities for the Devils to go up 2-0 or 3-0 but ran into him. Once he got his game going they took a step back and just stopped being aggressive.

That's part of the problem though...it just puts more of a light on the fact we haven't seen this from Blackwood in two years, or at best since the start of last year. Some dude who I never heard of before today and still don't know his name now has stolen more games in one night than our so-called franchise goalie has all year.