What Happened to The Devils?

[TheBeard]

Goaltending, Injuries and the players they needed to step up just didn't (Mercer, Timo)

 

[Lou is God]

Everyone thought they were cup favorites. Oops.

You guys will be bowed out before the cup is raised as your window gets smaller and smaller while ours has just opened. Continue to you enjoy the cup you won 30 years ago and always remember - one cup since the cure of Polio.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

You guys will be bowed out before the cup is raised. Continue to you enjoy the cup you won 30 years ago and always remember - one cup since the cure of Polio.

It's ok. It is what it is, just happy to be in the show

 

[Lou is God]

It's ok. It is what it is, just happy to be in the show

As you should be.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

As you should be.

Thanks, like I said, I am. Playoff hockey is so exciting isn't it?!

 

[Lou is God]

Thanks, like I said, I am. Playoff hockey is so exciting isn't it?!

It was last year.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

It was last year.

Indeed! Only year it wasnt as much fun was the empty arenas/covid summer playoffs.

 

[WolfgangPuck]

Did anyone mention goaltending?
No worries,
AT Td GM traded for a sub.900sp in Allen to turn it around

 

[wintersej]

They lost half their D to leaving or injury and replaced them with children. AND the goalies didn't play great on top of it.

 

[jonlin]

lost its 70 point defenseman

You do know that scoring isnt defense? They actually lack defensive D-men and forwards, not offensive play...

 

[Bleedred]

I have a good feeling Travis Green will turn this season around. We're probably too far out of the playoffs, but we'll just barely miss with Green not running things. He's a very good hockey man and it shows why Vancouver panicked over potentially losing him to Seattle in the 2021 offseason, before they had gotten him signed right after the season ended. Tough end in Vancouver, but he did a good job there for most of those years. He even had them on a very unlikely playoff run in the Edmonton bubble. Very smart hockey man. I'm excited for him next year for a full season. If only we made the change earlier in the season we probably make the playoffs.

Relax Canucks fans. Everything I just said is bullshit. He f***in sucks. A clear downgrade to Ruff, who needed to go, but was probably mercy fired to save him from having to hear chants for his firing every night for the rest of the season. Green is one of the worst head coaches of the last decade.

 

[Canucks LB]

Losing dougie was massive

 

[MattMartin]

From what I hear, still Lou's fault.

 

[Tob]

Yes everything but their defense and defensive contribution from forward.

 

[Coffey]

Are they the 2019 Oilers?

 

[dalewood12]

To me, the Devils are the biggest shocker of the year.

I had them as a Cup finalist last off-season.

 

[Djp]

Last season they were good and looked to be trending in the right direction. This season I kept thinking they may make a push for a playoff spot at some point, but now it seems like they're almost certainly going to miss the post season in 2024.

What are the reasons they fell so hard, and will they rebound next year?

If you look at last season...

Early in the season they went 18-1-1.
Rest of season 34-21-7 or 75pts in 62g or 99 pt pace

31-29-4 and 3-7 last 10.
30-28-4 in 62g

7 games they lost this year, they got points out of in terms of of 1 or 2 pts.

That pretty much a game over 10 games that th err y L this year , last yr th err y hot 1-2 pts

I knew theyd take a step back because they lost 2 vet D and replace them with rookie D. They have had further injuries.

 

[Djp]

I get the goaltending sucked but it's the same tandem as last season, behind a much shittier defense.
Most devil fans claimed that losing Severson and Graves being replaced by Hughes and Nemec would be an upgrade, it wasn't.

Long term yes, thls season no. I've said they'd take s step back.

As a nucks fan I've seen bad defense and the devils are sharks level easy to play against. It seems that fans of teams with shitty defense always lay the blame on goaltending because it's harder to fix a dcore than a goalie.

And if we're being brutally honest, the forwards are mostly below average defensively and last year was a fluke.

Last yr after that 18-1'2 run early in the season gave them confidence. You see it in other dportd.

This year they took a small step back where a W/OTL loss last yr became s regular L yhis yr converting 3W snd 3OTL into 6L or 1 every 10 games.

 

[Goptor]

Their speed system was exposed last year in the playoffs and they didn't have the personnel to adjust, all their depth played exactly the same.

Fitz went out and made the team more well rounded at forward while opening spots for young Dmen. Ruff never adjusted to the new players. Hughes carried the team for the first 7 games until both he and Hischier got injured at the same time. Team struggled with no centers. Then when they came back, their top defense pair got injured for multiple months. Young Dmen were put into roles they weren't ready for.

Through all of this, Ruff never made adjustments to account for roster changes. He eventually made a panic change to focus entirely on playing defense. Team still didn't have proper players to focus on defense - 3 Dmen in their first full NHL season and a starting goalie that struggles with rebounds. Outcome was they still give up a lot of goals but now they don't score at all.

On top of that, they had the best powerplay in the first couple weeks doing slot passes. Green saw it worked so he continued to have the team do that up until today. Other teams counter played and Green managed to take the best powerplay with talented players and turn it into the worst in the league.

TLDR:
Bad coaching to start the year, a ton injuries happened and coaching went and doubled down on bad decisions. Goalies got depressed and spent their time rethinking life decisions instead of on hockey.

 

[Djp]

Sabres have been similar in the past- we can largely outplay a team, but the opposing team wins 3-2 off 5 awful turnovers/breakdowns. For Devils and Sabres I can definitely see coaching as part of it, we really struggled to open up our offense without giving up 2-on-1s and such to start the year. Now UPL is doing well behind that same suspect team, however, so that’s weird. Still, while the Sabres have had mediocre goaltending for 3+ years, the team certainly doesn’t put em in a position to look good. Craig Anderson, for example, mighta played a lot better here than his numbers would indicate.

Sabres and devils are similar in that small differences in one out of 10 games makes a difference.

If buffalo and devils earned 9 extra points...thsts a W or OTL loss vs a regular L or go 3'0-3 insteadvof 0-6'0 of one game out of every 10 games then they would both be in playoffs now.

Buffalo has had a bunch of games where they only had 2 g scored against the G in rrg as nd not come away with 2 pts. They had a few others where they had late g scored e under 7 min left or EN goalies that cost them points.

 

[FoxysExpensiveNYDigs]

Over achieved last season and iffy team culture. Hughes brothers just freelancing out there. They care too much about people paying to watch them play and not enough about playing as a team.

 

[EpochLink]

Ask David Puddy

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

Goaltending has been absolutely worst case. Beyond the numbers it’s just lots of deflating goals. Goalies giving up bad first goals or in a close game in the 3rd.

Defense took a huge step back. You can’t depend on 20 year olds to be your best defenders. Luke Hughes has hit a wall badly. Ideally he should have gotten completely sheltered 3rd pair + power play minutes.

Forwards were doing well for awhile (minus Meier), but have seemed to have disappeared in the last 10 games. PP has been a big let down.

Overall if they wanted to compete, Fitz would have had to use the Dougie LTIR to trade for a top goalie and a top-4 stabilizing defenseman. But the prices were too high in-season. Probably a smart move for the future, especially since the young defenders will only get better with experience. But it torpedoed the team this year. Funny enough they could still get in with a hot streak, but they keep losing to any good teams they play.

 

[HolyHagelin]

I have only seen 4-5 devs game this year, but they lost all of them.

What I saw was: they outshot the opposition every time. They had more “high danger chances” every time.

-HOWEVER-

Most of their shots were lollipops. Even the hdc were only technically high danger, as shooting from a foot away is indeed high danger but if the goalie has plenty of time to get in position and block everything off, it is only so technically and not actually. Rebounds created off these chances that are just stuffs into leg pads already in the correct spot aren’t really high danger either.

Then, the opposition would get the puck, make a pass or two, and immediately skate into a golden chance the other way.

It’s almost like they are setting up teams to counterattack them.

Additionally, Hughes just looks frail out there. Nobody on the team makes the other teams wary of them. Good teams always have some snarl, and the devils as a team seem to wilt when faced with said snarl.

The goaltending obviously is not great, but when every team gets royal road passes off on every offensive possession, Jacques Plante wouldn’t help them.

ETA - naturally my observations are a tiny sample size, but they seem to jive with what others are saying.

 

[Xirik]

Yet another top pick that'll make the Devils great...eventually. Hey Alexander holtz is supposed to be good, I guess he's easily going down the same path that my good friend Oliver Wahlstrom did as well.

Did you know you can trade picks?

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