18 games Left

[CalamityX11]

With 7 pts to chase the one last wild card spot....

I will say its great to see some winning again however i'm not hiding my "tankish" interest. Its comical to me that this team all of a sudden is playing hard for Ws when they are out of it...

Boston isn't losing enough for us to gain ground IMO. The Devils would need to go 14-4 to make things interesting imo and that's still enough margin of error for Boston to play with. SMH

But hey, its great to see Gelinas and Larsson playing well.... and scoring 2 bullets as well. I think we'll have Oates and Stevens back as coaches next year.

 

[nj_cup]

this is the exact same team as last year and surprisingly the same results. the only difference is a little bit different ways of getting to where we are in the standings.


this will of course mean that next year will be more of the same. this team is doomed to repeating this cycle since UFA's of quality dont want to come here and we dont either 1. draft well enough to secure forwards or 2. we dont get good enough draft spots to draft them in.

meanwhile we are just pissing away the prime years of cory. we suck bad enough offensively but he is so good back there that he is keeping us in close games.


they legitimately had a shot at making the playoffs but when they lost to boston last week that kinda killed it. the lose to the flames definitely sealed their fate. not to mention it just shows that making the playoffs this team will get killed. you get shut out by ramo at home 1-0 in the exact same situation as last year and almost at the same time of the year!

 

[Nasty_Magician]

This is almost exactly how the Johnny Mac season went down. Fire the coach mid season and go on a tear in the 2nd half. I would've loved a better chance at the lottery but it is comforting seeing the young D play great and Schneider playing out of his mind.

Trim some of the fat this offseason, don't bring back any of the UFAs not named Bernier, bring in Matteau, Boucher and whoever else and hope we can trade/sign some legit forwards.

 

[nj_cup]

you are definitely right about the mac year. if only lou pulled the trigger faster on PDB. looking at how good larrson has become since pdb left you really have to put the blame on pete for all the past failures of this team.


buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut once again it falls back on lou. pretty remarkable that he didn't learn his lesson with maclean. yet he will escape again!

i will say this though if the team did squeak into the playoffs cory is the type of goalie that could steal a road win here and there. would be a matchup against the islanders too. wow when was the last time you even thought the islanders and devils might be a playoff matchup?

 

[CalamityX11]

That Mac season was an unbelievable run though.... hard to imagine that after ALL those wins they got in the 2nd half, we are where we are competition wise....

 

[nj_cup]

What's funny is that team under Mac was soooooo bad I mean like Edmonton bad. They were getting blown out 4-1 5-0 3-0 constantly.

This team still sucks big time but I think the big difference is Cory. Funny too thst team had kovy though

 

[rp2five]

Cory is the difference. He was less consistent last year, but after being the number one goalie, he is really the only reason this team is anywhere even close to the 8th spot.

Even early on this season, there were some fans calling him out and asking to play Kinkaid instead. I do agree that PDB firing made a difference, but Cory got even better as the season went along.

 

[DevilishWon]

this is the exact same team as last year and surprisingly the same results. the only difference is a little bit different ways of getting to where we are in the standings.


this will of course mean that next year will be more of the same. this team is doomed to repeating this cycle since UFA's of quality dont want to come here and we dont either 1. draft well enough to secure forwards or 2. we dont get good enough draft spots to draft them in.

meanwhile we are just pissing away the prime years of cory. we suck bad enough offensively but he is so good back there that he is keeping us in close games.


they legitimately had a shot at making the playoffs but when they lost to boston last week that kinda killed it. the lose to the flames definitely sealed their fate. not to mention it just shows that making the playoffs this team will get killed. you get shut out by ramo at home 1-0 in the exact same situation as last year and almost at the same time of the year!

Not. A totally different D and a settled # 1 goalie. End of year last year we had much to settle. This year we should only be concentrating on our top 2 lines

 

[Indian Chief]

Trim some of the fat this offseason, don't bring back any of the UFAs not named Bernier, bring in Matteau, Boucher and whoever else and hope we can trade/sign some legit forwards.

This is what we said last off season, basically word for word. Apparently Lou doesn't agree or we wouldn't be here.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

This is what we said last off season, basically word for word. Apparently Lou doesn't agree or we wouldn't be here.

Yes and no. Whereas last year we weren't sure what would happen with the backup goaltender and we wanted to ease the young D into their roles, this year those aren't an issue. We at least have one guy that can consistently score (Camm), and the young forwards have another year of seasoning. I think we're in better shape this year than last.

 

[nj_cup]

stay away from any UFA this summer. let stefan and boucher get regular ice time. only free agent i would bring back is

gomez

 

[Indian Chief]

I agree with that (being in better shape), but it seems like it is more a factor of circumstance than planning. Obviously PDB was holding this team back even more than we realized. If they didn't shit the bed early, he's still the coach. And the dead weight that we have now is pretty much the same dead weight we had last year. I guess the point I'm making is that while we appear to be in slightly better shape than this time a year ago, I'm not confident that was part of anyone's (Lou's) plan.

 

[DevilishWon]

stay away from any UFA this summer. let stefan and boucher get regular ice time. only free agent i would bring back is

gomez

Agree except I would bring Tootoo back IF he is cheap

 

[nj_cup]

lou's refusal to can mac early and now pdb early and costing us 2 years of possible playoff hockey should get any owner angry. thats millions of bucks just throw out the window in their eyes. fans eyes? a chance at the cup. granted a small small small small shot at the cup

 

[rp2five]

Bring Gomez back but nothing long term. Nothing with an NTC. In fact, if possible, don't offer him a contract until pre-season so that he can train the same way he did last summer when he was pretty much fighting for his career.
Or load it with incentives.
Tootoo, yes, but one year deal.

Agree, we are in better shape. Lou did shred some fat on the team last year, but then he added some too. Need to focus on getting younger, faster, especially on offense.
Heard people talk about Jagr. I say no. I like him, but this is not the direction they need to go.

 

[DevilishWon]

Bring Gomez back but nothing long term. Nothing with an NTC. In fact, if possible, don't offer him a contract until pre-season so that he can train the same way he did last summer when he was pretty much fighting for his career.
Or load it with incentives.
Tootoo, yes, but one year deal.

Agree, we are in better shape. Lou did shred some fat on the team last year, but then he added some too. Need to focus on getting younger, faster, especially on offense.
Heard people talk about Jagr. I say no. I like him, but this is not the direction they need to go.

Totally agree. I like Jagr but no...no NO

 

[DevFan60]

We need scorers and passers. Who will be available on UFA market this summer?

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Top 25 NHL potential unrestricted free agents

Nothing amazing on the market yet. If the cap doesn't go up (or if it happens to go down) then we are in great shape. A lot of teams will be totally screwed if the CAD doesn't pickup and the cap stays put (like Chicago). I expect teams to sell for pennies on the dollar, we just need to be able to take advantage of them.

 

[nj_cup]

pick up a dusty buff type situation maybe.

your right though we should all hope for the cap to go down.

 

[nj_cup]

to be honest with you i think we have probably seen the last of big name free agents hitting the open market.