Post Game Thread: New Jersey Devils at San Jose Sharks – 04 Jan 2025

27 comments

1. We are likely going to get stuck playing the canes in the first round, which is not good if we let them pass us since they get home town reffing and don’t suck at home, where as on the road they’re trash.

   They got games in hand, and playoff matchups can get locked in really fast. Just look at the atlatnic the last couple of seasons. It can be decided months in advanced.

2. Haula has been cooked the entire season.

   Dougie’s pec injury has irreversibly affected his ability to put power in his shots. Dougie bombs do not exist anymore, and he isn’t defensively responsible enough for the scheme we deploy now.

   Tatar is on his way out.

   Palat isn’t worth 6 million.

   I’m going to argue that we should be sellers, not buyers at the trade deadline. Altogether that’s about $20 million in players that have become too old and injured. We need to sell these guys off sooner rather than later to playoff teams when they have the most value and make big splashes in the offseason to regroup and get at least 2 bottom six players + a top 6 complement to Jack.

3. This team is going through it. That was a brutal way to lose, the kind that can stay in your head. What in the world has happened since Christmas? I’m reminding myself that this team has survived one 4 game losing streak already, but the difference is that they managed to get loser points out of that streak.
   This game HAD to get to OT, it was basically already there! They’ve been so good defensively for so long so these breakdowns and little plays leading to goals like that are a killer. I feel like this all starts with that Carolina game. It’s like the ending of that 3rd period against the Hurricanes messed with their heads and confidence and I can only hope they get out of it somehow. Trying not to panic but the PTSD from last season and a brutal loss like that makes it hard. I’m telling myself they are still in a decent spot and can withstand this, but they also will have to pull out of it and after this type of loss.. ugh just an awful way to lose a game.
   And on Nico’s bday 🙁 Monday is a late game and I can’t stay up to watch all that and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

4. game card for tonight…

   https://preview.redd.it/qgxhhrs9n2be1.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc474d844902c8cdadc4ac4220bdcf62df523491

   I think the Dougie and Luke scores look pretty accurate based on the eye test. Luke had a tough game and we saw how bad Dougie’s game was.

5. well this road trip has been awful 😃 no bday win for nico either ugh

6. What happened to the team we saw before Christmas? Talk about a complete turnaround. The season is not over by any means, but it’s getting a little concerning when they lose against the Ducks and Sharks in a 4 game losing streak. I think it’s unacceptable and the team should think so too. They need to be better!

7. Passing is definitely off, too many giveaways which plays into puck security in their own zone. It also leads to not as many good opportunities for scoring, making not great teams look great on defence.

8. How many losses in a row before the doomers have a point?

9. At least devils will be 10 to 15th in power rankings at this point and can stop sniffing their own farts

10. Its the NHL we have won 3 Stanley Cups and the most regular season wins we had in any of those seasons was 46. They’ll dig themselves out of it we could easily have had a better fate in any of the last 4 games but this is what an 82 game season looks like

11. Fuck.

12. Wasn’t able to watch the game, but the stats look like the last few losses. Anyway these losing streaks remind it’s that we have a lot of work to do

13. Today was a tough loss, especially considering I attended it (and was 0 for 3 on my Northern California sports fan trip).

    The only positive is that I get 3 free tacos at Taco Bell tonight before I head back to the DC area. (The Sharks have a promotion when they score at least 3 goals at a home game, all fans in attendance can get 3 free tacos at Taco Bell with any purchase if they have the correct code, which you can access via QR code on their video boards. While the Sharks fans were saying “we want tacos”, I was saying when it was 2-2 “I want 2 Devils goals and then tacos”. 😊)

14. It really concerns me that after 3 losses in a row, they did not come out fired up and ready to play.

15. Losing streaks happen, but I think it’s pretty worrying that with a 24-15-3 record they’ve been able to lose four times in a row twice and they haven’t been able to win four times in a row once.

16. Surprised the video of Markstrom smashing his stick didn’t get its own post.

17. this loss ruined my night

18. They need to go back to the defense first mentality

19. I keep watching that Palat flub on replay. It actually looks like he was aiming for Askarov. Maybe he didn’t realize how open of a net he had and tried to bank it in off of him. I cannot explain any other way how that was missed so badly.

20. This is just me trying to cope here and look for reassurance but I remember looking on the Leaf’s sub earlier in the season when the team was struggling and searching for some info on Keefe and his system. I saw someone had made a comment that the leafs under Keefe would start out meh, then heat up in November/December, and slump mid season, then turn it back on. I feel like we are seeing things play out like that so far..

    Edit: I looked at their results from last season and that doesn’t totally check out but they were very streaky last season, lots of 4 game losing streaks but also 4 game winning streaks. They did have 1 long 7 game winning streak in February. At the 42 game point last season they did have almost the same amount of points as the Devils do now with 50. I know I’m grasping here, just figured there might be some pattern. Maybe Keefe’s system lends itself to a little bit of player fatigue or something.

21. Dougie is broken and refuses to 1time pucks anymore, his speed and defense have always been an issue and it’s more noticeable when he isn’t doing it offensively. 4th line was fine today but I rather have Legare and Dowling. Haula is just bad at everything. Only time he was relevant was when Jack was on his line. Cotter slowly turning it around and had another solid game today. Mercer is way too inconsistent for what he’s being paid. Still hustles but at some point he needs to put up more points. And Palat…. game was on his stick, more than 75% of the net was open and he still shot it into askarov but it looked to be going wide either way. It was a tough shot, but almost anyone else burries that, can’t miss shots like that while making 6m a year. Powerplay needs a righty on the LW board for a 1T. They keep deploying all lefties aside Noesen but he’s in the goalies face doing his job. Unfortunately, there isn’t a shot threat from one side of the ice.

22. I didn’t get to watch this game tonight since I was busy. I’m glad I didn’t. It’s embarrassing that we lost to both the Ducks and the Sharks in the same stretch when we’re supposed to easily make the Playoffs.

    The team had to simply be better. We also probably need to trade for a solid bottom 6 player. I’m not sure how far this team goes with the current scoring in the bottom 6.

23. I’ve been watching hockey and the Devils for over 30 years now. Every team hits a lul. This is likely ours. If we get it out of the way now we’re better off for it.

24. We need to get out of this rut. I’m not worried I know we will, just sucks we’re in this situation right now.

25. This team doesn’t have enough depth to be a powerhouse yet. We don’t have much coming up front either as it’s basically Lenni and Gritsyuk at forward and all players from Russia scare me so who knows what he will be.

    Fitz has a lot of work to do with the three 2nd round picks as we need to upgrade Haula (who seems completely cooked), Tatar who I didn’t want back and Bastian who just doesn’t bring enough in his role.

    We’ve been relatively healthy this year too with our top players so we have to hope that continues as well.

    We’re better than this but our opponents know the recipe against us, play all out against our top two lines and don’t take penalties. We struggle when teams do that successfully as for whatever reason the team pushes too hard for a regulation win rather than securing at least one point in close games.

26. I’ll live my entire life before I figure out why Mercer is your golden boy. A whole bunch of pomp and very little circumstance.

    That aside – and did not watch the Kings game so maybe I’m missing something – this is just a lull that any team goes through. Watch them close the month out 8-3.

27. Hopefully this skid to subpar opponents is a wake up call.