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

[Camille the Eel]

I'm still not sure that we are Not...At least not completely

If you remove the quality factor and just look at CF we are 14th in CF% - 51.1% - 1799 For and 1721 against -

If you look at Medium and High Danger combined - You are at 51.2% - Which is in-line with the Raw CF percentage.

It starts to look a little bit like trading chances again. My eye tells me they give up as many as they get... but just don't score on their chances...I don't think the numbers are far off from that.

Yeah it’s not a clear pattern. We don’t play pure run and gun pond hockey - we do like to use our speed and try to score off the rush and we also allow a lot of uncontested zone entries and back in frequently on defense - so it can look like run and gun, but that’s not the intent. We do try to possess and control the puck but we are not very good at it. We do not chip and chase much but are trying to do more of it. So that too can make it look like more of a wide open trade rushes style.

 

[NJDevs26]

You'll get average goaltending when the team improves in front of the goaltender.

They have improved this year, that's the thing. Sigenthaler, Graves and Hamilton are worlds better than anything we had last year and almost anyone in our Shero-era defenses. Our defense has gotten better and Blackwood's numbers have gotten worse every year.

We're tenth best in fewest shots allowed this year (and last year it was tenth worst), how far do they have to go to be improved?

NHL Team Stats Shots Allowed Per Game 2022 | StatMuse

NHL Team Stats Shots Allowed Per Game 2021 | StatMuse

 

[Bleedred]

Like, I'm seriously at the point for the first time in a while where I don't even have much of a problem with our 4th line or our 3rd line. We spent years experimenting with guys on those lines that couldn't even score 20 points a year on the 3rd line.

And I don't really have much of a problem with who's played on our 3rd and 4th lines this year, at least when we're close to healthy. Outside of when Geertsen is on it, that's a no-go for me.

We really need relief at the goalie position. I think only Hedberg was allowed to play this many games (when Marty was injured in 2013) and suck this bad without them trying somebody else.

Yeah, all of Marty, Cory and Kinkaid at the end started to play almost or as bad as Blackwood right now, but they weren't allowed to play this many games, no matter who was back there. Kinkaid stunk up the joint in 2016 when Cory was injured and we wound up calling up Wedgewood and I never even thought we'd see Wedgewood in an NHL game ever, but that's why he came up in 15-16. When Marty started stinking it up early in 10-11 and 11-12, they'd put Hedberg in. And Marty benched his own damn self when it got this bad around January of 2011. It only lasted a week, but he never sunk nearly as low after he returned as he had gotten before he benched himself, that's for sure. His best hockey that year came after that, although his glove hand still had trouble that year.

When Cory started stinking up the joint starting in the fall of 2016, Hynes started playing Kinkaid more than he was. He never really made him the starter, but he was definitely giving him games he wouldn't have otherwise played if Cory wasn't playing poorly.

We even gave Ken Appleby and Eddie Lack starts in 2018 when Kinkaid wasn't all that great. Then when Cory came back and was miserable, they hardly played him cause Kinkaid was so hot. He didn't play until the regular season finale after we had clinched a spot.

When Cory looked terrible early in 2018-2019, we kept going back to Kinkaid and would barely play him.

When Kinkaid started stinking up the joint, we let Blackwood play some games. That's how Blackwood got his start.

 

[Bleedred]

They have improved this year, that's the thing. Sigenthaler, Graves and Hamilton are worlds better than anything we had last year and almost anyone in our Shero-era defenses. Our defense has gotten better and Blackwood's numbers have gotten worse every year.

We were also told this when Schneider and Kinkaid were bad and yet this very same goalie outplayed both of them behind the same damn teams when they were teammates.

Unless you wanna argue that playing here long term erodes a goalie (I don't really believe that, just due to the circumstances) over time, I'm tired of hearing about the defense. Whether it's the team defense or the actual players on defense.

And when I look at the circumstances of why previous goalies got bad here, it's pretty simple to see why. Hedberg and Brodeur were both ANCIENT already at or around 40 years old.

Schneider had hip problems that killed him in his early 30's.

Keith Kinkaid is exactly the type of goalie that rarely has a shelf life in the NHL beyond 30 years old. Aaron Dell who we had last year is yet another example. And the goalies like that are playing well into their 30's were usually nobodies when they were in their 20's and not full time NHL'ers in their 20's. Scott Clemmensen immediately come to mind there as goalies that didn't break through in the league until around 30 or even older in Clemmensen's case. Carter Hutton is another more recent example.

Now with Blackwood either injuries have eroded him or he was never that good to begin with. Still too early to say what's wrong with him, but if he's playing this badly because he's badly crippled and injured, that falls on management and he shouldn't be out there.

 

[NJDevs26]

What does Corey Schwab have to do with anything? So one of the greatest defenses in the modern era with two first-ballot HOF'ers and three other solid pros who played like 800 or more NHL games has an impact on a journeyman goalie's numbers in a small sample size? Big revelation. Is that really what we're waiting for to consider the D improved...having arguably the best defense of the last forty years of the NHL? That'll be a long wait.

 

[tailfins]

What are you looking for? A public flogging of Fitz in front of the Rock before the next game?

Probably I want Ruff fired. Certainly, I want them to play Gillies. Maybe I want the owners to sell.

Really, I want them to act like today has meaning or to GTFO. The constant focus on some unspecified always in the distance future is mind numbing.

This team is currently playing at a 71 point pace. That's right around where the team finished when they drafted Nico 5 years ago. How is this ok?

 

[billingtons ghost]

He could have had a number of them. On the Mayo goal he needs to fight to track the puck and get bigger in the net. Part of the issue on that goal is he doesn't track the puck well, gets small in the net and puts himself in poor position where the screen in front is effective.

On the Crouse goal he has horrendous rebound control and again doesn't fight to track the rebound and get in position on the second chance.

The Boyd goal is a deflection, but Blackwood is still small in the crease and leaving about 50% of the bottom of the net open.

Part of the issue is that you're looking at the moment the puck enters the net rather than the entire lead up in terms of how he's tracking the puck, whether he's properly reading the play, and how hard he fights to be in position and get through screens.

Go iso goalies on bad teams like Nedeljkovic or Forsberg. They find a way.

The bolded isn't true. When a guy is three feet in front of you, all alone, and deflects the puck, you have no idea if it is going top shelf or in your pads. Blackwood has coughed up some bad rebounds on clean shots with his glove and with his pad - but this wasn't one of them.

The one I dislike is the first one - I agree with you, I'd like him to be out more, be bigger and fight thru the screen. That said. It wasn't like it went five hole or thru him - that shot was top corner.

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

We had Kevin Constantine, John MacLean, and Robbie Ftorek

Well, now you can add Ruff to those 3.

 

[NJDevs26]

Well, now you can add Ruff to those 3.

He was specifically referring to guys hired by Lou