after going to tonights game

[devs30rko]

i have two questions.


WTF happened?



and secondly, how the fuck in a year this bad, does tthe building still bring in decent crowds. at least far more than i'd expect.


i've been tow 5 games this year and every one was at least 85% full.

 

[SJ20]

So true. Especially in this economy. I could understand a baseball game. However, hockey games are expensive. There goes the attendance banter from fans of our rivals.

 

[TiLoBrown]

To answer the first question, Mac...and injuries, but mostly Mac. Thats why this year is this bad. The team has be MUCH better now that Lemarie is back. From the couple of games I've been to and the what I see on TV attendance is about the same as last year but I think I saw numbers that said they're down about .5% or something.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

To answer the first question, Mac...and injuries, but mostly Mac. Thats why this year is this bad. The team has be MUCH better now that Lemarie is back. From the couple of games I've been to and the what I see on TV attendance is about the same as last year but I think I saw numbers that said they're down about .5% or something.

^^^^^^^this
but i'll also throw in that i think langenbrunner was a cancer in the locker room and on the ice

 

[nj_cup]

i was shocked to see they had 16 at that game. they usually always do well after the new year. maybe a bunch of xmas gifts?

 

[TheSgtDabbs]

It's funny about attendance. I used to tell my friends that the attendance is the same whether they are winning or losing, but I never had a losing season to go off of, until now. I'm not saying attendance is great by any means, but for as bad as they are playing, the fact that the place is over 50% full is surprising.

 

[devs30rko]

It's a good sign if things look up again, which I expect them to.


Has anyone else noticed chere is a massive locus washer and maclean sympathiser btw? If maclean wasn't so bad how can he possibly explain the very visible upswing in the teams play, confidence and conditioning? Not to mention lemaire has repeatedly bash how shit things must have been run while MAC was around

 

[DevFan60]

To me it looked like MAC was knowing what to do, but didn't know HOW...

 

[Nasty_Magician]

It's a good sign if things look up again, which I expect them to.


Has anyone else noticed chere is a massive locus washer and maclean sympathiser btw? If maclean wasn't so bad how can he possibly explain the very visible upswing in the teams play, confidence and conditioning? Not to mention lemaire has repeatedly bash how shit things must have been run while MAC was around

I never really liked Chere. I'll take TG anyday.

 

[devs30rko]

definately.


tg can be a bit of a negative nancy, but chere strikes me as a guy who simply wishes he was in the sport, but never had any knowledge worthy of getting him there.


in his 'your comments' post about the midseason report card, he chose two posts targetting whether or not kovy is the whole reason for this mess.





...... uhm one guy put this team in last place? really?

 

[nj_cup]

if you read some of the posts on here dko some people actually believe that

 

[MCDevils]

definately.


tg can be a bit of a negative nancy, but chere strikes me as a guy who simply wishes he was in the sport, but never had any knowledge worthy of getting him there.


in his 'your comments' post about the midseason report card, he chose two posts targetting whether or not kovy is the whole reason for this mess.





...... uhm one guy put this team in last place? really?

The thing with Kovy is that people are going to turn someone into a scapegoat. Odds are they're not going to do it to Brodeur who is the most important player the franchise has and probably will have in our lifetimes. They also want to defend Mac because of his dedication. So the natural fit is the man who signed for the big $. Kovalchuk essentially turned himself into AROD. He wanted as much money as possible, jerked around the fan base, then underperformed. Granted, AROD was way, way more at fault for his fiasco of a situation, but would it have killed Kovalchuk to take 80 over 15? Probably not, or to renegotiate the contract before the Devils were severely punished?

The point is he's turned into a pariah almost instantly. Parise's like Jeter. Fans will ALWAYS love him more than Kovalchuk, even if he scores more goals in the years to come. Parise's humble, has already taken less money than expected, in his current contract. What 20-something player coming off back to back 30 goal years while leading the team in scoring, signs a 3 year deal at a 3.125 cap hit? Or even crazier signs a deal that expires one year before he could be a UFA? Parise does, and it just points to him not being the kind of guy who wants to hold the team for ransom.

Now, Kovalchuk obviously isn't the entire problem. He couldn't cause a total collapse by himself, but he certainly isn't helping this team win games. His corsi is atrocious. Every metric indicates that the Devils go to shit defensively when he steps on the ice.

To be fair, he's facing the same situation as Rolston. He signed a MONSTER contract, then under produced, and is now feeling the brunt. Notice it used to be Elias when he had those two bad back to back lower production years. Then he played better and it was Rolston. Now it's Kovalchuk that's bearing the brunt of the abuse. Who could believe that Kovalchuk is on pace to score are the same pace as Rolston did in year one of his return to NJ?

Anyway, Kovalchuk isn't the entire problem, but IMO he's one of the biggest parts of it.

 

[nj_cup]

The thing with Kovy is that people are going to turn someone into a scapegoat. Odds are they're not going to do it to Brodeur who is the most important player the franchise has and probably will have in our lifetimes. They also want to defend Mac because of his dedication. So the natural fit is the man who signed for the big $. Kovalchuk essentially turned himself into AROD. He wanted as much money as possible, jerked around the fan base, then underperformed. Granted, AROD was way, way more at fault for his fiasco of a situation, but would it have killed Kovalchuk to take 80 over 15? Probably not, or to renegotiate the contract before the Devils were severely punished?

The point is he's turned into a pariah almost instantly. Parise's like Jeter. Fans will ALWAYS love him more than Kovalchuk, even if he scores more goals in the years to come. Parise's humble, has already taken less money than expected, in his current contract. What 20-something player coming off back to back 30 goal years while leading the team in scoring, signs a 3 year deal at a 3.125 cap hit? Or even crazier signs a deal that expires one year before he could be a UFA? Parise does, and it just points to him not being the kind of guy who wants to hold the team for ransom.

Now, Kovalchuk obviously isn't the entire problem. He couldn't cause a total collapse by himself, but he certainly isn't helping this team win games. His corsi is atrocious. Every metric indicates that the Devils go to shit defensively when he steps on the ice.

To be fair, he's facing the same situation as Rolston. He signed a MONSTER contract, then under produced, and is now feeling the brunt. Notice it used to be Elias when he had those two bad back to back lower production years. Then he played better and it was Rolston. Now it's Kovalchuk that's bearing the brunt of the abuse. Who could believe that Kovalchuk is on pace to score are the same pace as Rolston did in year one of his return to NJ?

Anyway, Kovalchuk isn't the entire problem, but IMO he's one of the biggest parts of it.

hmmmm i wonder if you will be singing that tune when/if parise walks? also i dont think he had much choice dont players his age have to sign entry level contracts? i dont think kovy is helping the cause but to say hes the biggest reason? i mean i dont think hes responsible for marty having only 6 wins in 27 games? or his 3.05 gaa or his .890 sv%? nor do i think hes responsible for greenes -23 or talendars -22? nor is he responsible for zajacs 6 goals in 42 games? nah i think your right man he must play 60mins a night!

as for him taking 80 over 15? i agree i hate that players almost always want more money..but lets be fair would you take less pay if your really good at your job? nah didnt think so

 

[TheRobotDevil]

I thought you didnt believe in plus minus your kind of contradicting yourself

 

[MCDevils]

hmmmm i wonder if you will be singing that tune when/if parise walks? also i dont think he had much choice dont players his age have to sign entry level contracts? i dont think kovy is helping the cause but to say hes the biggest reason? i mean i dont think hes responsible for marty having only 6 wins in 27 games? or his 3.05 gaa or his .890 sv%? nor do i think hes responsible for greenes -23 or talendars -22? nor is he responsible for zajacs 6 goals in 42 games? nah i think your right man he must play 60mins a night!

as for him taking 80 over 15? i agree i hate that players almost always want more money..but lets be fair would you take less pay if your really good at your job? nah didnt think so

If Parise walks because of Kovalchuk, it'll be the biggest disaster in the history of the franchise. I'm just curious when it's Kovalchuk's turn to take some blame?

Second, Parise wasn't forced to take anything. He's on his second contract, which Lou structured as 2, 2.5, 3, 5M. I was wrong when i said it was after back to back 30 goal years. It was after his second season as a Devil. The first of the back to back 30s.

Also, I'm not totally sure I know what you mean by, "i wonder if you will be singing that tune when/if parise walks?"

Also, if Marty sucks this badly, fine. He has to get old and stop playing at some point. What's Kovalchuk's excuse? He didn't want to play right side, so he decided to mail it in?

Finally, I'm pretty sure that I clearly said that Kovalchuk isn't the only problem, but definitely one of the biggest.

I also would like a definitive time where it's ok to criticize kovalchuk for being on the ice for a team leading 43 goals against? That's only 5 v 5. 25% more than any other forward.

 

[nj_cup]

i dont believe in +/- but when everyone on the team is a - its kinda stupid dont you think to keep pointing it out? i can see if everyone was a + and he was the only -?

as far as parise loyalty if/when he walks will you still be singing that tune?

i'm not bashing marty your right he is old....your saying kovy is a liability whenever hes on the ice though? when your out there the most ice time and your goalie has a .890 sv % your going to look bad

 

[MCDevils]

i dont believe in +/- but when everyone on the team is a - its kinda stupid dont you think to keep pointing it out? i can see if everyone was a + and he was the only -?

as far as parise loyalty if/when he walks will you still be singing that tune?

i'm not bashing marty your right he is old....your saying kovy is a liability whenever hes on the ice though? when your out there the most ice time and your goalie has a .890 sv % your going to look bad

The only way Parise walks is because we don't have enough cap space to sign him.

 

[MCDevils]

If you want to ignore +/- because it doesn't factor in the PP, fine.

The following players help the Devils score more on the PP this season compared to Kovalchuk.

These numbers indicated how many PPG/60 minutes the Devils average with these players on ice:

Zubrus: 7.43
Elias: 6.54
Clarkson: 6.25
Tedenby: 5.16
Arnott: 4.99
Zajac: 4.54
Greene: 4.11
Kovalchuk: 3.67
Rolston: 2.19

The worst part about this is that the Devils avg PPG/60 spikes to 7.95G/game when Kovalchuk isn't on the ice.

What's really scary is that we're not talking small sample sizes anymore, we're talking a half season.

 

[MCDevils]

And, yes Marty is having a season so bad I didn't even think it was possible, but how much of that is completely his fault? I'm not sure, Hedberg has nearly identical statistics. What are the odds that BOTH goalies who had pretty good, actually really good seasons last year, are both this bad. It points to something more than them just not playing well. It's a team effort.

 

[MCDevils]

Here's another stat:

Of all Devils players, guess which one, WHEN OFF THE ICE, has a team low GAA scored. Kovalchuk. When he's on the bench the Devils only allow 2.49 GAA/60

NOTE: I'm not trying to say in anyway that Greene, Tallinder, Marty, Hedberg, etc. etc. aren't have shitty seasons, but you'd think the "most talented" player on the team could make a better case for himself.