Why Mac Is Still Around

[UBDevils22]

Life isn't always that easy. If you demand the big bucks, then you should show that you're worth the big bucks.

until you not only burden yourself, but watch a majority of your teammates look right at you and say "oh save us Ilya!" in their biggest little 5 year old girl voices.

watching this team, sometimes i question if half of them could even beat the
USA women's team.

 

[TiLoBrown]

so i want a SIMPLE answer to this question

who is the most TALENTED hockey player on this roster

simple question simple answer PLEASE

I gave you simple answers and MCD gave you a breakdown of his answer.

i find it sooooooooooo funny that you rely on +/- as a legit stat o too funny!

You talking to me on this one? Because I already said we can agree that +/- isnt always a good stat to use to determine how good someone is

 

[TheRobotDevil]

i find it sooooooooooo funny that you rely on +/- as a legit stat o too funny!


kovalchuk skates into the zone takes a shot play goes the other way other team scores on the rush oh no kovy gets a -1

if your really want to look at +/- and worry look no further then andy greene whos SOLE JOB is to be one of the last lines of defense and what is he? -16? ouch! i mean it is called DEFENSEman isnt it?

by no means am i using a double standard but lets be real here!

Depends if kovy enters the zone and misses the net causing the puck to wrap around the boards then yes he should take part of the responsibility .and I think parse is the most talented overall.

 

[MCDevils]

I'm currently running some very heavy numbers based analysis. But here's a bit of a sneak peak.

Looking at the Devils 4 best forwards over the past two years here's some initial analysis.

--------------------------------

Last Season:

These totals are for Team Goals spread out over 60 minutes to show the impact a player has on a game. The first number is the Goals for, the second is goals against while these specific players were on the ice. These are aggregates of the entire season, so should be very accurate. Unfortunately, there's no way to isolate all 4 players for only the 28 games played with Kovy. So for the other three it includes the entire year.

Kovalchuk: 3.51GF, 2.61GA ----> 0.9
Elias: 3.67GF, 2.37GA ----> 1.3
Parise: 3.36GF, 1.82GA ----> 1.54
Zajac: 3.1GF, 1.62GA ----> 1.48

So here's some quick analysis. Kovalchuk and Elias played together quite a bit when he was here last year. Obviously Parise and Zajac played a lot together.

Kovalchuk/Elias: 3.59G/g, 2.49GA/g --> Differential of +1.1 G/g
Zajac/Parise: 3.23G/g 1.51GA/g --> Differential of +1.72 G/g

So a quick look indicates that while Elias and Kovalchuk were on the ice they scored an average of .36G/g more than Parise and Zajac.

However, they also allowed an entire goal more per game.

So Parise and Zajac's differential is 63% better than Kovalchuk and Elias.

-----------------------------

Looking at this season, all these forwards are doing horribly:

Kovalchuk's differential is around -2.4 G/g with him on the ice.
Zajac is -1.
Parise is -.8
Elias is -.57
Langenbrunner is - 2.6

The worst of all this is that Kovalchuk's on ice average goals for is only 1.4 per game. That's a drop of 2.2G/g from last season...

 

[skrillex26]

Reffering to earlier posts i'm sorry but all the people that try to compliment Clarkson are homers in my opinion. He's a very average hockey player and nothing more. He should not be considered one our best players and absolutely shouldn't be being compared to the likes of Jason Arnott, Patrik Elias, Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise and Travis Zajac.

I'm not saying Clarkson doesn't work hard and play hard and play well, he does, but that doesn't put him in the same category SKILLWISE as those guys, I'm sorry it just doesn't.

Aside from that we all know Kovalchuk has been terrible this year but i think a lot of people are completely being ignorant to the talent he possesses. Just because he's having a bad year doesn't automatically demote him or make him less talented.

And for Marty, i dunno about anyone else, but for me i've never underestimated his past success or forgotten it. He's still an amazing goaltender in my opinion and i'm not for the whole let's shift him off he's done now talk. I still want him around he's just also had a bad year, the whole team is responsible for being bad.

Please New Jersey sign Zach Parise & make him Captain. I think that's a must.

 

[devils30mb]

I don't think many are denying that Kovy has talent. It is just that utilizing the talent and being engaged in the game each and every shift is the question. (Questionable for most Devils right now but the talented must pick up and lead by using their talent).

I don't want to hear any BS that the opposition team always puts out their best defenders and defensive forwards against him because that is where the greats have to find it in themselves to work around that and still do what they are there for.
i.e. Crosby...as much as I am not that big fan of him, this guy gets it done.

 

[TiLoBrown]

Reffering to earlier posts i'm sorry but all the people that try to compliment Clarkson are homers in my opinion.

Thats a nice way calling people who dont share your opinion childish names, now do you want to try to have an actual discussion or ignore things people have said like someone else on the board?

 

[nj_cup]

nice try for a zing...but fail

 

[TiLoBrown]

Point proven, thank you kindly.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

kind of seems like your missing the point.if your talking about past success and potential yes of coarse kovalchuk is more talented then clarkson.the thing is if your not living up to the past success and potential it really doesnt mean a whole lot.kovy has had some moments this season but for the most part he has been kind of lazy and predictable.you could have all the talent in the world but if your not doing the work to get open to get those shots off or make them count when you have them then the name on the back of your jersey doesnt much matter.clarkson on the other hand has been working hard doing the work on the boards hustling to the puck and getting chances.so yes at the moment clarkson along with arnott have been the better players.wouldnt say its comical that kovy doesnt seem to care.bottom line however is you play as a team and its about time kovy be held just as accountable for the play as everyone else.

 

[skrillex26]

Thats a nice way calling people who dont share your opinion childish names, now do you want to try to have an actual discussion or ignore things people have said like someone else on the board?

Nah reading it back that wasn't what i meant, what i'm saying is he is a decent player, but most devils fans on the swamp and partly here kiss his ass. He's okay he's not great or better.

 

[skrillex26]

kind of seems like your missing the point.if your talking about past success and potential yes of coarse kovalchuk is more talented then clarkson.the thing is if your not living up to the past success and potential it really doesnt mean a whole lot.kovy has had some moments this season but for the most part he has been kind of lazy and predictable.you could have all the talent in the world but if your not doing the work to get open to get those shots off or make them count when you have them then the name on the back of your jersey doesnt much matter.clarkson on the other hand has been working hard doing the work on the boards hustling to the puck and getting chances.so yes at the moment clarkson along with arnott have been the better players.wouldnt say its comical that kovy doesnt seem to care.bottom line however is you play as a team and its about time kovy be held just as accountable for the play as everyone else.

But good play isn't the point, you can't just completely forget that Kovy has talent(not directed at you sir)just because he's having a horrible season. Seems like everyone's assuming he just flat out isn't as good as he is because he's not lit it up. Yeah, he has sucked, but the whole team has. I expect more from everyone because they're all good.

 

[skrillex26]

And honestly each day as i wake up and read Mac's safe for now i'm just coming to the conclusion changes are gonnna be made but John Maclean isn't going anywhere. Which saddens me.

 

[TiLoBrown]

Nah reading it back that wasn't what i meant, what i'm saying is he is a decent player, but most devils fans on the swamp and partly here kiss his ass. He's okay he's not great or better.

Ah ok, gotcha. Well the reason why I'm saying hes just as talented if not better is because he contributes in ways besides just scoring. IMO some people are thinking scoring is the only type of talent there is.

 

[skrillex26]

Oh i couldn't agree more he absolutely does help the team and contribute. I'm an advocate that stats don't equal a good player.

Any more news on Mac's hopeful departure?

 

[devils30mb]

I don't think Mac is going anywhere right now.

Dreger yesterday was talking about that maybe upper management has Lou's hands tied in that he can't fire Mac to bring in someone who will be paid 1.5 mil (such as Hitch, who is eager to return to coaching in the NHL). Lou has shown in the past, that in a heartbeat he would get rid of the coach, so there must be something behind not changing right now. He went on to say that righ now the change has to be done by the players on the ice.
The other thing is, Dreger believes that Mac has all the skill to be a great coach.

 

[DevFan60]

It takes some time to prove if Mac is a good/great coach. But it shouldn't be at team's and fans expense. We deserve much better coach who can handle such sutuation and fix team play's style. Right now Mac is far away from being just even good coach. He fails every game. Team's style and game plans are out of normal expectations. Offense is in its lowest level, because there is no creativity at all, which should be built up by coaching staff. They should inspire players and say how to position themselves depending on opponent, and etc. I am not trying to teach them, just have some basic opinions. Our coaches are paid professionals, who are not doing their jobs in right way.