GDT: Wings @ Devils - Season Finale - 7:00 PM - MSG+

[guitarguyvic]

You can't be serious with this. Yeah, okay, so league scoring goes down - you realize that that means that goals against also go down too, right?

Moreover, sure, okay, attribute the scoring to pond hockey - you realize that the Devils PP sucked all year and that it probably can't suck that bad next year? That these players do have the ability to be on a decent PP and if the Devils get the right systems in place, it'll be okay, and consequently some of the scoring that happened at ES will happen on the power play?

I'm not concerned about this season being a high water mark for scoring for these guys because 2 of them are already signed to long-term contracts.

The Devils went 8-16-4 in games decided by one goal (empty net goals excluded) in 2022. This is ludicrous. Something that is bound to change next year - even if more games just go into OT and they lose the same proportion, it'll be better.

I swear there is some version of this post every single year at the end of the season for the last x number of seasons.

When your hopes are pinned on half a dozen “ifs”, that’s a bet that’s probably not worth the juice.

Also, “it can’t this be bad next year” is a sly hedge actual success. 80 points would be a better season, but it’d still be trash and not anywhere near even bubble quality.

 

[Triumph]

I swear there is some version of this post every single year at the end of the season for the last x number of seasons.

When your hopes are pinned on half a dozen “ifs”, that’s a bet that’s probably not worth the juice.

You should try actually reading the post - it's not predicated on a bunch of ifs. I'm saying - the Devils top scorers are here to stay. Hughes, Hischier, Bratt - these are players that can lead a good team in scoring. They need goaltending, and they need to fix the defense. I'm saying that putting a bunch of 'ifs' on the scoring is asinine. Scoring is not going to be the problem for this team.

80 points would be fine for this team if the goaltending isn't all the way fixed, and they run bad in 1 goal games again. It should be better, but that's the low end for next year's team.

 

[NJDevs26]

That scoring 2004-05 was due to a huge uptick in power plays. You have to explain why the scoring would go down before saying it will.

I have no idea how having a legitimate young core, and two of them young centers who are locked up with nice deals, is more discouraging than have nothing. That’s nonsensical to me.

It's gone uphill for the whole league, for whatever reason you want to attribute it to. 1995-96 was the last season this many goals were scored per game.

NHL League Averages | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest NHL League Averages including shots, saves, goal averages and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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Did anyone think Nico or Jesper Bratt were capable of a 70-point season before this year? At least 90% of you would be lying if you said yes. I'm not entirely convinced either guy improves from here. To be fair, scoring has gone up a bit since 2016-17 so maybe we are heading to a new normal of more goals. Still, when you see things like Kreider hitting 50 when he's never had over 30 in a season before and Mathews hitting 60 after being in the league a number of years, Thachuk hitting 100+ points when he'd never touched 80 before, you wonder what's going on and how sustainable it is.

 

[Triumph]

It's gone uphill for the whole league, for whatever reason you want to attribute it to. 1995-96 was the last season this many goals were scored per game.

NHL League Averages | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest NHL League Averages including shots, saves, goal averages and more on Hockey-Reference.com

www.hockey-reference.com

Did anyone think Nico or Jesper Bratt were capable of a 70-point season before this year? At least 90% of you would be lying if you said yes. I'm not entirely convinced either guy improves from here. To be fair, scoring has gone up a bit since 2016-17 so maybe we are heading to a new normal of more goals. Still, when you see things like Kreider hitting 50 when he's never had over 30 in a season before and Mathews hitting 60 after being in the league a number of years, Thachuk hitting 100+ points when he'd never touched 80 before, you wonder what's going on.

Have you just not been paying attention to this board? A lot of us have been saying Jesper Bratt is going to break out in a big way, and he did. His underlying numbers are also fantastic. He's a 1st line wing, he played well with literally everybody and everybody suffered away from him.

 

[NJDevs26]

Have you just not been paying attention to this board? A lot of us have been saying Jesper Bratt is going to break out in a big way, and he did. His underlying numbers are also fantastic. He's a 1st line wing, he played well with literally everybody and everybody suffered away from him.

Break out sure...break out to the tune of 73 points? A lot of first-line wings have far less than that. There's a big difference between getting above 40 and being a PPG

 

[Triumph]

Break out sure...break out to the tune of 73 points? A lot of first-line wings have far less than that.

Last season, Bratt couldn't score but got his share of assists. In 2019-20, he could score, but couldn't get assists. If he put both together in one year, as he did this year, and increased his shot rate, and his linemates got better, and scoring went up league-wide? Sure.

If you asked me before this season 'Will Jesper Bratt have 73 points?', I would say no, if you asked me before this season, will Jesper Bratt ever have a 73 point season, I'd say, yeah that's certainly a possibility.

 

[guitarguyvic]

You should try actually reading the post - it's not predicated on a bunch of ifs. I'm saying - the Devils top scorers are here to stay. Hughes, Hischier, Bratt - these are players that can lead a good team in scoring. They need goaltending, and they need to fix the defense. I'm saying that putting a bunch of 'ifs' on the scoring is asinine. Scoring is not going to be the problem for this team.

80 points would be fine for this team if the goaltending isn't all the way fixed, and they run bad in 1 goal games again. It should be better, but that's the low end for next year's team.

Well…we thought this defense would be good this year with the backend players we picked up too and it didn’t work out that way. I’m not worried about the offense specifically compared to other craptastic areas of the team’s performance, but…the only thing this team has proven the last few seasons is that they can find all kinds of ways to lose games.

And at the end of the day…I’m not taking a ton of solace in having a few players that can put points on the board when the other areas of the team are so goddamn deficient. These guys could put up a lot of points on a good team - and they can do it on a bad team too as we saw this year. It’s good that they produced this year - obviously better than the opposite - but to me it didn’t make this season any more fun than the other garbage ones we’ve had in recent history.

People talking about fixing the goaltending like it’s easy peasy. There’s no great goalie coming to this team on the horizon, unless Fitz pulls some kind of miracle. Even if we wind up acquiring an average goaltender who can stay healthy, behind these bozos who give the puck away like it has cooties it’s not going to move the needle enough to make this a serious bubble team.

 

[NJDevs26]

You should try actually reading the post - it's not predicated on a bunch of ifs. I'm saying - the Devils top scorers are here to stay. Hughes, Hischier, Bratt - these are players that can lead a good team in scoring. They need goaltending, and they need to fix the defense. I'm saying that putting a bunch of 'ifs' on the scoring is asinine. Scoring is not going to be the problem for this team.

80 points would be fine for this team if the goaltending isn't all the way fixed, and they run bad in 1 goal games again. It should be better, but that's the low end for next year's team.

If the PP improves...if they have a better record in one-goal games...if their D gets better...if their goaltending gets better...if their coaching gets better...if Hughes stays healthy for a full season, you guys are kind of hoping on a lot of what ifs.

 

[JK3]

Today or all season?

All season.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Oooooooof Severson just trashed the goaltending.

What did he say?

"Every time I threw the puck to the other team at the blueline, or caused a 2-on-0 break by mysteriously backing into nowhere, or tried to hit or get out of the way of one of their forwards leaving a 2-on-0 break or made a terrible pass during the power play leading to a 2-on-0 break, those damn goaltenders rarely bailed me out."

 

[NJDevs26]

All season.

LOL Severson's both the likeliest guy I would have expected that kind of comment from and one of the ones I least want to hear it from after all of HIS snafus. Sure he gets 40+ points a year on the offensive end, how many of them does he give back in his own end with stupidity?

 

[NJDevs26]

Also, “it can’t this be bad next year” is a sly hedge actual success. 80 points would be a better season, but it’d still be trash and not anywhere near even bubble quality.

It hasn't been this bad in 35 years, I would hope it's not this bad again next year!

 

[Guttersniped]

It's gone uphill for the whole league, for whatever reason you want to attribute it to. 1995-96 was the last season this many goals were scored per game.

NHL League Averages | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest NHL League Averages including shots, saves, goal averages and more on Hockey-Reference.com

www.hockey-reference.com

Did anyone think Nico or Jesper Bratt were capable of a 70-point season before this year? At least 90% of you would be lying if you said yes. I'm not entirely convinced either guy improves from here. To be fair, scoring has gone up a bit since 2016-17 so maybe we are heading to a new normal of more goals. Still, when you see things like Kreider hitting 50 when he's never had over 30 in a season before and Mathews hitting 60 after being in the league a number of years, Thachuk hitting 100+ points when he'd never touched 80 before, you wonder what's going on and how sustainable it is.

Actually yes? He’s an article predicting Nico potentially getting 60-65 and breakout from Bratt from this pre-season.

You aren’t saying “who predicted this?”, you’re predicting it going away from them specifically. That they didn’t breakout.

Player’s season fluctuate, no one can promise what exactly will happen every year but we can have a general idea that these guys will produce. This didn’t come out of nowhere, it’s built on aspects of their earlier seasons.

It’s just odd to be gloomy about these three. Sure losing games is a bummer and we’re looking to the future yet again but these aren’t unproven prospects. It’s better to have players in their prime too, then declining players with long track records.

Fantasy Focus: Four fourth year breakout predictions

I know we're all focused squarely on the glorious, multi-game evenings that the first round of NHL hockey provides. But I can't help but look ahead to next season and...

eprinkside.com

 

[Triumph]

If the PP improves...if they have a better record in one-goal games...if their D gets better...if their goaltending gets better...if their coaching gets better...if Hughes stays healthy for a full season, you guys are kind of hoping on a lot of what ifs.

They're mostly good ifs. Hughes doesn't have to stay healthy for a full season and also he's stayed healthy for two full seasons before this. The goaltending cannot possibly be worse. The PP cannot possibly be worse. These are things that just regress towards the mean 90% of the time at least. Record in one goal games - the thing about the one goal games is that the Devils got a ludicrously low number of games to OT in calendar year 2022, of the 28 one goal games (EN excluded) games they played, 8 made it to extra time. That's so low.

 

[Guttersniped]

Well…we thought this defense would be good this year with the backend players we picked up too and it didn’t work out that way. I’m not worried about the offense specifically compared to other craptastic areas of the team’s performance, but…the only thing this team has proven the last few seasons is that they can find all kinds of ways to lose games.

And at the end of the day…I’m not taking a ton of solace in having a few players that can put points on the board when the other areas of the team are so goddamn deficient. These guys could put up a lot of points on a good team - and they can do it on a bad team too as we saw this year. It’s good that they produced this year - obviously better than the opposite - but to me it didn’t make this season any more fun than the other garbage ones we’ve had in recent history.

People talking about fixing the goaltending like it’s easy peasy. There’s no great goalie coming to this team on the horizon, unless Fitz pulls some kind of miracle. Even if we wind up acquiring an average goaltender who can stay healthy, behind these bozos who give the puck away like it has cooties it’s not going to move the needle enough to make this a serious bubble team.

Yes, everyone has been “talking about fixing the goaltending like it’s easy peasy”.

That’s a very true and honest assessment of the conversations on this board about our goalie issues. People here have zero concerns in that department. Nailed it.

 

[My3Sons]

I mean if you want empty 'entertainment' sure, this season was for you. Winning? Not so much. Another depressing nose-dive out of the race after an illusory ten-game stretch to start the season with off-ice drama (Blackwood) and injury mismanagement to go along with the on-ice mismanagement and ineptness.

As far as the Bratt, Hughes, Hischier numbers...all great, but let's see them do it again next year when they aren't playing meaningless pond hockey and the entire league presumably doesn't have as juiced numbers as they do (I mean Kreider has 50+ goals for goodness sakes).

I don’t think that’s completely fair. The step of Hughes Bratt and Hischier becoming legit top six players was important and necessary. Mercer establishing himself was also meaningful. It’s easy to downplay their growth as illusory but they did their part. I don’t expect them to turn into pumpkins next season. You can see the difference in their games now. Hischier needs a real 3C so he can do a little less heavy lifting and maybe someone better than Zacha to play with. Bratt needs a contract and Hughes just needs to stay healthy. I’ll presume that the advanced stats about the goaltending are roughly true and NJ should have been roughly an NHL .500 team with competent goalies. If that was the case this season woukd have been seen as a decent development step on the way to being competitive. Maybe next season is that season. There are elements of this season that had to happen to make a better team possible even if it failed to materialize.

 

[NJDevs26]

Actually yes? He’s an article predicting Nico potentially getting 60-65 and breakout from Bratt from this pre-season.

You aren’t saying “who predicted this?”, you’re predicting it going away from them specifically. That they didn’t breakout.

Player’s season fluctuate, no one can promise what exactly will happen every year but we can have a general idea that these guys will produce. This didn’t come out of nowhere, it’s built on aspects of their earlier seasons.

It’s just odd to be gloomy about these three. Sure losing games is a bummer and we’re looking to the future yet again but these aren’t unproven prospects. It’s better to have players in their prime too, then declining players with long track records.

Fantasy Focus: Four fourth year breakout predictions

I know we're all focused squarely on the glorious, multi-game evenings that the first round of NHL hockey provides. But I can't help but look ahead to next season and...

eprinkside.com

It's not so much 'being gloomy about those three' - Nico and Bratt not improving further from this level still makes them terrific players, it's that having the contributions we had from those three (probably the peak level we're gonna get from two of them) STILL did nothing as we had our worst season in 35 years with all these lovely stats, their lowest season point total since their fourth year in NJ when they had bupkus, of course it's discouraging to get this kind of dumpster fire with the big three all hitting or exceeding expectations. The Atlanta Thrashers had a lot of these kind of seasons too where they could asthetically enjoy Kovalsuck, Heatley and Savard filling nets, what did it ever get them success-wise?

 

[Triumph]

It's not so much 'being gloomy about those three' - Nico and Bratt staying at this level still makes them terrific players, it's that having the contributions we had from those three STILL did nothing as we had our worst season in 35 years with all these lovely stats, their lowest season point total since their fourth year in NJ when they had bupkus, of course it's discouraging to get this kind of dumpster fire with the big three hitting or exceeding expectations. The Atlanta Thrashers had a lot of these kind of seasons too where they could enjoy Kovalsuck, Heatley and Savard filling nets, what did it ever get them?

They didn't have bupkus in year 4 in New Jersey which is precisely the point. Muller brought back Richer, Verbeek led to Lemieux, and Daneyko, Driver, and MacLean won Cups here. And then if you want to get more into the weeds, Adams and McLean brought back Sundstrom who was a big contributor to the 87-88 team and Wolanin brought back Stastny who was a good player for some early 90s teams that couldn't get over the hump.

You're just burying your head in the sand and ignoring what's going on here by comparing the Devils to an expansion team. Yes, Lou left nearly an expansion team's worth of stuff, but A: he didn't quite do that and B: also there's 4 first round picks who've played a combined 9 games for the Devils and a top 7 pick coming this year. The Thrashers never had that and even if they did, they picked shit like Boris Valabik.

 

[My3Sons]

It's not so much 'being gloomy about those three' - Nico and Bratt not improving further from this level still makes them terrific players, it's that having the contributions we had from those three STILL did nothing as we had our worst season in 35 years with all these lovely stats, their lowest season point total since their fourth year in NJ when they had bupkus, of course it's discouraging to get this kind of dumpster fire with the big three hitting or exceeding expectations. The Atlanta Thrashers had a lot of these kind of seasons too where they could enjoy Kovalsuck, Heatley and Savard filling nets asthetically, what did it ever get them success-wise?

I look at it as a recipe. If you have eggs flour and water the cake will still be terrible if you never get the sugar and butter. Even when you get the ingredients you need the right proportions and to blend them properly. Some teams never get it together but you can’t generalize and have to let each team play itself out. I’m skeptical Fitz can’t see what we see. He took some steps to renonvate the defense and I expected him to do the same with the forward group but I think the goalies will delay that. This season was a slog but if Fitz realizes that the team can’t just make a tweak and be competitive it should be ok.

 

[NJDevs26]

I look at it as a recipe. If you have eggs flour and water the cake will still be terrible if you never get the sugar and butter. Even when you get the ingredients you need the right proportions and to blend them properly. Some teams never get it together but you can’t generalize and have to let each team play itself out. I’m skeptical Fitz can’t see what we see. He took some steps to renonvate the defense and I expected him to do the same with the forward group but I think the goalies will delay that. This season was a slog but if Fitz realizes that the team can’t just make a tweak and be competitive it should be ok.

Fitz's first test is gonna come pretty damn quick, there's literally no excuse to go into next season with the same staff, or really anyone on the staff still here.

 

[Devs3cups]

Oooooooof Severson just trashed the goaltending.

Damn. What’d he say?

 

[Tao Jersey Jones]

I look at it as a recipe. If you have eggs flour and water the cake will still be terrible if you never get the sugar and butter. Even when you get the ingredients you need the right proportions and to blend them properly. Some teams never get it together but you can’t generalize and have to let each team play itself out. I’m skeptical Fitz can’t see what we see. He took some steps to renonvate the defense and I expected him to do the same with the forward group but I think the goalies will delay that. This season was a slog but if Fitz realizes that the team can’t just make a tweak and be competitive it should be ok.

 

[My3Sons]

Next season, I like to see:

Sharangovich-Hughes-Mercer
Bratt-Hischier-Trade
Holtz-UFA-Zetterlund
Wood-McLeod-Bastian

Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Graves-Severson
Bahl-Smith

Trade/UFA-Blackwood

Boqvist-Okhotyuk-Bernier

As much as well like the young players breaking through, we need to get better.
Its too risky to give Boqvist the 3C role next season when he can't win a faceoff and is average defensively. I am happy to keep Boqvist on the team next season to battle with McLeod for 4C role.

I want to see 2 new forward additions from outside the organization so Zacha, Johnsson, Tatar need to move on. It won't hurt to carry them for one more season as 3rd liners, but i think we can accelerate the rebuild if they go now. Kuokkanen i'll keep and try to sneak him through waivers. He will be a handy utility player to call up if Wood can't get healthy.

Ty Smith's form is a problem but he might be saved that the current UFA market for defenseman isn't that great. I dont think we should be spending trade capital for a bottom pair defenseman so I think we should give Smith and Bahl a shot at the third pair role. They have been a pairing before at WJC. And Bahl's stay at home style will suit Smith if he gets his form and confidence back. Okhotyuk and Walsh to be the teams 7th and 8th defenseman. I dont think we need to bring in a veteran journeyman like Jaros.

A new starting goaltender is a must and probably keeping 3 goalies to start next season until we know more about Bernier's status.

It probably does make sense to use Boquist as a 4C and find a legit 3C. Boquist can become the injury swing man to move up into a top six spot for a few games as necessary when someone is out. I’m skeptical that they can easily move Johnsson and Tatar and I doubt they get much in a Zacha trade. I’d love to add a RW2 and uograde the third line but I’d like Zetterlund on it. Maybe some team will surprise us and want Smith for a good return.

 

[NJDevs26]

Damn. What’d he say?

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[Devs3cups]

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Thanks a lot!