Enlève-le, Krusty !
[WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhe3vSe-mmw) Qu’est-ce qui vous préoccupe ?
[Full Game Re-Cap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3IRWGRHnP0)
[NHL Game Center](https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/det-vs-njd/2023/11/22/2023020281)
[ESPN Game Cast](https://www.espn.com/nhl/game/_/gameId/401559508)
[Shift Chart](http://shiftchart.com/game/2023-11-22-devils-red-wings)
[2023-24 Regular Season Schedule (November, all times EST)](https://www.nhl.com/devils/schedule/2023-11-01)
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Devil_Dane
10 Comments
I’m in Bologna, Italy and was going to stay up 01:00 to watch the game. Glad I fell asleep.
Do we suck? I can’t believe the turnover of spare roster parts has made the team look so shaky. This is a low we didn’t really see at all last year. Hopefully this specific moment is a time we will look back at and laugh in April.
Now that we’ve cooled our heads (me included)…. these are my takeaways and concerns.
11/7 lineup doesn’t work for them imo. If they can get traction and win 4 or 5 in a row it should salvage this slump, but goaltending and defense have been abysmal. Defense leaves the goalie out to dry, but then when it’s a harmless play/shot (red wings 2nd goal) it’s a muffin that goes in and it deflates the entire team.
Ruff doesn’t seem to have solution and it looks like he panics on the bench with questionable line blending. I don’t believe that Ruff is getting through to team either since it’s the same mistakes and poor play reads happening all the time (4 to 5 guys on one side of the ice and the slot wide open).
This was a game where not one Devils player showed up to play. Not even Jack and it looked like a game he would’ve had as a rookie.
Nico and Meier coming back won’t fix the defense or goalies, so Fitz needs to work on that as well as making the team harder to play again. This is perhaps the softest team I’ve seen from this organization.
I don’t see the point in Smith being a constant roster spot. He brings nothing to the team.
I don’t see how or why Lazar is on the 1st line (at least to start the game).
Dougie….yikes. absolute juggernaut on offense, but the defensive end of his game as fallen drastically. 6’6 and over 200 lbs yet he plays such a soft game and doesn’t utilize the long reach at all.
Final thoughts for me are that the Ruff extension is looking terrible. I think Pride and not wanting to be wrong is what’s making Fitz keep him and it looks bad when your extend a coach and fire him less than 20 games into a 2-3 year extension, but you gotta bite the bullet and make that move.
Just got back from spending the entire night in the hospital with my father. (I’m fine, he’s the one who was in there, he’s fine now). Needless to say there are much more important things in life than the Devils and my mind hasn’t been on the team. Hug your family today, everyone.
With that being said, man what a bad game.
How can we have one of these threads when the devils didn’t even play last night?
No defense, no goaltending, coaching that isn’t getting it done, a couple offensive guys trying to carry the entire load with limited support, high expectations coming into this season that have come crashing down around a team that is now headed for historic regression. Sound familiar?
That’s the Oilers. They’re 5-12-1, and barring a miracle, their season is over. Meanwhile, the Devils are 8-8-1. They’re third last in the conference, but they’ve played fewer games than many. They have two games in hand on the Flyers, and if they won those two games, they would leapfrog 4 teams and be tied with the Flyers for third in the wild card race.
None of the is meant to paint a rosy picture, because this team is on fire. The defense is utterly failing the goaltending and the goalies are utterly failing the team, while Lindy utterly fails to get anything going and everyone struggles to generate any offense. This shit is dire. I’m mentally preparing myself for several months of insufferable, unwatchable games to be endured rather than enjoyed, because I’m a deeply negative person and see no reason to expect something good to come from this.
But the point is, we are not in such a deep hole that we can’t come out of it. This roster is different from last year, and it seems like those differences are having far greater effects than were expected. But we know nearly everyone on the roster is capable of more. We know Bahl and Siegs are worse right now than they’re capable of, that Mercer has still barely woken up this season, that Bratt is always capable of busting out a ten-game point streak, that our goalies are playing woefully below their respective levels last season. We know we’re getting our 1C back at some point, and Timo at some point as well.
Again, none of the problems are fixed, so this isn’t a case of “maybe we’ll just start being good now and it’s fine.” I don’t know what it will take to wake this team the fuck up, I’m hoping it’s not firing Lindy but it does feel like we’re headed in that direction. But *we’re not dead yet.* The ship is taking on a LOT of water, but it hasn’t sunk. Despite the fact that we have put together maybe two games all season where we actually looked decent throughout (I’m picturing Montreal and Pittsburgh), we’re a .500 team, and should this team ever get its shit together, there’s still time for them to make something of this nightmare of a season. We were really fucking good last year and unbeaten in the preseason before suddenly being terrible, so it’s not like it’s entirely inconceivable that we reverse course and actually become a good team again.
So doom if you must, god knows the team is giving little reason for hope. But if you get a chance, look at the Oilers, look at what an actual dumpster fire of a season looks like, and be glad that what feels like bottoming out to us is still far better than what some really good teams are going through.
Missed the game last night. I watched the “highlights” this morning. I wish I had not watched the “highlights” this morning…
It feels like a 3 year regression with this incredibly talented team. The structure is not working
I think this team needed to be shut out to get off our high horse. Cup expectations kinda spoiled ‘em. We gotta work for it, won’t just be handed to us.
After a decade of mediocrity, I finally spend my days excited and eager to sit down in the evening and watch the game. It’s the night before Thanksgiving, some time to myself before the chaos of today, only to be presented with whatever that was last night. It’s just a bummer is all.