Florida Trip

[TheSgtDabbs]

Marty basically has to start for us to have a chance to win it seems. Need Kovy back, but can't deny the loss of Zach anymore. He seems to be doing well enough in Minny. I'm not writing off the season or anything but this offseason I think we need to blow up this team, get rid of the some of the seemingly endless list of role players we have, and get some talent to complement Kovy. Maybe there isn't a huge fish out there as a UFA this year, but there has to be vast improvements to be had.

 

[nj_cup]

Elias goes in alone between the dots. whats he do? Behind the back drop spin pass. Of course why not

 

[SJ20]

Awesome!

 

[TheSgtDabbs]

Elias goes in alone between the dots. whats he do? Behind the back drop spin pass. Of course why not

said the same thing to my friend when I watched that. What the hell else would he do...

 

[linebackeru]

said the same thing to my friend when I watched that. What the hell else would he do...

If he had a wide open Kovy flying in behind him, I could live with it. Other than that, WTF is he thinking??

 

[BadMotoWeazal]

Yep.... Pretty shitty weekend. The guys have got to get some kind of momentum going into the end of the season if they want make some noise in the playoffs.

Any news on kovy's return?

 

[DevilishWon]

Not soon enough!

 

[Vortimous]

I agree that we've left too many points out there with shootout losses. Marty even admitted during the post game interviews that they do NOT practice shootouts. Not offense or goaltending. That's a problem but that's been going on all season and Marty sounded like he was sure that will change. Fortunately shootouts don't matter in the playoffs anyway. TB is out of playoff contention but FIRST GAME under a new coach, they played wide open and Stamkos is just a freak. When that guy is on, I don't care how good your team is. I don't think it was a great game but Im not freaking out over it either. Scoring 4 goals without Kovy bodes well for the offense adjusting to his absence. Yall sure are getting ahead of yourselves talking about playoff positioning and opponents. You do remember the high flying Pens of last year (and the Bruins for that matter) getting bounced in the first round right? Im looking at the team as they are adjusting to missing their top ice time guy and that takes a few games. You guys are already looking at playoff matchups and whatnot and declaring all is lost and giving up. Devils fans sure are friggin spoiled. We're in decent playoff position (we were only 6 seed last year) and the team will continue to adjust in Kovy's absence. Defense needs to step it up though and I suspect Lou will make a move there. Im just not concerned by that game, sorry. Heck, when Kovy went down most of yall were all doom and gloom. Im happy to get points and see the offense picking up the slack. Other areas need work but scoring is what has concerned me most and I saw D'Ag step up, Lokti step up, and 4th line guys step up.

You keep claiming that they are adjusting to Kovy being out... What does Kovy not playing have to do with no effort by our defense.... Them being out of position, or not even skating to open pucks? Even last nights loss, you could see that Florida just wanted it more.. they were flying out there... our guys, not so much... Playing "fancy" with the puck (ELIAS).. Defense being out skated, out played, our husseled. If they beat us thats fine... but to be beaten by ourselves this late in the game should not happen.

I hope we turn it around and maybe even get hot at the start of the playoffs... but if they keep letting points fly away, then we might not even make it.... Stop blaming Kovy being gone as the reason we lost... hell we scored 4 goals two nights ago without Kovy and still managed to lose... so tell me again that they are "adjusting"

 

[CalamityX11]

No rushing kovy though... we know how poor Kovy is when he's not healthy...

this team better find ways to win the games already... time is ticking.

did the trade deadline pass?

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Our D has looked bad all season. They are getting beat to every puck, they underestimate guys and glide to the puck, they assume somebody else is picking up the guy they're supposed to cover, 2 guys chasing the guy with the puck, absolutely no ability to take away the passing lanes, weak clearing attempts, sloppy puck handling, poor decision making, etc. etc. etc. It's becoming pretty pathetic. If it was a group of rookies or younger guys it might be acceptable but these are all vets (with the exception of Larsson). Zids, A-Train, Bryce, have all repeatedly made rookiesque mistakes in our end.

Was Robinson that good of a coach? Is Scotty not a good coach? Does it have anything to do with coaching or is just the players?

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I guess some good things to take out of this weekend, the Loktionov-D'Agostini-Truth line is skilled, fast and they seemed to compliment one another very well and the Bernier-Carter-Gio line continues to be solid. If we can just lock down the D and get consistent play out of Zajac, Elias and Clarkson we can be a dangerous team.

 

[devil421]

You keep claiming that they are adjusting to Kovy being out... What does Kovy not playing have to do with no effort by our defense.... Them being out of position, or not even skating to open pucks? Even last nights loss, you could see that Florida just wanted it more.. they were flying out there... our guys, not so much... Playing "fancy" with the puck (ELIAS).. Defense being out skated, out played, our husseled. If they beat us thats fine... but to be beaten by ourselves this late in the game should not happen.

Defense definitely has been hit or miss. No doubt there are concerns but you can't deny that Kovy's 25 mins a night, much improved defense, big body, ability to pull opposing defenses away from other guys on the ice, etc isn't a big change that needs some adjusting to from the rest of the team. Then there's the rework of the PP/PK necessary too. The guy is just that important to the game plan and changing that takes time. What I honestly worry about more is the team settling into a revised plan, picking up enough points to make the playoffs, then having to switch it back when Kovy returns.

I hope we turn it around and maybe even get hot at the start of the playoffs... but if they keep letting points fly away, then we might not even make it.... Stop blaming Kovy being gone as the reason we lost... hell we scored 4 goals two nights ago without Kovy and still managed to lose... so tell me again that they are "adjusting"

Im sure you don't think adjustments happen overnight. I said that I was happy to see the offense picking up the slack in his absence. Defense takes longer and I think Kovy's contributions on defense are very underrated. I don't like leaving these OT points in the ice to inferior teams any more than you do but the reality is that losing our top ice time guy isn't going to resolve itself in a couple games. Im just glad we're still getting points and hopefully he returns sooner rather than later. I don't want to see everything get switched up again right when the playoffs start....