New Jersey Devils

[newper114]

watching the dallas - NJ game.

Just wanted to point out that Zajac took a shot to the head by his own teams shot and went out with about 5 mins left of the game. he didnt return. What i wanted to say here was that Zacha took his spot on the second line with Palms and Johannson.

The game overall:

Hall - still playing in another world. he got another crazy weird goal. had one last game from a weird angle. tonight it was blocked by the goalie and then bounced off the defenders skate and went in. but he is just everywhere. almost had a game with 1 second left but bishop had an amazing save.

Zacha - great positioning tonight. fighting for the puck and drew a penalty or two. liked what i saw.

Vat - just seemed slightly sloppy tonight. while he is a good player and was on a 4 or 5 point game streak tonight he just lost battles, sloppy passes and such.

Severson - still not sure why they are sitting him in place of lovejoy... come on he is actually one of the best devils dman based on advanced stats (just not score sheet).

[rtstr]

The last few games have been rough. Tough breaks on the offsides goals that probably shouldn't have been reversed, bad penalties, lazy efforts leading to costly turnovers. Refs haven't been on their side lately either-- lots of questionable calls-- but that's a trend for all teams this season. The interference call behind the net on Vatanen last night was a joke.

Vatanen is not playing well at all. He's forcing it and just needs to play his game because I do believe he's a great player and fills an immense need on this team. I have no issues with Severson sitting-- he may turn the puck over more than anybody in the entire league and has to play better. It also seems like he misses the net on a high percentage of his attempts. The ability is there but the execution and smarts are not.

Zajac has been largely invisible this year (once again) and that's disappointing because he needs to play well to justify the Henrique trade. He's so slow compared to other forwards in the league. I don't think his style fits the system Hynes runs. I would've rather made a salary dump with Zajac if possible, kept Henrique, and acquired someone cheap and sturdy like the Pens did with Oleksiak. Not sure how feasible that is though... I don't know how Shero could trick a team into thinking Zajac is a top six player. Johansson is not skating hard and looks like a shell of the player he was in Washington. Not sure what is deal is right now but he's been underwhelming.

Hall, Nico, Bratt, Boyle, Palmieri, and Wood have all looked great this year on a regular basis but every other forward could find another gear. The young studs regressing has allowed the curtain to be pulled back on this team. It's clear that the Devils have a big hole on defense and I'm not sure how they will address it. They need a reliable stay at home guy. There is not one imposing shutdown defenseman on that roster and you can't win in this division-- especially come playoff time-- without one.

[rtstr]

Beating the Flyers last night in effect kept the Devils season alive. It's still going to be tough sledding to make the playoffs though. Man would it suck for Hall to have this kind of season and still not play his first postseason game. Honestly I can count on one hand the amount of players in the league who look better right now. He's absolutely flying

[newper114]

Totally agree he is carrying this team and putting everything he has. I wasn't so scared last night after he left the game for almost a period of not more. Luckily he came back and scored a goal! Really enjoy watching him play

[Axeman33]

The last few games have been rough. Tough breaks on the offsides goals that probably shouldn't have been reversed, bad penalties, lazy efforts leading to costly turnovers. Refs haven't been on their side lately either-- lots of questionable calls-- but that's a trend for all teams this season. The interference call behind the net on Vatanen last night was a joke.

Vatanen is not playing well at all. He's forcing it and just needs to play his game because I do believe he's a great player and fills an immense need on this team. I have no issues with Severson sitting-- he may turn the puck over more than anybody in the entire league and has to play better. It also seems like he misses the net on a high percentage of his attempts. The ability is there but the execution and smarts are not.

Zajac has been largely invisible this year (once again) and that's disappointing because he needs to play well to justify the Henrique trade. He's so slow compared to other forwards in the league. I don't think his style fits the system Hynes runs. I would've rather made a salary dump with Zajac if possible, kept Henrique, and acquired someone cheap and sturdy like the Pens did with Oleksiak. Not sure how feasible that is though... I don't know how Shero could trick a team into thinking Zajac is a top six player. Johansson is not skating hard and looks like a shell of the player he was in Washington. Not sure what is deal is right now but he's been underwhelming.

Hall, Nico, Bratt, Boyle, Palmieri, and Wood have all looked great this year on a regular basis but every other forward could find another gear. The young studs regressing has allowed the curtain to be pulled back on this team. It's clear that the Devils have a big hole on defense and I'm not sure how they will address it. They need a reliable stay at home guy. There is not one imposing shutdown defenseman on that roster and you can't win in this division-- especially come playoff time-- without one.

Isn;t it funny that Edmonton needs a scoring winger like Hall and NJ is missing a shutdown top pairing guy like Larsson.

[newper114]

Agree with that statement. I believe that was a lot of the comments when the deal happened but in the end I still perfer hall everyday and have te defense hole!

[newper114]

looks like the devils were all over the place last night against the islanders. wasn't a strong game for them until the middle of the second when they started to play better.

Lines were also all over the place. I believe the game started with something like this:

Hall-Nico-bratt
wood-zacha-Palms
Noesen-zajac-grabner
coleman-boyle-stafford

but halfway through the second palms went up to hall line and grabner was up with zacha line and shifts all around. will need to give them a couple games to get it all together.
Grabner was on the PK with Zacha for some shifts and didn't look out of place.

the devils got the win so that's what counts but again nothing amazing from the game except hall keeping his scoring streak alive.

[Zorro]

What is Hall's point streak up to now, has he reached the 20 game mark??

[newper114]

What is Hall's point streak up to now, has he reached the 20 game mark??

21 games but it should be higher tryin to find that out. He missed some games due to injury so te NHL stops counting but he had a good number at that point also

[2014olympicgold]

21 games but it should be higher tryin to find that out. He missed some games due to injury so te NHL stops counting but he had a good number at that point also

It's 21 games.
https://www.hockey-reference.com/pla...2/gamelog/2018

[Zorro]

It's 21 games.
https://www.hockey-reference.com/pla...2/gamelog/2018

That is very impressive actually.. Who holds the record for consecutive games with atleast one point??

[newper114]

Apparently it's 21 straight but 14 is what is recognized by the NHL. He had 7 games streak then missed 3 games and now on a 14 point streak

[TheMule_91]

That is very impressive actually.. Who holds the record for consecutive games with atleast one point??

Gretzky at 51 games.

[newper114]

Devils just added maroon. Not sure for what yet.

[PenguinHunter]

Devils just added maroon. Not sure for what yet.

3rd round pick per TSN https://www.tsn.ca/tradecentre/trade-tracker