GDT: Your New Jersey Devils (17-13-2, 36 Pts) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (11-18-6, 28 Pts), 7 PM, MSGSN2

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Sidenote, I still love looking back at the 2020 draft and Dawson's placement in terms of stats.

3rd in goals with 53, only 4 behind Lafreniere (in 52 less games) and Stutzle, who is way ahead with 80.

Tied for 3rd in assists with Jarvis.

3rd in points, only behind Raymond and Stutzle.

I know some were frustrated with his start, but we have to remember he just turned 22 not too long ago. He's got 7 points over his last 7 games and seems to be meshing well with Timo and McLeod. I think he'll continue to be a major factor for us as the games get more important. Love how he cranked that shot when he had the chance.

and he’s heating up WAY earlier than last year, IIRC. Yanno…assuming he stays hot for a little while.

 

[MasterofGrond]

Just need Jack and tiff and timo and Dawson to be cooking at the same time and we’ll be rocking

 

[Brooklyndevil]

They gain the zone well I think. Get set up. But then move the puck around the horn without creating good looks.

I'd allow Jack more freedom to improvise and probe the defense, see if he can get guys out of position.

Jack was snake bitten. He had some good chances to score.

 

[glenwo2]

I'm not petty by nature, but this is a level of petty I can 100000% get behind. One of the only blessings that Twitter/X can still offer. Continue sharing this until it's no longer possible.

It gets better every time. Such a preposterous take to make then, and looks worse and worse each time. There's clearly a reason they deleted this episode from their podcast list.

Sounds to me like she was only talking sh*t because the Canucks weren't going to be in a position to take Hughes.

I imagine if he was, it would be all roses and chocolates with her involving Luke.

 

[RSeen]

I'd like to see Mercer back on Nico's wing. He went through his most dominant stretch there last year. I think Palat is a good fit on the left side of that line as well.

Bratt-Jack-Toffoli hasn't been as effective so I'd consider Timo up there but he seems to not produce with either Jack and Nico.

Maybe you keep this line as is and have Timo with Nico in place of either Palat or Mercer with the other on the 3rd line with Haula. I appreciate the strides Holtz has made this year but I still view him as expendable. If we could somehow land Askarov, I'd include Holtz in a package easily.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

I think Palat - Hischier - Meier is the long term solution. Meier can be a carrier on that line, Hischier and Palat can find him off the cycle, and it gets Meier back to the right side where he played most of his final Sharks season.

Not sure what you do with the first and third lines, cuz I think Bratt and Jack get too cute around each other, but you can’t leave Bratt on a third line. Maybe with time (and some excellent coaching? ) Jack and Bratt can be as dominant as they should be.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

Now imagine if Luke did that entry on the pp instead of the curl drop pass lol

You can see it with how they positioned, they were expecting Luke to drop pass it, not blast through like that. Which is exactly my point, they need to mix it up to keep opponents guessing.

I don't think Hamilton QB's the PP especially well, he just pounds away with shots.

I do agree that Luke still yields too often to teammates, most notably his brother.

Not an option now, but they need to put Hamilton on pp1 with Luke. It'd be better to have a forward with a big shot, but we don't really have anyone better than Dougie. He has the best shot on the team by far.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I'd play Hamilton as a shooter on the half boards and let Nemec or Luke play the QB.

Finally someone is thinking what I've been saying for a very long time.

 

[RSeen]

I'd also definitely be open to us trying to acquire Vejmelka from Arizona.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

For the millionth time, if you are not doing the drop pass on the PP then you are intentionally making it harder on yourselves and know nothing about hockey. Every team does it because that’s the only way you push the team back into the dzone which allows you to enter more easily

Then the same people would complain why they can't skate through a damn netural zone trap and resorting to a dump n chase if they didn’t do the drop pass.

My god, the fact that I have to say this every damn season….

That's not necessarily true. For teams that don't have speed, it can be hard but we have guys who are superb at this with Luke, Jack, Bratt. Also, they've gained the zone easily plenty of times without using the drop pass.

The drop pass itself is whatever, but what they do with Luke literally entering the o-zone, then dropping it all the way back behind the dzone blue line is just hilarious.

Also, if you do it every time, then it's not nearly as effective because the team just adjusts and plays to that strategy. That's why once in awhile you need to change it up and just enter the zone with speed to catch them off guard, similar to that one team who burned Siegs on the PK. I'm not expecting a goal to be scored like that but my god, doing drop pass every time when the entire opposition is already in position for it is stupid.

Bratt already fulfilled his own "crazy move" quota earlier.

It was Luke's turn.

Which one was that?

 

[Zippy316]

I'd like to see Mercer back on Nico's wing. He went through his most dominant stretch there last year. I think Palat is a good fit on the left side of that line as well.

Bratt-Jack-Toffoli hasn't been as effective so I'd consider Timo up there but he seems to not produce with either Jack and Nico.

Maybe you keep this line as is and have Timo with Nico in place of either Palat or Mercer with the other on the 3rd line with Haula. I appreciate the strides Holtz has made this year but I still view him as expendable. If we could somehow land Askarov, I'd include Holtz in a package easily.

Put Haula back on Hughes and Bratt’s line. He just works so well with them. Toffoli’s lack of speed seems to catch up with him at times and makes things more difficult for Hughes/Bratt.

Haula - Hughes - Bratt
Palat - Hischier - Toffoli
Meier - McLeod - Mercer

I think that could work well, swap Dawson and Toffoli if you want Hischier’s line as the match up line.

 

[forceten]

I’m sure the NHL will prioritize the Bedard OT goal where he slowly skated directly through center while the Jets D stood there flat footed and let him shoot from 20’ away over the Luke goal but that’s where we live now

 

[Devils731]

I’m sure the NHL will prioritize the Bedard OT goal where he slowly skated directly through center while the Jets D stood there flat footed and let him shoot from 20’ away over the Luke goal but that’s where we live now

That Bedard goal is pretty sweet though.

His body and stick language says he’s going to rip it far side until he very last second he opens the stick blade back up and goes short side. It’s a hell of a misdirect and would be easy to miss the net trying to open the blade at the last second like that.

 

[glenwo2]

I'd like to see Mercer back on Nico's wing. He went through his most dominant stretch there last year. I think Palat is a good fit on the left side of that line as well.

Bratt-Jack-Toffoli hasn't been as effective so I'd consider Timo up there but he seems to not produce with either Jack and Nico.

Maybe you keep this line as is and have Timo with Nico in place of either Palat or Mercer with the other on the 3rd line with Haula. I appreciate the strides Holtz has made this year but I still view him as expendable. If we could somehow land Askarov, I'd include Holtz in a package easily.

You damn right you keep that Bratt-Jack-Toffoli line together!

When you keep jerking lines around like that (ala throwing them into a blender), no chemistry/cohesiveness develops.

You can't change lines after a loss all the time and expect them to magically turn into a goal-scoring machine.

Sure they didn't score but THEY ALMOST DID (That insane clowning that Bratt did to two defenders that almost led to a highlight-reel goal) and no one would be even suggesting them being split up.

Besides, we've had Bratt with Nico and that line wasn't doing much of anything on the scoreboard.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I’m sure the NHL will prioritize the Bedard OT goal where he slowly skated directly through center while the Jets D stood there flat footed and let him shoot from 20’ away over the Luke goal but that’s where we live now

Since you mentioned it, I had to go watch. What the hell kind of defending is that? The 2 d-men literally left a wide open gap forever for Bedard to shoot through LOL. If only Holtz could get that much time, sheesh.

Also love how he "split the 2 players". He didn't split anything.

That Bedard goal is pretty sweet though.

His body and stick language says he’s going to rip it far side until he very last second he opens the stick blade back up and goes short side. It’s a hell of a misdirect and would be easy to miss the net trying to open the blade at the last second like that.

The shot itself was good yes, but he had all the time in the world to get it off.

 

[glenwo2]

Which one was that?

Well played, PK.

Well played.

 

[Triumph]

That's not necessarily true. For teams that don't have speed, it can be hard but we have guys who are superb at this with Luke, Jack, Bratt. Also, they've gained the zone easily plenty of times without using the drop pass.

The drop pass itself is whatever, but what they do with Luke literally entering the o-zone, then dropping it all the way back behind the dzone blue line is just hilarious.

Also, if you do it every time, then it's not nearly as effective because the team just adjusts and plays to that strategy. That's why once in awhile you need to change it up and just enter the zone with speed to catch them off guard, similar to that one team who burned Siegs on the PK. I'm not expecting a goal to be scored like that but my god, doing drop pass every time when the entire opposition is already in position for it is stupid.

The Devils don't do the drop pass every time, you said so yourself up top, so why are you criticizing it on the bottom as though they do it every time?

Doing anything every time is ineffective - the drop pass allows for a very controlled entry and if the opposition is keying on the drop pass it also allows for a controlled entry if the players recognize that and just go into the zone regardless. They should not be playing for entering the zone outright every time.

The other thing the drop pass does is kind of disguise failed zone entries, as the entry rarely fails at the blueline, but rather in the zone with some sort of exchange before the PP can get set up. This both takes more time but also is significantly less dangerous than losing the puck in the neutral zone or at the blueline.

 

[Guttersniped]

I'm not petty by nature, but this is a level of petty I can 100000% get behind. One of the only blessings that Twitter/X can still offer. Continue sharing this until it's no longer possible.

It gets better every time. Such a preposterous take to make then, and looks worse and worse each time. There's clearly a reason they deleted this episode from their podcast list.

Also remember she’s talking about Luke Hughes being the #1 player to avoid with the #9 pick of 2021 draft. That was their pick before they traded it.

The players actually available (since we were forced to take Luke *mocking giggle*).

 

[forceten]

That Bedard goal is pretty sweet though.

His body and stick language says he’s going to rip it far side until he very last second he opens the stick blade back up and goes short side. It’s a hell of a misdirect and would be easy to miss the net trying to open the blade at the last second like that.

The shot was fantastic. That’s what his best asset is, that and his amazing hockey IQ. But he didn’t do much to get into position for it. The defenders were just standing there. So weird. If anything they backed up. Who backs up and lets Conor Bedard shoot?

 

[Camille the Eel]

I’m sure the NHL will prioritize the Bedard OT goal where he slowly skated directly through center while the Jets D stood there flat footed and let him shoot from 20’ away over the Luke goal but that’s where we live now

On the Luke goal, it looked like a play Jack and Luke had sketched a hundred times in the back yard. It was a preset play I think.

We pull the goalie. Jack retreats with the puck beside our empty net and waits for Luke, who skates back there and uses the turn back up around the goal like a speed skater to sling his acceleration with the puck - the puck that Jack obligingly hands off to him as he turns - so he can take off like a guided missile towards the opposing end.

How many times must they have run through that as kids?

If you are Columbus afterwards, you have to wonder why, when Jack retreated to our empty net with the puck and we changed players, they didn’t pressure Jack in the corner. Columbus might have wanted to make a line change themselves. But they gave us all the time in the world, as if we were on a power play, when the best move would have been to go after the guy next to his empty net.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I'm not petty by nature, but this is a level of petty I can 100000% get behind. One of the only blessings that Twitter/X can still offer. Continue sharing this until it's no longer possible.

It gets better every time. Such a preposterous take to make then, and looks worse and worse each time. There's clearly a reason they deleted this episode from their podcast list.

Doerrie is absolutely horrendous, her takes consistently get worse and then she wonders why she's out of a job in the sport. Also, if you're a scout like her, why are you airing out what you think about certain players when you're trying to get a job in said league?

 

[Guttersniped]

Also remember she’s talking about Luke Hughes being the #1 player to avoid with the #9 pick of 2021 draft. That was their pick before they traded it.

The players actually available (since we were forced to take Luke *mocking giggle*).

Sorry, it wasn’t just not taking Luke at #9, he also was not a Top 15 pick lol. Did he murder her dog or something? (Also her “injury recon” was on the nose, his skating is terrible now.)

 

[Saugus]

The shot was fantastic. That’s what his best asset is, that and his amazing hockey IQ. But he didn’t do much to get into position for it. The defenders were just standing there. So weird. If anything they backed up. Who backs up and lets Conor Bedard shoot?

People who are worried about Conor Bedard deking them or blowing right by them. In OT, positioning is key and getting beat can lead to an open chance, so teams play passive and cautious defensively.

I think they played it wrong still, but that was probably the idea: "Let him shoot from the outside, he can't score from there... oh crap he can."

 

[NjDevsRR]

Do your thang @Better Call Sal